GMs are sub-standard dungeon designers

[GandalfMithrandir]

I would like to point out that fitd has killed a PC in the game I was in with him (it was sort of two but we got the second one resurrected) with a giant swarm of bug death things that came out after I lifted a gem off a pedestal, which could be considered a trap, in any case, the swarm took down one PC and almost killed the rest of us but we got away.

In any case, I though that was a pretty vicious trap.

link to pbp mentioned

 

[Reynard]

I would like to point out that fitd has killed a PC in the game I was in with him (it was sort of two but we got the second one resurrected) with a giant swarm of bug death things that came out after I lifted a gem off a pedestal, which could be considered a trap, in any case, the swarm took down one PC and almost killed the rest of us but we got away.

In any case, I though that was a pretty vicious trap.

link to pbp mentioned

And for that he should be applauded. Also, he should be putting notches in the wood of the 2011 PC Bodycount Thread.

 

[fireinthedust]

ahhhh wait! Technically that was an NPC (and the ressurection didn't hold for either of them, as the wish was used by the party for something or other; their souls had been devoured by the crawling chaos; I still intend on coming back to that adventure with another group, as many of the posters had left), because those two players had fled in terror previously. The NPCs, then, were merely fodder for a plot device, and not being used by actual players at the time. NPC death is a particularly well-publicized fate for PCs whose players ditch my games.

However, LIVING players have yet to be formally murdered by me. The only exception being one character who failed a jump check (and a reflex save, and an athletics check) over a gap in a staircase and fell 20 stories to the group below; however, it was outside the encounter area, and his own karma for having *just* betrayed the party FOR NO REASON; and NOT my own cunning that did him in. Collateral homicide.

Also in 2010, not 2011... but should I put RL game deaths there, or just pbp ones?

Thanks for the laurels, but I cannot yet hold my head up high.

 

[Croesus]

A dungeon is a thing, a malevolent intelligence, an Elder Thing born of despair and pain and greed and hate, slowly incubated over centuries and millenia by the hateful things that have dwelt therein. It exists to tempt and to punish and it will do everything it can to crush not only interlopers, but all the hopes of all the people who know of the place. How can there be a force for good in the world when over there, beyond those hill, lies a bottomless pit of monstrous labyrinthine hell?

Tried that. My players thought it was silly. My evil, malevolent, cold-blooded, murderous dungeon was silly. The dungeon died of shame.

Probably should have killed the characters at the first door...

 

[Mark CMG]

I've disappointed the dungeon masters of old.

You're probably not playing the same game they played.

 

[GandalfMithrandir]

ahhhh wait! Technically that was an NPC (and the ressurection didn't hold for either of them, as the wish was used by the party for something or other; their souls had been devoured by the crawling chaos; I still intend on coming back to that adventure with another group, as many of the posters had left), because those two players had fled in terror previously.

Yeah, because I remember kain and the ranger-girl-whatever-her-name-was were the two deaths, of course the way to have made that more deadly would just be to make the temple bigger so it takes us longer to get out, because it moved faster than we did, wait... you're going to use that in the next adventure, Julius will be keeping an eye out for that.

 

[Reynard]

Tried that. My players thought it was silly. My evil, malevolent, cold-blooded, murderous dungeon was silly. The dungeon died of shame.

Probably should have killed the characters at the first door...

My condolences. And yes, you should have -- one of them at least, anyway.

 

[Ulrick]

::slaps fireinthedust across the face::
Get ahold of yourself Man!

Now you listen here. You don't let those players beat you, you hear? You don't give up or so help me...!

Pick yourself up and set yourself down at your desk. Good. Now grab yourself a pencil. Got it? Okay. Now write down exactly what I say:

Encounter A1. Dungeon Door. Trapped. Poison. Death.

No.

Save.

Got it? Good.

Encounter A2. Dungeon Arch leading into a dark corridor.

Trapped. Teleportation. Nude. Back to Encounter A1. All equipment sent to the dungeon overlord.

No.

Save.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Remember the golden rule of traps - traps are designed for one reason and one reason only - to kill people.

The dungeon trap is based on the pyramid traps designed to kill grave robbers. They aren't terribly complex, expensive or pretty. They aren't designed to test, trick or slow them down, but kill them. It doesn't mean they cannot be defeated, but the big red "off" button shouldn't really exist.

If you keep this in mind, traps become even more fun for players, mostly because they are challenged for the first time in a long time. Get rid of the dart traps, unless they are tipped in poison. Also, check out Dungeon #106 - "Open Them, If You Dare" by Ed Greenwood, 10 trapped doors that might spark your imagination for more...ahem...inventive traps that players won;t see coming.

 

[Reynard]

I SO love crazy trapped doors! Doors filled with green slime. Doors covered in sovereign glue. Doors that are mimics. Doors that are push away corks for acid above.

Ah, doors.