Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Or it’s just a real strong rope. Magic, or made of fantastical materials or something.
D&D General Is this a fair trap?
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
And I could propose slight variations on the mechanism which would not require the weight of the stone cube to be supported by the rope, but which would still meet the 'player experience' of the trap...
I think this all illustrates that, for most anything but basic forms of trap which are well known in the real world, it is debatable if such a mechanism would seem reasonable to EVERYONE at the table. I think the same can be said of a great deal of fiction in a D&D game. One must thus put aside some amount of skepticism and replace it with an attitude which I would call more 'scientific' and 'experimental'. That is to say to yourself "I'm not sure about this, maybe its ridiculous, I can think of objections, but I'm also seeing it and thus need to take it seriously." This is a form of suspension of disbelief. You can still reason about things, but you need to use a bit different logic. Instead of using your critical 'engineering hat' and trying to find all the reasons something might not work, use your 'dm hat' and think about what might make a plausible trap scenario in a dungeon full of monsters. It doesn't have to have every single loose end tied up. Nobody ever explains how the monsters on level 2 manage to get food and such, they just do. This is a given.
With that understanding, I do think traps like this are perfectly fine puzzles. They reward cleverness and punish thoughtless short-sighted action by players who either are not using their wits, or who are being overly pedantic and trying to engineer everything. OTOH if a player were to say "well, if trap X works like Y, then there must be a way to reset it, Z. I'm looking for that tool/mechanism/fixture." Maybe the DM didn't think about that, but it would be reasonable to say "OK, sure, its over there on the wall." A lot of 4e traps spell out mechanisms which allow them to be bypassed if you look for them, and there's no reason classic traps cannot do that too. Just saying "yeah, there's a plank propped against the wall to the left of the door." would be a bit of a reasonable clue in this case. It won't reveal the workings of the trap, but it allows for a perfectly sufficient way to bypass it that is plausible (and maybe the plank is on the other side, someone will have to cross).
Honestly, the beauty of this trap is that it isn't just some trapped door "when you open this you get hit with 3 poison darts, make a save" or something like that, which is really pointless and just leads to pixel bitching the whole dungeon. Granted, it is a bit more plausible sort of trap, to a degree, but meh. I prefer interesting play over some sort of faux 'logic' for things that are already vastly illogical to start with.
Crimson Longinus
Legend
Sure. But problem with 'it's magic' is that ultimately anything can be justified by that and it becomes impossible to conclude anything and make informed decisions. Anything can have any property regardless of what it looks like. You can't conclude things, you must just guess.
This is the right answer and the one I would expect the players to think. Then I would expect them to ignore the treasure and try and figure out how to keep the unbreakable rope. And then I would have to make rules and lore regarding unbreakable rope. And then they would go on a 7 session side quest just to get more.
Gawd I love players.
Crimson Longinus
Legend
If it is an unbreakable rope then there certainly isn't a danger of the stone falling? Or is it magically durable only for the purposes of holding the stone but not if players try to damage it? I mean maybe it is an intelligent magical rope? Who knows, it's magic!
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
This. I love when I put something into the game and they take it and go waaaaaaay into left field and now I have to scramble to catch up with their idea.
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Agreed, but again, I can posit any number of mechanisms that would not support the block with the rope, but which would still release it if the rope is severed. There's no way for the players to know beforehand what the setup is. As written it MIGHT be either impossible or implausible, we cannot be sure without further research, but AS A PLAYER I would assume nothing about the mechanism, beyond that the rope is somehow significant, and that breaking it probably causes SOMETHING to happen, and that in a dungeon 'something' is pretty much always bad for me. This seems like the kind of reasoning I should use when playing D&D in this style. It is how I DID play for years. I got a few PCs beyond name level, and our GM was pretty devilish. I guess he, thankfully, didn't read WD, but he sure did have a plentiful supply of traps!
Now you're getting it!If it is an unbreakable rope then there certainly isn't a danger of the stone falling? Or is it magically durable only for the purposes of holding the stone but not if players try to damage it? I mean maybe it is an intelligent magical rope? Who knows, it's magic!
Nefermandias
Hero
Keraptis or Acererak totally would though.
DemoMonkey
Hero
This trap was clearly built as someones entry into the annual "Faeruns Got Traps!" competition.
After the party sets it off - one way or the other - the ethereal judging team should phase in and begin critiquing it.
After the party sets it off - one way or the other - the ethereal judging team should phase in and begin critiquing it.
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