Best Books of Traps, Tricks, and Jokes?

[Treebore]

Kel,

Better than Traps and Treachery series/Wurst?

No. Maybe if you consolidated everything from every issue into one book, but each issue only has one, maybe several every once in a while.

So for a single book, the ones already mentioned are much better.

 

[Soel]

So which one of these has sensible traps, and not just ones that only a madman would create? (I'm talking about the kind that would cost 200,000 gp to kill someone in a convoluted way when a 1-5 gp trap would suffice.) IOW, less outlandish, more clever.

 

[paradox42]

So which one of these has sensible traps, and not just ones that only a madman would create? (I'm talking about the kind that would cost 200,000 gp to kill someone in a convoluted way when a 1-5 gp trap would suffice.) IOW, less outlandish, more clever.

All of them. There's a mix of traps in each one, with some of the wacky outlandish ones and some of the sensible ones.

Personally I always preferred the outlandish ones, both as DM and player- provides for much more amusement. I also like traps that play on a typical adventurer's response to a trap, essentially using reverse psychology against the victims. I killed a PC with one of those in the very first dungeon I ran for 3E. Grimtooth, you da troll.

And on the subject of Grimtooth, several of my favorites from the original non-system-specific Flying Bufallo books didn't make it into The Wurst of Grimtooth's Traps. They're long OOP, but if you can find them somewhere they could be worth the trouble. The sixth and seventh books are the original Grimtooth's Dungeon of Doom, which made it into Wurst as the fifth chapter, and Grimtooth's Traps Bazaar, which made it in as chapter four- so you can pass on those. The earlier books, though (in order, Grimtooth's Traps, Grimtooth's Traps Too, Grimtooth's Traps Fore, Grimtooth's Traps Ate, and Grimtooth's Traps Lite), all have worthy things in them.

 

[Eytan Bernstein]

Silven has a book called The Pun is Mightier in the Sword that has all sorts of humorous material for d20. In particular, the jokesmith is a prestige class in which a character gets all sorts of abilities for incorporating jokes into spellcasting. He can also affect people magically with his jokes.

 

[T. Foster]

The three page section of trick, trap, and joke ideas in the back of OD&D Supplement I (Greyhawk) is pure gold, and just as usable today as they were in 1975 (since they're not statted out or fully described, just a series of 1-2 sentence "idea seeds"). Even if you have no interest in the old editions or the history of the game, I'd say this book is definitely worth buying on pdf for these 3 pages alone.

 

[PatrickLawinger]

All of them. There's a mix of traps in each one, with some of the wacky outlandish ones and some of the sensible ones.

Personally I always preferred the outlandish ones, both as DM and player- provides for much more amusement. I also like traps that play on a typical adventurer's response to a trap, essentially using reverse psychology against the victims. I killed a PC with one of those in the very first dungeon I ran for 3E. Grimtooth, you da troll.

And on the subject of Grimtooth, several of my favorites from the original non-system-specific Flying Bufallo books didn't make it into The Wurst of Grimtooth's Traps. They're long OOP, but if you can find them somewhere they could be worth the trouble. The sixth and seventh books are the original Grimtooth's Dungeon of Doom, which made it into Wurst as the fifth chapter, and Grimtooth's Traps Bazaar, which made it in as chapter four- so you can pass on those. The earlier books, though (in order, Grimtooth's Traps, Grimtooth's Traps Too, Grimtooth's Traps Fore, Grimtooth's Traps Ate, and Grimtooth's Traps Lite), all have worthy things in them.

Obviously, as one of the Necro crew I would say "The Wurst of Grimtooth's Traps" is the book to get, but I have to admit that Traps and Treachery books are worth it too (First one is best). The other out-of-print Grimmy's books are very difficult to get but they are a very fun read if you get them and are pretty much system independant (you'll have to make up trap DC's and such). Some are very complex, some are very simple. I mean from a simple barbed chain covered with a rope to a complex system of springs and pulleys. They are very fun books to read if you can get them. I think a good first start is Wurst though ... .

Patrick

 

[grodog]

Goodman's Lethal Legacies (which I was unaware of before; preview pages @ http://www.goodmangames.com/4330preview.php make it look similar in nature to Grimtooth books) doesn't appear to include tricks/riddles, based on the preview at least. Is that the case, or does the preview feature only traps?

I'm always on the lookout for good books of tricks (riddles far less so, since I have some books of riddles already). Anyone know of any?