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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5125158" data-attributes="member: 4937">Let me try coming at this from a different direction.What were the 1e rules for traps?Flip through the rule books however you like, you won't find rules for traps.  (I can't really speak to BD&D because I'm not as familiar with it).  However, this doesn't mean that 1e AD&D didn't have rules for traps.  The rules for traps can be inferred from the rules that governed traps in official published modules.For example, no where in the rules did it say that you could avoid a trap by a successful save vs. Paralyzation.  Yet, this mechanic would appear again and again in published modules and was a defacto house rule for many kinds of traps at most tables.  Likewise, no where in the rules did it say that you could avoid a trap by rolling your dexterity or less on a D20.  Yet this mechanic also repeatedly appears as an alternative to the 'save vs. Paralyzation' mechanic in official modules from a very early point in the games history (I'm not sure what the earliest example is).  This proto-mechanic suggests an entire set of game rule expansions - the 'ability check'.  The ability check would in turn become so formalized, that it would form the basis of official rules expansion - the non-weapon proficiency.  But the 'rule' existed before it became formalized and was used at many tables (including ones I played at and ran).  There was no formal rule for when it should be used.  The rule in effect was something like, "If the player wants to do something where there is a risk of failure and an aspect of random chance, and you don't know how to adjudicate it, allow the player to roll a d20 and if the result is less than the ability you deem relevant to the task, the task succeeds."Likewise, I can't think of anywhere where it said that the fortune mechanic in certain types of traps attack as creatures of a certain HD, yet traps worked this way as well.  In fact, traps worked in alot of different ways.  Now, imagine we want to compile for the new player the rules governing traps so that, without providing examples in published modules, the new DM will be able to invent new traps using mechanics according to the standards we've set down.  In 1e, how many pages would that take?</blockquote>

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