Converting Grimtooth over to 5e

[Shades of Eternity]

I just got my copy of Trapsylvania over and am debating.

How much Grimtooth can you use in a 5e game before it stops being fun?

Any easy ways to convert his traps over?

How would Grimtooth compare to any other villain if given 5e stats?

 

[Ilbranteloth]

I just got my copy of Trapsylvania over and am debating.

How much Grimtooth can you use in a 5e game before it stops being fun?

Any easy ways to convert his traps over?

How would Grimtooth compare to any other villain if given 5e stats?

Ahh, good old Grimtooth. I remember when the first Grimtooth’s traps came out.

The format changed over the years, but they were supposed to be system agnostic. It’s really a matter of determining DCs and damage ranges, really. They work best with an old school, “tell me what you’re doing,” rather than just a roll of the die.

Is there a specific trap you like that I can help with?

As far as how much? That really depends on the group,but for the most part I leave traps, and trap gauntlets in particular, for ancient tombs. If they’ve lasted this long without being plundered there’s a reason. Maybe the first few have been sprung, with the bodies of their victims, so the players can get a sense of what they are getting into - both the nature of the dungeon, but also the complexity of the traps and your expectations for how they’ll go about defeating them (or not).

 

[Shades of Eternity]

Nothing yet.

I got the book of ultimate traps and mostly just debating at this point.

(although a certain trap involving lobsters is seriously tempting).

Trapsylvania is a setting book and we finally have Grimtooth's home turf mapped out, and itching to use it.

However, it really is of an era where if you don't know how to dungeonhack, you really can get stomped pretty hard.

(does anybody really know how to use a 10 foot pole anymore)?

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Ahh, good old Grimtooth. I remember when the first Grimtooth’s traps came out.

The format changed over the years, but they were supposed to be system agnostic. It’s really a matter of determining DCs and damage ranges, really. They work best with an old school, “tell me what you’re doing,” rather than just a roll of the die.

I agree with this. I think the traps work better as something almost like a puzzle to be interacted with, rather than a DC and a die roll. That takes all of the theatre out of it otherwise.

You could allow die rolls to help players figure out how the trap works or might be disarmed, maybe with advantage if the player says that they are investigating a particular part of the trap relevant to what they're trying to figure out.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Also got my copy of Trapsylvania, though I haven't had too much time to look at it. But I've been using Grimtooth's traps in 5e for ages. For a number of them, I'd just use the Complex Traps rules in Xanathar's. Otherwise, yeah, DC/attack bonus and damage should do just fine.

Plenty of the traps, as written, wouldn't have been meant to have damage, but to result in the unlucky PC becoming paste back in the day. Whether or not that's the kind of campaign you want to run is up to you and your players.

 

[Eltab]

I wrote a mini-campaign for my son and his friends to play through. Down in the lower level of each dungeon was a Grimtooth logo and somewhere nearby was one of his traps. I never played it, though (too many extracurricular activities). If they found the trap and triggered it, when they returned Grimtooth's expression would change based on how the trap did. The more injuries, the more he would laugh at them. Conversely, if they defeated the trap he would look frustrated.

Some of the traps are not intended to be mechanically written up. A launching system that throws a sharpened telephone pole down the hallway at you is not meant to do HP damage, it is meant to be the centerpiece of a funny (we hope) story.

Come to think of it, why didn't Acererak employ Grimtooth to keep the Tomb of Annihilation in working order?

 

[jasper]

If I remember correctly it was 1 to 5 stars so
1- 1 d10
2 4d10
3 10d10
4 18d10
5 36d10

 

[Eltab]

If I remember correctly it was 1 to 5 stars so

"Not stars - skulls! SKULLS! My traps are deadly, not just pretty decorations in a dungeon!" - Grimtooth

 

[jasper]

"Not stars - skulls! SKULLS! My traps are deadly, not just pretty decorations in a dungeon!" - Grimtooth

Shut old fart. I had not looked at your books this century. Deadly. Deadly boring!