Disable Device too boring

[tjoneslo]

Thanks for that Orcus, but could you provide a direct URL? Some of us ENners are too damn lazy to go search for the product on our own

The Wurst of Grimtooth's Traps

 

[pntbllr]

Personally I feel That if your campaign leans toward rogue type adventures and problem solving , then making these checks more interesting is a great idea but , if the group likes more hack and slash then this would probably bore them. Unles used for heroic drama

 

[genshou]

Personally I feel That if your campaign leans toward rogue type adventures and problem solving , then making these checks more interesting is a great idea but , if the group likes more hack and slash then this would probably bore them. Unles used for heroic drama

Not so! Who can be bored by a TPK in which the party actually dies in a humiliating and memorable way?

 

[pntbllr]

yeah,true but I like to leave my sessions with all my body parts intact

 

[The Shaman]

There's a related thread on the General RPG board that might be helpful.

Personally I like to break traps down into different steps: Search to locate the trigger(s) - often more than one - then two or three actions to disable the trap, depending on whether the trap disabler wants to make it temporarily inactive or permanently disabled.

I do encourage the player to describe what their character is doing, both to Search and to Disable Device, by giving them a description of the workings. Rather than raise the DC if the player says, "I use Disable Device," I lower the DC for a player that thinks through and describes how to disable the the trap.

D&D (or any RPG) reduced to nothing but die rolls defeats the whole point of playing for me - while character attributes are important, I think player cleverness should be rewarded, because while the character may be performing the action, it's the player who should be enjoying her/himself.

 

[genshou]

yeah,true but I like to leave my sessions with all my body parts intact

Bah! What kind of lily-livered DM do you game under? A couple chops to the leg and you'd be a goner! Why, I oughta Double Scythe* you!

If you don't want to use the bodily damage variants in The Wurst of Grimtooth's Traps, you don't have to. Some might already consider the traps deadly enough (outrageous!). They still bring the fun back into traps either way.

*The Double Scythe trap was written by Fred Meyer (yes, that's the name by which he goes in the book in which this trap is published. Is it his real name? Who knows?). I claim no copyright to the trap or its name.

 

[pntbllr]

I'm speaking as the DM and of my own body parts being harmed (or amputated)when I tpk Just because the party's rouge didn't show up one week.

 

[Storyteller01]

It's an old book, so if you can find it get a copy of Traps & Treachery. Nice info for rogues, poisons, and trap building by CR. Then there are the traps (with illustrations !!

WHat I'd do is keep the skill roll, but provide bonuses based on how much detail thew player goes into for finding disabling said trap (gives the rogue his time to shine outside of the flanking SA's).

 

[genshou]

I'm speaking as the DM and of my own body parts being harmed (or amputated)when I tpk Just because the party's rouge didn't show up one week.

Oh... ok. Looking out for your OWN interests and not those of a character you play. That's a legitimate concern, then, and perhaps you need to find a gaming group full of servile geeks. That's always fun

The trick with nastier traps is to use them like a strong spice–some, like me, enjoy putting more chili powder on our food than there is food to put it on. But not most. Either way, you can still make traps a lot more interesting. Unless no one in your group cares about that (then, you're just wasting your time and talents). The player I have in my Story Hour is always up for more complexity, which is why our house rules are so outlandish. But there were others in our old gaming group who would rather just roll a Disable Device check and move on. I pity them in their simplicity.