How do you use traps?

[FalcWP]

This is something I've really struggled with - adding interesting traps to a dungeon, without it feeling forced. It seems to me that most traps are impractical or illogical in most dungeons - they're added to give the rogue something to do, or to eat up some of the party's resources.

Personally, I try to set up dungeons that make sense regardless of whether or not PCs ever come by to rob the place. However, this tends to lead me towards fairly basic traps, rather than anything truly interesting. Scything blades and other highly deadly traps across forbidden areas if the person setting the traps didn't want folks to survive, or pits with sheer walls (or without any walls within reach of the opening to the pit) if they wanted folks alive. A trap on a chest or a door that can be temporarily disarmed with the proper key. Things like that.

While stuff like that is all well and good, I want to find a way to add more interesting traps to my game. Take, for instance, the room in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom with the lowering spiked wall and the spikes shooting up from the floor. This would fit my definition of an interesting trap - its likely to be far more memorable than a scything blade that does 18 points of damage. However, I'm at a loss as to how you would add something like that to a dungeon - where would it go? How would you encourage folks to trigger it (it was triggered by pressing a block that was jutting out from the wall)? While I want interesting traps, I want them to be in the dungeon for a purpose, not just to show off how neat a trap it is.

So... how do folks use traps in their games? How do you add interesting traps to a dungeon while still providing a reason for that trap to be in the dungeon? What sort of traps have you found most and least effective (not necessarily from a 'Tricked the party' standpoint, but from a 'This was really fun and made sense' standpoint)? And, of course, what are some of the best traps you've come up with?

 

[NexH]

While I strive for verisimilitude, I have come to understand that standard traps are often unfun for both the players and the DM.
It might make sense for a trap to kill as quickly as possible and without giving a chance for the victim to fight back, but those traps are often "all or nothing" affairs that either the rogue finds and disarms harmlessly or doesn't and gets immediately zapped. I have discouraged myself from their use by saying that those traps are more expensive for the hypothetical dungeon builder than more cinematic traps that however have a similar damage potential.

Now I try to use the "Encounter traps" from Dungeonscape when appropriate, and when using standard traps I mix them with enemies who utilize them to their advantage, so as to make them more interactive and interesting.

 

[Mallus]

I don't.

 

[wolfpunk]

I don't use a lot of them, but I recently used a 20 foot wide, 30 foot deep spiked pit trap to great effect against a high level party. The entire party made the reflex save to avoid it, but they realized they had no easy way around it since it was as wide as the corridor they were in was.

As they debated what to do, I had an assassin begin studying one of them for a death attack, after two rounds they decided to start lowering the fighter into the pit with rope. So two of the other PCs were lowering him down. When the figther is half way down, I have my assassin strike. Now the tank is halfway down a spike filled pit, two PCs are stuck holding him, leaving only two to face my assassin. The players experienced some real tension as they frantically pulled the tank back up to help them fight. In the end the assassin sneaked away, and the party still had to figure out how to get across the pit.

It was great fun, and just went to show how a trap can really mess things up even if the PCs dont get "caught" in it.

 

[rossik]

its very rare to me to use traps, but when i do, i use them in doorknobs or in some chest lock

(guys, why i cant see my signature???? i have already read the FAQ, and my "show signature" option is marked...)

 

[Nadaka]

My DM uses 3 to 5 fatal traps between encounters. He complains that I have a +20 search vs traps, but fails to realize that I would die without it.

 

[Celebrim]

Outside of 'trap filled tomb' scenarios and similar spaces, vary sparingly.

Most traps offend my sense of realism. Someone had to pay for that trap, and live with the consequences of having a deadly trap in thier living space.

Routes/doors/chests which the inhabitant uses regularly are rarely trapped in my games. Bypassing the trap would represent undue difficulty, and a lethal trap would eventually be accidently sprung. False corridors, false doors, sanctuaries, escape routes, secret entrances and so forth are regularly trapped. Traps are rarely designed to be outright lethal in these cases, rather they designed primarily to give warning, delay, and entrap the characters so that the guards can respond effectively. That way, if you set off your own trap, you aren't dead.

 

[kensanata]

they're added to give the rogue something to do, or to eat up some of the party's resources.

I came to the same conclusion and warn my players: I don't like traps and rogues. If I write my own adventures, traps will be very rare. If I run modules, I just keep the traps the authors put there.

Instead, I like to use an ambush were enemies take advantage of terrain. Possibly this involves pits and spikes – but I try to avoid rogue save-or-die searching for and disarming of traps. The pits prevent fighters from charging and gives enemy archers more time to work havoc on magic users.

I would use a slow moving trap to introduce time pressure. Hopefully not in a save-or-die situation. For example: You notice sand is trickling down what you thought were ventilation shafts. It just keeps on coming! You estimate that within twenty minutes the exit will no longer be reachable. Do you want to try and go for the rubies in the eyes of yonder demon lord statue, or do you want to make a quick exit? The trap forces players to make certain choices they would not have to make without the trap. That's an interesting effect of a trap.

The rogue missing the trap and somebody getting hit 1d8 spears doing +10 attacks for 1d8 damage... I dunno. Not exiting enough.

 

[shilsen]

I don't.

*takes back his schtick and beats Mallus with it*

 

[Doug McCrae]

I've been using traps a lot recently. They are more prominent in the 'deadly funhouse' old school sort of dungeon. Traps that give the PCs a reasonable chance to get past make most sense in the dungeon-as-test. The dungeon builders have a MacGuffin which they want only the worthy to possess. So they place an interesting variety of obstacles - monsters, traps and puzzles - geared at just such a difficulty that they will kill the unworthy but those who are skilled enough will be able to retrieve the MacGuffin. Traps also commonly protect ancient treasures, tombs or the homes of antisocial individuals.

A couple of sessions ago I had a dungeon, a tower, which contained nothing but traps, one on each of its ten levels. They got more deadly the further the PCs progressed up the tower, starting off with a hail of arrows, then poison gas, fireball, a pair of summoned vrocks, mordenkainen's sword and finally a prismatic spray. Carvings on the walls gave small clues as to the type of trap. The progression thing worked quite well. None of them were very complex as I was ad libbing that session.

Other traps I've used - crushing walls with the exit blocked by a wall of force (PCs escaped via a teleport ability), a permanent Evard's black tentacles (15th level caster, turned out to be very deadly), magical flashing lights which cast confusion on the party, a cone of cold projector in combination with skeletal monsters and a giant wooden face that 'spat' shards. Most of these were the defences in a wizard's tower.

I tried an encounter trap from Dungeonscape once but it turned out less interesting, imo, than a simple one would've been. Your mileage may vary.