inventive puzzles and traps

[pukunui]

Hey guys,

I was looking through my older D&D books for interesting puzzles and traps, and I have to say that I had some trouble finding any. My 2e DMG doesn't appear to have any traps that I could find, and the ones in the 3e DMG are honestly all pretty boring ~ pit traps, poison darts, glyphs, boulders, crushing walls, etc. There are some good ones in the 3.0 Book of Challenges, as well as 3.5's Dungeonscape, though. The 4e DMG is a bit better ~ it even has a section on puzzles. There are some interesting traps in some of the 4e supplements and modules as well.

But what I really want is stuff like what's in the D&D Next module, The Mines of Madness. That has some wickedly awesome traps and puzzles in it. I absolutely love that door that either turns you into a walking gelatinous cube or a pile of coins, depending on which way you go through it. My players rather enjoyed that one too, especially the one whose PC got turned gelatinous.

There was also that statue with the outstretched hand that gave varying responses if you shook the hand, like warnings about what was ahead or even a magic ring.

One that I am thinking of using is a variation on a trap from Dungeonscape, I think, with some elements from Diablo III added in. Basically the PCs come into an hexagonal room with a big metal door on the other side and six pillars arranged around the room. Magically suspended above each pillar is a key. There are, however, only three locks in the door. As soon as the trap is activated, runes on the pillars start to glow and electricity starts flashing around the room, creating crystalline spiders at random. The spiders keep appearing until the trap is either disabled, the pillars are destroyed, or the door is successfully unlocked.

What inventive puzzles and traps have you come up with and/or used in your campaigns? Do you know of any in published modules that might be fun?


Thanks in advance!


Cheers,
Jonathan

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Hey guys,

I was looking through my older D&D books for interesting puzzles and traps, and I have to say that I had some trouble finding any. My 2e DMG doesn't appear to have any traps that I could find, and the ones in the 3e DMG are honestly all pretty boring ~ pit traps, poison darts, glyphs, boulders, crushing walls, etc. There are some good ones in the 3.0 Book of Challenges, as well as 3.5's Dungeonscape, though. The 4e DMG is a bit better ~ it even has a section on puzzles. There are some interesting traps in some of the 4e supplements and modules as well.

But what I really want is stuff like what's in the D&D Next module, The Mines of Madness. That has some wickedly awesome traps and puzzles in it. I absolutely love that door that either turns you into a walking gelatinous cube or a pile of coins, depending on which way you go through it. My players rather enjoyed that one too, especially the one whose PC got turned gelatinous.

That doesn't sound particularly cool to me. The options are the following:

1) You go through the door and are crippled.
2) You have become paranoid and obsessively check every door, chest, and square of the dungeon. You fail the check and are crippled.
3) As above, but you made the check and didn't fall for the trap. Nothing much happens.

That kind of trap has minimal choice and promotes adventure-stopping behavior.

There was also that statue with the outstretched hand that gave varying responses if you shook the hand, like warnings about what was ahead or even a magic ring.

This has many interactive possibilities, so I think it's pretty cool.

One that I am thinking of using is a variation on a trap from Dungeonscape, I think, with some elements from Diablo III added in. Basically the PCs come into an hexagonal room with a big metal door on the other side and six pillars arranged around the room. Magically suspended above each pillar is a key. There are, however, only three locks in the door. As soon as the trap is activated, runes on the pillars start to glow and electricity starts flashing around the room, creating crystalline spiders at random. The spiders keep appearing until the trap is either disabled, the pillars are destroyed, or the door is successfully unlocked.

Not all the PCs might enter the room. Someone might get locked out. Perhaps someone starts fiddling with the locks before another PC even enters the room.

That trap seems too complicated for most scenarios. Who built the trap? What's preventing someone from just stealing the keys and running away? If the PCs can figure out how the trap works, then what makes this secure? IMO, instead of a locked door, this could be a security checkpoint. There's a couple of guards there, and if they activate the alarm the electricity starts and the spiders begin to appear. You now have an in-combat "skill challenge".

I've seen this idea promoted here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060210a

It means traps that feel like encounters, where the PCs work their way past them on a round-by-round basis. It means traps that function like interesting obstacles: big, obvious, and cool-looking.

An example might suffice: I’ve got a room full of swinging, bladed pendulums—an execution chamber that’s damaged and not exactly functioning the way its makers intended. Is it a trap encounter? Yes, the PCs will still get to use Disable Device to get the bladed pendulums to stop swinging. The PC can still use Search to find the hidden button that turns off the pendulums. And PCs can pile debris in the path of the pendulums or figure out the pattern of their swinging and deftly dart across the room.

No matter how the PCs get past the blades, the players feel like they did something. One way or another, they figured out a way to get through the room. If those blades had suddenly dropped out of the ceiling and started slicing up PCs, the players wouldn’t feel like they did something. They would feel like something was done to them.

 

[pukunui]

That doesn't sound particularly cool to me.

Yeah, it may not have been the best example. Admittedly, it's part of a one-shot "old school" module that isn't really meant to be played as part of an ongoing campaign. There are some clues, and the effects are only temporary (leave the mine and you revert to your former self). Being turned gelatinous actually has some advantages, though, so I wouldn't have described it as being crippled.

Not all the PCs might enter the room. Someone might get locked out. Perhaps someone starts fiddling with the locks before another PC even enters the room.

That trap seems too complicated for most scenarios. Who built the trap? What's preventing someone from just stealing the keys and running away? If the PCs can figure out how the trap works, then what makes this secure? IMO, instead of a locked door, this could be a security checkpoint. There's a couple of guards there, and if they activate the alarm the electricity starts and the spiders begin to appear. You now have an in-combat "skill challenge".

It's the example of an encounter trap from Dungeonscape. It's not meant to be a "You're trapped in this room and can't get out until you defeat the trap" situation. It's more a "If you want to get through this door, you'll need to survive the trap long enough to get the keys needed to open it" situation. No PCs would get locked in or out of the room.

I've seen this idea promoted here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060210a

Yeah, that's a decent approach. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=54629]pukunui[/MENTION]
I've done all kinds of puzzles & traps, is there something in particular you're looking for?

One of my favs from my Dragon Mountain 4e conversion were kobold-trained gelatinous cubes fed explosive metal components that were floating suspended in it, but would contact the ground with a boom whethe cube was killed. Also from that adventure were the "Christmas tree bulb corpses" strung up by kobolds with fragile thunderstone encasing poison gas. Those were some of the more sophisticated traps in the dungeon, suiting the kobold trap makers.

A while ago I did a fun "door to the thieves' guild" puzzle/trap which involved nine targets in the door you had to strike in the right order according to a riddle in order to bypass a buttload of traps. Striking a target in the wrong order activate an effect suiting the nature of the target (they were all types of rogues in Thieves' Cant).

A long while ago, I ran a "which urn is the barghest in" puzzle/trap, which was a ton of fun and more of a logic puzzle based on previous investigation and planar knowledge. Selecting the wrong urn would suck you inside of it where you'd begin drowning (or choking, or burning, depending on that urn's effect). If someone released you from the urn, you'd still be shrunk, however. Only guessing the urn holding the barghest dispelled the effect.

Geez, I could go on forever. I think the trend for me has been to reduce the arbitrary zany traps/puzzled and put more thought into the who/what/when/where/why/how of trap placement.

 

[pukunui]

I'm making "randomness" a big theme of my campaign (since I'm using 4e's Madness at Gardmore Abbey, complete with Deck of Many Things, as the campaign's centrepiece), so zany, arbitrary, random puzzles, traps and hazards would be most welcome ~ or at least ones that seem arbitrary anyway. I don't think I could ever have completely arbitrary things: I generally like to know the who, what, where, when, how and why myself.

I get the impression that the earlier editions of D&D, particularly 3e, based their basic trap lists on the sorts of things one might expect to find in an Indiana Jones movie. Pits and wall spikes and poison darts and boulders. There's nothing wrong with them; they're just a little boring and pedestrian.

I think what I'd particularly like are encounters that involve traps (and possibly also monsters) that can challenge the entire party, rather than just the rogue. Tactical traps and hazards. Logic puzzles. Things that make the players stop and think but won't necessarily make them paranoid.

 

[Quickleaf]

In THAT case, I recommend...

Tomb of Horrors
Ghost Tower of Inverness
Grimtooth's Traps

 

[pukunui]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'm going to post a quote from the Wizards forums which illustrates what I'm looking for:

Traps are as exciting as you (the DM) make them. Me, I like to use them as an extra "monster" during encounters. The Goblins run away from the Heroes, knowing there's a hidden pit trap down the hallway. They circumvent the trap (because they built it) and hope at least some of the Heroes fall victim. Meanwhile, they can pepper the Heroes with ranged attacks as they try to get passed the trap. I didn't just make this example up, either. This one came from one of my recent adventures.

You can also make traps as...well, TRAPS. Have the players find a small piece of coiled rope in a pile of rubble. If they investigate by touching the rope, it grabs their arm or leg and yanks them up, suspending them above the ground. Meanwhile, the monsters that sprung the trap leap out and start attacking. Now the trapped player has to get his weapon out while either upsidedown or one-handed. And what if this happens to the Rogue or Ranger whilst scouting ahead? How unfortunate for them! Help is a couple rounds away...what do you do!? This is also a real example from a recent adventure I ran.

Use traps to tell a story or to provide foreshadowing. In one recent adventure I had a fairly obvious pit trap. The Heroes managed to cover it up with a door they stole from a nearby room. Strange, they thought...what was the point of that? The continue down the tunnel. Suddenly, a swarm of rats, water, acid, or whatever delightful thing you want starts coming down the tunnel at them with incredible haste! They turn and flee back over the now-covered pit trap, cursing themselves for covering it up. The swarm rolls right over the covered trap and overwhelms the party.

I also like to make traps apply status effects in addition to normal damage. Falling down a pit trap might give you a temporary injury to your Dexterity (twisted ankle perhaps?) This temporary injury gives the character Disadvantage on all Dex-based rolls until they cure the injury. A successful First Aid check against an Easy DC should identify the injury and highlight a cure. You might rule that said temporary injury is cured after a Rest, by expending a use from a Healing Kit, or by receiving 3+ points of magical healing.

Yes!