Is it a good idea to pull a lever in a dungeon?
- Thread starter Raven Crowking
- Start date
Jefe Bergenstein
Legend
Its not a good idea. GOING into the dungeon isnt a good idea. Leaving your home isnt a good idea either. Its a good thing I dont run games for weenies.
I wouldnt play in or run a game where pulling a lever resulted in instant death. If anything, it should set events into motion that require teamwork to overcome. I prefer Rube Goldberg style traps over "gotcha" traps.
I wouldnt play in or run a game where pulling a lever resulted in instant death. If anything, it should set events into motion that require teamwork to overcome. I prefer Rube Goldberg style traps over "gotcha" traps.
(Psi)SeveredHead
Adventurer
ehren37 said:
Negative events? That's still punishment for pulling the lever!
Jefe Bergenstein
Legend
(Psi)SeveredHead said:
My players tend to like to see traps in motion. If everything is disarmed/disabled, its kind of uninteresting. Imagine the opening sequence of Raiders if Indy fidgeted with everything, there was a few clicks, and nothing. No darts, no corpses impaled on spikes, and sure as hell no boulder o' doom. My players almost invariably prefer to race the boulder. In a way, thats the payoff for them.
There was actually a pretty good section in the DMG 2 on reffing for players who enjoy seeing their characters fail. Its a give and take - they voluntarily do unwise things with the DM agreement that the results wont be overly deadly. In return, the game isnt slowed down by throwing critters from a bag of tricks down the corridor, spending 20 minutes jacking around with every door and chest, and bugging a diety whether or not its ok to pull the lever etc. Most of our levers are what you'd expect - designed to be pulled. If they arent, its not a huge deal.
Depends on:
1) whether or not I'm able to deduce with any likelihood what pulling the lever will do (the more I can tell what the lever does the more likely I am to pull it (unless, of course, I can tell that it's going to do something bad, like open a cage that's holding a big tough-looking monster or sound an alarm))
2) whether or not pulling the lever is likely to help my accomplish my goal
Pulling a lever is an act to change the status quo in the dungeon, possibly for the better, possibly for the worse. If I'm happy with the status quo as is, I'm less likely to seek to change it. If I'm unhappy with the status quo I'm more likely to seek to change it (but even then will realize that I'm quite likely changing it for the worse).
In general, though, my first instinct will be not to pull a random lever in a dungeon.
1) whether or not I'm able to deduce with any likelihood what pulling the lever will do (the more I can tell what the lever does the more likely I am to pull it (unless, of course, I can tell that it's going to do something bad, like open a cage that's holding a big tough-looking monster or sound an alarm))
2) whether or not pulling the lever is likely to help my accomplish my goal
Pulling a lever is an act to change the status quo in the dungeon, possibly for the better, possibly for the worse. If I'm happy with the status quo as is, I'm less likely to seek to change it. If I'm unhappy with the status quo I'm more likely to seek to change it (but even then will realize that I'm quite likely changing it for the worse).
In general, though, my first instinct will be not to pull a random lever in a dungeon.
DungeonmasterCal
First Post
Teflon Billy said:
There, in a nutshell, is why I love this game.
Ridley's Cohort
First Post
Of course it is a good idea to pull the lever.
The only open question is what kind of precautions would be wise, if any, and that depends too much on context to get a useful consensus.
Adventurers, by their nature, do not conform to any conventional definition of "wise". Why would they be crawling around a dungeon otherwise?
The only open question is what kind of precautions would be wise, if any, and that depends too much on context to get a useful consensus.
Adventurers, by their nature, do not conform to any conventional definition of "wise". Why would they be crawling around a dungeon otherwise?
Almost every room in a modern home has a lever on the wall, usually unmarked. I am referring of course to a lightswitch.
A dungeon builder would usually have a utilitarian purpose for installing a lever. Depending how much the DM likes to model a realistic world, a lever would most likely do something boring and irrelevant. But then, a typical RPG dungeon doesn't usually model any kind of a realistic world.
In your average D&D dungeon, If there is a lever, there is likely to be only one of them. It will be big, draw attention to itself, have little if any overt indications of what it is meant to do, but what it does do will be dramatic, and it will likely be the basis for a whole encounter, if not that entire gaming session.
So its a win-win situation. The lever will either do something mundane and non-dangerous, or it will do something wild and adventure-worthy. In either situation there is no downside.
Just having a lever around at all gives the players a choice, and that creates drama, so a lever is inherently fun. And if it does nothing at all, well... that will just drive the PC's crazy with paranoia, and keep them wondering for the whole adventure, and that could be pretty darn fun too!
A dungeon builder would usually have a utilitarian purpose for installing a lever. Depending how much the DM likes to model a realistic world, a lever would most likely do something boring and irrelevant. But then, a typical RPG dungeon doesn't usually model any kind of a realistic world.
In your average D&D dungeon, If there is a lever, there is likely to be only one of them. It will be big, draw attention to itself, have little if any overt indications of what it is meant to do, but what it does do will be dramatic, and it will likely be the basis for a whole encounter, if not that entire gaming session.
So its a win-win situation. The lever will either do something mundane and non-dangerous, or it will do something wild and adventure-worthy. In either situation there is no downside.
Just having a lever around at all gives the players a choice, and that creates drama, so a lever is inherently fun. And if it does nothing at all, well... that will just drive the PC's crazy with paranoia, and keep them wondering for the whole adventure, and that could be pretty darn fun too!
TheAuldGrump
First Post
pawsplay said:
One of the stupidest traps that I have ever used in a game, and one that always seemed to kill at least one character, was a rope labeled 'If you pull this rope you will die'. And somebody always pulled the rope. In which case the ceiling falls down, crushing the idiot, and every one standing near him. It was a trap that had been discovered by a thief in another adventuring group, who labeled it so that his party wouldn't be stupid enough to pull the rope.... Even knowing ahead of time isn't enough for some people.
The Auld Grump
