Is this fair? -- your personal opinion

[I'm A Banana]

Player choices should lead to interesting encounters and challenging scenarios.

Zapping someone dead is neither.

The lever could have done a million and one troublesome but non-fatal things, things that would challenge the players further to overcome new difficulties and find out the secret.

Why should I be scared of the lever? Hell, I'm playing a character who is going into a dangerous dungeon in search of a lost artifact and you're telling me that a mere *stick* should warn me off and make me run away? I'm an ADVENTURER. I take RISKS.

The job of the DM is to make those risks challenging but fun. In most cases, destroying your character without hope of resurrection is neither.

It's like pulling out a distant sniper in a kung fu fight. It's death, without hope, for simply doing what you're there to do.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Perhaps there are two groups of people responding. The unfair crowd generally thinks of adventuring as exploring, being a hero, and facing the unknown in front of you with eyes wide open, blazenly.

The other group sees adventuring as carefully making your way through life, touching nothing that looks odd, analyzing every detail for minutia, and generally being scared of every shadow you come across.

There is at least a third group.

There are some among us (me included) who chart the middle path, and see an obvious lever implied to be the one that opens the secret door as a trap for SUCKERS, and would let someone else touch it...or let NOBODY touch it, depending upon what kind of info we had and how we read the situation.

 

[ThirdWizard]

The lever could have done a million and one troublesome but non-fatal things, things that would challenge the players further to overcome new difficulties and find out the secret.

Reminds me of a trap I had long long ago. Three levers.

PC: I pull the first lever, then the third, then the second.
DM: You feel electricity coursing through your body! Take 1 damage.
PC: Hmmm... there must be a trick to it. I pull the first, then the third, then the second.
DM: ... erm...
PC: I'm an idiot.
DM: 1 damage.

There are some among us (me included) who chart the middle path, and see an obvious lever implied to be the one that opens the secret door as a trap for SUCKERS, and would let someone else touch it...or let NOBODY touch it, depending upon what kind of info we had and how we read the situation.

I just find that way overly paranoid. That fits into my 2nd camp. It's just a lever!

I mean what kind of stupid, idiotic, BBEG is going to trap some random lever somewhere deep in his fortress with a trap that cost him somewhere around 50,000 gp? If he's that stuipd, then I should hope the PCs killed him easily with no trouble, seeing as he had no equipment on him because he spent all his money on trapping some lever.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Hate to disappoint you, but lots here seem to feel that if your character wakes up and yawns without taking proper precautions you're an idiot...

Just sad...

I just find that way overly paranoid. That fits into my 2nd camp. It's just a lever!

I mean what kind of stupid, idiotic, BBEG is going to trap some random lever somewhere deep in his fortress with a trap that cost him somewhere around 50,000 gp? If he's that stuipd, then I should hope the PCs killed him easily with no trouble, seeing as he had no equipment on him because he spent all his money on trapping some lever.

Huh? I never thought to examine the DMG suggested wealth table when making out a dungeon that will be fun and challanging for my players. Thank god for that.

 

[Bagpuss]

Exactly if the guy can create a instant disintergate trap, why the hell has he trapped a lever that most people here seem to think is "an obvious trap" and so wouldn't touch.

If the BBEG wanted to kill a PC why didn't he trap the handle on the entrance to the chamber before the McGuffin or before the PC's found him and killed him, it seems a more than a little stupid and illogical to place it in a room that the PC's will only get to after they have robbed him blind and killed him?

It's such a stupid place to actually put a trap, because it screams trap. Hence logically it wouldn't be, if you are going to trap something you make it more subtle, you don't hang a neon sign over it saying trap.

 

[Quasqueton]

I'd like to point out that the scenario never mentions a BBEG, in any form. Even if there is a BBEG, nothing in the scenario suggests that he had/has anything to do with the lever or secret door.

Quasqueton

 

[Ourph]

Player choices should lead to interesting encounters and challenging scenarios.

In this case, the choice IS the encounter. For some types of players, this is one of the most interesting kinds of encounters because it cannot be solved by straightforward thinking. Games of cat & mouse logic are a big part of the fun for the groups I play with.

The lever could have done a million and one troublesome but non-fatal things, things that would challenge the players further to overcome new difficulties and find out the secret.

Why would someone create a trap that is troublesome or inconvenient but non-fatal? Isn't the idea of a trap that it prevents you from going someplace or doing something by killing you in the most efficient way possible if you try to go where or do what you aren't supposed to?

Why should I be scared of the lever? Hell, I'm playing a character who is going into a dangerous dungeon in search of a lost artifact and you're telling me that a mere *stick* should warn me off and make me run away? I'm an ADVENTURER. I take RISKS.

If your job is to take RISKS (underlined, exclamation point) then shouldn't you expect the consequences of taking RISKS (underlined, double exclamation point) to be RISKY (underlined, bolded, quadrulple exclamation point) rather than just inconvenient or troublesome? You seem to be implying that adventurers should be the type who laugh in the face of danger, but what you're really saying is that adventurers in a D&D game are the type of laugh in the face of the thinly veiled illusion of danger because they know that no matter how incautious or unprepared they might be the danger will never be anything more than a temporary setback. WOW! How brave!

 

[Treebore]

Everyone knows Ol Grimtooth puts those mysterious traps in these dungeons, just for the fun the pain and agony gives him! If you don't know about Grimtooth its no wonder you die!

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I'd like to point out that the scenario never mentions a BBEG, in any form. Even if there is a BBEG, nothing in the scenario suggests that he had/has anything to do with the lever or secret door.

Quasqueton

I know, and to be honest your poll is a bit rigged. With no info really on the surroundings of the lever its hard to guage if it fits. To be honest I'm suprised there are as many Yes votes as there are.

Mostly these threads end up being a case of two groups trying to convince the other side that thier style is objectively badwrongfun.

 

[Harmon]

Everyone knows Ol Grimtooth puts those mysterious traps in these dungeons, just for the fun the pain and agony gives him! If you don't know about Grimtooth its no wonder you die!

Dude, isn't that like Meta Gaming or something?