The Curious D1
First Post
GM's: What is the most subtle context clue you've consciously given PC's to give them a chance of figuring out that they were headed to an unpleasant situation? And were they able to piece it together "in time"?
"It's a Trap! Do Not Enter!"
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HeapThaumaturgist
First Post
My favorite is the "Out Of Place Statue" ... you see those in old modules all the time. It's the international sign for "Basilisk Ahead".
I have plans for a BBEG who is going to place "Basilisk-craft" statues around the entrance to his personal bedchambers. Most parties I've ran or been a part of have usually decided to bypass the obvious basilisk grounds and "come back later" since nobody really wants the chance of rolling a one and getting turned to stone.
Usually the sign of an upcoming trap is an otherwise empty room that probably could be used. Which is why I never really use traps. Though I DID have an entire dungeon chock to the brim full of evil confoundery traps. The actual entrance to the "lair" was about ten feet through the front door, through a secret door. The door had a DC 10 lower than a normal secret door, and I even gave the party a mediocre Survival DC to check for sign that there was a rather heavily-traveled door there.
The rest of the dungeon was very dusty and unused ... I gave the rogue a Knowledge check to determine that nothing in any of the rooms he cared to check had been touched in, oh, about 28 years.
They were quite thorough in their exploration in every area BEYOND the original section by the secret door ... which they failed all of the rolls near and didn't find. They went on to spring every trap and fight every undead and elemental in the joint ... finding absolutely nothing of any real value.
It was my "retro" module ... nothing in the trap-filled nonsensical portion of the dungeon had been used since 1977.
The rest of the compound was entirely trap free, of course.
--fje
I have plans for a BBEG who is going to place "Basilisk-craft" statues around the entrance to his personal bedchambers. Most parties I've ran or been a part of have usually decided to bypass the obvious basilisk grounds and "come back later" since nobody really wants the chance of rolling a one and getting turned to stone.
Usually the sign of an upcoming trap is an otherwise empty room that probably could be used. Which is why I never really use traps. Though I DID have an entire dungeon chock to the brim full of evil confoundery traps. The actual entrance to the "lair" was about ten feet through the front door, through a secret door. The door had a DC 10 lower than a normal secret door, and I even gave the party a mediocre Survival DC to check for sign that there was a rather heavily-traveled door there.
The rest of the dungeon was very dusty and unused ... I gave the rogue a Knowledge check to determine that nothing in any of the rooms he cared to check had been touched in, oh, about 28 years.
They were quite thorough in their exploration in every area BEYOND the original section by the secret door ... which they failed all of the rolls near and didn't find. They went on to spring every trap and fight every undead and elemental in the joint ... finding absolutely nothing of any real value.
It was my "retro" module ... nothing in the trap-filled nonsensical portion of the dungeon had been used since 1977.
The rest of the compound was entirely trap free, of course.--fje
The Curious D1
First Post
Part of one of my party's preparations for a painful adventure the next day included (surprise!) a night drinking in the local pub. Perchance, one of the characters, an assassin fond of all things informative, decided to study the writing on the bar table for a bit (he was focused on trying to get names, specifically, so that he could emulate relations with locals) and I secretly passed to him 6 scrawled messages that he found, 5 of which were unrelated.
Turns out, he paid attention, but didn't notice until about two rounds too late.
They were headed to a strange temple made up of mountain caverns that in Ancient times were frequented by Monks. There were many traps and obstacles within, originally used as training purposes, some of which were broken over time and no longer functioned, but others that still worked perfectly and were quite fatal if you had no knowledge of their whereabouts.
Eventually, on their quest to hunt an artifact within the very center of the temple, they came upon three tunnels, each having distinct floor panels before them. Detect traps told them that the first tunnel had a weight-trap, that probably quickly sealed off all four entrances (including the way they had just came) as well as set off the 200 hundred or so large and/or sharp wooden and/or stone objects held up at the sides of the great room (with large iron chains holding their weight, all poised and ready to swing fast and hard).
Upon closer inspection, disarming seemed VERY dangerous, and the very large width of the thin floor panel made getting past such without setting off the trap unlikely with normal means.
They pondered using rope, using magic (though earlier the use of magic had set off some traps as if they might have been designed that way), and attempting to battle through the trap head-on. While they pondered they began to notice more oddities about the room, such as spear-sized holes all along the walls and floor and the possibility of cauldrons of greek fire that might light the stone objects on fire before releasing.
So they decided to check the other two tunnels, in hopes of finding a way to disarm the large death-trap or maybe find a hidden entrance into the first tunnel. The second tunnel looked very narrow and as if it curved upwards (the general direction they had just come from was up, so they did not like that idea).
So they chose the third. Which they wandered down, had an encounter, and mid-battle unintentionally set off a trap that sent seemingly random ceiling "tiles" thrusting to meet the ground with crushing titanic force (after revealing that they were large stone pillars and not mere tiles). The pattern of falling pillars chased them further down the tunnel extremely quickly, but they barely made it without getting caught by any of them.
What important piece of info had the assassin recieved?
Oh, just something he chalked up to being a local saying about a very famous and potent local brew called "Path of Death", which he had ordered previously and enjoyed, even though it completely desoberized him. It said something to the effect of "If I can't tell the difference between the first Path and the third Path, then let me rise up and prove it in this second! -Abbott Milnar of One-Too-Many" <<edited due to failed memory roll on my part>>
Oh, did I mention the third tunnel curved at one point and actually was the first tunnel?
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Turns out, he paid attention, but didn't notice until about two rounds too late.
They were headed to a strange temple made up of mountain caverns that in Ancient times were frequented by Monks. There were many traps and obstacles within, originally used as training purposes, some of which were broken over time and no longer functioned, but others that still worked perfectly and were quite fatal if you had no knowledge of their whereabouts.
Eventually, on their quest to hunt an artifact within the very center of the temple, they came upon three tunnels, each having distinct floor panels before them. Detect traps told them that the first tunnel had a weight-trap, that probably quickly sealed off all four entrances (including the way they had just came) as well as set off the 200 hundred or so large and/or sharp wooden and/or stone objects held up at the sides of the great room (with large iron chains holding their weight, all poised and ready to swing fast and hard).
Upon closer inspection, disarming seemed VERY dangerous, and the very large width of the thin floor panel made getting past such without setting off the trap unlikely with normal means.
They pondered using rope, using magic (though earlier the use of magic had set off some traps as if they might have been designed that way), and attempting to battle through the trap head-on. While they pondered they began to notice more oddities about the room, such as spear-sized holes all along the walls and floor and the possibility of cauldrons of greek fire that might light the stone objects on fire before releasing.
So they decided to check the other two tunnels, in hopes of finding a way to disarm the large death-trap or maybe find a hidden entrance into the first tunnel. The second tunnel looked very narrow and as if it curved upwards (the general direction they had just come from was up, so they did not like that idea).
So they chose the third. Which they wandered down, had an encounter, and mid-battle unintentionally set off a trap that sent seemingly random ceiling "tiles" thrusting to meet the ground with crushing titanic force (after revealing that they were large stone pillars and not mere tiles). The pattern of falling pillars chased them further down the tunnel extremely quickly, but they barely made it without getting caught by any of them.
What important piece of info had the assassin recieved?
Oh, just something he chalked up to being a local saying about a very famous and potent local brew called "Path of Death", which he had ordered previously and enjoyed, even though it completely desoberized him. It said something to the effect of "If I can't tell the difference between the first Path and the third Path, then let me rise up and prove it in this second! -Abbott Milnar of One-Too-Many" <<edited due to failed memory roll on my part>>
Oh, did I mention the third tunnel curved at one point and actually was the first tunnel?
Last edited:
Baron Opal
First Post
Back in the day I used to run a tournament game called Circle Hold. It was an eight hour game where you were invited to bring your 10+ level character and I would do my best to kill the lot of you (legally...). It was rather clever (I thought) and most people didn't get killed until the last couple hours or so. I ran it about twelve times, and about ten parties made it to the castle in the center of the seven concentric rings.
About half way through the castle there were three doors. Two of the doors were made out of certain materials and had special locks that were thematically appropriate to the situation. The middle door was of plain wood and its lock was broken. On the door was some leather nailed to the door with a dagger. On the leather was written, in blood, of course, "This is a death trap. DO NOT ENTER!"
Heh...
Go on, enter. You know you want to...
Fully half of the parties went in. A couple of other parties only had one or two people go in. I found Grimtooth's Traps to be a useful resource, but I improved it to make the trap fiendishly complex. Most people were reduced to paste, but two characters and one party did make it out. One party flat out refused to partake, and they were the ones who ultimatly defeated Circle Hold.
About half way through the castle there were three doors. Two of the doors were made out of certain materials and had special locks that were thematically appropriate to the situation. The middle door was of plain wood and its lock was broken. On the door was some leather nailed to the door with a dagger. On the leather was written, in blood, of course, "This is a death trap. DO NOT ENTER!"
Heh...
Go on, enter. You know you want to...
Fully half of the parties went in. A couple of other parties only had one or two people go in. I found Grimtooth's Traps to be a useful resource, but I improved it to make the trap fiendishly complex. Most people were reduced to paste, but two characters and one party did make it out. One party flat out refused to partake, and they were the ones who ultimatly defeated Circle Hold.
My best one was in a cavern below the stronghold of an evil wizard and her goblin minions. The clue was one word, "No," written in Hobgoblin on the face of a secret door.
The party immediately opened the door, of course, and were all very nearly killed by the advanced gelatinous cube that oozed out at them.
That door led to the bottom of a pit below the toilets. The wizard had penned a small gelatinous cube in there so it would consume all the waste and prevent the jakes from stinking. She wrote "No" on the door because there were two secret doors side by side, and she didn't want the goblins to accidentally open the wrong one and let the cube loose. The idea that foolish adventurers would wander into the toilet and get eaten was an unplanned bonus.
The party immediately opened the door, of course, and were all very nearly killed by the advanced gelatinous cube that oozed out at them.
That door led to the bottom of a pit below the toilets. The wizard had penned a small gelatinous cube in there so it would consume all the waste and prevent the jakes from stinking. She wrote "No" on the door because there were two secret doors side by side, and she didn't want the goblins to accidentally open the wrong one and let the cube loose. The idea that foolish adventurers would wander into the toilet and get eaten was an unplanned bonus.
MonkeyDragon
Explorer
I've got a dungeon where the hallways loop around one another. one of them has two doors, about ten feet apart in the five foot wide hallway. The party comes to the first door. It has a sign that says "Do not enter." the party, of course, opens the door, getting sprayed by the flaming hands trap. So they turn around and go another way.
Later, they loop around and come to the other door. It also has a "do not enter" sign. They hem and haw a little bit this time, but eventually decide that there must be something important to do with this door, and open it. And are sprayed with the same trap over again.
Later, they loop around and come to the other door. It also has a "do not enter" sign. They hem and haw a little bit this time, but eventually decide that there must be something important to do with this door, and open it. And are sprayed with the same trap over again.
Pielorinho
Iron Fist of Pelor
I don't normally run traps, but a long time ago I had a game in which the second-in-command bad guy was a trapmaker extraordinaire. His idea behind traps was simple: reverse psychology is fun!
Most of his traps were fairly complex, but one of them was very simple. In a winding series of caverns with many intersections, he took a piece of blue chalk and made a mark at each intersection, and then took a rag and wiped the mark mostly away, but so that a sharp-eyed character could see it without too much trouble. The path described by the marks led far away from his own personal chambers and into the lair of a nasty hydra that had taken up residence in the cavern complex.
True to form, of course, the characters saw the chalk marks and, excited and proud of their keen observation, hightailed it to the hydra's lair.
Daniel
Most of his traps were fairly complex, but one of them was very simple. In a winding series of caverns with many intersections, he took a piece of blue chalk and made a mark at each intersection, and then took a rag and wiped the mark mostly away, but so that a sharp-eyed character could see it without too much trouble. The path described by the marks led far away from his own personal chambers and into the lair of a nasty hydra that had taken up residence in the cavern complex.
True to form, of course, the characters saw the chalk marks and, excited and proud of their keen observation, hightailed it to the hydra's lair.
Daniel
This one wasn't subtle, nor was the outcome.
The party was in the Labyrinth, an area of the Underdark of Faerun which is ruled by minotaur tieflings (baphitaurs) and minotaurs. The party eventually discovered the tombs of ancient minotaur kings (and "enjoyed" combat with their mummies!).
As it was a tomb area, it was very likely that there would be traps (I don't use traps that much but I make an exception for tombs). The rogue took over search duties and promptly found a strange circular room with a statue wielding an axe and he discovered that the room was trapped.
Rather than attempting to disarm the trap or to discover more about the trap, he simply jumped into the room. Well, the room was essentially a giant mixmaster and began to spin very quickly. The statue's axe then became a critical part of the trap as it was, essentially, one of the mixmaster's blades.
A few minutes later, the room stopped spinning and all that remained of the rogue was gore. The party salvaged his spleen (or some other internal organ) so as to be able to resurrect him later.
The party was in the Labyrinth, an area of the Underdark of Faerun which is ruled by minotaur tieflings (baphitaurs) and minotaurs. The party eventually discovered the tombs of ancient minotaur kings (and "enjoyed" combat with their mummies!).
As it was a tomb area, it was very likely that there would be traps (I don't use traps that much but I make an exception for tombs). The rogue took over search duties and promptly found a strange circular room with a statue wielding an axe and he discovered that the room was trapped.
Rather than attempting to disarm the trap or to discover more about the trap, he simply jumped into the room. Well, the room was essentially a giant mixmaster and began to spin very quickly. The statue's axe then became a critical part of the trap as it was, essentially, one of the mixmaster's blades.
A few minutes later, the room stopped spinning and all that remained of the rogue was gore. The party salvaged his spleen (or some other internal organ) so as to be able to resurrect him later.
TheAuldGrump
First Post
The stupidest clue that I have ever had for a trap was a sign that read 'If You Pull This Rope You Will Die'. Out of four games the rope got pulled four times, causing the ceiling to collapse killing everyone in the room. In one they tied another rope to the one with the sign, so no one was killed. In all the others I had a TPK.
Sometimes I just do not understand people.
The Auld Grump
Sometimes I just do not understand people.
The Auld Grump
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