Rogues and traps and their reason for existing...

[Norfleet]

Landmines are usually laid out in areas and marked, unless you're a terrorist or guerilla. Landmines are in essence walls, made to direct the flow of troops.

Now, when you don't care who the landmine kills, then it's a trap. And that means it doesn't make any sense to put it in your lair.

And this is why, in the truly backwards logic of combat, it makes perfect sense.

While traps can, in effect, be used very much for the same reasons as land mines, the key difference between traps in D&D, and landmines, is that compared to anything more advanced than a pit trap or some variant thereof, traps are fairly expensive. Landmines are cheap. You can strew them about freely, and the cost is minimal, while deterrent value is fairly high. Landmines are traps meant for people not to actually trigger. Oftentimes, landmines are easily disarmed, and specifically designed to be relatively easy to disarm. In WW2, the German Army once requested a design of mine which would be nearly impossible to disarm. This mine was designed and produced, but proved very unpopular because while it was nearly impossible for the enemy to disarm, it was also nearly impossible for your own troops to disarm.

Traps, on the other hand, are often hidden mechanisms. Frequently, they're designed to specifically for the purpose of inflicting senseless, random casualties. You mentioned terrorists and guerillas: This is precisely what monsters vs. PCs is in D&D: Small scale guerilla warfare.

Traps make sense in any of the following situations.

1) To secure an area where man power is either unavailable or not 'cost effective'.

2) To make a surrendered area unsafe for those who have seized it.

3) To create a strategic or tactical advantage in combat.

4) To secure an area when guards cannot be trusted for some reason.

You forget a 5th reason: Sadism and amusement. Some people, like myself, are just sadistic, evil bastards. Mad mages and dragons also tend to fall into these categories. Such individuals will deliberately place traps where they have absolutely no business being, because nobody will reasonably expect a trap to be there. As the saying goes, "It's only funny until someone gets hurt. Then it's absolutely frickin' hysterical.". Face it: There's just something inherently funny about somebody you probably didn't particularly care for anyway dying a horribly random and senseless death at the hands of some diabolical contraption for no other reason than BECAUSE IT AMUSES YOU. Anyone who's ever played and enjoyed a Dungeon Keeper game knows what I'm talking about. Seriously, who the hell else would construct an otherwise useless dungeon and intentionally populate it with all sorts of unfriendly monsters and enough treasure to bait some hapless party of adventuring schmucks into going in there? Why would anyone do that?

BECAUSE IT'S DAMN FUNNY.

 

[Numion]

Landmines are usually laid out in areas and marked, unless you're a terrorist or guerilla. Landmines are in essence walls, made to direct the flow of troops.

Now, when you don't care who the landmine kills, then it's a trap. And that means it doesn't make any sense to put it in your lair.

Huh? I've laid a couple of minefields myself (in military), and you sure as hell don't mark them. You actually hide the mines from view by camouflaging and digging. In places like historic berlin wall, or north-south korea border the areas might be marked, but then they wouldn't be intended for real use, just as a deterrent.

Besides, mines can be used in different purpose than to direct the flow of troops.