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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9056459" data-attributes="member: 4937">Well, define &quot;fair&quot;.Traps are supposed to be fun.&nbsp;&nbsp; Trap design is real passion of mine in part because popular examples like Grimtooth have given us so many examples of extremely poor trap design that have given traps a bad name and deprived an important trope in fantasy gaming of the fun that it should be inspiring.The less fair the trap is, the less interesting that it is.&nbsp; The ultimate in bad trap design is a difficult to detect trap that immediately deducts a very large amount of hit points from one or more party members.&nbsp; This is pointless, and usually comes out of either poor imagination, copying poor examples of traps, or else DM ego gaming where they get most of their enjoyment out of &quot;gotcha&quot; moments where they do big things to the PCs and feel impressive doing it.Good trap design telegraphs the danger somewhat.&nbsp; Good traps are avoidable.&nbsp;&nbsp; They rely on reverse logic as little as possible.&nbsp; Additionally, good traps involve the entire party in a scenario where everyone has to work together to overcome the problem.&nbsp; Good traps rarely do large amounts of initial damage.&nbsp; Instead, they put one or more members of the party in a predicament that they need to be rescued from.&nbsp; Good traps snowball.&nbsp; The theme of a good trap is usually, &quot;Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does.&quot;&nbsp; To succeed in that they need to do small packages of damage while ramping up the threat over time.&nbsp; That gives parties the ability to extricate themselves and save resources if they are clever both before and after the trap goes off, while still allowing for the &quot;We're so screwed!&quot; moments if in fact the part falls into the trap.&nbsp; Killing PC's is never the goal.&nbsp; Scaring the party without actually killing it and forcing expenditure of resources and teamwork in the same way a good combat does is the goal.The easiest thing in the world to design is unavoidable death traps.&nbsp; The resources of the GM are infinite.&nbsp; It's not the size of the trap that matters, but how it engages the party.One of my favorite published traps is a pit trap in I3 where falling into the pit does almost no damage....because you land in quicksand...and the quicksand is filled with skeletons that animate and attack you.Traps that go &quot;BOOM! Take 86 damage&quot; are boring.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 9056459, member: 4937"] Well, define "fair". Traps are supposed to be fun. Trap design is real passion of mine in part because popular examples like Grimtooth have given us so many examples of extremely poor trap design that have given traps a bad name and deprived an important trope in fantasy gaming of the fun that it should be inspiring. The less fair the trap is, the less interesting that it is. The ultimate in bad trap design is a difficult to detect trap that immediately deducts a very large amount of hit points from one or more party members. This is pointless, and usually comes out of either poor imagination, copying poor examples of traps, or else DM ego gaming where they get most of their enjoyment out of "gotcha" moments where they do big things to the PCs and feel impressive doing it. Good trap design telegraphs the danger somewhat. Good traps are avoidable. They rely on reverse logic as little as possible. Additionally, good traps involve the entire party in a scenario where everyone has to work together to overcome the problem. Good traps rarely do large amounts of initial damage. Instead, they put one or more members of the party in a predicament that they need to be rescued from. Good traps snowball. The theme of a good trap is usually, "Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does." To succeed in that they need to do small packages of damage while ramping up the threat over time. That gives parties the ability to extricate themselves and save resources if they are clever both before and after the trap goes off, while still allowing for the "We're so screwed!" moments if in fact the part falls into the trap. Killing PC's is never the goal. Scaring the party without actually killing it and forcing expenditure of resources and teamwork in the same way a good combat does is the goal. The easiest thing in the world to design is unavoidable death traps. The resources of the GM are infinite. It's not the size of the trap that matters, but how it engages the party. One of my favorite published traps is a pit trap in I3 where falling into the pit does almost no damage ....because you land in quicksand ...and the quicksand is filled with skeletons that animate and attack you. Traps that go "BOOM! Take 86 damage" are boring. [/QUOTE]

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