The dumbest place you have seen a trap.

[Gundark]

Arscott has this in his sig "If you're standing in the playroom of the BBEG's beloved five-year-old son, and you find a shiny and fun-looking lever that would be easily manipulated by a toddler, it is not trapped. (When you do pull the lever and your DM tells you it is trapped, hit him with a bat until he admits his mistake.)
--AuraSeer "

While this was funny it got me thinking....Have you seen a trap in a place where it shouldn't have been...a real dumb place.

 

[BlackMoria]

I sure have. In one long ago campaign, we entered a abandoned dwarven hold that was now a monster infested dungeon.

The third room in was a lever with no signs of its intention. After much debate, the party decided to throw the lever and see what happens. Only to collapse the entire dungeon down upon us. TPK.

The DM told us after the carnage that we had set off the dwarven 'self-destruct' device that was to be used if all was lost.

Pfffft. Who the hell makes a self destruct device that is a lever in the middle of a room that was a throughfare through the dungeon. Not hidden, not protected in any fashion, not in a logical location for a doomsday device and with no safeguards to prevent unauthorized use (like maybe having having three levers that had to be used in a certain combination to set off the device)

The dwarvens were overun without using it (of course.... **rolls eyes**) and not a single monster that subsequently took up residence for thirty years (that was when the dwarves were overun) ever was 'curious' enough to throw the lever themselves (of course.... **rolls eyes again**). Leaving the lever for us dumb schmuck adventurers to set off.

Most. Dumb. Trap. Ever.

 

[Ambrus]

Perhaps not a trap exactly, but I've read plenty of adventures in which there's a toilet seat positioned above a short shaft that empties directly into a city sewer. Having explored many sewers in various D&D campaigns I can tell you, I certainly would never risk sitting my bare @$$ on such a spot with my dangly bits hanging out there.

 

[Ambrus]

Pfffft. Who the hell makes a self destruct device that is a lever in the middle of a room that was a throughfare through the dungeon. Not hidden, not protected in any fashion, not in a logical location for a doomsday device and with no safeguards to prevent unauthorized use

The ancient egyptians! Check out The Mummy movie (1999). The exact same setup you described triggers the sinking of the entire tomb complex. Can't argue with historical fact!

 

[BlackMoria]

The ancient egyptians! Check out The Mummy movie (1999). The exact same setup you described triggers the sinking of the entire tomb complex. Can't argue with historical fact!

Touche!

 

[Turanil]

Have you seen a trap in a place where it shouldn't have been...a real dumb place.

A long time ago, AD&D 1e game. Our PCs are in a forest, and at one moment, a player tells that his PC puts his hand in a natural hole in a tree. There wasn't any real purpose to this. Someone had asked for a spot check, and as there was nothing important, the DM said we just noticed a hole in a tree's trunk. So, out of boredom or just plain chaotism, the PC decides to see what's in that hole. However, the DM was so angered the player didn't ask for a Search Trap check first, that he immediately pretended there was a trap in the hole and that the player had been wounded (like 1d4 of damage). We had an angered argument over that afterwards. It was really stupid IMO. The DM invented the trap just because the PC hadn't behaved as he thought PCs should behave. (Of course the hole was otherwise empty...)

 

[Huw]

City of the Spider Queen. A lethal trap in an empty cell (one of many empty cells), with a higher CR than the guards guarding it.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

Pretty much any unavoidable trap set on a major thoroughfare, or in a heavily used area. Especially one that you cannot interrogate a captured guard and find out all about it. I'm sorry, but if there was a letahl trap where I lived, I would either know all about it, or I wouldn't still be around.

 

[Ranger REG]

While this was funny it got me thinking....Have you seen a trap in a place where it shouldn't have been...a real dumb place.

Cruel and Sadistic...

Walking down the corridor, the party notice a hole on the roof. They approached the hole and curiously stood directly underneath it to peer up. Suddenly reverse gravity plunged them upward 100 feet headlong toward lance-type spikes on the ceiling.

Oh, yes, there is a shiny lever near the ceiling with the sign "Pull to Get Down."

 

[Aeric]

We were recently exploring an old abandoned gnomish colony when we came across what was obviously a classroom for children. Desks, a chalkboard, the whole nine yards. We entered the classroom through a secret door, and when we tried to leave via the main entrance, the rogue was blasted with four consecutive frost bolt traps. Nearly killed him. Apparently these gnomes really had an attendance problem!

Another trap which wasn't so much dumb as it was amusing was in a Dragonlance game. We were in a dungeon corridor which ended in a door. The halfling ranger was sick of getting blasted by traps, so he went back to the opposite end of the corridor and put his back against the wall. Sure enough, when the door was opened, the trap was sprung.

A spear launched from the wall behind the halfling, killing him.