Trap Check

[EdwardForrester]

Greetings to all,
I was hoping for thoughts and input on the following. In the games I am in I have noticed something, we are moving along and kicking butt and taking names. Then its time to move down the dungeon and it takes 10 minutes to check every single square on the map for traps. That drives me insane, I mean I am not saying we can't have floor traps (have had quite fun with some actually). But losing the momentum to check for traps is annoying. I was thinking about suggesting a Search check for a section of a hallway. 1 check per lets say 5 tiles. I am requesting any thoughts or ideas that you have used.

Thanks in advance,

 

[the Jester]

Greetings to all,
....it takes 10 minutes to check every single square on the map for traps. That drives me insane, I mean I am not saying we can't have floor traps (have had quite fun with some actually). But losing the momentum to check for traps is annoying. I was thinking about suggesting a Search check for a section of a hallway. 1 check per lets say 5 tiles. I am requesting any thoughts or ideas that you have used.

Thanks in advance,

As a dm, I roll the Search check (well, usually) and just apply it to the first thing they could find- "Ok, you start moving down the hall, finding nothing... then, 20' from the entrance, Malford notices a pressure plate..."

As long as the characters are burning the time and effort, there's no reason for the players to do so too...

 

[Li Shenron]

You are not saying that you roll a check for every single 5ft square?

Of course it takes a Search check for every square in theory, but you know how many traps are there in a room, so just roll behind your screen just 1 check for every trap, maybe always roll at least once or twice even if there's no traps, so the players can't guess.

If you instead mean that the CHARACTERS are waking too much time in every room, then it's really up to them. If they take20 it takes 20rounds=2min for each square, which means usually at least half an hour per room and it's a long time...

But I think you meant that your players are scared and try to take every single precautions at every step they make. This happened to us the very first time we played D&D (1ed): a character got killed at the entrance of the dungeon because of a trap, then we couldn't play nicely because everyone was scared to misstep somewhere...

What I can suggest is to give CONCISE description of what's inside the room. If you are in a dungeon, you'll often have empty rooms, so just say "the room is empty, with even floor". If there is something, and they succeed a Spot check, you will tell them that they notice e.g. "a seemingly misplaced tile on the floor". If you are in a room full of stuff, quote very few of them "the room is full of furniture, among which a red carpet on the center". Don't be afraid if it sounds a suggestion. After all, it's difficult to place a trap perfectly hidden without something to cover it or disguise it. Remember that traps are EXPENSIVE and therefore they will never be put in a place unless there's a good reason to do so, never in a frequently walked place and if put in a place where you MUST pass there will always be a bypass for the creator which might be used by the party as well. If you had put a trap in one random tile of the room before the treasure vault, it's your mistake: to defend a treasure vault you put the trap on the door, or on the tile under the door, not in a tile that there is only a small chance to step on; this kind of randomness in traps could seriously push your players later to be paranoid about them.

Anyway, don't be afraid in giving clues about where the traps are: if they are in a place where they MUST pass, or on a door they MUST open or a level they MUST pull, they still have to disable the trap (which usually has a high DC itself and you can't take20). And otherwise, a trap never found at all is a missed fun and a wasted time for the DM to make it

 

[Li Shenron]

2...

 

[Li Shenron]

3...

 

[Li Shenron]

4...

 

[EdwardForrester]

Greetings,
Yes Li I do mean that they will check ever square as they are walking along. Now the DM will still roll or have already rolled to see if there are traps but my gaming group checks every single square. Though I do thank you and The Jester for your input. I for one when I do DM know that I will not run traps search like that.

Thanks

 

[dcollins]

Yes, this is a real problem (I started an almost identical thread a few months ago). In my game there's a PC rogue maxed for searching, and the player expects to search every space for traps all the time. In fact, he expects Take 10 or even Take 20 everywhere, which is legitimate by the rules and has no immediate cost or downside.

This is what I instituted as DM: be explicit about the time and speed it takes to do this, and be upfront that I'm going to be making wandering monster checks on this schedule. I roll a 1-in-20 (5%) encounter check every 5 minutes.
(1) With no searching (20 ft. per round), that's 200 squares (1,000 ft.) between checks.
(2) Searching every space (5 ft. per round), that's 50 squares (250 ft.) between checks.
(3) Taking 20 every space (2 minutes per space), that's 2 or 3 squares or searches between encounter checks.

The players can then decide what pacing they feel comfortable with, and the game mechanic is above-board for them to make an intelligent decision about. When searching (#2), I don't use Take 10, as DM I jot down the Search bonus and make a roll behind the screen each time a trap is encountered, otherwise they're find nothing.

(The scale of encounter checks is within the ballpark of that on 3.0 DMG p. 118. Rolling the Search check by the DM is supported by 3.0 DMG p. 17.)

Now, in the previous discussion some other opinions were offered that I can't sign off on but I'll reiterate, mostly emphasizing that the slowness of all this searching should be inherently infeasible:
(A) One idea was that adventurers should generally be under a time constraint -- rescuing a captive before execution, getting treasure before building collapses or volcano goes off, etc. I don't think most scenarios are set up like that.
(B) Another opinion was that every 5 ft. the search actually has to take separate rounds/checks for each of the floor, walls, ceiling (4 rounds each), which is so insanely slow that no one would do that. Still, without the explicit encounter checks, there's still no obvious disadvantage to PCs taking as long as they like.

So there's some ideas.

 

[Legildur]

If it's in a dungeon environment, then a dwarven rogue (and to a lesser extent a ranger) will see you right. That old stonecunning racial ability is a real boon. Coupled with the rogue's Evasion, Trap Sense, and Uncanny Dodge special abilities, the dwarf's Con bonus for hit points, and darkvision, you have a pretty useful point guy.

Stonecunning: This ability grants a dwarf a +2 racial bonus on Search checks to notice unusual stonework, such as sliding walls, stonework traps, new construction (even when built to match the old), unsafe stone surfaces, shaky stone ceilings, and the like. Something that isn’t stone but that is disguised as stone also counts as unusual stonework. A dwarf who merely comes within 10 feet of unusual stonework can make a Search check as if he were actively searching, and a dwarf can use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rogue can. A dwarf can also intuit depth, sensing his approximate depth underground as naturally as a human can sense which way is up.

My emphasis.

Edit: fixed italics

 

[shilsen]

Yes, this is a real problem (I started an almost identical thread a few months ago). In my game there's a PC rogue maxed for searching, and the player expects to search every space for traps all the time. In fact, he expects Take 10 or even Take 20 everywhere, which is legitimate by the rules and has no immediate cost or downside.

Take 20 has a pretty big downside - the amount of time wasted. Checking a 5 ft square takes 2 minutes. So if they're moving down a corridor 10 ft wide and 10 ft high and checking floor, walls and ceiling, it would take 16 minutes to move 5 ft down the corridor. That's a lot of time to spend.