Traps Wanted : Originals clever traps

[Azzy42xy]

I have been putting too much emphasis on monsters in the games I am running. I wish to change the pace with a serious of devastating, original traps. I need help in thinking up some originals. Traps along the lines of a glass jammed door filled with acid. Illusion spell cast on the door so that it looks like an ordinary door. Bt since its is jammed the warrior/ barbarian usually attempts to kick down the door. Splash acid burn.
Plz help me think of some more evil traps.

 

[Jdvn1]

This is a variant of the pit idea. Kind of hard to explain, though.

Imagine a room where about half of the floor is gone (the far half). Then, cover the entire room with, say, a large sheet of metal or something. Or maybe a sheet of something that looks exactly like a normal floor, so it looks like there's no pit. The result is a see-saw, of sorts.

When the PC first enters the room, he's fine. When he walks to the other end of the room, his weight causes the sheet to tip over, plunging him into the pit.

I stole this idea from a friend, actually, and I don't know how the numbers go. I'd give a spot check to notice an unusual floor. Assuming the party stays on the near side of the room and only one person goes to the far side, and that person were a rogue, I'd give him a search check to notice the ground under him is hollow. Maybe a spot check to notice the ground bends slightly when he walks to the end.

Dunno. It's just an evil idea for a trap.

 

[reanjr]

This one kind of constitutes a trap and puzzle. Inspired by Metroid Prime 2.

There's a short tale of a wandering king on the wall. It describes how he first wandered towards the the sun, then away. It then describes what happened to him on each successive day of travel. Each day a single number is included in the description. For instance "On the third day, Khiet came upon the six bandits and slew them in vengeance." The clue in this line is the six.

On the opposite wall is a picture of the sun going over the planet, with the sun on the right, and the moons on the left. Below this is four rows of four symbols each. At the corners between the symbols (the o's below), there is a dial that can be turned to rotate the adjacent four symbols. These dials are numbered in an ancient tongue that could be read with comprehend languages. There are only four different symbols, but they are jumbled amongst the sixteen spots.

When anyone attempts to open the exit door (the place the players need to go), the entrance door (the escape) closes, and a mechanism starts that will either move the ceiling to the floor, flood the rooms, etc. Anything that will slay the entire party will work.

The clues tell you that you should turn the dials, first clockwise (towards the sun), then counterclockwise (away from the sun) alternating. The numbers in the other clues tell you which onces to do, in which order.

So if the numbers were 2,4,6,8,3,6,9 you would turn the number two dial clockwise once, then the number 4 dial counterclockwise, then 6 clockwise, etc. Once all this is done, all the symbols will line up, releasing the lock mechanism on the exit door, the entrance door, and resetting or stopping the trap (I usually vote for only stopping as primitive traps such as this can pretty much only be accomplished through gravity release switches, and so would have to be manually reset).

Using the above numbers, the following would be the initial setting on the puzzle:

A   A   C   B
  o   o   o
C   A   B   B
  o   o   o
D   B   A   C
  o   o   o
D   C   D   D

After the first step (rotate the 2 clockwise), it would look like this:

A   A   A   B
  o   o   o
C   B   C   B
  o   o   o
D   B   A   C
  o   o   o
D   C   D   D

Give them a reasonable amount of time (maybe 10 minutes in all to read the clues, interpret them, and apply them). In addition, I also place a key on the left hand side, going from A at the top to D at the bottom. That way, they can treat it like a logic puzzle instead, if that suits them better. For those good at that sort of thing, it would actually be a whole lot quicker than reading the clues. And if the clues are foreign, they might never even read them.

What do you think?

 

[reanjr]

This is a variant of the pit idea. Kind of hard to explain, though.

Imagine a room where about half of the floor is gone (the far half). Then, cover the entire room with, say, a large sheet of metal or something. Or maybe a sheet of something that looks exactly like a normal floor, so it looks like there's no pit. The result is a see-saw, of sorts.

I like that. Is there something to allow the party to pass without the aid of magic? I could probably think of something if I tried, but if you already have something I'd like to hear it.

 

[Red Wyrmling]

You should try to get your hands on a copy of Grimtooth's Traps. It's an old bookseries with some very painfulltraps in it. Most are very usefull still since it was created to be used under any system, be it modern or fantasy rpg.

I have bought them this year at GenConUK and I can recommend them to everyone!

 

[arscott]

A while back, I set up an interesting trap in an abandoned sewer complex. The sewer consisted of cylindrical pipes that contained catwalks above green slime, or some othe caustic goop. In one rather long and straight section of the sewer, the party set off a pressure plate, and the entire section of pipe broke loose and rolled down a slope until one end of the pipe got caught, tipping the whole thing sideways and letting the party slide out of the pipe and into the BBEG's arena.

It has all the benifits of a pit trap with few of the drawbacks. They took damage from being bounced around in the pipe. They took damage from being splashed with acidic goo. And had they been less lucky with saving throws, they would have taken damage when the catwalk slid out of the pipe and fell on them. What's more, they were in the villian's clutches, and the only apparent way to escape was to climb back up a nearly vertical pipe whose sides were dripping in green slime.

 

[Jdvn1]

I like that. Is there something to allow the party to pass without the aid of magic? I could probably think of something if I tried, but if you already have something I'd like to hear it.

Um, honestly, the trap was made without a solution in mind. It was designed by a GM who regularly kills party members. Like, at least four per session. And once the floor turns, dumping everyone into the pit, it returns (I think) to its normal state, trapping everyone inside. Or they fall into a vat of acid or some equally horrible thing.

I'd get by, though, by placing weights on the 'good' side of the floor. Like, maybe, the room would be decently well furnished (sofa, chairs, bookshelves, table, etc), and the party would have to carefully move all the furniture. A summon spell might work too, depending on what is summoned. ("I summon an elephant. Good boy. Stay.")

Also, unless there was a baddie in the room or something, I'd assume the party would actually spend some time in the room looking around. Where do they start? The entrance. Meaning one or two of them would probably get checks to notice the thing before it triggered. Also, it'd probably be easier to notice as you went farther into the room, since the floor would probably depress slightly due to weight. And heavier characters (or those with heavy armor), might notice it easier.

Once they notice the trap, they can come up with ways around it. Noticing it, I'm thinking, is the tough part.

 

[Jdvn1]

A while back, I set up an interesting trap in an abandoned sewer complex. The sewer consisted of cylindrical pipes that contained catwalks above green slime, or some othe caustic goop. In one rather long and straight section of the sewer, the party set off a pressure plate, and the entire section of pipe broke loose and rolled down a slope until one end of the pipe got caught, tipping the whole thing sideways and letting the party slide out of the pipe and into the BBEG's arena.

... Now _that's_ an entrance.

 

[Timeboxer]

Well, here's mine.

Okay, there's a fairly small room with a Chime of Opening conveniently in the room. (The party will probably be able to identify what it does.) There's an entrance through which the party enters, and a huge, ornate stone gateway in the wall, which appears as if it should slide up, and is Arcane Locked shut. Behind the Wall, however, is actually a large vertical shaft which has a Decanter of Endless Water bolted to the ceiling which is on and has been pumping out water behind the Arcane Locked stone gateway for, oh, quite awhile.

The point of this is that the characters are to think, "Oh, we can just knock the Arcane Locked door that it appears that we are supposed to enter open with the Chime of Opening." Or however else they would like to go about it. This causes the gate to slide up, which trips the counterweight, causing the gate from the room they just left to slide down, thus trapping them in the room and flooding it with water, which is continually being added to by the Decanter of Endless Water.

Meanwhile, the real exit is actually a secret door in either the ceiling or the floor -- your choice.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

The ever popular Masterwork suit of full plate - made out of magnesium. One fireball, a bright flash and Johansen is GONE!

A tripwire and pit - with the pit opening about 15 or 20 feet behind the tripwire. The intent is for the tripwire to be diliberately triggered by the baddie as he flees down the corridor.

A fireman's pole - but unless the lever has been pulled the covered pit trap beneath it opens above the sharpened stakes as soon as any weight hits it. (Again an 'I want to get away!' trap.)

A slide down, if the lever is pulled it leads to another slide leading to the exit. if it hasn't it leads to something remarkably like a cheese grater. (What's the good of having a secret hideout if you don't live to escape from it?)

A false door with a very big strap spring behind it. False hinges on the side, real hinge on the bottom - the only thing holding it in place is the lock...

False door with explosive runes behind it.

A vault style door with a river behind it, only the very sturdy door and lock keeping it from flooding the tunnels very quickly indeed.

A fairly easy to spot floor trigger. Unless the floor trigger is stepped on the trap ahead will activate.

The Auld Grump