Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Traps: What Should Become of the Spike-Filled Pit?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5779319" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>In my mind, traps are the "monsters" of exploration. </p><p></p><p>They are there to consume resources and, as a whole, lead to the party's destruction.</p><p></p><p>A simple way to embody this is in something like a 4e skill challenge: you make rolls to explore the dungeon, and, if your roll fails, your character stumbles into a trap and suffers some penalty...lets say, he dies. And in order to get raised, you need to get out of the dungeon (e.g.: quit, fail, and walk home empty-handed without treasure or XP or whatever goal you wanted to accomplish here). So a trap-filled dungeon gradually whittles down the party to 0 members, or at least one party member manages to overcome all the traps, get the MacGuffin, and get back to town in time to raise those who weren't so lucky.</p><p></p><p>That paragraph is more of a proof-of-concept than a rigorous mechanical framework, but that's the idea.</p><p></p><p>IMO, that's also the idea behind rust monsters, ear seekers, disenchanters, and other "gotcha monsters." They're not there to fight, they're there to make the exploration of the dungeon more interesting, to whittle away the character's resources, and to eventually, in total effect, to thwart a party from completing their mission. </p><p></p><p>And as to the question of deadliness: IMO, it needs to suck away something that cannot be earned back (unless perhaps one admits to failure). 3e and 4e don't really have such a resource -- maybe GP, but it just seems odd to have a spike-filled pit ultimately just drain your wallet (even via a raise spell, or something). </p><p></p><p>That's part of why I think traps have trouble working in that environment. It's not helpless, though, you just need to re-contextualize the environment.</p><p></p><p>For 5e, I would like to see all sorts of traps and trap-creatures and hazards, but I would give the DM a few different ways to introduce them, depending on how they want to handle dungeon exploration, from very abstract (like my proof-of-concept) to very detailed (more like AD&D), and always with the recommendation that whatever the trap does to the PC's, it isn't something the party should be able to undo without some sort of cost (narratively, financially, etc.).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 5779319, member: 2067"] In my mind, traps are the "monsters" of exploration. They are there to consume resources and, as a whole, lead to the party's destruction. A simple way to embody this is in something like a 4e skill challenge: you make rolls to explore the dungeon, and, if your roll fails, your character stumbles into a trap and suffers some penalty...lets say, he dies. And in order to get raised, you need to get out of the dungeon (e.g.: quit, fail, and walk home empty-handed without treasure or XP or whatever goal you wanted to accomplish here). So a trap-filled dungeon gradually whittles down the party to 0 members, or at least one party member manages to overcome all the traps, get the MacGuffin, and get back to town in time to raise those who weren't so lucky. That paragraph is more of a proof-of-concept than a rigorous mechanical framework, but that's the idea. IMO, that's also the idea behind rust monsters, ear seekers, disenchanters, and other "gotcha monsters." They're not there to fight, they're there to make the exploration of the dungeon more interesting, to whittle away the character's resources, and to eventually, in total effect, to thwart a party from completing their mission. And as to the question of deadliness: IMO, it needs to suck away something that cannot be earned back (unless perhaps one admits to failure). 3e and 4e don't really have such a resource -- maybe GP, but it just seems odd to have a spike-filled pit ultimately just drain your wallet (even via a raise spell, or something). That's part of why I think traps have trouble working in that environment. It's not helpless, though, you just need to re-contextualize the environment. For 5e, I would like to see all sorts of traps and trap-creatures and hazards, but I would give the DM a few different ways to introduce them, depending on how they want to handle dungeon exploration, from very abstract (like my proof-of-concept) to very detailed (more like AD&D), and always with the recommendation that whatever the trap does to the PC's, it isn't something the party should be able to undo without some sort of cost (narratively, financially, etc.). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Traps: What Should Become of the Spike-Filled Pit?
Top