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General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Traps: What Should Become of the Spike-Filled Pit?
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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5783972" data-attributes="member: 22424"><p>I hate both these things.</p><p></p><p>There should be no concept of the "standard operating procedure". This is a fantasy game, not some engineering manual, for Gygax's sake! Traps should be rare enough, and unique enough, to make searching for them more than just a checklist of things to run through.</p><p></p><p>On the other hand, DMs who pixel-bitch over finding traps are also missing the point. "Oh, so you checked the door, the handle, the hinges, the lock... but you didn't check the bottom-left panel explicitly...?" Yeah, right. If you want me to check in that much detail, you need to describe your entire world in that much detail, because otherwise how am I to know there even is a bottom-left panel to check? Is that too much work for our poor, harried DM? Great, then abstract the detail... but play fair - if you abstract, the players get to do so as well.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Very true.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I really think there's a place for both. The thing is, those traps are intended to protect something; they're meant to be <em>lethal</em>, not merely level-appropriate annoyances for the Cleric to heal away in an instant.</p><p></p><p>So, while I don't like "save or die" traps, I do think many level-appropriate traps should include a real good chance that a PC is going to die. (Conversely, as I said up-thread, I think they should be pretty easy to <em>detect</em>.)</p><p></p><p>I do like the Batman-type death trap (or the Bond-type trap, or the "Encounter Trap", or the 4e set-piece - they're pretty much all the same thing). As you say, they're hard to design, though - a "Book of Traps" would be a good addition to the game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="delericho, post: 5783972, member: 22424"] I hate both these things. There should be no concept of the "standard operating procedure". This is a fantasy game, not some engineering manual, for Gygax's sake! Traps should be rare enough, and unique enough, to make searching for them more than just a checklist of things to run through. On the other hand, DMs who pixel-bitch over finding traps are also missing the point. "Oh, so you checked the door, the handle, the hinges, the lock... but you didn't check the bottom-left panel explicitly...?" Yeah, right. If you want me to check in that much detail, you need to describe your entire world in that much detail, because otherwise how am I to know there even is a bottom-left panel to check? Is that too much work for our poor, harried DM? Great, then abstract the detail... but play fair - if you abstract, the players get to do so as well. Very true. I really think there's a place for both. The thing is, those traps are intended to protect something; they're meant to be [i]lethal[/i], not merely level-appropriate annoyances for the Cleric to heal away in an instant. So, while I don't like "save or die" traps, I do think many level-appropriate traps should include a real good chance that a PC is going to die. (Conversely, as I said up-thread, I think they should be pretty easy to [i]detect[/i].) I do like the Batman-type death trap (or the Bond-type trap, or the "Encounter Trap", or the 4e set-piece - they're pretty much all the same thing). As you say, they're hard to design, though - a "Book of Traps" would be a good addition to the game. [/QUOTE]
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Traps: What Should Become of the Spike-Filled Pit?
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