Tricks and Traps?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I date from the "tricks and traps" era. IIRC, there was a random table in the 1E DMG dungeon generator with both tricks and traps.

I miss well-done tricks. Most are hard to fashion well, aside from the occasional magic mouth, teleporters, and the like. Done well, though, they really spice up an "exploratory"-style dungeon when your players want to engage their minds rather than the characters' minds.

Edit: I suspect that the reason tricks have fallen into disfavor is that many of them challenged players (vice characters). Especially with the growth of skill systems in D&D, the emphasis in the mainstream game seems to be much more on challenging characters in-game, rather than relying on player knowledge.

 

[grodog]

Some good ideas for 1e-style tricks appear @ Dragonsfoot • View topic - Tricks, Traps, Puzzles and Unusual Things

There were a number of traps and tricks books published by third party publishers over the years (the Grimtooth's Traps line being perhaps most infamous), and several provided a small selection of tricks, but even in the later '70s and '80s, I don't recall seeing any tricks-only compendiums published.