Two Dozen Nasty DM Tricks

[Rechan]

4. Smear contact poison on the mechanism by which a trap would be disarmed. To add insult to injury, make the trap itself harmless.

Two words: solvent glue.

10. Zombies stuffed full of scorpions or spiders so that once they are cleaved open, the swarms attack.

I like to use poisonous gas inside a sealed zombie.

23. Handholds or a ladder in a deep pit trap designed to break/release just out of reach from the top.

Or: A trigger on the ladder causes a stone block in the ceiling to fall into the pit trap.

27) In one of the low tunnels kobolds or goblins are using, they have dug a groove in the ceiling. The groove is covered with oil-soaked canvas, and above the canvas is flammable liquid. When someone passes beneath the canvas with a torch, the torch sets the canvas on fire, which dumps the liquid ontop of the target.

28) A pit trap in a narrow hallway, with the trigger being several feet in front of it. The trap will snag someone in the back of a marching order.

29) Any door based trap added to a door with a wall behind it.

30) This trap does three things. It casts Darkness in the room. It causes an auditory illusion of a door opening and movement to suggest that there is something in the room with the PCs. It also sets an alarm off somewhere in the dungeon, alerting the inhabitants of intruders. While the players are busy fighting nothing, guards are on their way.

31) In a room is a raised platform only two feet in diameter. In the ceiling is a hole of the same size, aligned with the platform. The trap causes the ceiling to drop. It's obvious that standing on the upraised portion allows one to escape the crushing ceiling. When someone steps on it, the second part of the trap goes off - a bolt of lightning from inside the hole hits the target on the platform, and the ceiling stops descending.

32) The ceiling drops down to only two feet high, forcing the PCs to crawl around. Then, secret doors along the floor release monsters built to move around in the small confined space.

 

[merelycompetent]

Do people really find these "tricks" exciting?

Yes.

I find most of these so metagamey and reliant on circumstantial knowledge of the player characters (and their spells), it becomes far more about the DM screwing the players over,...

No. None of the traps in here are immediately deadly. Many can easily be defeated with a little bit of checking. Look in the bag of holding before you put anything valuable in it and you can easily see the rust monster(s), for example. Others allow saving throws. All of them are usable, in some form or fashion, by the PCs against their enemies. Many of them are detectable by thief/rogue classes (or equivalents) under all editions of the game. Even the poison on the rats' claws trick is far less deadly as presented in 4E.

than about the enemy trying to foil their attempts.

There are some styles of play where the enemy exercises intricate strategy and tactics to use against the PCs, where the DM and players enjoy the intellectual, strategic, or tactical challenges, ambushes, and trickery possible within the rules. Your style appears to be different. And that's good! A variety of styles, interpretations, and understanding of the game *adds* to the hobby.

We could go into a long discussion about what constitutes meta-gamey, DM vs. player, what play styles are valid, and so forth. That's not the point. The point is to use these devious, clever, and dastardly traps as *inspiration*, to make *your* game more fun! Even if the traps in this thread are examples of what you don't want to do in your game, they still benefit you: Now you have a set of examples of what you definitely don't want to use in your play style. Or you can tone them down - maybe change the two rust monsters into puppies - who are actually the polymorphed kidnapped prince and princess. Or better still, the BBEG's misbehaving children. Plot hooks galore.

Just a few thoughts.

 

[Reynard]

Or better still, the BBEG's misbehaving children.

Ha!

 

[Rechan]

A few of these aren't vicious, just aspects of traps (like the breakable ladder, or the weak door in front of a pit trap). I've seen a few of these in the Traps and Treachery book. Others merely make an interesting encounter (The zombies filled with scorpions, the disguised giants); those aren't meant to screw the players, but to spice up an otherwise boring encounter.

I actually like the "Illusionary ceiling webs/pit trap floor".

On the other hand, I'm not the DM to be vicious like these traps suggest. However, I've ran a group that expected me to (They spent five minutes real time worrying about a bag of tricks, thinking it was going to attack them. They looked in every crate and barrel, thinking there was a "Gotcha" somewhere.) It got very frustrating for me.

 

[jdrakeh]

Do people really find these "tricks" exciting? I find most of these so metagamey and reliant on circumstantial knowledge of the player characters (and their spells), it becomes far more about the DM screwing the players over, than about the enemy trying to foil their attempts.

It's worth pointing out that some people run D&D specifically to screw over players. For these folks, D&D is all about 'versus' play. I won't go so far as to say that this is an invalid or wrong playstyle — after all, at least one person is having fun — it's just not for me

 

[Rechan]

Besides, tricks like these are the fonts from which "tales from the table" flow for years to come.

Cough cough head of vecna cough.

 

[Reynard]

Some Door Traps:

Contact poison on the handle.

A mechanical or magic "noisemaker" on the opposite side of the door and a thrusting spike trap set to go off when the thief/rogue puts his ear to the door for a listen.

A puzzle trap that appears to open a secret door when solved, but instead forms explosive runes or a glyph of warding when completed.

A stone door with an acid filled space above and the door serving as the seal. When the door is opened the acid pours down onto the opener.

For big doors or gates, a hollow space and secret door built into the back side. Once the PCs pass through, assassins or monsters slip out behind the party.

A door enchanted to feel hot to the touch that activates a cold trap when opened (or vice versa).

A door that acts as a seal for a small room filled with poison gas under pressure. When opened the gas pours out. Also possible: combustible gas for parties that use torches.

 

[merelycompetent]

Cough cough head of vecna cough.

I wish it was a rule that no one is allowed to mention this classic of gaming without also providing a link to the full story:

Head of Vecna

:>

 

[Reynard]

It's worth pointing out that some people run D&D specifically to screw over players. For these folks, D&D is all about 'versus' play. I won't go so far as to say that this is an invalid or wrong playstyle — after all, at least one person is having fun — it's just not for me

I think we call the above bolded phrase "kindling".

 

[merelycompetent]

Here's one I've used:

PC's have probably accumulated a number of enemies. So one of them (either a spellcaster himself or hires one) casts a permanent illusion over a giant, or other big-sized monster, to look like a halfling. Then sends the party a challenge...

The look on the players' faces when the halfling knocked over 5' thick oak trees with a wave of his hand - from ten feet away - was priceless!

Another:
Two pits in a narrow hallway. The nearest one is uncovered, has spikes in the bottom, and is coated with some sort of noxious slime. The second one (on the other side of the first) is covered with a pivot panel. PCs can lay a ladder, plank, or other bridge across the first pit and get over with no problem. But as soon as they step on the cover of the second pit (or jump over the first one)...