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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DMSage" data-source="post: 6747040" data-attributes="member: 6803552">Traps (by DMSage.com) [ATTACH]71538[/ATTACH]Traps are rarely used correctly in D&D and other roleplaying games. This article is going to show you how to avoid making your epic level rogue appear blind as a naked mole rat, how to prevent your players from feeling like you insta-killed them with an impossible surprise, and how to construct quality traps that give your players something to feel good about SOLVING.I chose the word solving intentionally in the last paragraph because I’m going to share the story of the first puzzle I gave my players to solve the very first time I DMed.My characters were locked outside of a massive dungeon door in the bowels of a crumbling ancient castle. The door had five colored slots inset at its base into which five matching colored orbs had to be placed. The orbs were hidden in the ruins scattered around the empty old castle which I had mapped out on paper.In this puzzle, the PLAYERS are trying to solve a puzzle and the CHARACTERS are trying to solve a puzzle. This is a very important distinction. The solution to the puzzle, as you might have guessed, is that the green orb goes in the green slot. The blue orb goes in the blue slot. That was the solution to the puzzle I had given my PLAYERS to solve! Unless they were toddlers or colorblind, it will take them two seconds to find the solution. I was aware of this.The reason I thought this puzzle might work was because the true puzzle was for the CHARACTERS to solve. The orbs were hidden throughout the rubble of the abandoned castle and the characters had to go out and find them. The puzzle that I thought was being solved in my mind was the characters searching for the orbs.The puzzle turned into a disaster. My players would search for the orbs in the rooms they were in, but I knew once they found all the orbs the puzzle was over. In an attempt to prolong the puzzle I made, I would withhold information that the characters should have noticed and ask them to make perception checks hoping they would fail to make my puzzle worth while. Inevitably they would fail a check and ask to make another. Of course I had to let them because if they didn't find it they couldn't move forward. Eventually I had to give up on the whole concept of this puzzle and just start telling them where the orbs were to move the game along. This puzzle failed on many levels and I have learned a lot since then.My takeaway from this was that FINDING something is not a quality puzzle for players.To make a quality puzzle you must give your PLAYERS something to solve.To make a quality trap you must give your PLAYERS something to solve.Imagine the king of your land is suspended above a lava pit by a rope which is slowly burning. Now that’s a puzzle. That is something your players have to solve by flying, using spells, stopping the rope burning to buy more time, or begging an NPC to swing him to safety. This puzzle gives lots of options to your players and makes them think. They can't just solve it with a roll of the dice.My realization in figuring out how to make exciting puzzles, is that traps behave the same way as puzzles. They need to have something for the players to solve and choices for the players to make.Before we go on I want to briefly talk about how senses work in D&D. I think this topic warrants an article of its own but I’ll overview it here.As a dungeon master, you must be extremely cognizant of the fact that your players don’t have senses in your world. While the DM has a vivid picture in his head, the players get only the information you tell them and nothing more. Abusing this fact can make your characters appear blind and your players feel cheated. Many DMs try to hide their own game making flaws by withholding sensory information the players should have. To me, this is cheating.As a DM you must be clear with your players in your descriptions. When entering a new area, players should be told ALL relevant sensory input their character would get. A DM should give clues, hints, and foreshadows all the time.And this leads us back to traps. Typically, the main puzzle of a trap is the perception of it. Once the trap is spotted it is also solved and that makes them boring. Many DMs try to make their traps more interesting by leaving out sensory information and giving no clues to the traps whereabouts. This causes the players to miss the trap and stumble onto it. While more entertaining, there is a better way.There are two ways a DM can shift the responsibility of finding the traps. He can make it the character’s responsibility by calling for perception checks, using passive perception, or rolling randomly to represent the characters searching for the traps using their abilities or the DM can make it the players responsibility to find the traps by requiring players to state where and how they are looking and requiring them to state the specific skill checks their characters are making.There are positives and negatives to each: Character’s responsibilityNegativesFinding traps is random, based on dice rolls onlyGetting hit by a trap feels unfair because there is no way to avoid itTraps are either found or not found. It might as well be predetermined.Players have no choices or tactics to employ. There is nothing to solve, traps are boringPositivesUses character’s skillsAllows for role-play and backgrounds to find trapsExemplifies the rogue’s individuality, skills, and training in the game Player’s responsibilityNegativesPlayers don't have access to in game sensesSlows down the game with random checks everywhereDoesn’t use character’s statsReduces character individualization if everyone can find traps regardlessPositivesFinding traps is not randomFeels more fair if the players can find trapsPlayers have something to solvePlayers have choices to make In order to have a high quality trap DMs need to accomplish several things:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Finding traps should not be based on luck</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The DM needs to make sure random trap searching doesn't slow down the game</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Players need to have choices and puzzles to solve</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Solving traps should require the use of character skills, feats, and backstories to highlight character individuality and role play</li> </ul>My solution involves these steps:Designing Quality traps<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Give it a story</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Design its components and solutions</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Identify its starting clues</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Identify skill check requirements</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make it harder over time</li> </ul>Running quality traps<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Give sensory clues</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Find other ways to interact with/trigger the trap</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Adjudicate solutions</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Adjust difficulty</li> </ul>Find out how to fix this in the next article at DMSAGE.COM</blockquote>

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