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Post by Pagemistress on Jun 9, 2014 21:49:42 GMT
My main PC back in the day (my mother) was an extremely cautious player, to the point where she checked for traps practically every 5 feet. Now, this might have been because I liked putting a lot of traps in my dungeons, but it got to the point that we were spending more time looking for traps than anything else (and wandering monsters didn't seem to break this habit). One time, I decided to just have fun with it and devised a pressure plate "trap" in a tiled floor. When stepped on, the pressure plate emitted a slight pneumatic hiss and sunk down enough for the PC to feel it. That's all.
Imagine my hilarity when the PCs spent the next hour trying to figure out what they'd done and what was going to happen (spears from the floor? darts from the wall?) It didn't register on any trap detection rolls because it wasn't a trap. Or so I told her when she finally demanded that I explain what was going to happen to her intrepid barbarian. She didn't talk to me for 2 days because of that.
But wow...it was really funny.
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Post by dungeonmistress on Jun 10, 2014 20:36:00 GMT
Way to go!!!
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Post by Sleepy Hollow Mike on Jun 12, 2014 10:08:59 GMT
HAHAHA! I did something very similiar to an ex girlfriend once! LOLOL! Once!
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tripps
Cardboard Collector
Posts: 4
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Post by tripps on Jul 4, 2014 2:20:14 GMT
Its all fun and games until this happens
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Post by Cyan Wisp on Jul 6, 2014 23:23:09 GMT
Sounds like fun! You know, it needn't be a "fake trap". Some traps have a manual reset, so it may be an expended trap or something. Can't blame you for that...
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Post by dragon722 on Jul 7, 2014 4:54:20 GMT
Its all fun and games until this happens Love this series lol
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rhoubhe
Cardboard Collector
Posts: 17
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Post by rhoubhe on Jul 13, 2014 1:30:07 GMT
Its always fun to let them detect a trap that has already been activated before, and as they then start to 'deactivate' they actually reset it and then walk straight into it...
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tripps
Cardboard Collector
Posts: 4
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Post by tripps on Jul 13, 2014 14:20:34 GMT
Its all fun and games until this happens Love this series lol I hope it catches on. Much better than "The guild" in my opinion.
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Post by dragon722 on Jul 13, 2014 17:24:34 GMT
I hope it catches on. Much better than "The guild" in my opinion. Hope it does too
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Post by DarthTaco18 on Sept 11, 2014 22:15:06 GMT
I've done this before. Scared the craft out of the party rogue. Even funnier, I made the trap so that the first time it triggers, I gets set off, the second time it resets, and the third time it goes off again and so on and so forth. So when the rogue came in and thought it had already sprung, she thought "Coast clear!" And waved on for the rest of the party. Unfortunately the next person to trip it was the sorceror.
...They very quickly learned the value of having a healer
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Post by DnDPaladin on Oct 5, 2014 0:24:47 GMT
Book of challenges has some nice traps... one i like is the all traps are set off by a rogue that came before them... all are manual resets. they arrive at the end of the spiraling corridors to a room. with the rigue dead by the chest with full treasure. dead by a fireball trap on the chest that was set.
fun part starts... as soon as they open the chest for the treasur einside... all traps resets !
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Post by lordmorbius on May 20, 2015 6:53:50 GMT
An open bear trap in the center of the hallway. An obvious trap, except there is no spring to "snap" the trap shut. Its just laying there...to distract the party away from the pit trap its sitting on top of. Yes, falling into the pit and landing on top of the jagged teeth of the jaw trap does extra damage.
A rack of pointy iron spikes, clearly visible to anyone looking up...just hanging there...bolted to the ceiling, to distract attention away from the trip wire on the shadowy floor.
The obvious trip wire that attaches to nothing...hovering over a pressure plate that releases a stone block on an iron chain to swing down the length of the hallway.
A locked chest, with a poison needle trap in the lock...filled with coins...that have all been cursed...with an assortment of different curses...what, did you just mix all those cursed coins in with your non-cursed coins before you realized they were cursed to begin with? Tsk tsk...good luck telling them apart.
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slurpy
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 197
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Post by slurpy on May 22, 2015 20:33:04 GMT
I once had kobolds hide their treasure under a floor tile on which one of them had scrawled "Not A Trap." Took the players forever to find it!
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Post by lordbryon on May 22, 2015 21:48:12 GMT
I've learned to never tell the party definitively if they spot a trap. I try to say something along the lines of "you don't see any traps". I want to keep my players on edge with that. For the most part there are no traps but every now and then I can spring one on them. It's so fun to see the party rogue get really nervous when he rolls poorly.
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Post by DnDPaladin on May 23, 2015 5:22:47 GMT
unfortunately the body language really doesn'T do this method justice. but it i do use it once in a while.
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Post by lordmorbius on May 23, 2015 21:07:40 GMT
I've learned to never tell the party definitively if they spot a trap. I try to say something along the lines of "you don't see any traps". I want to keep my players on edge with that. For the most part there are no traps but every now and then I can spring one on them. It's so fun to see the party rogue get really nervous when he rolls poorly. When a rogue wishes to search for traps, I roll the dice for him, behind the DM screen. Leaning forward, peering over the DM screen with a broad, toothy evil grin...I say in a low, sinister voice... "You don't actually... SEE...any evidence of a trap here". >=D It is especially fun to watch the players squirm when they made the roll and there was no trap to find...their basic lack of faith in mankind kicks in. They automatically assume they failed the roll and I'm somehow "up to something devious". Even though I told them the truth, they just don't want to believe the truth coming from a man with a devilishly, serpentine grin and a smooth, low, evil voice.
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Post by DnDPaladin on May 24, 2015 4:44:20 GMT
Well you are lucky, my players either completely skip traps because they somehow know there is one, or just dont care and trigger it. yup, my players think too much of this table top game as a video game.
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Post by lordmorbius on May 24, 2015 7:52:34 GMT
Well you are lucky, my players either completely skip traps because they somehow know there is one, or just dont care and trigger it. yup, my players think too much of this table top game as a video game. Hmmm... For players that skip traps because they somehow know there is one...move it, make it more damaging because they cheated... For players that just don't care and trigger it...oh noes, such things cannot be allowed. Traps are dangerous, sinister and deadly, the object of fear and dread...only the fool hearty would take them lightly...Grimtooth would turn over in his grave...or, at least he would if he were actually dead...but you get my point. If traps hold no fear for your stalwart band of intrepid adventurers, then change up your traps to make them into dark omens of dire consequence. Toss the trip wire that fires an arrow out and replace it with spray nozzles that blast supernatural acid, that burns like fire, round after round...it cannot just be wiped off...you must also dispel the magical essence of the acid, or watch it dissolve those cherished magical weapons and armor away into corrosive goo. Arrow traps, Dart traps, even spear traps can be coated with exotic and new poisons, that not only inflict hit points of damage, but permanently drain away a point of constitution AND strength (Players must roll a separate save for EACH ability). Traps like that, an adventurer can ignore at his own peril. Magical traps that polymorph armor and clothing into... LAVA...not only stripping players of their armor but burning them horribly in the process (Armor gets a save vs magic to not polymorph), are traps that only the daft would not take seriously. A pit trap, plunging a player a hundred feet, onto a solid rock floor, smashing them with 10d6 hit points of damage, possible broken bones (Constitution check) requiring others to rescue him, laying in a pool of his own blood, amid shattered armor and weapons, broken potion bottles and flasks of oil (which, as they mix together could have even more disastrous effects, such as explosions, toxins, random magical effects going off, bursting into flames that burn not only the injured player, but also burn scrolls, magical cloaks, boots, spell books, wands, etc. Item saves apply). If the other players take too long to figure out a way to save their confederate, it could turn out that the floor is also a pressure plate of sorts...with a metallic "CLACK" and the sound of clockwork gears tick-tocking away...as the pit starts to fill with water to drown the player....or fill with oil and sparking steel strikers rattling off flint igniters...or mayhaps even the deep, stoney rumble of the walls starting to inch closer together...and closer...and closer... Damn your players sir...they SHALL fear the legacy of Grimtooth or SUFFER the dark misfortunes and melancholy of their own folly! ...because all they had to do was just look for the darn things. =D
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Post by lordbryon on Jun 3, 2015 22:30:17 GMT
Lord Mobius. Remind me to not play in your games. Actually you took the thunder out of my roll. I'd suggest the very same thing. If you kill a PC with a trap the other PC's will take notice and all of the sudden they won't skip traps again. I like the 100ft pit trap. How about a tunnel 20 feet from the bottom of the pit that drops a gelatinous cube on the victim(s) of the fall. Seems like a logical place for a cube to hide. Maybe it just lives at the bottom. Let the characters take 1/2 damage from the fall but they are engulfed by a gelatinous cube.. a hungry one at that. Love the oil and flint sparks though . Oh my god I'd bee freaking out if I was the doof at the bottom of the pit. LOL
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Post by lordmorbius on Jun 4, 2015 5:50:39 GMT
Lord Mobius. Remind me to not play in your games. I like the 100ft pit trap. How about a tunnel 20 feet from the bottom of the pit that drops a gelatinous cube on the victim(s) of the fall. Seems like a logical place for a cube to hide. Maybe it just lives at the bottom. Let the characters take 1/2 damage from the fall but they are engulfed by a gelatinous cube.. a hungry one at that. Love the oil and flint sparks though . Oh my god I'd bee freaking out if I was the doof at the bottom of the pit. LOL Luv me some gelatinous cubes...especially to surprise players who think jello isn't evil. ...or...perhaps the last band of stalwart adventurers that fell victim to the trap, died there, leaving their skeletal remains at the bottom...and the sphere of annihilation possessed by the wizard who last died there, remains there until this day...awaiting for the next sucker to tumble into the pit trap and land on it. ...or a permanent cloudkill that has settled into the bottom of the pit. ...or a fire-trapped paving stone at the bottom of the pit, for heroes to land upon and trigger a fiery blast...and the paving stone also serves as a pressure plate, that triggers and "Indiana Jones" style rock ball that rolls down from the ceiling onto the rest of the party...either crushing them into the floor or pushing them forward...into the pit trap...and of course the rock ball would keep rolling...right into the pit and dropping down on top of them 100ft below...where the rock ball not only does crushing damage to the players and their gear, but serves as a physical barrier to prevent the heroes from levitating or flying up and out of the pit...as the pit begins to fill with water...or acid...or flaming oil...or a gray ooze or three...DM's choice really, but in any case, once the players climb out of the pit, I rather like the idea of having a second 100ft deep pit trap immediately behind the first pit trap, because, honestly...how many heroes would see that one coming? Yeah, before I ever heard of Grimtooth, I cut my teeth on the traps in the 1st edition AD&D S1 The Tomb of Horrors module. The definitive, inspirational work on the classic "KILLER DUNGEON", where quest failure is a forgone conclusion and adventurer success was measured not in completing the module, but rather how far you got before the Killer Dungeon actually ended your life. The group of adventurers who got the furthest before ultimately dying, won. In tournament play, there was a disclaimer "This adventure scenario is NOT for the faint of heart and you are NOT expected to survive! This scenario is a professionally designed " KILLER DUNGEON", intended to KILL even the best of the best players. If you don't think you have what it takes to face the TOMB OF HORRORS...then we strongly advise you to not even try!". With a build up sales pitch like that...what group of adventurers could resist playing it? I sure couldn't...ended up clearing 19 out of 36 rooms before meeting my untimely demise. Those were the days...good times. =D
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