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Post by DnDPaladin on Oct 19, 2014 0:30:07 GMT
This is a trap im thinking of using against my group. its not perfect but this is also why im posting it. see if you guys could help me improve it.
the first thing that strike is the name i cannot seem to find an appropriate name for the trap so basically this will do for now.
the room the characters enter is about 40 feets by 40 feets by about 20 feet high. there are runes and text engraved on the walls. the doors never slides shut or anything. the goal of the room is to keep the characters in simply by curiosity alone. basically the trap is pretty much always active. a search DC20 on the walls near the bottom of the room, mainly in the four corners, reveals small holes that seems to push gas Inside the room. the gaz has no real sent, but as long as the characters are Inside the room, they stack up intoxication. after the first 5 minutes they start feeling fatigues setting in. as if they had run a marathon. the next 5 minutes are crucial because at this point the characters starts to lose consciouness. thethe longer they stay the harder it is to think and act until they finally lose consciousness after the fated 10 minutes in.
if they ever check the door from which they came in, or the door they can go out of. they can find small holes sucking in the gas which is then recycled and thrown back into the room. so outside the room its fine, Inside the room. you better not stay there. but will curiosity win out on you. as you can see the goal is simply to make the character curious as to whats in this room. try to simply keep them there the longest they can, so that any guards or any treasures int he next rooms are well guarded. anybody who just pass in during the 5 first minute will be fine. anybody who stays more then those 5 minutes will get it coming. and yes, they could literally stay unconscious int hat room until their body actually dies out on its own. you could also put out kinda of a patrol guards or monsters or whatever that could come and clean up the room from intruders once in a while. which is kinda what i intend to do with this.
for those wondering... there is nothing to gain there. the room is really just a huge time waste !
what do you think about it ?
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Post by beetlewing on Oct 19, 2014 16:43:13 GMT
Interesting. I think I'd shorten the time to a minute or two, then plop some big useless contraption in the room to draw the players' interest... like an old machine that doesn't do anything, but has buttons and cogs on it.
....or that machine DOES do something, like open the exit door, so it's a race against the clock to figure it out before you fall asleep.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Oct 19, 2014 18:08:43 GMT
Interesting indeed. love the machine idea. maybe i could whip out a puzzle in there with a machine that do nothing even if you solve the puzzle. having the doors closing in is one thing, but im thinking of the enemies having to get in there. and i dont want them to come in with gas mask. though i could put a lever on their side to stop the gas in its entirety.
not sure about 1 or 2 minutes... im not really liking the timers and i think it just pressures my players too much. maybe i could whip it back to 5 minutes total though, that could be done. like 3 minutes before starting to feel anything and 2 minutes of slowly going down.
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Post by thedmg on Oct 19, 2014 22:19:05 GMT
It needs the promise of reward. The text on the walls should talk about a great magical object. One of the walls should have a fake door that is closed and seemingly well protected. There should be a combination of some kind that has a small number of variations, but does not do anything.
Mouse traps need cheese
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Post by onethatwas on Oct 20, 2014 2:32:20 GMT
Every now and again you can get away with a trap that has no reward baiting the PC's. But only rarely. As DMG said, a draw would make the trap better...that goes gor most traps.
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Post by beetlewing on Oct 20, 2014 3:49:13 GMT
It needs the promise of reward. I respectfully disagree in this case, as the goal was to use the players' curiousity against them, not show them something they might want to take home. I think an unusual machine or other cryptic object would serve that purpose beautifully over tempting them with a chest of gold or other bait. The machine might lead them to a hidden chamber full of gold, but that's for the players to (incorrectly) infer... which is what makes this room stand out in my opinion.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Oct 20, 2014 5:36:05 GMT
i give enough rewards to my players to be honest, i do like the idea of a weird machine begging to be manipulated. but you have to remember, the chamber is a protection chamber to something on the other side. and i doubt the people living there to want their treasure to be used as bait. the real goal is just to keep the player interested somehow without them realising that they are wasting time.
just think about it... if the players wanted to clear the room, they just walk thru it from door to door and be done with it.
this room has 2 goals...
Primary goal Give time to the NPC (Monsters) to prepare for the groups arrival.
Secondary goal if the players fell for the trap, inprison them for later sacrifices !
characters gets to secondary goal reguardles of the outcome. if the enemy is prepared for their arrival, they lose, if they fall asleep, they lose... their only way to win, is to either avoid the room (impossible) or simply walk from one side to the other during the interval. and by losing im not meaning killing them, i mean they'll become dragon food. which is far worse then what they came for to begin with.
as i said, the goal is just to make them waste time.
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Post by thedmg on Oct 20, 2014 8:05:17 GMT
The promise of a reward is not an actual reward, it is the idea that staying in this room and performing a task has some kind of benefit, whether this reward is stated or implied. There must be some reason to fix a machine, open a door, decrypt some text, etc - otherwise they will just walk on through.
If there is no reward for effort, then "generally" there is no effort. Reward in this case does not necessarily mean monetary reward, but can be fulfilment, favours, knowledge, notoriety, fame, magical abilities, etc, etc.
A trap is the deceiving of someone into doing something contrary to their interests or intentions. In order to do this you need a lure. The promise of reward is that lure. In a normal trap, say a spiked pit, the lure is what ever comes after the trap (the exit, the next room, the rest of the passage), there is a reason the person is walking down the passage and they want to get through the space the trap inhabits.
Remember the lure is not an actual reward, it is the the bait that lures the characters to the trigger, the encasement and the effect.
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Post by ReliantLion on Oct 25, 2014 13:58:09 GMT
To really waste time, have the puzzle be easy enough, then when solved, a false door opens, just leading to a wall.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Oct 26, 2014 4:21:39 GMT
i was thinking some runes ont he walls that needs deciphering and that once it deciphered. the wording says something like "you just wasted precious time, and now its too late !" you know kinda how link to the past on snes did it with his board that if you read, you just screwed your heart run !
thanks to all of you, im gonna try to put this in my campaign since they finally started it.
one quick question... would you let them have saves or would you simply not give them the chance ? thinking the more they breath, the more it stacks. and thus im thinking no saves at all. but as DMs, how would you play that one ?
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