The Trap Collection
clawrenc at cup.hp.com
clawrenc at cup.hp.com
Thu Oct 9 12:45:39 CEST 1997
http://venus.aros.net/~jseeley/trapcol.html
THE TRAP COLLECTION
In searching the web for a good trap book and source, I find it
somewhat lacking. There are many books of adventures and plots, but I
was only able to find one trap book, and only after weeks of
searching. It was good, but short. So I decided to make my own trap
books, an ongoing project.
To me, traps are an integral part of an adventure. My players LOVE to
find my traps, as I usually only place interesting and unusual traps
(with an occasional normal one to catch them off-guard.) My players
hate being killed by creatures, but usually don't mind being killed by
a trap. Why? Because they have a lot of fun setting off my traps, just
to see how they work. Most players seem to be like that. Traps are
sometimes obvious (a chest sitting in the middle of an empty room, an
unguarded treasure hall, etc.) and obvious traps are sometimes the
best (especially if you have a hidden trap right next to it.) But
everyone always has at least one player that HAS to know if it is a
trap or not.
The main purpose of this book is to help Game Masters come up with an
inventive game quickly, including traps. Traps are usually the point
where I spend a lot of my time developing my game, and where I have
the most fun as Game Master. The more sly and devious the trap, the
more fun I have with it when it goes off. I just hate it when I have a
good adventure put together and there are no traps when I wanted to
put them in. And my players feel let down, too, since one of the most
fun points of my adventures are to discover and try to disarm the
traps without being killed in the process.
My idea of a good trap includes lots of fun details, one that will
peak the curiosity of the players, and even if they die, will have fun
doing it (Gee! That was NEAT!) I like the traps that are sometimes so
obvious that players (mine especially) just HAVE to set off the trap
just to see what it does. One or two of them generally get killed, but
at least they enjoyed the show, and the other players had fun watching
their 'companions' be squished, cut, sliced and diced to tiny bits.
The Trap Collection's home page is at: http://www.aros.net/~jseeley
and my e-mail address is jseeley at aros.net. Let me know how you like
it. If you want to submit a trap to be in the Collection, send me
e-mail.
The Rolling Hallway -- From: Jason Seeley <jseeley at aros.net>
This trap is a long corridor trap. As the PCs are walking down the
hall, some of them may notice that there are grooves in the floor in
the corridor in front of them. The ground is also somewhat rounded
(you'll see why.) Actually, the grooves are fairly obvious to anyone
paying attention, with about 1" of solid stone, upraised slightly,
between each groove. Each groove is about 1' long, followed by another
1" of stone. The walls are smooth however, without any apparent cracks
(it helps if there this corridor was constructed by dwarfs.) The first
few grooves don't have any kind of pressure plate, but about 5' in,
each groove after that has a pressure plate, until the last 5' of the
corridor (this trap works best in a corridor at least 30' long,
preferably longer, but that might be WAY too obvious... but...)
When a character steps on a pressure plate, it causes every bit of
that hallway, even the 5' without pressure plates, to open a hole in
one side of each part (alternating each side -- one left, next right,
etc.) Immediately upon opening outward, a HUGE stone wheel will come
out, roll in the groove, roll up the inclined opposite wall, then roll
back into the hole, shutting completely and undetectably. This can, of
course, be quite messy and unpleasant for anyone caught BETWEEN the
stone and the wall, or the floor, or halfway between stones (yuck.)
The Greedy Party -- From: Jason Seeley <jseeley at aros.net>
Now, what party is there out there that doesn't want to increase their
ability scores? Not very many, I'm sure. Well, here is a trap to make
them all wary of easy outs.
In a room, they will find various potions, scrolls, etc. (whatever,
really) -- maybe even an electric chair (hehe.) The first character to
quaff a potion, read a scroll, sit in the chair, or whatever, has some
kind of beneficial effect (temporary or permanent, GM's decision.)
Anyone else doing the exact same thing will have a malignant effect
happen (ie, eletrocuted in chair, poisoned badly, blinded by scroll,
etc.) Of course, most players will want to try it for themselves to
try to duplicate the effect on the first player. It is very fun to
help the first player understand that there was a beneficial effect,
so that he can brag about it so that the other players try it, too.
Maybe even have a good effect at random after the first (like a 5%
chance or something.)
The Golden Chamber -- From: Berg <berg at eskimo.com>
This trap is one I once used to take the collective egos of a group of
players down a few notches. The players had stopped thinking about
scenarios, merely using magic to batter their way through. Rather than
pouring kobolds on the problem until it went away, I decided to let
the PLAYERS divest their characters of magic items, more or less
voluntarily. This trap only works properly with groups that use magic
to solve EVERYTHING, from locked doors and monsters, to ordering food
and paying for services (why pay when you can charm, for example).
The trap is a 40' long, 20' wide, and 20' tall chamber, at the end of
a side-passage. The walls, ceiling, and floor are all made of pure,
solid gold. This should certainly draw in most PCS, and for those who
are less greedy than normal, there is a shelf on the far wall,
opposite the entrance, with a glowing
wand/sword/gem/statuette/whatever on it.
The trap functions fairly simply. When the object is lifted off of the
shelf, there is a loud *CLICK* noise, but nothing else happens, as far
as the PCS can see or hear. However, the floor is now a precisely
balanced scale. ANY reduction in weight will trigger the trap.
Calculate how much each PC weighs, including both body and equipment
weight, and add 5 lbs. for the object removed from the shelf. Removing
5 or more pounds from the floor sets off the trap. Yes, replacing the
object on the shelf WILL set off the trap. Adding more weight to the
floor won't do any harm, and can actually disarm the trap, with enough
weight. For example, putting 1000 lbs. of gold in the room after the
trap was armed, while the PCS collectively (including equipment) only
weight 900 lbs., means that they can now leave the room safely.
When it goes off, a multi-ton slab seals the only entrance, and the
chamber is now airtight. At the same time, glowing runes appear on the
walls, ceiling, and floor. Finally, all non-permanent spells and
spell-like magical abilities within the room (and within 20' of the
outside of the door) are permanently negated. Permanent spells simply
cease to function while in the room, as do charged magic items.
Permanent magic items function normally, but with a NASTY side effect,
explained below.
Attacking any surface of the trap with a non-magical item will easily
cause a hole. Attackers must strike ac 6 and do 10 points of damage to
make a big enough hole to get air through. As soon as any part of the
trap is breached, all magical effects of the trap (magic negation and
that side effect listed below) are permanently and irrevocably
dispelled. A human-sized hole requires inflicting 100 points of
damage.
Now for the good part. Most magic-heavy PCS won't think of using a
non-magical object to force the walls, some groups don't HAVE
non-magical objects. Any person who strikes a surface of the trap with
a magical object SUFFERS. The object must make a save vs. crushing
blow, with NO bonuses at all, or be totally destroyed. Any object that
is destroyed inflicts 1d4 damage on the wielder per level enchanted
into the object (enchanted weapon, used to add pluses to a weapon is a
4th level spell, so a +2 dagger does 8d4 damage). The explosive
destruction of magic items does no damage to the wall, nor does the
weapon strike itself do any damage to the trap. The wielder gets a
save for half damage vs breath weapon. If the wielder is resistant to
magical fire (innate resistance only. Efreeti are protected,
spell-protected PCS are NOT), the save is for no damage, half if
failed.
A special case occurs with items such as girdles of giant strength.
Only magic used to influence the wall is affected. So a warmth ring
won't explode, but a girdle of giant strength or a mattock of the
titans will. Treat each point of strength above the wearer's normal
strength as a separate strength spell for damage purposes. So a 16
strength fighter takes less damage from an exploding girdle of hill
giant strength than a 14 strength fighter would.
Each special power of the weapon is treated as a separate spell (FEAR
striking the wall with a sword that has 3 wish spells in it. *OUCH*).
Spiked Stair Trap -- From: Paul Middleton
<paul_middleton at il.us.swissbank.com>
on a set of stairs - somewhere near the middle is a false stair - when
a character of a minimum certain weight treads on the stair the stair
cover breaks - the characters foot falls into a group of angled spikes
- the spikes are angled 45% downwards - so no damage is taken when the
character steps on the trap the weight of the character and the force
of the fall will force the foot to the bottom of the trap - If the
character does not try to remove his/her foot very carefully and take
their time doing so - they will impale there foot on the spikes.
(great on for catching thieves this one - they are unlikely to be
wearing metal footing!! :-)
Sand Filled Room -- From: neil at clo.com (Neil Watson)
I like to use a variation of the water room. Once the door locks I
begin to fill the room with sand, not water. Sand makes is harder for
the PC's to move, which useful because there are usually creatures in
the sand, scorpions, snakes, use your imagination. One last bonus
about sand, you don't have to worry about inconveniences like water
breathing magic!
Follow the Bouncing Boob -- From: Berg <berg at eskimo.com>
This trap is one of my sure-fire killers. In grimtooth's scale, while
the golden room is 3 skulls, this one is 4 skulls, possibly 5 skulls.
Take a room, at least 100' long, 80' wide, and 80' tall. Use a variant
reverse gravity to make gravity highly relative. Now fill the room
with pillars stairways that don't go anywhere, archways, statues
holding assorted sharp objects, etc. Each stairway, statue, pillar, or
10'x10' section of floor, ceiling, wall, or other large surface is
considered to be a room 'feature', explained below.
Every time a PC takes a step in this room, there is a chance that the
direction of gravity will shift (maybe just 1 degree, or maybe as much
as 180). Roll two grenade scatters for every 10'x10' section
traversed, or whenever the PC steps onto a new room feature (stepping
from stairs to floor, pillar to statue, or walking 11' in a straight
line, etc). The first scatter is vertical, the second is horizontal.
The point halfway between the two results is the new direction of
down. Or, for simplicity, roll 1d6. 1 = gravity stays normal, 2 = down
is now straight ahead, 3 = down is behind you, 4 = down is to the
left, 5 = down is to the right, 6 = down is straight above you.
Whenever the down direction changes, unless a PC can grab something,
they will fall, taking normal damage. Check every 10' of fall to see
if they hit something. If they hit something, they stop falling, and
take damage. To make the check, roll under their dexterity, just like
an ability check. Success means they grabbed onto something before
they fell, failure means they fall. Another check is made, same way,
for every 10' fallen, success means they grabbed something, hit
something, or otherwise stopped their fall.
Unfortunately, hitting something else is moving to a new feature, so
roll another d6 to see which direction is now down (with all
associated dex checks to avoid falling)...
All fall down. And down, and down, and down... -- From: Berg
<berg at eskimo.com>
This one is one of my more humorous traps, but still, it is almost
100% guaranteed to kill one PC (but the others won't be harmed at all,
except for their pride).
This is another variant reverse gravity trap, only this one is
actually fairly pleasant. At first, anyway. The trap is a spherical
room, polished to glassy smoothness, with a pair of doors on the
equator. The entrance door, and the exit door opposite it. Both doors
are made of solid oak, iron-banded, and cannot be forced open in the
normal ways (even knock or Bigby's clenched fist spells won't touch
it, it's too strong). The entrance door opens easily, but the exit
door is securely locked and barred, from the other side.
The trap has several fundamental laws of physics disabled. First,
there is no terminal velocity, or friction. Second, objects moving in
a straight line do not necessarily keep moving in a straight line.
Finally, you don't lose any momentum from hitting things, and gravity
is towards the wall you fall towards.
Basically, you walk in, plummet, bounce off the floor, which is now
the ceiling as far as you are concerned, and fall towards the floor,
which is a spot opposite the one you just bounced off of. And with no
terminal velocity, you just keep accelerating. In all cases, down is
the direction opposite the wall you just hit (and bounced off of).
When you hit, you can make a dex check to change your angle, so you
bounce off at a totally new (and random) angle. Make a dex check,
success means roll 1d4, 1 = right, 2 = left, 3 = back, 4 = ahead, and
that is the direction of down.
There is one exception here. The exit door. If someone hits that, they
do not bounce, and if they have more than 20d6 of falling damage
accumulated, they smash through it (destroying the door, and probably
dying instantly in the process). Anyone who lands in the exit doorway
(after the door has been smashed), or in the entrance doorway lands
unharmed on the floor (painful, but no damage). Anyone who hits the
closed exit door and takes less than 20d6 damage will weaken the door,
and take full damage themselves (for example, hitting the door and
taking 15d6 damage means that the next impact only takes 5d6 to
shatter the door). Final note, anyone with the Spelljammer skills of
Zero-G combat or space fighting will be able to control their bounces,
so as to bounce where they want to go (on a successful dex check),
eliminating the 1d4 roll for new direction.
Special option: Eliminate the exit door, and make the entrance door a
one-way teleporter (or a one-way secret door). Then, wait for falling
PCS to hit lightspeed (remember, velocity will effectively double each
time they fall across the room), then teleport them somewhere else.
Great way to get them to another world, for some special adventuring
(Athas, anybody?).
What Goes Up, Must Come Down -- From: aspring at k12.oit.umass.edu
(Andrew Spring (FCTS-97))
The PCs see a shaft, like those in mines, with no ladder. looking up
it, they see sharp spike sticking out of a dead end. looking down,
they see a floor, with the shaft ending into a room maybe 20 feet
down.
vvvvv<--spikes
__________I | I_________<----ceiling
|
__________ | _________<---floor PCs are on
I | I
I | I <-----shaft
__________I | I_________<---roof of lower floor, end of shaft
Rope--->|
________________________
The shaft has a reverse gravity spell on it, and the rope also does,
so it appears that the rope falls down as it should. it is tied to the
spikes. if a PC attempts to climb down on the rope, or to jump, they
land on the spikes, and take damage depending on the DM. Another
variant is that if the PCs try to climb down the rope, there is no
revers gravity, but the spikes fall on them instead. they hate these!
The Painful Foot Dart -- From: Viola Krings
<krings at informatik.tu-muenchen.de>
This trap is triggered by weight on a part of the floor. The walls are
plated with wood. When someone steps on the trigger, a click is heard,
and a dart shoots out from the wall on each side, leaving the wooden
panels ripped off. The dart shoot out at the height of one's hips.
A few yards after that, again a pressure plate will cause the click,
but this time, the dart pairs come at foot level, and one pair in
front of the passing character, one a bit behind, so he will go
unharmed unless he tries to jump away.
Chooser Ain't the Loser -- From: neil at clo.com (Neil Watson)
The party falls down a chute which was originally a set of stairs.
Just as they begin collecting their wits they hear the sound of stone
grinding on stone. They look up just in time to see a huge stone block
sliding down the chute to crush the players. Here's the twist, where
the players are standing there is an alcove to hide and be safe from
the block. It's only large enough for one person!!!! Will they die
together or fight for survival (every man/women for themselves)?
Deadly Pit of Doom -- From: Berg <berg at eskimo.com>
This trap is for when the PCS venture into a truly lethal dungeon
(drow shrines and illithid strongholds for example). It is gonna kill
the guy who trips it, and probably anyone nearby as well.
The trap is a 30' deep, 10' wide square pit trap. The bottom 10' of
the shaft is filled with green slime. At the 11' mark, there is a side
passage off of the main shaft, at a right angle. Also at that point is
an angled mirror. The effect is of an empty-looking 30' deep pit. From
the mirror, up to within 4' of the top, is pure, clear water. For
purposes of this trap, it doesn't matter if it is open or closed, open
is far more dramatic, closed is more lethal. Place a skeleton in the
side passage of the pit for aesthetics.
Further, the water is invisible, and has an illusion of a water filled
pit over it.
What does this mean? It means that the pit looks like a 30' deep pit
filled with water, with a skeleton at the bottom, as seen from the
top. It's a killer in 3 ways. First, you could drown, second the slime
could eat you, and third, you could die in the fall.
A clever party will try to disbelieve the pit trap, and if they
succeed, will see a dry 30' deep pit with or without a skeleton at the
bottom. Anyone who goes in in heavy armor is gonna have trouble when
they hit the water. But that isn't the worst part. The mirror is
capable of supporting the weight of the water on it, but NOTHING else.
Entering the pit causes the mirror to break. This drops a volume of
water, 15'x10'x10' into a 10'x10'x10' volume of green slime. The water
drops, and the wet slime fountains up and onto the party around the
top of the pit. Anyone in the pit dies. Anyone within 10' makes a half
dex check to avoid the slime, anyone within 20' makes a normal dex
check (30' total).
To make matters worse, waterlogged green slime does NOT burn.
To disarm the trap, cast dispel illusion, dispel magic, transmute
water to dust, shatter, and fireball. This will make it just a 30'
deep pit. Possibly with some sort of door at the bottom.
If someone falls in, make the next 2 or 3 pits water filled, dry and
empty, and/or illusionary, but otherwise fairly safe. It's far better
to scare the players with the possibility of character death than it
is to actually kill them all off.
Cold Feet -- From: brian at stars1.den.mmc.com (Brian Martin)
A room of various dimensions can be used. A chandelier with various
amounts of oil burn above a pit trap. The walls of the pit trap a
covered with brown mold. The chandelier is rigged to fall in when the
pit trap is sprung.
Most characters that fall in the pit will die as by the time they are
able to work on getting out, they are frozen. The people left out of
the pit or the trigger'er can also be caught as the brown mold can
grow to epic proportions Also, do not forget the flame damage of those
in the pit from the fire.
Chess Is the Best -- From: jon_b at oldham.gpsemi.COM (Jonathon Buckel)
You need a chessboard, and a chess set to run the trap. Do not show
the PC's the chessboard and pieces until the first player steps on a
square, else you might give the trap away.
OUT
-------| |-------
| |
-----------------
h |w|b|w|b|w|b|w|b|
-----------------
g |b|w|b|w|b|w|b|w|
-----------------
f |w|b|w|b|w|b|w|b|
-----------------
e |b|w|b|w|b|w|b|w|
-----------------
d |w|b|w|b|w|b|w|b|
-----------------
c |b|w|b|w|b|w|b|w|
-----------------
b |w|b|w|b|w|b|w|b|
-----------------
a |b|w|b|w|b|w|b|w|
-----------------
| |
-------| |-------
IN
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Essentially you find a room with a chess board for a floor with a
space at each end. Some force prevents you from flying across or
climbing the walls. Or teleporting across, etc. A force also stops you
from being able to stand across or between squares.
Once you step on a square, you essentially become the chess piece for
the relevent square you stood on. You are white and thus move first.
You can only move as that piece can move. A rook up/down/sideways, a
bishop diagonally only, etc. Only the 8 back row pieces are available,
no pawns.
Also a corresponding piece appears at the other end of the chess
board. The DM controlled piece.
Thus if you step on square a1, you become a rook and a rook appears at
square h1. At a2, you are a Knight and a Knight appears at h2. At a3 a
Bishop and a Bishop appears at h6. If you step on a4 you are a Queen
and a Queen will appear at h5. King similarly.
If a player reaches the DM's back row and is safe at that position,
then the player may leave the chess board. (Obviously if the PC takes
the DM's piece he can safely stand at the DM's side of the chessboard)
The DM's opposing piece also disapears.
The fastest way across is to become a rook, you get to move first,
thus you can immediatly move 8 spaces forwards and take your opponent.
This of course is how the owner of this little trap uses this room.
The player characters of course don't even know it is a chess game and
will thus most likely not do this. Usually you end up having 3 or more
PC's on the board.
The PC's cannot afford to swap pieces to gain an advantage whereas the
DM can, thus giving the DM an advantage. 1 on 1, crossing isn't
difficult. Multiple pieces makes it more interesting. heh heh heh!
If a PC steps onto the same square as a PC's piece that is already in
the game, you can either allow 2 (or more) of the same piece, in which
case another DM piece arrives. swap the second PC for the first and
the first exits back to the PC side of the board, or not allow this.
What happens when one side loses the King is also variable, from all
pieces of that side then die, (ouch for the PC's :-)) to just the King
can die.
What happens if a PC loses his piece is up to the individual DM, I
usually described a pretty horific scene of the PC being suitably
killed by the chess piece, (see the PC game battlechess for ideas) but
was actually transported to some prison cell less his
equipment/clothes/etc. Whatever equipment/clothes the DM was nice
enough to return to the PC could be found elsewhere, perhaps another
cell in the same room. The cells could be found by the other PC's at a
later time in the dungeon.
The DM should play his chess game at the level of the PC's if
possible. ;-)
After 2 tries at this, I always had more than 2 or 3 PC's on the
board. Both teams lost pieces before the others crossed safely. One
team were in dire trouble when they had a really good idea of getting
another PC to join the game as King so the King of the DM side
appeared, their move then was to immediately take the DM's King.
Fortunately they had a piece positioned appropriately. I removed all
the DM pieces from play at that point. I was feeling leniant and it
was a good idea. And if they hadn't come up with something quick, none
of them may have successfully got across.
It is a very 'open' trap, it can be modified as the trap progresses.
You could also do this with draughts, rather than chess pieces.
Ogre Fist -- From: Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm at stud.unit.no>
The Ogre Fist trap is a pretty basic, low-tech trap for a dead room
(i.e. a room that has no other function than being a trap.)
A large timber log is hung in the middle of the room. A rope goes from
the back of the log, through a couple of well-greased rings and to the
door - opening inwards.
Normally the log is pulled back a meter, the rope tied to the door and
the door closed (using considerable force) pulling the log even
further back. Then the door is locked, keeping the log in place.
When the door is unlocked it will spring open and the heavy log will
come swining through it. To prevent the log from stopping half-way,
the doors are made to be break at the sudden jolt at wide-open.
In addition to the considerable damage from the log itself, it
contains more than enough energy to throw anybody struck by it several
meters back.
Normally, an Ogre Fist is made to throw anybody opening the door into
a new trap - a spiked pit, the trigger stone for a rockslide etc.
Goblins are especially found of revolving walls that locks after being
used. The already battered adventurer may find himself in a dark room,
separated from his companions and surrounded by dark-seeing and armed
goblins.
There are also variations of this trap replacing the log with all
manners of heavy objects. Lead-cauldrons filled with acid, crates
filled with quicksilver, barrels of poision - sometimes even large
monsters.
And since we are talking about a decoy-door here, and because of the
simplicity of the trap, it is almost impossible to disarm. The only
safe way to deal with it is not to stand right in front of the door
when it is opened.
-- From: thijssen at ei.et.tudelft.nl (Andries Thijssen)
Just When Ya Thought it Was Safe Build to pitfalls directly after each
other. The PCs will discover the first pit (sometimes the hard way,
more often by being very careful). Since there is no way around the
pit, they will attempt to jump over it. That is when they jump right
into the second pit, which has been decorated with stakes and other
nasty stuff.
The Good Get Away For your smart villians only. Have their escape
route go through a (looking for the right word here) chimney or other
vertical hole. There are handholds in the wall, which one uses to
climb up. One of these handholds has some poison needles in it, or a
trigger for a dart trap or whatever. The villian (sp?) knows which
handhold is trapped and avoids it. Give each pursuing PC a 50% chance
to set of the trap.
If PCs slow down to check each handhold before putting their hands in
it, have the villian drop a heavy boulder or flaming oil down the
tube. However, give the villain enough of a head-start that he cannot
be capturted by the PCs in the tunnel, or shot down.
Treasure Ain't Always Treasure Mix in a some poison with the other
treasure. You might even want to label it as potion of healing. (In
that case, label the other potions too.)
Another idea: Place fake traps in your dungeon. For example a floor
tile which is not 100% stable. (There are a few pieces of gravel
beneath it.) When a PC steps onto the tile announce 'You feel the
floor moving beneath you'. Ask for saving throws and stuff. Jumping
away makes a lot of noise when wearing armour and might also leave you
prone. A perfect situation to have a monster attack. Works especially
well in combination with the first idea: i.e. place a fake trap in
front and a real one behind it.
On a roleplaying note: Only intelleigent and crafty creatures make
traps. The defenses of a dwarven stronghold are probably riddled with
traps. Orcs rely on crude traps such as pits. Remeber that each trap
requires an engineering effort by their builders and also maintainance
(esp. for poison or dart traps.) There is a difference between traps
and defenses. Traps work always, but are mostly one-shot and can be
avoided. Do not underestimate the value of murder- holes in the
ceiling (esp. for tiny corridors where the PCs have to crawl through).
A door with murder holes in it and a pit in front makes an impressive
obstacle. The same with a set of steel bars blocking a corridor. While
the PCs are trying to open it, the monsters lurk just otuside the
infravision range of the PCs and open fire with crossbows. Of course,
the monsters are behind special defences, providing 75% or even 90%
cover.
The (In)Complete Teleporting Pit -- (NOTE: This was sent to me in many
variations, but this was the first one I got, so that is why this one
is here, and the others aren't.) -- From: aboulton at cix.compulink.co.uk
(Andrew Boulton)
Okay, here's a good one. Have a deep pit, concealed somehow. The
victim falls down, then, just before he hits the bottom, a teleport
device/spell sends him back up to the top, with the same velocity. You
could keep him in this loop forever, but an alternative is, after a
while, (say, when he reaches *terminal* velocity :-), to change the
destination of the teleport...say, the same place, but the opposite
direction (ie up into the air - see if you can reach escape velocity!)
Another one is to put the teleporter at the end of a corridor, with
the destination point at the other end, facing it. You then project
the image of a monster in front of the 'porter, and wait for the party
to shoot it (and so shoot themselves in the back).
The Gassy Pyramid -- From: lawrence at msm.com (SL Nyveen)
It takes place inside an Aztec temple, but it could be anywhere
underground, so long as the surrounding soil, rock, and walls are
porous to some degree (mine had seams between the fitted stones).
The location is a 10'-wide passageway. It slopes up for a total rise
of about 20', runs along for any distance (I used 120'), then slopes
back down to the original level. The ceiling and upper walls of the
elevated portion are plastered over so as to make them airproof.
The trap is that the elevated, airtight passageway collects natural
methane percolating up through the bedrock and sediments. The methane
passes harmlessly through the seams of the hallway, but where the
plaster prevents it, it collects in deadly and flammable
concentrations.
I had others pass this way hundreds of years before the PCs, and had
this temple undisturbed since.
My DM's notes follow. I had "buffer rooms" at each end of the hallway,
hung with many thick, loose curtains, to contain explosions and
protect the rest of the rest of the complex.
Light will reveal a thin, uniform layer of soot along all surfaces.
Close examination of the gassy area will reveal that ceiling and walls
are lined with smooth plaster made to look like the rest of the
masonry blocks.
In the gas-filled region, any flame will set off an explosion causing
6d6 damage. Everyone in the hallway will suffer this damage; those in
the buffer rooms save vs. paralyzation for half-damage.
Anyone walking in the gas must save vs. Con every 10 feet after the
first 20, regardless of speed, to avoid passing out. If a PC flies
through, or is carried, they must save only every 30 feet. If a PC is
encumbered, they must save every five feet. If a PC specifies he is
holding his breath, the first (5 x Con) feet do not require Con
checks.
Three rounds after passing out, PCs must save each round vs. death or
die of suffocation.
Note that methane is colorless and odorless. My PCs found a good way
around this trap, the second time they tried it. They took large bags
of water and water-breathed their way through. They never use torches
either. Oh well.
The Altar Riddle Trap -- From: QUAH SONG CHIEK
<med20006 at leonis.nus.sg>
Send the players to a point in the game where they have to face a
GUARDIAN.... a big creature with whom they should not have too much
trouble defeating. After its destruction, the players will encounter
an altar with three bowls on it. To proceed further into the
adventure, they would need to place one item in each bowl. The wrong
items will cause damage to the players in the form of a lightning bolt
or some other nasty spell. The correct items are:
One particular item, determined before-hand, collected in the
adventure up to the taste of the individual GMs... so things like
a ring, mushroom, and dirt are all possible. The Silver Dagger of
the Guardian. Nasty GM's could have the Guardian carry more than
one dagger... One Gold Piece or any type of currency used in the
particular world.
-- From: MadHatter <bmcrober at tezcat.com>
Whirlpool Entrance A bowl shaped pond about 50' across and 50' deep is
the entrance to an underground crypt. At the bottom of the pond is a
circle of 13 stone pillars each 13' tall and their circle is 13'
across. Written on each pillar are 2 letters : A - M on the top row,
and N - Z on the bottom row of letters. A stone 'dome' covers the
pillars and enough air is trapped there that the characters could
breathe it as they investigate the pillars. Each letter is depressable
like a button. On the bottom of the pond in the center of the pillars
is a large iron 'cork', however, with so much water pressure no amount
of strength could actually pull this plug. The characters are in
possession of a scroll with a riddle on it. By depressing the letters
to spell this word suddenly the 'cork' becomes ethereal for 5 rounds,
during which time the characters and all the water are washed into the
crypt/lair below.
It Isn't Always Nice When Demons Leave A corridor goes east and then
south to a dead end. On the north end where the corridor branches
there is a large 6' tall red face of a demon who looks like it is
yawning. Its mouth is wet. Half-way down the corridor to the south on
the eastern side there is a 1' lever angling 'up'. Pulling this lever
down causes three areas to go ethereal : the demon face's mouth, the
5' square section of the wall next to the lever and the 10' square
section of the floor at the southern end of the dead end. A powerful
stream of water will spew from the demon's mouth down the center of
the corridor, hitting the southern wall and falling into the pit that
has been uncovered by the ethereal floor. Any characters standing in
the middle of the corridor will be washed into the wall and then down
the pit. The person pulling the lever has a chance to jump through the
ethereal hole in the wall. Any characters standing next to the walls
will be fine as long as they keep flat against the wall or floor.
There is an opposing lever on the other side of the wall that can be
lowered (which raises the lever on the corridor side) and turning the
trap 'off' thus returning the three sections back to material state.
Are Magic Items Always Nice? The party finds a magical diadem. If this
diadem comes within 20' of any statue in the crypt, the statue
immediately animates and attacks the possessor unless the deactivation
word is spoken...
A Trick of the Light A corridor runs west and then turns south 20'
before entering a 30' wide, 60' long and 10' tall chamber. The entire
northern wall of this chamber, and the northern section of the
corridor where it turns south to enter this chamber, are covered with
rusted spikes. In the middle of the chamber, running from east to west
is a row of 1" thick iron poles which run from ceiling to floor.
Touching a pole sets off a wall of lightning along the entire wall
(anyone touching the pole saves vs magic at -4). The wall of lightning
does 12d6 damage. In the southern half of the chamber there is a ruby
red light shining in a narrow beam from the ceiling to the floor. This
beam is 10' in front of the large face which is in the middle of the
southern wall. There is no apparent source for the light, and any
metal surface can reflect it. The face in the southern wall is 6'
diameter and made completely of obsidian and it appears to be a
distorted human face in the act of laughing. Both eyes are bulging and
can be depressed. If both eyes are depressed and the ruby light is not
being shined onto the face a complicated illusion will occur. The room
appears to tilt very quickly to the north, with that end dropping
quickly to a 60 degree angle. Unless characters state that they
disbelieve they will stagger and slide to the north as anyone would if
a room tilted so suddenly on them! Anyone staggering into the poles
will set off the lightning. Anyone falling into the rusted spikes
(which of course still seem to line the entire northern wall) will
impale themselves on 3-6 spikes doing 1-6 damage each with a 25%
chance for each spike (not cumulative) of contracting a disease. If
the two eyes of the face are depressed when the ruby light is being
shined upon it the face can be easily moved south and then it slides
east revealing the passageway continuing to the south.
Out For A Swim A 30' square room has a door on the western wall,
southern most section, and a door on the southern wall, eastern most
section, and a door in the middle of the northern wall. A 1' wide
passage leads from the northern door to the southern door. From the 1'
wide passage the floor drops to a depth of 30' below the level of the
doors. This is all filled with water, including up to 1' above the
level of the passage, making the water even with the bottom of the
doors. The trip is easy between the northern and southern doors,
though the trip to the western door might be more difficult. You can
place water elementals, water weirds, crystal oozes or any other kind
of nasty creature in there. The water below the 5' deep mark might be
very murky just to add to the drama. Maybe the characters would want
to investiate it to see if there was another passage or anything
hidden down there... or perhaps the floor has a slime coating?
Don't Touch Me! A sarcophagus will Wither anyone touching it without
speaking the proper phrase...
-- From: Dan Hopping <dahoppin at eos>
The Lowering Ceiling (and if that weren't enough, Water, too!) PCs
enter a circular room, 30' diameter, with a 10' diameter pit (30'
deep) in the center. Directly over the pit is a hole in the ceiling
covered with a rusty grate (it can support 25 lbs. of weight before
falling.) Opposite the door from the pit is a 6' tall rod, fixed into
the floor (hole in the ceiling above.) Once the PCs enter, the door
locks behind them, and the 15' high ceiling begins to descend. PCs
must tie a rope to the rod, and climb down the pit to escape the
ceiling. Once the ceiling touches the floor, a stream of water starts
to pour down from above, filling the hole at 5' per turn. There is a
watertight trapdoor in the bottom of the pit if the PCs are fast
enough. If the grate is still there, PCs may drown. If it was removed
(as is likely), they may float up unless armored heavily. Where either
exit goes is up to the GM.
The Cleaners On either side of the stairs there is a groove at waist
height, with gear-like notches. at the top of the stairs, a rod fits
the grooves, and will roll when the PCs see it. The rod spins because
of the gear notches, and yes, it has protruding blades:). watch those
pcs run for their lives! How many think to put something in the groove
to stop it?
The One Way Easy, Round Trip Painful The corridor leads to a 45-degree
downward slope to a pit of water (5' wide), and there is another slope
on the opposite side. The slopes are covered with downward pointing
blades, so you can go down, but not up. A venus fly trap, possibly
with something in the water.
The Obvious Trap A chest of gold in the middle of a long corridor. The
floor is actualy a nasty pit trap. The swinging floor drops the pc, &
keeps him in- possibly with something nasty.
_____$_____
| | |
| | |
\ | /
\ | /
-------
The Spiked Pit -- From: J. Hazen <avedis at u.washington.edu> I don't
know if you have this trap yet, but reportedly it was used in
Vietnam...
Dig a hole in the ground, about 2-3 feet deep, and about as wide
Place, over the hole, wooden planks, with a scored line running
down the middle. The wooden planks should have nasty spikes
running the width of them. (the # of rows is up to you, depending
on your views of stealth vs. nastiness.) cover with dirt, brush,
straw, ferns, etc...
When stepped on, the planks will come together and form a human (or
demihuman, or whatever) sandwitch. I'll try to "draw" it for you.
-------+ +--------
|- -|
|- -|
|- -|
+----+
(side view)
Alternately the pit can be deeper, perhaps 5' (leaving only the
character's head out of the trap), or deeper (if you want to get
really nasty). Also, here is an improvement in design: %%%% = foilage
on ground (placed, of course, so that the character doesn't fall
through until (s)he is in the middle) ____ = ground
________________%%%%%%%%%%%%_________________
| |
| |
| |
+++++++++++++ <-- here's the spiked
| | boards with the score
| | in the middle)
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
+___________+
The Volcano (Convection) Trap -- From: Alan Greenberg
<algreenberg at dow.com>
Best trap I ever saw was built into the side of an active volcano. The
room had a natural corridor leading into it (no door!). There was a
door at the far end. Depending on how good a mood you're in the room
can have nothing in it, fixed furnishings, or mobile furnishings.
The trick is that the door leads into the volcano shaft ABOVE the lava
pool. Since heat rises, the air in the volcano is constantly moving
upward. Opening the door, creates a very high vacuum towards the door
sweeping a character into the lava pool unless they can react quickly
with an appropriate spell or potion or grab onto a handhold.
The best part of this trap is it is based on natural phenomena and
therefore really isn't a trap - so it doesn't show up with detect trap
magic.
Between a Troll and a Sharp Place -- From: QPAK01A at prodigy.com (JOEL F
YODER)
As the delvers (good old Tunnels and Trolls term) walk down a long
corridor, they step on a flagstone that sinks a bit. Behind them a
large panel in one wall opens up and caltrops fall out. Suddenly, a
large troll (or something too tough for the characters to fight,
anyway) rushes from around the corner ahead. Run! p.s. this one was my
revenge on players who liked to scatter caltrops around liberally.
Vines and Boulders -- From: QPAK01A at prodigy.com (JOEL F YODER)
The delvers are walking along a hallway whose walls and ceilings are
covered with vines. A few vines trail down from the ceiling 20' above,
including a few stout ones in the middle of the hallway. Suddenly,
hidden panels open up on each end of the hall and 10' diameter
boulders begin rolling at the party. Actually, these are illusions,
and those who remain below will not be harmed. Those who try to climb
the vines, however, will find their hands stuck, and will be drawn up
though the hidden, vine-covered holes in the ceiling where a
carniverous plant waits to make their aquaintance.
Water Filled Hot Spot -- From: kroal at infolink.net.il (Dan Gilboa)
This is a variation of the water-filled room. Any small room with one
door will do. Add a nice fountain (a marble kid pissing into a pool
maybe) and some burnt-down and wet bones. After the party enters the
room will be locked and water level will rise as usual. Nothing will
open the door! Let the water reach about throat-high. Then the water
stops and a fine quantity of oil will be spilled from above followed
by a jet of flame (ever seen burning oil at sea?). Any sensible player
will take a deep breath and dive. Very clever! On the third step many
small holes will be opened on floor level and water level will begin
to go down slowly (and make it real slow, there's plenty of oil up
there...) -- they have a choice between drowning, burning by oil, or
being boiled alive, not a very easy choice to make.
Fountain -- From: Chris Roberts (chris at novanet.ns.ca)
A pool of water is located at the intersection of two hallways:
| |
___| |___
0 <------------ pool
___ ____
| |
| |
Laying on the bottom of the pool are various pieces of treasure.
If anyone takes any item from the pool four walls of force seal off
the exits instaneously. The fountain starts to overflow the pool
immediately, filling the space in three rounds. Putting the item back
will cause plates in the floor to slide back and the water to drain
through the holes. It takes 1 turn for all the water to drain. After
all the water is gone the walls of force disappear. Placing a new item
in the pool will cause some beneficial effect (bless, regain 1d4 hit
pts, etc.)
To make this nastier you could disallow teleporting, etc. out of the
area or make any items actually removed become cursed.
The All-Is-Not-What-It-Seems Trap -- From: Caleb Buchert
(Pcalebb at sierra.net)
The PCs are walking down a hallway and see an open pit (10' wide, 20'
across) in the floor. It is filled with any liquid the DM wants (ie.
green slime, sulphuric acid, or just plain H2O). Dangling above the
pit is a chain that a PC must jump to in order to grab. The chain is
made of a non-corrosive metal. It is connected to a rope that goes
around a pulley and is connected to a weight that is 20 pounds heavier
than the chain. When the PC grabs the chain, he sinks into the trap.
The only way out besides swimming (if he/she doesn't die) is pulling
hand over hand out of the liquid. Then he/she can swing back and forth
to land on either side of the trap. If the PC lets go of the chain,
the weight pulls it up.
The trap is then reset. Smart PC's will find a way to get the chain
and pull it until it's at it's end. They will then be able to swing
across to the other side.
#-----#
----!---- !
/ ! / !
/ ! / !
/ ! / !
/ ! / !
/ ! / !
/ ! / !
/ ! / *
---------
\ \
\ \
\ \
\_______\
# = pulleys
! = rope or chain
/ = walls above pit
\ = walls below pit
--- = floor, ceiling, and part of the rope.
* = the weight to counter-balance the chain.
They're in for Quite a Shock! -- From: Nate Flory
(flory at postoffice.ptd.net)
The party is wandering a corridor that slopes upwards and comes across
a room containing a round pool of water.
Observant characters will note a 'funny' smell in the air and a small
object of value lying in the pool. (The object should most likely be
made of metal.. sword, rod, amulet, etc)
If they investigate closer, they notice the object is covered in very
small bubbles as if it were immersed in soda water. The trick to this
trap is that the object has been charged with a _Shocking Grasp_ spell
or otherwise permanently electrified. We all know that when you put an
electrical charge in water, it splits the H2O into oxygen and
Hydrogen. (this explains the fizzing and funny smell!)
Assuming the party is carrying torches, they will most likely never
make it to the point where they investigate this room! The hydrogen
will ignite at the slightest flame source.
Really nasty GMs are encouraged to consider sending a bunch of
torch-wielding kobolds up the tunnel if the party has figured out this
trap and are using magical light sources. This forces the party to
stop them from entering the room and preventing the big *BOOM*.
The Stupid Door Trap Darren George (Darren.George at UAlberta.CA)
The party comes to a door, above which is written, "The Word Is
Cthulhu". Trying to open the door will reveal that the door is
sentient, and it will solemnly inform the party that it will not open
until the word has been said. Saying "Cthulhu" will have no effect.
The thing is, to open the door, the party must trick the door into
saying "Cthulhu". (Asking the door what the password is will not work-
the door will reply that if they don't know the word, they don't
deserve to be let in.)
I have come up with three ways to trick the door (assuming, of course,
the door isn't very bright).
1) Tell it a knock-knock joke: "Knock-knock" "Who's there?" "Cthul"
"Cthul who? Damn!"
2) Start cheering: "Who's the eater of the world that's made of you
and me? C-T-H! U-L-U! Cthulhu! Cthulhu! Yeahhhhh, Cthulhu!!" The door
will join in on the third "Cthulhu."
3) Blatantly mispronounce the word until the door, in exasperation,
corrects their pronounciation.
If, however, Cthulhu hears his name, and sends someone to investigate,
the door will (successfully) pretend to be non-sentient, and allow the
delvers to take the blame for the blasphemy and loose tongues.
Wizards are _not_ nice trap builders Jeff Naujok (naujok at execpc.com)
Author's Note: I ran this in the dungeon of a wizard's castle. It is
not especially nice, but it is cool to watch. A section of a long
corridor changes over to having a tiled floor. Half of the hexagonal
tiles are white, the other half are black. Every other black tile is
actually a glass plate over a deep shaft, at the bottom of each shaft
is an iron spike. As the PCs walk onto the area, they feel the floor
shift slightly. Roll some dice and wince, like something has gone
wrong. Tell the PCs that they hear a squeal of metal on metal, but
then nothing else. What has actually happened is the pit beneath the
glass is being filled with some explosively flamable liquid from a
large storage tank. This takes about 10 seconds.
Towards the middle of the corridor is a second pressure plate, ten
feet wide. Stepping on this strikes steel on flint in the pit below.
*Boom* The ignited gas drives the spikes up through the glass plates.
Each PC will be hit by 1-6 spikes, each doing 2d6 damage. The spikes
embed themselves in the ceiling.
Now here's why it's a wizard's castle. The trap triggers a variant of
the Mend spell, causing all of the glass plates to reassemble. Then a
teleport is triggered, popping all of the spikes back into the bottom
of the shafts. This sudden removal of the spikes one round after the
detonation causes the ceiling to collapse. PCs still on the trap
suffer an additional 6d6 of damage. After three turns, a panel in the
side wall will slide open, and a charmed gelatinous cube will slink up
and down the hallway removing the rubble from the floor. It will then
return to its cubicle, and the panel will slide shut. When it does, it
triggers a Wall of Stone across the ceiling, restoring the trap to
pristine condition, ready to use again.
Originally, this trap did more damage, but that was for 18th level
players. This version is a little less deadly, as it doesn't do fire
damage and damage from the breaking glass. To avoid the trap, all the
players need to do, and what the wizard does, is jump over the first
pressure plate, thus not releasing the flammable liquid.
The wizard was especially mean, because he put a set of double doors
at the end of this corridor. They opened onto blank rock. Of course
there was a secret door there that led on, but the PCs thought that
the whole thing was just a trap, and gave up on it.
Kill Yerself Trap Qubrak Shata
A long corridor, at the end of which are illusionary bars, with an
illusionary (fill in creature that is too tough for the players to
handle) behind the bars. Right in front of the bars is a teleporter
that teleports only size T or smaller items to behind the PCs. In
between the two teleporters is a numbing zone, where pain cannot be
felt. If the PCs are smart (and standard players), they will shoot
arrows at the monster. Given enough time, they will kill themselves.
Andy Wolff (arwolff at ppg.com)
The party enters a series of interconnected rooms arranged in an
ascending spiral with 15-25' corridors connecting the rooms. Each door
opens towards the party and all rooms and the corridors have a gentle
but noticeable slant to them (towards the party which is in fact
climbing the spiral). The rooms have the usual assortment of monsters.
The corridors have a 1' deep by about 1' wide channel cut into them,
and the corridors themselves are 5' wide. As the party proceeds,
fighting and winning, they eventually cone to the last room. They open
the door and find a room packed with iron cannonballs! The balls exit
the room; the party may or may not survive, although with 5' walls it
is certainly possible to brace against the walls and let the balls
roll by underneath. Beyond the balls is the principle bad guy and the
majority of the treasure. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the party, the
iron balls have assembled in the bottom room into -- An Iron Golem!
miki (miki at sky.net)
Give the players a set of miscellaneous arranged numbers: 1-5 right
side up then 5-1 upside down (written on a wall in magical writing or
something.) It is a combination. The players eventually walk out to a
rock overhang and a door appears on the other side of another
overhang. On the left side is an object the players are to retrieve
and on the right side are 3 stone golems. Everything except the
players overhang is surrounded in lighting. There are 10 ropes hanging
from the players' cliff each numbered. Also, in front of each rope is
a symbol of one of the elements. The player needs to step on an
element to get a rope. In the center of the room are 10 pillars, each
also numbered, with 10 ropes. To make things more complicated in
between each of the pillars are more ropes barley within reach of the
pillars or outcropping. The players need to grab onto the right rope
to swing to a rope not numbered, from that rope to a pillar of the
right number, and from that pillar swing from the right numbered rope
and so on until the combination is complete. If a player choses the
wrong rope, the rope will detach itself from the wall dropping the
player to the ground. If the player lands on the wrong pillar it will
start to lower to the ground. On the ground is an elemental
corresponding to one of the symbols on the cliff. There is always the
same number of elemental as pc's. They will not bother any one unless
they are actually on the ground. Then they will attack. If a player
falls to the floor he has to run to the nearest "neutral" rope and
make it back to the original cliff. When swinging on the ropes,
players have to make several checks for dex, for the swing, and attack
on an AC of 4 to grab the other rope, (if that rope is missed, missed
a str. and dex to hold on to the rope swinging from) then a strength
to hold on. IF you choose the wrong rope and it fell (or if the
pillars lower) then it would reattach itself and the pc's would have
to start all over again. Once the combination is complete the floor
raises, elementals disappear and the lighting around the golems also.
The players now fight to defeat the golems and when they are defeated
then the lighting around the door and the object disappears and they
can grab the object (which will be needed to solve another puzzle.)
Ben Martin (bmartin at ATCON.COM)
The trap is very simple (but lethal) trap to set up and you can place
it almost anywhere. The trap starts off as a pressure plate. When the
PCs step on it will release another trap that is usually dormant. The
second trap is a pit with a revolving door that locks into place. As
one or more PCs step on the floor panel it drops, so that they fall
into the pit, then it spins on and locks into place, keeping the PC's
into the pit. In the bottom of the pit could be a green slime or if
you wanted it to be non lethal, water (then at least the poor PC at
least has a chance to survive, for a little while.)
KNOCK, KNOCK **BOOM** Michael J. Champlin (AMIC at racoon.com)
Room is a perfect cube (10'+ cubed) with one or two doors (not
locked!) The trap is magical: inside the room is a sphere of pure
magical energy (see Note 1) held in place by 6 RINGS of Spell Turning
(see Note 2) place in the exact center of each wall, floor and
ceiling, the door(s) just happen to be in the center of the wall(s).
When the door is opened the Ring no longer contains the sphere's
perfect integrity. The magical energy shoots out of the room like soda
pop from a shaken bottle.
Effects: ALL rods, wands, & Staffs become fully charged then overload
as in a retributive strike (see DMG on damage) other Items gain power
then overload as above. the each PC will take damage in the form of
1d12 / charge in room save vs magic for half damage (except for the
person who opens door [no save])
Note 1. charge in room is size of room cubed (eg 10' room =1000
charges [10*10*10] a 5'room = 125 charges [5*5*5]. The DM could be
"Nice" and subtract charges from the total used in "CHARGING ITEMS" to
reduce damage.
Note 2. When Door is Opened all The RINGS of SPELL TURNING become
non-magical, but if removed without destroying the can be re-enchanted
GP value of rings : 1000 gp each
Red light, Green light Matthew T Sanchez (DJHF92C at prodigy.com)
When the party enters the room, a big flash of red occurs. They will
probably wonder what is going on. (If you have ever played the game
Red light, Green light, you should know that the party must stop or
something will happen.) Well for starters send out an enemy to show
what happens when you move when the red light is flashing. Then the
green light will start flashing. This is the time to move. Any other
time they move when the red light is flashing, have something really
bad happen like the floor turning into spikes.
The Anti-Pit Trap B.Murphy (sirdwarf at pullman.com)
This trap consists of a large chimney with either an opening to the
outside or something really nasty at the end of it. Directly under the
trap there is a "reverse gravity field." When a person steps into this
field they will immediately fall upwards and suffer the consequences.
After the first person in a adventuring party falls into the trap, I
would hope that the other adventurers would find a creative way around
it as well as a creative way to get their friend out of the trap.
Note: This is not a trap used specifically to kill everyone playing!!
Robert W. Murrhee (xadian at earthlink.net) TRAP 'O' GREED
The characters enter a hallway 5'wide, 10'high, 50'long, with a door
at the far end. The walls are encrusted with huge gemstones, any one
of which would be valued at least 10,000gp. If any character tries in
any way to remove one of the gems (they can easily be pried loose with
a dagger), the walls will slam together, as each has a POWERFUL spring
device which will be triggered by the removal of any one of the gems
thus slamming the walls together like two giant hands clapping! Any
character caught between the walls when they slam shut will take 3d20
points of damage, and ALL breakable items must save vs. crushing blow.
The walls will automatically reset themselves after a single such
strike. If the characters pass through the hall without touching any
of the gems, nothing will happen to them, and they can go through the
door, which is unlocked, and untrapped, if the DM is feeling generous.
Robert W. Murrhee (xadian at earthlink.net) BUBBLE-BUBBLE-TOIL-IN-TROUBLE
When characters enter this room, they will be unable to see using ANY
means, as there is a magical darkness in the room which can not be
dispelled. The floor is held steady by clamps in the walls. When a
character nears the center of the room, a pressure plate activates the
release of the holding clamps, which withdraw into the walls. At this
point, the door to this room will disappear, and if any characters are
in the doorway when this happens, they will be either caught inside or
outside the room, or trapped in the wall where the door used to be
(determined by how far through the door they were),being killed
instantly if caught within the wall. The floor is now a disc upon a
pivot. ANY! movements by characters within the room result in the
character losing his/her balance, unless a dex check is made
successfully. Any attempt to cast spells will not only result in the
requirement of a dex check to maintain balance, but will result in
automatic spell failure. The characters will notice a bubbling sound
below them as of liquid boiling. In actuality, this boiling liquid is
water with a device which agitates it causing the bubbling. The water
is actually about room temperature. Also hidden within the walls below
are small furnaces which create a heat & burning smell, which wafts up
through small vents from below, creating the illusion of a boiling
death waiting below. In the room, above the floor, several small blind
flying creatures will make swooping attacks upon the characters doing
1d4 damage per attack. The only way out of this room is to dive into
the water, where they will find a grate at the bottom, which leads out
to a small tunnel. The tunnel will take them to another room and from
there they can get to the rest of the dungeon and more of the DM's
nasty toys and devices. The grate can be removed with a successful
strength check.
Knight (af213 at lafn.org) The Scheel
The PCs are running after a nemesis, and into a tiny room (back rooms
work well). They just catch a glimpse of their foe running into one of
5 shimmering colored portals. [There should be 1 portal for the foe
and 1 for each PC.] As soon as the foe runs through, it disappears.
Hopefully, the PCs will want to follow. As each PC goes through a
portal, it closes. Eventually all the PCs will enter the portals.
The PC's find themselves in a cavern or room. There is a deep pit with
acid, lava, etc. at the bottom. The sides of the pit are slick and no
holds are available to lasso, etc. Slowly lowering into the pit by
ropes is a structure made of 2 small platforms 15 feet apart,
connected by a HEAVY 3 inch diameter rod. Two of the PCs end up on the
platforms (1 on each). The others are in a small room with a glass
window watching. They can talk to the PCs on the platforms, but their
oxygen will run out about 10 seconds before the platform hits the
acid, lava, etc. The nemesis is watching from an elevated look out
room behind glass.
The task at hand is straight forward and the solution is quite simple,
although it'll take some thinking by the players. The rod is attached
to the platforms with a simple catch mechanism (make this fairly
apparent). If one side is unhooked, it will rise, while the side
attached to the rod will fall. If both are unhooked, the whole thing
will still fall, just a little slower. So all the players have to do
is figure out how to get both platform PCs on to 1 platform and then
release the rod. They will rise, the nemesis will be pissed and take
off, and they can free their friends from the glass room however the
GM sees fit.
castor (castor at ns1.cosmosbbs.com)
This is a fairly simple trap. I usually use it as a second layer.
Place a torch or lantern near a trapped door. Usually, the PCs forget
the light and concentrate on the door. When they successfully open the
lock it triggers the real trap in the wall. Oil runs out of a trough
through the flame of the torch and onto the party. It isn't usually
deadly, but it is a good nuisance trap.
Shamus Peveril (peveril at isn.net) Fake Treasures
When entering the area (generally a series of rooms and halls) the
players see valuable treasures scattered along the halls. These range
from silver and platinum figurines to gold brooches (very, very
valuable). The players will follow along, picking up the treasure
(don't let them stop because of encumbrance). When reaching the end,
they will enter a room through a door. When all the players bearing
the treasure they picked up get through, a stone wall will drop over
the door, sealing them in. Then a powerful monster(s) will be
teleported into the room, and the treasures will turn to tin and lead.
When the monster is defeated, and only then, the stone wall covering
the door they entered through will disappear, thus letting them out.
Eli the Unnamed (EGMeyer at tiac.net)
A really simple trap: an illusionary pit. When the PCs try to jump or
swing over it, they hit a tripwire , suspended a few feet off the
ground. This will trigger poison darts or whatever other type of trap
you want.
Rodney "Atlas" Dunn (DLSLD at worldnet.att.net) TITLE: It's Weird
Explanation: The PC's open a door and are immediately teleported to
the center of a room right next to a well filled with water. The room
is circular and has eight doors all around. The well is in the center.
There is also a hole in the ceiling (2 inch radius) that is shining
light onto the well(also the reflection of a gold key). Whenever a PC
touches any part of the door, they are teleported back to the center
of the room.
The well has 3d10 water weirds in it that will attack whenever
anything gets close enough. In the well, the PC's see a gold key
(which is really a reflection from above) in the bottom of the well.
The gold key will let the one holding it get out, but then it
disappears and appears back where it was.
Jason Kahler (carolyn2 at bellatlantic.net) Title: Those Pesky Shriekers
This is a very simple trap. Cast an invisibility spell on a shrieker
mushroom and put it in a narrow hallway (so the PCs will have to come
near it but won't touch it). Then have the hall lead into any room,
where any large and hard to beat sleeping monster or NPC awaits.
Shea Leonard --- "StormShield"
Right now I don't have a place for the magic items and NPCs, so I'll
just include them with Shea's trap submission.
TRAPS DAGGERED FLOOR: The party finds a treasure chest with many thin
slits in the floor before it. Natch, the chest is opened and many
daggers fly upward into the feet of the person opening the chest
(5d4 damage, possible Poison).
DOOM DAZZLER: A special pattern of hypnotic lights flies from a
mirror the PCs carry --- save vs Death at -4 or die. In this case,
Raise Dead will not work --- the mind is completely destroyed.
SPIKE SPINE: This is hidden in the ceiling above a pool of black
liquid and falls to impale for 1d12 + a save vs Poison or fall in the
black liquid (actually black pudding mixed with acid) for a further
2d12 damage + paralysis until magically cured.
WIND BEAM: This is a "Trick" trap, anyone hit by it gets hit by an
Improved Invisibility spell (which doesn't make this trap too bad).
BEAM LASER: This fires from a magical lock on a chest to do 5d12
damage (talk about powerful traps) Save vs. Spell and avoid all
damage.
ELECTRIC FIREWATER: One of my favorites, it hits a PC first with a
3d6 fireball, then cools off the PC with a 3d8 Icebolt, then as the
Ice finishes melting, a Lightning Bolt hits the PC for 3d10 damage,
and we ALL know what happens when electricity touches water!
FISTCRUNCH: Another favorite of mine, this causes a stone fist to
pop up out of a chest, hitting a character on the jaw. Save vs Death
to live, otherwise your skull is shattered.
NPCS: DIALSLADE: This is a Dwarf with a "Captain Picard" personality.
He offers to buy gems off of the characters for 35% of what they're
worth. If the PCs do not wish to sell, he leaves while if Dialslade
is attacked, he is a F8 with an AC of -4. He is worth 2500 Xp and
has 100 Hp.
DWERF: This dwarf delights in killing the enemy. Who his enemy is,
he doesn't really know. He'll join the party on his own and is a F5
with 37 Hp (ac 3, 450 xp). If he is attacked, he will use his magical
Ring of Teleportation (5 uses) to zap himself away.
ALAHANDRA: This bare-chested beauty carries a battle axe and will
take offense at wisecracks directed at her. She has a permanent
strength of a Stone Giant, is Ac 6, and is worth 6000 Xp. She has 146
Hp, and there is a 50% she will strike before the PCs will be able to
say or do anything.
KITANDRA: This female Elven Mage is a M9 and wishes to be left alone
to explore wherever the PCs are on her own. If attacked, she will use
her Wand of Fire (44 charges) in one hand and her Wand of Lightning
(16 charges) in the other in order to obliterate her opposition. She
has 72 Hp and is worth 4000 xp (Ac 2 due to her Bracers of Prot AC2).
RIKO: This little Psuedodragon is locked in a cage when the PCs
first find him. A keyboard magically locks the cage, and a riddle is
inscribed on the underside of the keyboard. The riddle: "What keeps a
couple together, yet can drive a couple apart if what keeps them
together is voiced to the public?" --- TRUTH. If this word is spelled
out on the keyboard, Riko will be free and will be a PCs Familiar for
life (choose a mage over another character).
MAGICAL ITEMS: STAFF OF DIAMONDS: The Staff has 50 charges and any
number of them can be used in a round. Each charge protects against
12 points of any type of damage, be it weapons, magic, Breath
weapons, etc. It creates a purple force field around a character
which provides the protection. It cannot be recharged.
GEM CRYSTAL: When held in the hand, it energizes. The longer it is
held before it is dropped and its magic is used, the more damage it
will do. It will cause sharp crystal spikes to appear and impale a
monster for 1d8 per round it was held before using (up to 8 rounds).
Note that if a character holds it he can't do anything else until he
decides to drop it to release the magic.
GLASSES OF ANALYZATION: One of my favorites, when a PC puts on these
glasses, he can stare at an unknown magical item and magically learn
its name AND function. When this item is used there is a 50% chance
+2% for every use that it will break and become useless.
Robert St. James (rstjames at earthlink.net) Title: Flipping Door
There are two doors one going up and one going down. When someone
tries to open the door it flips forward and makes the top door the
bottom door but it also pulls the character with it unless they make a
saving throw (any one will do). If they don't make it the fall 20' and
land on a hard stone floor and are trapped unless someone pulls away
some of the bricks in the floor and pulls the trapped character out.
flagg at Alpha.Fact.Rhein-Ruhr.De Magnetic Passage
I used a magnetic passage (like an open door) which can only passed
through without any metal. If a player tries to pass with any metal in
his hand or on his body, he feels a resistance and can not walk
through. Any non-metal substance passes through without resistance
(but there is a magnetic field which will repulse the whole hand if
there is a ring on, etc.)
Examining the door the PCs can see a little piece of metal (e.g. a
nail), which is hanging at the wall near the border. Every PC can try
to take or move this piece in vain. Even a tool or weapon can not move
it but a metal weapon will be captured by the wall and cannot be
removed, too. The only way to get through is to lay down all metal
things. I know that only some metals are magnetic but this passage is
a magical passage so that every metal is banned.
Robert W. Murrhee (friend's e-mail: xadian at earthlink.net) "CHUTES &
WEDGIES"
When the characters enter this hallway, they'll be in for a rude
surprise. The hallway floor is actually balanced on a pivot, with the
side they enter on supported underneath. The other side, however, is
unsupported, as there is a chute underneath. When enough weight is put
on the unsupported side of the floor (such as characters walking on
it) the floor pivots like a teeter totter, tilting to about a 45
degree angle. As this happens, the edge of the floor (that the
characters are not on) strikes the ceiling, causing the release of
several gallons of oil, which will pour down the chute, covering and
dislodging any characters in the hallway. Characters will be unable to
climb back up, as the chute is now much too slippery. As the
characters slide helplessly down the chute, they will notice two
torches pop out from the wall as they pass. About 20 seconds later,
they will hear the torches ignite, and if they look back, they will
see the flames gaining on them...thus realizing (if it had not
occurred to them before now) that they were covered in "flammable"
oil! If the characters do nothing to slow their descent, they can stay
barely ahead of the searing flames. Wondering about the "Wedgie" part?
Well here it is.... At the end of the chute (a 1/2 mile joyride) is a
wall with a roughly triangular wedge cut into it, just big enough for
one person. When the first character hits the wedge, it rotates,
locking the first character in and simultaneously opening another
wedge for the next character in line. It is a large stone wheel with
wedges cut into its edge, which turns like a gear, locking into place
as a wedge is filled then clicking to the next empty wedge. The
characters can barely hear each other, but this is to no avail since
breaking through the walls that separate each section will release the
green slime that is inside the walls. As the wheel rotates (provided
there are enough characters entrapped), one wedge at a time will open
on the opposite side of where they entered it, freeing that character
onto a ledge just wide enough to inch sideways across. Below is what
appears to be a vast pit containing 1-20 (DM's call) Kobolds skeletons
or other such nasties. At the bottom of this pit is a narrow trail
that goes up the side of the pit to connect to the ledge on which the
character is standing, at the opposite side. On the ledge above this
trail is the only door out. If the character is still standing on the
ledge when another character comes out of the wheel, said character
will be flung off the ledge into the embrace of those waiting below.
James R. Fricton (frict001 at maroon.tc.umn.edu) Don't let the dog out!
The PCs come across a 10' long hallway. At the end there is an angry
looking monster or impossible-to-beat beast securely tied to a strong
yet thin rope that goes into a hole in the wall behind the monster.
About 5' down, the hallway turns right.
As the PCs walk down the hall to the exit there is a weak tile that
has a razor under it with the rope running under the razor, so as the
PC in the front steps on the tile it will cut the rope letting the
monster free to tear the PCs apart. Depending on the DM's mood you
could have the tile also trigger a trap that makes two doors close
(and maybe lock) off both exits!
Mark Hill (altasrch at knox.mindspring.com) Pit and a Spike
This trap should be positioned in a thin hallway. When a player steps
on a pressure sensitive block, the block falls 20 feet, setting off
another mechanism which drops a 7 foot spike from the ceiling.
Marc Menier (marcm at imaginet.fr) The Trapped Telescope
The PCs come across a telescope which radiates a strong magical aura.
If a PC looks through the telescope, it views through to the lair of a
medusa. Perhaps the telescope has command words to change where it is
looking?
Janice Fitzgerald (janicef at csd.uwm.edu) The Un-Openable Door
There is a rope attached next to a door. The player must pull the rope
to the side of the door. If the player yanks it, then the door will
spin and spikes on the other side will get them. It also helps to
limit their time by having them be chased by a minotaur or something.
Collapsing Columns This works best on first level guys. You bait the
ground with gold. They rush towards it (when your at the beginning of
the game you want gold to buy stuff.) When they pick it up you can do
anything you want. You can have the room collapse in and crush them,
but have an easy way out so they don't die. also archers could be
alarmed and shoot them.
On the Lookout for Magic Weapons Once a guy has gotten farther they
can use special weapon. You can put this on a giant minotaur head only
the top is flat like a table. If the guy grabs something off of it,
the horns come in and prick their arm. This can be poisoned if you
want. Anyway they pull there arm away without the weapon. they must
first put something else there. The pressure plate will go down and
the horns come in and retract back to their old position. Then they
may grab the weapon, but lose what they left.
Indiana Jones Rock Chase If a person enters a preferably small tunnel
and hasn't searched the other floors of a dungeon then a wizard could
make a giant rock fall and chase the people through a giant maze.
It Ain't Nice to Kill Everybody If there is a person that kills
anybody he can, and there is no mage in the party, you can have a
magician in a bar talk jibberish. Most likely the player will try to
kill it. Then the magician turns into a giant creature and wails on
the guy.
Ramon Dailey (ocs at olympus.net)
Watch Your Back! The first is this. The characters walk into a room,
which seals up behind them. There's a large chasm, lava pit or some
other type of stumbling block between the characters and the far wall.
The far wall is blank except for a very visible target, complete with
bullseye. The idea is that the players think that if they shoot an
arrow into the bull's eye, the door will open back up. So, their best
archer lines up to take his best shot. He hits the bullseye... BUT...
the bullseye is actually a transporter pad, and its mate is directly
opposite it... in other words, directly behind the archer. So, the
arrow hits the bull's eye, and is transported to shoot the archer in
the back! Or, anyone who is in the way. The DM can use whatever means
he wishes to finally let the players out of the room. I would make it
that the arrow has to hit any part of the wall EXCEPT the target to
set them free, so a really bad shot would be best to start with. Which
would be embarrassing.
Use the Handrail! The characters come to a staircase, which has a sign
reminding the characters to use the hand rail. I realize that this is
pretty obvious, but I'm willing to bet a lot of players will ignore
it. Well, when they get so far down, if all characters aren't touching
the hand rail, it turns into a slide and ends in whatever nasty that
the DM feels necessary. Or, for an even more evil version, this could
be a bridge across a great chasm. When someone takes their hand off
the rail, it becomes ethereal for that character, and (s)he falls
through. This would be a good time to send some winged nasties at the
characters! It's hard to get off any arrows with only one hand...
VampD (jballou at inlink.com) And we all fall DOWN!
The PCs come to a circular room, with two doors, one the PCs are at
and the exit. Along the edge the room is a red border about 1/2 foot
to 1 foot wide. In the center of the room is a pit. Have a delayed pit
fall (i.e. wait 1 rd., wait for the 3rd person out, etc.). The pit
falls out. There are now in another circular chamber. Where the two
doors were there are two long ladders. As the PCs climb the ladders
one of the rungs will slip free. This sets off a cave in from above
(ceiling). The rocks knock the PCs off the ladder (even into the
ladder). All the rungs after that still do the same (or any other
traps (all the rungs fall off, etc.)). The PCs have to fly, jump, or
climb out of the pit. The edge is really slick so make dexterity
checks and remember how close the character is to the wall with
nothing to hold on to.
Palidorn at aol.com The Rolling Hallway
There is a slanted hallway, angled at 45 degrees, and no less than 12'
long, (for 4 adventurers, and adding 3' for each over 4.) The point of
the trap, is to pretty much kill the last person in the hallway, so..
it's angled, and at the end of the hallway, is a pressure plate, that
when stepped on, seals off the lower portion that has 6" spikes in it.
If they try to run, the top gets sealed off. Then, every three feet, a
hand hold opens on each side of the wall, but have spikes on them.
And, if grabbed, cause 1d6 points of damage. The floor then slides
away to reveal rollers under the floor, which force the players to
either grab the hand holds and pull their way to the top, (taking the
damage) and the person to fall on the spikes automatically loses half
their life, and if someone falls on them, they die.. and the person
who falls on them also loses half their life.
P.S. the dimensions of this hallway is 6" over the tallest persons
head and 3" to either side of the widest person (within reason).
Palidorn at aol.com A Stitch in Time
The first part of the trap is a standard orc/ogre type door smash
trap, with the log behind the door so that when it is opened, all
persons in front of the door get slammed, usually into something.
Now.. when someone touches the door, Time Stasis is cast on them. And
if the door is opened, the log, or whatever the DM decides on, comes
down and smashes the PC (or PCs) and they then take 2d6 damage for it,
then the PC(s) are flung into yonder wall, which is enchanted with a
Reverse Time spell. When hit, the Reverse Time spell is cast, and the
Enchanted PC's are flung back to the time a millisecond before they
got hit, so, there stuck in an endless loop until they die... and if
anyone is enchanted and not hit, they are forced to watch as there
friends die right before their eyes and they can't stop it anyway. Of
course, all those NOT enchanted wonder what happened, because even
that simple type of trap shouldn't kill their ally, right?
Dan Ackerman (Felikide at ix.netcom.com) The Dart Room
The PC's come to a door at the end of a corridor. They will likely
search it for traps. There are none. If the PCs open the door, they
cannot see anything beyond the doorway. It is dark, and the players
get a feeling of vastness. There is, in fact, something there: a very,
very thin thread is suspended from wall to wall about 3 feet beyond
the doorway, and one foot above the floor. A PC within 2 feet of the
thread has a chance see it (1/3 Wisdom score). When it is broken, the
PC may not even feel it, depending on clothes worn on the shins.
However, ten seconds after it is broken, the front few players feel a
slight puff of air on exposed skin. Half a round later, all PC's are
struck by a shower of whizzing darts, taking 2d20 hits. Each dart
causes 1d2 points of damage. The darts can be retrieved by surviving
PC's. They are about an inch long and the fletching is skewed, causing
a very irregular flight path, which makes them useless for any weapon,
but ensures that all PCs within the room are struck. It the PC's
collect the darts, there are 1000 darts found lying about the room.
This trap doesn't sound like much, but for some masochistic reason, my
players got a real kick out of it.
Gerald Dupuy (gdupuy at pcisys.net) Thieves' Revenge
A party comes upon a clearing. In the middle of the clearing is a
small hut or building of some sort. The ground around the hut is
barren and covered with stones and gravel. Any player who steps into
the clearing wearing metal armor is struck by 1-5 stones with no
visible creatures to have thrown them. This can be quite perplexing to
the players because no magic is involved or detected. Though players
struck must make intelligence rolls to see if they notice that the
stones are still adhering to their armor. The stones in the clearing
are LODESTONES, natural occurring magnetic rocks. Thieves don't
usually wear metal armor so are able to walk freely into the clearing
without too much trouble (maybe a dagger could cause minor problems).
Hence the name Thieves Revenge.
Andy Warner (awa at wpo.nerc.ac.uk) The Troll Trap
The entrance to a dungeon is near a waterfall, hence area is always
wet and misty. The dungeon is ancient and sealed. DM describes the
old, ancient, dusty and dry corridor, and the dust clouds caused as
the door finally gives way. The players complete the dungeon but on
return, the dust has gotten wet, revitalized and reformed the HUGE
troll it once was. Just love regeneration, don't you?
Joseph BlackBear (blackbea at ntrek.com) Hot n' Cold
This trap involves 2 rooms in a dungeon (or castle or whatever) that
are joined to each other by a single doorway (no door, unless you want
to make it REALLY hard on your players)
The first room of the trap is enchanted to make it very cold (I run
Palladium FRPG so I use hundreds of wards on the walls that are
permanent) and the doorway (or door) to the other side is a good 100
feet away. The party must pass through this room in order to get to
their goal.
The 2nd room is enchanted in the same way, except that it is to the
HEAT extreme. Most players that I throw this trap up against make
themselves resistant to cold to get through the 1st room, but once
they do that, then they can't make themselves resist fire for the 2nd
one (there is a time period to prepare, and since they are in the
extreme cold room, they would freeze to death before the time period
expired)
Therefore, they have to REALLY think (or get really lucky on their
saving throw, that is at -10 if they go through the heat room while
resisting cold) in order to get past the Heat room. Once a player gets
trough the trap, the rest can follow easy enough provided there is a
mage in the group that can Teleport each member to the one that got
past it all.
BTW, failure to make the saving through when passing from the Cold to
Heat room (if the player is resisting cold) means death. Ashes, to
tell the truth. No hope of reincarnation.
Shawn Marion (wizard at ca.securenet.net) The Mirror Room
The PCs enter a room made entirely of mirrors. at the far side of the
room is a group of pedestals with spiked armor, stone armor, and black
armor. When a character takes one, the others disappear. (All armors
are equivalent to plate mail) (The door open and closes)
Spiked Armor: Suddenly the characters hear something moving. A pillar
covered with spiked smashes down at random locations, and the number
of pillars keep growing. Any character that is smashed by the pillar
get his or her HP halved, and next time the character is killed. The
characters must escape the room before they die.
Stone Armor: The PCs cannot get out of this one unless they use some
kind of spell. A stone pillar breaks through a random mirror and
smashes another mirror. Then a pillar breaks out of that mirror and
smashes diagonally. Then it smashes straight, etc. After that, the
door opens again and they can exit.
Black Armor: The room goes dark for a while and when the light comes
back, it is from a glowing sphere held by a dark magic user. The rest
of the monsters in the room should be equal or less (For larger
amounts of monsters) to the PCs. When all the monsters are dead, you
may leave the room. All the stuff on the monsters can be taken if your
game allows it. All the stuff is non magical, and usually the weapons
are maces, axes, and stuff the PCs find weak.
Shawn Marion (wizard at ca.securenet.net) Objects of Envy/Pity
The characters enter a room made out of red metal, and it has a small
mirror at the far side. The room is filled with every from potions
with awesome labels, magical weapons, legendary armor etc. The
characters will probably take the stuff. If one looks in the mirror,
the swords will be glowing with an evil aura, the potions will be
labeled 'HEAVY POISON' etc. when the characters leave the room, the
objects will be cursed and instead of girdles of giant strength etc.
they will be girdles of giant brain, girdles of unfed person strength,
broad sword of missing, mace of crumbling, scrolls of destroy brain,
helmet of amnesia etc. stuff that may kill the characters before they
even get a chance to uncurse it.
VampD (jballou at inlink.com)
The PCs reach a room with metals bars going across the room. The First
Bar is 2' from the ground. The second is 5' from the ground. The Third
is doubled up, one 2' from the ground, and one 5' from the ceiling.
Then the fourth is 4' from the floor and 4' from the ceiling (10 ft.
Tall ceiling, ground refers to hall level). The floor drops 20ft from
the hall level and then there is a pool of acid. The acid is any
contact acid you chose. You might not want it to do much damage cause
it would really be hard to rescue the PC in the first place (acid on
there hands when they grab the rope to pull them selves out, and there
would be acid all over them in the first place. The acid is only like
1 1/2' deep.
____________________________________
o
o o
---> o o o ---->
______ o o o o ________
| |
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
Chris Disch (dischc01 at TIGGER.STCLOUD.MSUS.EDU) CHEMISTRY KABOOM!
Have the adventurers walk through a room that negates all magical
light sources, a rock with continual light and/or magical weapons,
then the characters are forced to use torches. A side view of the room
follows:
---\ /----\ /----\ /----\
IN-> \--/ \--/ \--/ \________
--\ /--\ /--\ /--\ OUT->
\____/ \____/ \____/ \_________
Each dip in the gradually sloping floor is filled with chlorine gas,
just enough to make the adventurers gag and run to higher ground, the
next rise in the floor, without thinking. In each of the vaulted
ceilings there is hydrogen gas, and when hydrogen comes in contact
with fire...KABOOM! Add in the amount of damage you feel is adequate.
The sound from the explosion will cause deafness for 2d6 rounds. This
is great for spellcasters! Of course all flammable materials will
catch on fire (this a nice way to burn the clothes right off the back
of the pc's). See if the pc's figure it out by the third ceiling. If a
couple of the pc's continue naked, add another trapped room that is
extremely cold, and watch what happens.
Vince Tasslehoff Tomasso (taselhof at aztec.asu.edu) Drain Blades
This trap consists of a room that is twenty feet across and ten feet
deep. A tilting floor leads to the trap room, dumping the players on
the floor, taking falling damage from 1d4 spikes in the chute. The
spikes cause 1d6 damage each. After the players hit the water in the
room (which is eight feet high), they fell a sucking sensation below
their feet. There is the sound of a mechanism moving, then water is
sucked out of the room at the rate of a 1/2 foot per round. The
players have to make a successful strength check to stay afloat in the
water every round the water is sucked out. If they fail the check,
they get sucked down with the rest of the water into a long, narrow
tube. In about a round, they feel a soft breeze that turns into a
roar. A blade is below the players. It spans the entire tunnel and the
players cannot escape it. Roll a 1d10 to see what part of the body is
cut off:
1-3 left arm
4-5 right arm
6-7 left leg
8-9 right leg
10 decapitation (death)
After getting part of the body cut off, the player falls into a plain
room, two levels lower than they were originally.
Vince Tas Tomasso (taselhof at aztec.asu.edu) Dark Mirror
This trap consists of a large, tunneling room and a tilting floor in
the room above. As soon as the players are dumped into the tunneling
room, they land about twenty feet down, suffering falling damage. They
then see a mirror that seems misty and cloud-like. All of sudden, out
comes a duplicate of the player looking into the mirror! It has all
the same abilities of the player it is duplicating! Even weapons,
knowledge and abilities like Strength. And if the player is a wizard,
the duplicate has all the same spells as the wizard. All successful
attack go right through the duplicate, but all the successful
duplicate attacks have real damage! The only way the duplicate can be
destroyed is by destroying the mirror. Then the duplicate will scream
and dissipate into the air. Then the DM can use any means of exiting
the room he wishes.
Jeremy Smith (taselhof at aztec.asu.edu) Its So Simple You're Sure To Die
The PC are walking down a hallway, room, passageway, etc. They
discover without much observation that there is a tripwire near the
bottom of the floor. It is much thicker than most trip wires, so it
can be seen very easily. Once it is seen the PC will most likely avoid
the trip wire. The PC go a few more steps, and then the entire floor
will crumble to dust. The PC will then end up in a torture chamber,
dungeon, pit, watery grave, etc. However, if they had hit the trip
wire a secret passageway would have opened up in the right side of the
wall. If they go down it they will have avoided the collapsing floor.
The Strangeling (The_Strangeling at wow.com) Unseen Spikes by Kevin Burke
Start with a large room (at least that's what it looks like) . Its
best to use this trap with intelligent monsters using DETECT
INVISIBILITY scrolls . The room is actually a maze with
caltrops/spikes lining its walls . What makes it really dangerous is
that the maze is enchanted with invisibility so that no one except the
monsters can see the spiked walls . Characters will probably head
straight for the monsters (or you could pile gold around a little) and
run right into the spikes . However , the monsters can't see the party
because of the walls that only they can see . The only ways that I've
figured out to get through are to poke the air all through the area,
which isn't very convenient when you get to the monsters , use any
number of spells (the easy way) , or attempt to bribe the monsters .
Note that the monsters will most likely either be employed by a high
level mage or have many additional scrolls nearby . The spikes do
3d4+the character's AC when walking or 3d6 +AC when running .
Adrian Gudas (gudas at interlog.com) The Poison Arrows
An oldie but a goodie. A pile of gold sits in one corner of the room.
As the players cautiously step into the room, nothing will happen.
They will then cautiously walk further into the room. Still, nothing
will happen. But as soon as someone reaches for the gold.. Tzing!
Poison arrows shoot out of the wall. The damage they inflict is up to
you, but in my AD&D adventures, there are 2d4, each THAC0 14. The
poison is type K (contact, 5 points of damage without save, 0 w/
save).
Adrian Gudas (gudas at interlog.com) The Spider
As the players enter a room, a huge spider is waiting for them. It
does not move; it is simply clinging to a huge web. There is a torch
in the wall, and the players will notice that the web is quite
flammable. The spider is, in fact, a bomb. Lighting the webs not only
sets everything aflame, it also detonates the bomb. Ouch.
Paul Henrichsen (henryrap at ix.netcom.com) Sword in the Falls
This is an item trap. It consists of a room behind a waterfall. The
bigger the waterfall the better. The doorway to this room has a
magical field to keep water out. (Note this will do no harm to typical
adventurers, but it will exclude water elementals and the like.) The
room is lit by a glowing sword set in a large white (marble) stone in
the center of the room. (Think of Arthur's test.) A crystal dome
covers the hilt and the portion of the blade which extends from the
sword. The stone and the crystal are enchanted with a spell to destroy
water. (Again this will not harm the typical adventurer.) The crystal
dome is fairly easy to break and any warrior worth the name should be
able to pull the sword from the stone without difficulty. There is no
sheath for the sword and it is silver of very high workmanship and
obviously enchanted. If the adventurers leave the sword and the
crystal dome alone, nothing happens. The room would even make a good
place to camp since everything but the adventurers ignores the place
entirely. If the crystal or stone is broken or the sword somehow
removed from the stone, all the spells against water in the room
vanish. If they look the party will notice that spray from the falls
now enters through the doorway, but it did not earlier.
Upon further examination it will be noted that the sword is actually
made of two very soft silvery metals--sodium and potassium. (The sword
is soft enough that you could cut it with a butter knife.) If the
party has the sword in the air in the room for more than 2 hours they
will notice that it has tarnished. If they carry the sword from the
room, without taking extreme precautions, it will spontaneously ignite
and do lots (6d6 GURPS or 6d10 AD&D) of damage to whomever is carrying
it. If the sword is left exposed in the room, for more than one hour
after the protective spells fall, there is a 10% chance per ten
minutes that it will ignite.
Editor's Note: ooooh! I can't resist making comment! This one is such
a nasty and devious trap!! The possibilities with this one...
This is the end of the Trap Collection. I'm now accepting submissions
for further volumes of the Trap Collection. I'd like to thank all the
people who have contributed. These traps should demonstrate what I am
looking for. If you are interested in submitting a trap, send it to
jseeley at aros.net with the word TRAP in the subject line.
--
J C Lawrence Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor) Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*) Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...
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