Canonfire!

Thu Oct 07, 2010 10:59 am Looking for afew good traps!

Starting a new Greyhawk module today, but i thought i would put it on hold for a bit. Why you might ask, well when it come to traps, I think most of them have been done in one form or another. So I am putting it out to the masses for a fresh view. I'm looking for 3 traps that will be based in a tower/dungeon. It will be 1st. edition AD&D, and the player levels will be around 4-6. It can be a room ( max 30x30 ) or a hallway ( max 40 feet long, 10 feet wide ).
Now for swag Happy

, for the top 3 trap winners, I will be putting one of my Greyhawk modules ( FFG 3 Spitting Image ) in print. This will be coming out of my own wallet. I will only print out 3 modules in the classic AD&D style.
The new module will be on my web page ForeverFreegames.org for free of course. Full credit will be awarded to the winners.

Thu Oct 07, 2010 2:00 pm

I know it won't win me any prizes, but I'm rather fond of using this:

http://www.amazon.com/Grimtooths-Dungeons-Dragons-Fantasy-Roleplaying/dp/1588461394/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1286488741&sr=8-2

and its various earlier additions, too.

Just thought I'd mention them for your own inspiration and edification, as well as for anyone else who might be in need of traps.

Sun Oct 10, 2010 1:11 am

A rook-style tower has a simple entry to the center on the ground level. 6 cables of unknown material reach from the embarkments above through the stone floor, crossing each other in balance roughly 10' above (the tower's full height is roughly 25'). No access was created to the foundation, intentionally. If a means of access is created to get there (10' below ground) the anchors can be seen. On that lower level an iron door in the center of the floor is rigged to slake the cables and cause the entire rook to collapse if the door is opened.

Sun Oct 10, 2010 1:16 am

Grimtooth's is the way to go.

Sun Oct 10, 2010 7:34 am

I like the simple things; a Necklace of Strangulation placed on a statue, invisible caltrops, and the like... oh, and a personal favorite: The PCs see a pile of platinum coins in a pool of clear liquid.... platinum does not dissolve, in some acids. ;)

Mon Oct 11, 2010 2:53 pm

I found the better traps were the one that players could work out for themselves without having to resort to the Thief rolling find/remove. An oldie but definately a goody I think is the chess board (aka Harry Potter)

Tue Oct 12, 2010 6:15 am

Wow! Grimtooth's! Yeah, definitely the way to go. Cool

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Tue Oct 12, 2010 4:50 pm

I'll throw out this trap:

The walls of this 40' long hallway are lined with a powerful lodestone (behind the normal masonry) which generates a strong magnetic field with in it. Characters looking down the hall will see several suits of chainmail, a suite of plate mail (containing pieces of a skeleton), a few shields and a couple of long swords stuck to the various walls. One of the shields is magical (+2) as is one of the long swords (also +2). Attempting to free any of these things from a wall requires a successful bend bars/lift gates check.

Any character entering the corridor wearing metal armor must make a bend bars/lift gates check every round or be slammed against the nearest wall (this deals 1d6 points of damage). Freeing ones self from the wall requires another BB/LG roll, or removal of the armor. Any character in metal armor has his or her speed reduced to by two-thirds, making a successful navigation of the tunnel by such characters take at least two rounds generally.

A character with a metal weapon in hand must make an 'open doors' roll each round or have it pulled from their grasp to fly to the nearest wall where it sticks fast (BB/LG to remove). A large amount of metal in a backpack (6 pounds or more) might cause it act like metal armor (although it only affects magnetic metals… iron, nickel, steel, mithral, and adamant, so a bunch of gold coins won’t be affected). Metal in such items as a bag of holding or a portable hole are not affected by the magnetism.

I would suggest pairing it with a nearby room with a peephole that looks out into the hallway, where monsters that do not rely upon metal (such as ghouls or ghasts or both) lurk ready to rush out and attack unarmored people they see navigating the hallway (or armored people stuck to the walls).

Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:48 am

Excellent cwslyclgh! Very nice indeed! Happy

And sufficiently subtle -- a.k.a. mind boggling -- for the players that it will take them sometime to figure out what the heck is going on! Evil Grin

I'm going to borrow that one for myself, with your permission, of course. Wink

Feel free to give us more. Cool

_________________
Mystic's web page: http://melkot.com/mysticscholar/index.html
Mystic's blog page: http://mysticscholar.blogspot.com/

Mon Oct 18, 2010 2:15 pm

I'm at work at the moment; so I don't have ready access to my books; but if I remember correctly there was a somewhat similiar trap to cwslyclgh's in White Plume Mountain....a tunnel with panels that heated up the room for any carrying Metal Weapons/wearing Metal Armor which had peep-holes where some Ghouls (I think) were watching and would attack once the characters had disarmed/taken off thier armor...quite nasty...

A couple of ideas I've used/thought of/heard suggested over the years inclue the PCs getting hit with the effects from a magic item from the 2nd Edition Tome of Magic book (I think it's a wand) that sends forth a ray which switches the positions of all carried possesions so that pants become hats; shirts become pants; coins in belt pouches become carried in socks; spell components end up in your hat; etc., etc.

Another fun idea; a pit trap with a gelatinous cube at the bottom (practically invisible to anyone looking)...perhaps with tempting looking treasure to lure adventures who didn't fall thru the pit down to it...

Idea stolen from Indiana Jones-esque stories....the PCs enter a room with sliding stone doors that slam shut after all enter...there is a pattern of different looking shapes (or colors, or symbols, or whatever) on the floor and on a raised platform on one end of the hall an hourglass Time Bomb (also from Tome of Magic, I think) is flipped over (DM flips over a real-life hourglass at this point...or stop watch, or whatever)....giving the heroes a certain amout of time (5 minutes?) to solve the pattern to get to the hourglass and flip it back before the bomb goes off....if the wrong pattern is stepped on any number of things could happen; poison darts or Darts of the Hornet (from 1st Edition Unearthed Arcana) come flying out of the walls...or pits open....or blades slash out...or acid erupts from the floor and/or ceiling....

Etc., etc.

Nothing terribly original; just thinkin' out loud here!