Though I recently suspended the Skype campaign I've been running since 2010, I decided to answer Brendan's questions concerning how I ran my campaign and, hopefully, more or less how I'll run it again one day. In any case, it's likely to reflect the rules no matter where I'm running a table in the near future. Enjoy!
1. Ability scores generation method?
Player's choice between 3d6 down the line or making up whatever they want within ranges of 3-18. Thanks, Jeff, for that idea (and, incidentally, Brendan for bringing it to my attention).
2. How are death and dying handled?
If a major character hits 0 hp, they roll on The Table of Death, Dismemberment and Dangerous Damage. Each time they take a hit and are at 0 hp, they roll on the table again.
3. What about raising the dead?
Nope. The PCs probably couldn't afford it anyway at this stage in the game.
4. How are replacement PCs handled?
They show up, somehow, whenever the player rolls them up. Often they'll wait until the end of the session or the beginning of the next one. That's actually probably because my players usually play two characters at once so it doesn't get boring when one character dies.
5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else?
I have this really complicated initiative system that is based off of this. I'm considering replacing it with this.
6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work?
Yep. Roll a natural 20, roll on the Arduin Critical Hits table. Roll a natural 1, roll on the Arduin Critical Fumbles table. Same goes for monsters. Combat is deadly (actually, deadlier than Arduin was intended, as the tables were designed to be used with percentile dice and confirmations of criticals).
7. Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet?
They come in very handy when you roll on the Table of Death, Dismemberment and Dangerous Damage.
8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly?
Can you ever! If you fire into melee and miss, you roll to hit on another, randomly selected target. I've had characters fire into melee, miss their target, hit an ally, critically hit them and kill them.
9. Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything?
Run!
10. Level-draining monsters: yes or no?
Strictly speaking, no. When the party does encounter monsters that normally drain levels, they will just drain XP instead, per Raggi's idea.
11. Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death?
Yes.
12. How strictly are encumbrances and resources tracked?
Not as strictly as I'd like them to be… I at least keep my players aware of them and they calculate them. It's just harder for me to figure out how far they can go in a dungeon during a certain length of time, to do that on the fly and actually run the dungeon. Tips on this would be appreciated.
13. What's required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time?
PCs level up at the end of the session. No training is involved. If an MU is an apprentice, the master will send spells of the appropriate new level; otherwise the MU will have to procure them himself.
14. What do I get experience for?
Coin spent and sessions played.
15. How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination?
100% description.
16. Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work?
Retainers are encouraged but seldom used; another side-effect of allowing players to run two characters at once, I think. Morale is another item I try to include in my games but don't often succeed at. I wish Swords & Wizardry included morale rules so I didn't have to look them up in other rule-sets.
17. How do I identify magic items?
Trial and error, a spell your MU has or taking it to another wizard, probably in a city, who is willing to identify it for you for a price.
18. Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions?
On a roll of 1 on a d6, Shrelft the Pilgrim Peddler shows up at the beginning of the session, selling magical items that you can't get anywhere else. They are usually minor, but are more than just potions and have definitely gotten PCs out of scrapes before.
19. Can I create magic items? When and how?
Yes. According to the LotFP:WFRP rules (and, when the campaign is re-started, according to the ACKS rules).
20. What about splitting the party?
I'd rather you didn't, but it's allowed. I'll bounce back and forth between the two sub-parties. Since this is on Skype, I don't worry too much about isolating players. My players are good players and usually play as if they didn't know what was happening with the other sub-party.
Exploring games that were published before I was born - and the games inspired by them.
Showing posts with label Traps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Traps. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Tuesday Trap #10
With the end of my semester and some free time on my hands for the next few weeks, I'm re-innaugurating my Tuesday Trap series. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep it up, but every post I do get out is a fun post for me to work on and hopefully you'll find it helpful in some way as well.
Rolls:
19: Restraints/Hazards
9: Triggered by Tripwire or Triggerwire
17: Slope/Slide
Description: In the middle of a long, very dusty hallway lies a skeleton, face-down; it's bones are picked clean and its only accessories are a rusting, dented helmet and a long, silver-plated dagger, bent and stuck in its ribs. The dagger looks like it could be dislodged from the ribs with perhaps a few minutes of effort and seems easy to repair; in reality, it will take at least a turn of hard effort to get it loose (PC should roll under both Dex and Str at end of turn to be successful - note that trap will have gone off long before the turn is up unless special action is taken by PCs). Attached to the sternum is a thin, very taught triggerwire that goes into the floor; if the skeleton's ribcage is dealt with in any way that disturbs it, the triggerwire will be pulled and the trap will activate.
When activated, most of the hallway – so long that no character could escape by standard means – will tilt, as it pivots on the mechanism below the floor where the skeleton rests. The side of the hallway that slopes down is weighted very heavily, so all but the most resourceful and heroic attempts to counter-weight it on the other side will be in vain. The hallway will slope from between 45 degrees to 60 degrees, at your option. The half of the hallway that ascends merely goes into a recess in the ceiling while the half that descends leads to a lower level.
Referees may decide whether the sloping hallway has been crafted smoothly or roughly. If the hallway is rough, each character will encounter 3d4 outcroppings from the ceiling, walls and floor of the chute on their way down. All characters may attempt to grab handholds or try to avoid them in a rough hallway; roll under Dex to avoid them and roll under Dex or use climbing skills to grab them. If characters fail to either grab or avoid handholds, they hit the handhold and it does 1d4 damage to the character. Only characters skilled in climbing (thieves or high skills in whatever system you use) may attempt to keep from sliding down a smooth sloping hallway. Characters who slide without breaking their fall, either by climbing at least a portion of the way or by hitting handholds, take as many d4s of damage as would usually be appropriate to take d6s of damage for falling the hallway's length. If characters grab onto the skeleton when they begin to slide, it falls apart in their hands.
At the referee's option, there may be a sub-level of some sort that may be reached by climbing to the top of the ascending side of the hallway. It should probably be a relatively safe spot, and possibly a treasure trove. It's up to the ref to decide whether there is more than one way in and out of this sub-level, though, or if anyone in the sub-level when the trap is reset is stuck…
Detection/Disarming: The seams of the sloping hallway have been carefully obscured; the end of the sloping section may be at the doors at the end of the hallway so that no obvious seam exists. Dwarves may notice that the stonework is somehow different if your system calls for that, even if the walls, ceiling and floor are of the same design, but that should not automatically translate into realizing that there is a trap. The walls, ceiling and floor of the hallway can be of any design because they are facades that conceal the humongous hollow rectangular prism that makes up the outside of the sloped hallway.
Careful examination of the skeleton's ribcage will reveal the triggerwire tied around the sternum; it can be cut easily, but whatever character attempts this must roll under their Dex to avoid activating the trap.
One clue the party should find strange is that the passage is extremely dusty; in order to keep the trap from being constantly triggered by vermin, this hallway barred to them in some way; this keeps scavenger monsters from ever cleaning this hallway.
The party may obtain access to the inner workings of the trap in a different part of the dungeon, where destroying this trap will be simple.
Designer: This trap functions as a one-way door to a lower level, employed by someone living in the dungeon who lives on the far end of the hallway on the first level and wishes to be generally left alone; the likeliest candidates for such an individual are Magic-Users. The trap will be well-maintained. It is reset with power from a waterwheel, most likely located in some underground river, and the reset is triggered by a simple pull of a lever in some location easily accessible to whomever maintains the trap. Whenever the trap is triggered a small signal, such as something similar to a mailbox flag, is also triggered in a place convenient for whomever maintains the trap.
Rolls:
19: Restraints/Hazards
9: Triggered by Tripwire or Triggerwire
17: Slope/Slide
Description: In the middle of a long, very dusty hallway lies a skeleton, face-down; it's bones are picked clean and its only accessories are a rusting, dented helmet and a long, silver-plated dagger, bent and stuck in its ribs. The dagger looks like it could be dislodged from the ribs with perhaps a few minutes of effort and seems easy to repair; in reality, it will take at least a turn of hard effort to get it loose (PC should roll under both Dex and Str at end of turn to be successful - note that trap will have gone off long before the turn is up unless special action is taken by PCs). Attached to the sternum is a thin, very taught triggerwire that goes into the floor; if the skeleton's ribcage is dealt with in any way that disturbs it, the triggerwire will be pulled and the trap will activate.
When activated, most of the hallway – so long that no character could escape by standard means – will tilt, as it pivots on the mechanism below the floor where the skeleton rests. The side of the hallway that slopes down is weighted very heavily, so all but the most resourceful and heroic attempts to counter-weight it on the other side will be in vain. The hallway will slope from between 45 degrees to 60 degrees, at your option. The half of the hallway that ascends merely goes into a recess in the ceiling while the half that descends leads to a lower level.
Referees may decide whether the sloping hallway has been crafted smoothly or roughly. If the hallway is rough, each character will encounter 3d4 outcroppings from the ceiling, walls and floor of the chute on their way down. All characters may attempt to grab handholds or try to avoid them in a rough hallway; roll under Dex to avoid them and roll under Dex or use climbing skills to grab them. If characters fail to either grab or avoid handholds, they hit the handhold and it does 1d4 damage to the character. Only characters skilled in climbing (thieves or high skills in whatever system you use) may attempt to keep from sliding down a smooth sloping hallway. Characters who slide without breaking their fall, either by climbing at least a portion of the way or by hitting handholds, take as many d4s of damage as would usually be appropriate to take d6s of damage for falling the hallway's length. If characters grab onto the skeleton when they begin to slide, it falls apart in their hands.
At the referee's option, there may be a sub-level of some sort that may be reached by climbing to the top of the ascending side of the hallway. It should probably be a relatively safe spot, and possibly a treasure trove. It's up to the ref to decide whether there is more than one way in and out of this sub-level, though, or if anyone in the sub-level when the trap is reset is stuck…
Detection/Disarming: The seams of the sloping hallway have been carefully obscured; the end of the sloping section may be at the doors at the end of the hallway so that no obvious seam exists. Dwarves may notice that the stonework is somehow different if your system calls for that, even if the walls, ceiling and floor are of the same design, but that should not automatically translate into realizing that there is a trap. The walls, ceiling and floor of the hallway can be of any design because they are facades that conceal the humongous hollow rectangular prism that makes up the outside of the sloped hallway.
Careful examination of the skeleton's ribcage will reveal the triggerwire tied around the sternum; it can be cut easily, but whatever character attempts this must roll under their Dex to avoid activating the trap.
One clue the party should find strange is that the passage is extremely dusty; in order to keep the trap from being constantly triggered by vermin, this hallway barred to them in some way; this keeps scavenger monsters from ever cleaning this hallway.
The party may obtain access to the inner workings of the trap in a different part of the dungeon, where destroying this trap will be simple.
Designer: This trap functions as a one-way door to a lower level, employed by someone living in the dungeon who lives on the far end of the hallway on the first level and wishes to be generally left alone; the likeliest candidates for such an individual are Magic-Users. The trap will be well-maintained. It is reset with power from a waterwheel, most likely located in some underground river, and the reset is triggered by a simple pull of a lever in some location easily accessible to whomever maintains the trap. Whenever the trap is triggered a small signal, such as something similar to a mailbox flag, is also triggered in a place convenient for whomever maintains the trap.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Tuesday Trap #9
Well, that was almost not Tuesday, wasn't it? (For some of you it will be Wednesday, but it's still Tuesday in California, so I'm good.) School's… making me really happy to have RPGs as a diversion right now. Anyway, per Simon Forster's request last week, today we have a trap in goblin territory, though any small humanoids will do the trick as well.
Rolls:
19: Restraints/Hazards
4: Latch/Switch Trigger
10: Ball Bearings
Description: In a room that is deep enough inside the goblin area of a dungeon for the party to believe it could be where they store their treasure there is a lever. The lever may have been built by the goblins or be a repurposed lever originally built by virtually any race. The lever is probably inscribed or labeled in Goblin by the goblins with something like "Don't Touch!" or "Ask Chief before getting some treasure!" or "Stay Out!"- anything to make the party suspect that the goblins access their treasure by using the lever. The lever has been rigged by the goblins to do two things when it is pulled: close all the doors to the room (which all open inward) and open a trapdoor in the ceiling. If any of the doors are blocked or unable to close, the lever cannot be pulled; if it is forced, the handle will break.
In the room that the trap door leads to is a large chamber filled with ball bearings that the goblins acquired from a source of your choosing; if your setting has steam-punk or Victorian leanings, they may have been stolen from an extant civilization, but otherwise the goblins likely found them or traded for them deeper down in the dungeon, as they are the remains of a lost and very advanced civilization, or else something magical. These ball bearings burst into the room, causing 2d6 damage to anyone standing underneath the trap door. (If you use minis and a mat, this is pretty straightforward; otherwise, give any character not pulling the lever a 1-in-8 chance to be standing under the trapdoor.)
The ball bearings fill the room to approximately armpit level on a human; the effect is such that small creatures can freely run about on top of the ball bearings, especially if they have large or webbed feet, while larger creatures sink and have a lot of trouble moving. Humans and elves have their movement rate slowed to as if they were as heavily encumbered as possible and are -4 on all their rolls. Due to the elevation difference and the lack of mobility, they are also -4 to their AC (if any players complain about this affecting elves, tell them this isn't snow in the wilderness, it's steel balls in the underworld, so if they want any magical exceptions because they're elves they can have 1d6 damage a round for exposure to ferrous metal). Dwarves are covered up entirely, but can still move around as if heavily encumbered, but must save against whatever you think is appropriate to keep from inhaling a ball bearing. Hobbits, halflings, goblins, kobolds and other small creatures that are in the room when the trap is triggered manage to get to the top of the ball bearings if they roll at or under their Dexterity score. They can move about as normal, but must continue to move in order not to sink into the bearings. If any of these small creatures don't manage to make it to the top of the bearings, they begin to be slowly crushed, taking 1d4 damage a turn.
The room that the ball bearings fall from is also connected to the other goblin dwellings by tunnels (that are set at 45 degree angles along the vertical axis to prevent the bearings from escaping down the tunnels). When they hear the trap triggered (and, really, half of a megadungeon would hear this trap triggered), they rush through these tunnels and down into the room with the party floundering in the bearings. What they do from there is up to the ref, but it will probably involve extortion or killing.
Detection/Disarming: Observant PCs will notice both the chains, cables or gears attached to the doors (to make sure they close when the lever is pulled) and the trap door in the ceiling. Since the trap door opens downward, it would make sense that it is triggered by the lever. Something that wants to close all doors and release a trap door in the ceiling is probably a trap. Goblins clearly labeling a lever as a way to get treasure may or may not be a clear sign that it is a trap, depending on how you run goblins in your game.
The chains or cables or gears that secure the doors may be destroyed, rendering the ball bearings much less dangerous if a door is kept open and the ball bearings roll out into the rest of the dungeon (all characters should roll at or under their Dexterity at -2 when walking among ball bearings or fall, though). Other than that, the party's best course of action is probably to avoid the trap altogether.
Designer: This trap is the result of goblin ingenuity, whether as a community (if you run savvy, clever goblins) or an exceptional goblin leader (if you generally run dumb goblins). They take great pleasure in the way this trap gives them an advantage over larger creatures in melee combat. When they are done with whatever triggered the trap, they will bag all of the bearings, take the bags up into the tunnels that lead to the room above, re-set the lever and trap door and pour the bearings into the room to prepare for next time.
Rolls:
19: Restraints/Hazards
4: Latch/Switch Trigger
10: Ball Bearings
Description: In a room that is deep enough inside the goblin area of a dungeon for the party to believe it could be where they store their treasure there is a lever. The lever may have been built by the goblins or be a repurposed lever originally built by virtually any race. The lever is probably inscribed or labeled in Goblin by the goblins with something like "Don't Touch!" or "Ask Chief before getting some treasure!" or "Stay Out!"- anything to make the party suspect that the goblins access their treasure by using the lever. The lever has been rigged by the goblins to do two things when it is pulled: close all the doors to the room (which all open inward) and open a trapdoor in the ceiling. If any of the doors are blocked or unable to close, the lever cannot be pulled; if it is forced, the handle will break.
In the room that the trap door leads to is a large chamber filled with ball bearings that the goblins acquired from a source of your choosing; if your setting has steam-punk or Victorian leanings, they may have been stolen from an extant civilization, but otherwise the goblins likely found them or traded for them deeper down in the dungeon, as they are the remains of a lost and very advanced civilization, or else something magical. These ball bearings burst into the room, causing 2d6 damage to anyone standing underneath the trap door. (If you use minis and a mat, this is pretty straightforward; otherwise, give any character not pulling the lever a 1-in-8 chance to be standing under the trapdoor.)
The ball bearings fill the room to approximately armpit level on a human; the effect is such that small creatures can freely run about on top of the ball bearings, especially if they have large or webbed feet, while larger creatures sink and have a lot of trouble moving. Humans and elves have their movement rate slowed to as if they were as heavily encumbered as possible and are -4 on all their rolls. Due to the elevation difference and the lack of mobility, they are also -4 to their AC (if any players complain about this affecting elves, tell them this isn't snow in the wilderness, it's steel balls in the underworld, so if they want any magical exceptions because they're elves they can have 1d6 damage a round for exposure to ferrous metal). Dwarves are covered up entirely, but can still move around as if heavily encumbered, but must save against whatever you think is appropriate to keep from inhaling a ball bearing. Hobbits, halflings, goblins, kobolds and other small creatures that are in the room when the trap is triggered manage to get to the top of the ball bearings if they roll at or under their Dexterity score. They can move about as normal, but must continue to move in order not to sink into the bearings. If any of these small creatures don't manage to make it to the top of the bearings, they begin to be slowly crushed, taking 1d4 damage a turn.
The room that the ball bearings fall from is also connected to the other goblin dwellings by tunnels (that are set at 45 degree angles along the vertical axis to prevent the bearings from escaping down the tunnels). When they hear the trap triggered (and, really, half of a megadungeon would hear this trap triggered), they rush through these tunnels and down into the room with the party floundering in the bearings. What they do from there is up to the ref, but it will probably involve extortion or killing.
Detection/Disarming: Observant PCs will notice both the chains, cables or gears attached to the doors (to make sure they close when the lever is pulled) and the trap door in the ceiling. Since the trap door opens downward, it would make sense that it is triggered by the lever. Something that wants to close all doors and release a trap door in the ceiling is probably a trap. Goblins clearly labeling a lever as a way to get treasure may or may not be a clear sign that it is a trap, depending on how you run goblins in your game.
The chains or cables or gears that secure the doors may be destroyed, rendering the ball bearings much less dangerous if a door is kept open and the ball bearings roll out into the rest of the dungeon (all characters should roll at or under their Dexterity at -2 when walking among ball bearings or fall, though). Other than that, the party's best course of action is probably to avoid the trap altogether.
Designer: This trap is the result of goblin ingenuity, whether as a community (if you run savvy, clever goblins) or an exceptional goblin leader (if you generally run dumb goblins). They take great pleasure in the way this trap gives them an advantage over larger creatures in melee combat. When they are done with whatever triggered the trap, they will bag all of the bearings, take the bags up into the tunnels that lead to the room above, re-set the lever and trap door and pour the bearings into the room to prepare for next time.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Tuesday Trap #8
I realize this is early, but last time I scheduled a post with this new Blogger setup it didn't post on time, so I figure I'll give them another week to work the kinks out before giving it a try. This trap write-up is longer than I'd like for such a simple trap; I'm not sure whether that's just because I'm tired or not. Oh well.
Rolls:
6: Ranged Attack
16: Magical Proximity Trigger
18: Spear
12: THAC0 14 (+6 to hit)
5: 1d8 Damage
Description: Over the entrance to Kobold territory in a dungeon, there is set a small sapphire surrounded by 10 oval holes that are about 4 centimeters across at their narrowest. When any non-Kobold approaches within a meter or so of the entrance, a spear (+6 to hit, 1d8 dmg) shoots out of one of the ovals (which are really cylindrical shafts for the spears, but are tilted down to hit targets below them). Each of the 10 shafts contains a spear, so the trap will fire again and again as more non-kobolds come within range. Unless a victim moves quickly, more spears will fire. When Kobolds are within 20 meters (the room this trap is found in) the trap does not activate. Kobolds periodically check on the trap, resetting it by feeding spears back into the ovals and cranking the sapphire with a special tool to keep the energy level up.
Detection: Kobolds are an enthusiastic lot, so, out of excitement and a desire to be emphatic, rather than any real malice, they have filled this room with all sorts of warnings against going any further and trespassing into their territory; this includes banners, signs, graffiti, heads and bodies of previous trespassers impaled on spikes or hung from the ceiling, etc. The comparatively small and subtle trap, then, should not be automatically announced to players who do not state that they examine the exit of this room that leads to Kobold territory, as those who do not specifically examine this doorway will miss the sapphire and holes amid the gaudy, over-the-top, harmless dressing of the room. A merciful referee may allow a passive check or saving throw to notice the trap before it goes off. Spells such as Detect Magic will find this trap with no problem.
Disarming: Once detected, this trap may be smashed to pieces or Dispel Magic may be cast upon it. Magic holds the spears in place, so if the trap is in any way destroyed to the degree that the magic fails, the spears will slide out; they are no longer magically aimed and propelled, so they now attack at +0 and do only 1d4 damage. There are, however, 10 of them unless some have already been fired. Clogging the holes, capturing a kobold to be on hand and removing all the spears are other possible means to bypass or disarm the trap. Stolen spears will be replaced by the Kobolds the next time they check the trap. If removed, the sapphire is worth 300 gp.
Designer: This trap is both uncharacteristic of the enthusiastic nature of Kobolds and beyond this tribe's capabilities. A captured magic-user bought his freedom by creating this trap for his captors and teaching them how to maintain it.
Rolls:
6: Ranged Attack
16: Magical Proximity Trigger
18: Spear
12: THAC0 14 (+6 to hit)
5: 1d8 Damage
Description: Over the entrance to Kobold territory in a dungeon, there is set a small sapphire surrounded by 10 oval holes that are about 4 centimeters across at their narrowest. When any non-Kobold approaches within a meter or so of the entrance, a spear (+6 to hit, 1d8 dmg) shoots out of one of the ovals (which are really cylindrical shafts for the spears, but are tilted down to hit targets below them). Each of the 10 shafts contains a spear, so the trap will fire again and again as more non-kobolds come within range. Unless a victim moves quickly, more spears will fire. When Kobolds are within 20 meters (the room this trap is found in) the trap does not activate. Kobolds periodically check on the trap, resetting it by feeding spears back into the ovals and cranking the sapphire with a special tool to keep the energy level up.
Detection: Kobolds are an enthusiastic lot, so, out of excitement and a desire to be emphatic, rather than any real malice, they have filled this room with all sorts of warnings against going any further and trespassing into their territory; this includes banners, signs, graffiti, heads and bodies of previous trespassers impaled on spikes or hung from the ceiling, etc. The comparatively small and subtle trap, then, should not be automatically announced to players who do not state that they examine the exit of this room that leads to Kobold territory, as those who do not specifically examine this doorway will miss the sapphire and holes amid the gaudy, over-the-top, harmless dressing of the room. A merciful referee may allow a passive check or saving throw to notice the trap before it goes off. Spells such as Detect Magic will find this trap with no problem.
Disarming: Once detected, this trap may be smashed to pieces or Dispel Magic may be cast upon it. Magic holds the spears in place, so if the trap is in any way destroyed to the degree that the magic fails, the spears will slide out; they are no longer magically aimed and propelled, so they now attack at +0 and do only 1d4 damage. There are, however, 10 of them unless some have already been fired. Clogging the holes, capturing a kobold to be on hand and removing all the spears are other possible means to bypass or disarm the trap. Stolen spears will be replaced by the Kobolds the next time they check the trap. If removed, the sapphire is worth 300 gp.
Designer: This trap is both uncharacteristic of the enthusiastic nature of Kobolds and beyond this tribe's capabilities. A captured magic-user bought his freedom by creating this trap for his captors and teaching them how to maintain it.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Tuesday Trap #7
We're going to try a little experiment today. I'm getting rid of the six short entries at the front of these trap stat blocks and adding a third longer entry at the end. Also, I'm going to try to take more liberties with adding to traps from here on out. "Inspiration, not dictation" is a great motto for these traps; otherwise you can just roll them up yourself. This trap is intended to be something that can be used in battle, both against or by the PCs, though the latter will be pretty risky.
Rolls:
Rolls:
15: Magical Devices
1: Latch/Switch Trigger
8: Curse
Description: On a wall is a lever in the "up" position. On the end of the handle of the lever is a symbol; it shows a flask being poured out inside a shield design. If the lever is pulled, randomly select a character in the room that is NOT touching the lever; that character is cursed and their prime attribute (or, at your option, a random attribute) is dropped to 3 until the curse is removed. The lever gains energy from the drained attribute and resets itself with that energy, moving bace to the "up" position. The area around the lever (~5 foot radius from lever) is bathed in a sickly blue, occasionally flickering, obviously unnatural light; the source of this light is a small panel in the ceiling. Taking inspiration from here, the blue light prevents any character with a Strength score over 9 to enter the area it bathes.
Detection/Disarming: The lever is easy to see, and a Detect Magic spell will clearly show that it is magical. The symbol on the lever is difficult to understand, but clever players may deduce that the lever is intended for defense (the shield) by draining or pouring out (the flask being poured out) something of the target (the ability score). Dispel Magic or physical violence are effective ways to destroy the trap, but give the PCs a 75% chance to knock the lever down, triggering the trap again, if they do not specifically state precautions the PCs take to avoid this; also, note that a PC that, say, clubs the lever down is vulnerable to the curse, since that PC is not touching the lever. The panel emitting the blue light is also powered by the drained ability scores. If the lever is destroyed, the panel will cease to emit light. If removed, the panel could fetch a good price from the right buyer.
Designer: This trap was placed by a magic-user of some sort who was afraid of being attacked. The idea was that, if he was attacked, he would flee to this room and pull the lever as much as he could, weakening his attackers, all while being protected from most fighters by the blue light. He'd then finish them off in more normal ways. This magic-user could still be around or he might be long gone. If he's gone, the trap may seem random and disjointed from the nearby occupants and rooms; newer residents may or may not be smart enough to use this trap in violent encounters with the PCs.
Description: On a wall is a lever in the "up" position. On the end of the handle of the lever is a symbol; it shows a flask being poured out inside a shield design. If the lever is pulled, randomly select a character in the room that is NOT touching the lever; that character is cursed and their prime attribute (or, at your option, a random attribute) is dropped to 3 until the curse is removed. The lever gains energy from the drained attribute and resets itself with that energy, moving bace to the "up" position. The area around the lever (~5 foot radius from lever) is bathed in a sickly blue, occasionally flickering, obviously unnatural light; the source of this light is a small panel in the ceiling. Taking inspiration from here, the blue light prevents any character with a Strength score over 9 to enter the area it bathes.
Detection/Disarming: The lever is easy to see, and a Detect Magic spell will clearly show that it is magical. The symbol on the lever is difficult to understand, but clever players may deduce that the lever is intended for defense (the shield) by draining or pouring out (the flask being poured out) something of the target (the ability score). Dispel Magic or physical violence are effective ways to destroy the trap, but give the PCs a 75% chance to knock the lever down, triggering the trap again, if they do not specifically state precautions the PCs take to avoid this; also, note that a PC that, say, clubs the lever down is vulnerable to the curse, since that PC is not touching the lever. The panel emitting the blue light is also powered by the drained ability scores. If the lever is destroyed, the panel will cease to emit light. If removed, the panel could fetch a good price from the right buyer.
Designer: This trap was placed by a magic-user of some sort who was afraid of being attacked. The idea was that, if he was attacked, he would flee to this room and pull the lever as much as he could, weakening his attackers, all while being protected from most fighters by the blue light. He'd then finish them off in more normal ways. This magic-user could still be around or he might be long gone. If he's gone, the trap may seem random and disjointed from the nearby occupants and rooms; newer residents may or may not be smart enough to use this trap in violent encounters with the PCs.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Tuesday Trap #6
This trap is… pretty ho-hum. Pit traps in general seem to be. They do work well in keeping your players on their guard, though. If you don't want your players complaining when a more complex trap kills, maims, grievously wounds or traps their characters, communicate to them beforehand that there are traps about by throwing a few pit traps into the environment; falling into a pit trap once or twice gets the point across much better than "alright, guys, I expect you to be careful in this dungeon." They can all be exactly the same, too… after all, even if they're not, they sure feel like they are. (You might want to vary the contents at the bottom of the pit, though.)
Also, according to my calculations, I'm now caught up on my Tuesday Traps series. These posts will be weekly from now on.
My Rolls:
1: Pit
5: Central Latch type
10: 10' Deep
14: Poisoned Spike
5: Number of Spikes that might Hit
10: THAC0 of 16 (+4 to hit)
13: 3d8 Damage per Hit
5: Number of Items in Pit
75: Broken Chair
15: Moldy Fruit
32: Small Metal Mirror
87: Humanoid Limbs
4: Offal
Trigger: Pressure
Save: Dexterity -6, AC, Poison
Reset: Manual Reset
Effects: Multiple Targets
Duration: Instant
Bypass: None
Description: This trap may be placed just about anywhere; it doesn't matter if it's in a hallway or a chamber or even outdoors. The pit is covered by two boards of equal size that meet along the center of the pit and each cover half of the pit, with their border running between 12 and 6 on a clock face. The sides of the boards that correspond with 9 and 3 rest on small indentations that are wider than the pit, keeping the boards from falling into the pit. The boards are held together by reeds laminated across the seam of the boards on the underside of the boards. The reeds and laminate are weak enough that even an unencumbered halfling would break them. Characters may save at -6 to avoid falling into the pit.
The pit is 10'/3m deep and the fall, as well as the falling boards, does 1d8 damage. The bottom of the pit is covered with poisoned spikes. Roll to attack five times at +4 to hit. Each hit is a spike, which does 1d8 damage. Each spike is poisoned; save vs. poison or suffer another 1d8 damage. Also in the pit are the entrails and arms of a recently (but not too recently) killed goblin, a smashed rocking chair, three molding apples and a small bronze hand mirror.
Detection/Disarming: Characters may detect this trap by many of the standard methods of trap detection. Examples include tapping the ground with sticks (a hollow sound will be heard), sprinkling liquid on the ground to see if it pools or drips through the floor, rolling barrels or large stones in front of the party, etc.
The trap may be disarmed by filling it with rubble or covering it with boards or some other flat, strong material.
Also, according to my calculations, I'm now caught up on my Tuesday Traps series. These posts will be weekly from now on.
My Rolls:
1: Pit
5: Central Latch type
10: 10' Deep
14: Poisoned Spike
5: Number of Spikes that might Hit
10: THAC0 of 16 (+4 to hit)
13: 3d8 Damage per Hit
5: Number of Items in Pit
75: Broken Chair
15: Moldy Fruit
32: Small Metal Mirror
87: Humanoid Limbs
4: Offal
Trigger: Pressure
Save: Dexterity -6, AC, Poison
Reset: Manual Reset
Effects: Multiple Targets
Duration: Instant
Bypass: None
Description: This trap may be placed just about anywhere; it doesn't matter if it's in a hallway or a chamber or even outdoors. The pit is covered by two boards of equal size that meet along the center of the pit and each cover half of the pit, with their border running between 12 and 6 on a clock face. The sides of the boards that correspond with 9 and 3 rest on small indentations that are wider than the pit, keeping the boards from falling into the pit. The boards are held together by reeds laminated across the seam of the boards on the underside of the boards. The reeds and laminate are weak enough that even an unencumbered halfling would break them. Characters may save at -6 to avoid falling into the pit.
The pit is 10'/3m deep and the fall, as well as the falling boards, does 1d8 damage. The bottom of the pit is covered with poisoned spikes. Roll to attack five times at +4 to hit. Each hit is a spike, which does 1d8 damage. Each spike is poisoned; save vs. poison or suffer another 1d8 damage. Also in the pit are the entrails and arms of a recently (but not too recently) killed goblin, a smashed rocking chair, three molding apples and a small bronze hand mirror.
Detection/Disarming: Characters may detect this trap by many of the standard methods of trap detection. Examples include tapping the ground with sticks (a hollow sound will be heard), sprinkling liquid on the ground to see if it pools or drips through the floor, rolling barrels or large stones in front of the party, etc.
The trap may be disarmed by filling it with rubble or covering it with boards or some other flat, strong material.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Tuesday Trap #5
This roll left me scratching my head… the table explicitly and specifically says not to roll on the trigger table for this trap, since it's a spell trap. OK… but a Blade Barrier isn't exactly a trap if it's just sitting there, right? And if the default duration, according to OSRIC, is 18 rounds, the party won't even encounter it if there's no trigger… unless you're a little extra creative. It's this kind of creativity, where you have to not just color, but color outside the lines a little, using tables for inspiration rather than for dictation, that I'm really thankful to the OSR in general for teaching me and for giving me a game where I can exercise it.
My Rolls:
13: Spells
10: Blade Barrier
Trigger: None
Save: None
Reset: Automatic
Effects: None
Duration: Instant
Bypass: Magic
Description: In a room or hallway, there is a fireman's pole hanging from the ceiling and a hole in the floor that it descends into. A meter or so below the floor, the pole is greased to the degree that characters cannot slow their descent at all, and fall at the speed of standard free-fall. The pole leads to another level or sub-level, but the pole ends an appreciable distance above the floor of this level so that getting ahold of the pole to climb back up, even if the grease can be dealt with, should be nigh-on impossible. Cruel refs can make the distance between the beginning of the grease and the floor of the second level quite a ways; kind refs may make the greased portion of the pole short and interpose a chute between the end of the pole and the second level to mitigate falling damage. Falling damage should be assigned consistent with the system being used.
On the second level, players find themselves in the middle of a whirling circular wall of all manner of swords, the result of a Blade Barrier spell. Anything passing through the Blade Barrier takes 8d8 damage. Every 15 minutes, a Magic Mouth on the wall casts a Blade Barrier spell of slightly different radius from the one currently in effect. The Blade Barrier reaches up to the ceiling and down to the floor of the chamber the characters are trapped in. Every day or so, some malevolent denizen of the dungeon drops by, dispels the current Blade Barrier spells right after one is cast (so there is 15 minutes to deal with those trapped) and deals with the victims of the trap in a way consistent with their nature. Possibilities include eating, enslavement, robbing and leaving the party destitute, interrogation, etc.
Detection/Disarming: Any character who jumps down a hole, fireman's pole or not, without at least a cursory examination is just asking for it. Smart players' characters will examine the pole and hole before jumping in. One way to do this is to fly or levitate into the hole without the aide of the pole. Another, more common, way would be to throw or lower a torch down into the hole. There should be a 50% chance that a torch going into the hole (whether held by a character or not!) lights the grease on fire. That alone should be plenty of warning to the party! If the second level is close enough to the mouth of the hole to see, and if no chutes block the view, the party should be able to see an open floor, but not the Blade Barrier; the party should be told that they can see strange shimmering on the floor, though, from the torchlight reflecting off of the spinning, whirling blades.
Once trapped, characters will probably need magic to escape, becoming gaseous or incorporeal or dispelling the Blade Barrier. If the Magic Mouth is smashed, it will no longer cast Blade Barrier, so one wizard with a way to get out of the the Blade Barrier with a club or mace of some sort should make short work of this trap. Of course, getting out of this new level is another matter entirely…
My Rolls:
13: Spells
10: Blade Barrier
Trigger: None
Save: None
Reset: Automatic
Effects: None
Duration: Instant
Bypass: Magic
Description: In a room or hallway, there is a fireman's pole hanging from the ceiling and a hole in the floor that it descends into. A meter or so below the floor, the pole is greased to the degree that characters cannot slow their descent at all, and fall at the speed of standard free-fall. The pole leads to another level or sub-level, but the pole ends an appreciable distance above the floor of this level so that getting ahold of the pole to climb back up, even if the grease can be dealt with, should be nigh-on impossible. Cruel refs can make the distance between the beginning of the grease and the floor of the second level quite a ways; kind refs may make the greased portion of the pole short and interpose a chute between the end of the pole and the second level to mitigate falling damage. Falling damage should be assigned consistent with the system being used.
On the second level, players find themselves in the middle of a whirling circular wall of all manner of swords, the result of a Blade Barrier spell. Anything passing through the Blade Barrier takes 8d8 damage. Every 15 minutes, a Magic Mouth on the wall casts a Blade Barrier spell of slightly different radius from the one currently in effect. The Blade Barrier reaches up to the ceiling and down to the floor of the chamber the characters are trapped in. Every day or so, some malevolent denizen of the dungeon drops by, dispels the current Blade Barrier spells right after one is cast (so there is 15 minutes to deal with those trapped) and deals with the victims of the trap in a way consistent with their nature. Possibilities include eating, enslavement, robbing and leaving the party destitute, interrogation, etc.
Detection/Disarming: Any character who jumps down a hole, fireman's pole or not, without at least a cursory examination is just asking for it. Smart players' characters will examine the pole and hole before jumping in. One way to do this is to fly or levitate into the hole without the aide of the pole. Another, more common, way would be to throw or lower a torch down into the hole. There should be a 50% chance that a torch going into the hole (whether held by a character or not!) lights the grease on fire. That alone should be plenty of warning to the party! If the second level is close enough to the mouth of the hole to see, and if no chutes block the view, the party should be able to see an open floor, but not the Blade Barrier; the party should be told that they can see strange shimmering on the floor, though, from the torchlight reflecting off of the spinning, whirling blades.
Once trapped, characters will probably need magic to escape, becoming gaseous or incorporeal or dispelling the Blade Barrier. If the Magic Mouth is smashed, it will no longer cast Blade Barrier, so one wizard with a way to get out of the the Blade Barrier with a club or mace of some sort should make short work of this trap. Of course, getting out of this new level is another matter entirely…
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Punji Sticks and Agent Orange: Fantasy F---ing Vietnam and being Intentional about Fun
I love traps in D&D, even more than I love most monsters. They're a chance to be heinously creative in the most violent way possible and, what can I say, I enjoy getting a chance to do that. Equally enjoyable, though, is watching a group of players successfully navigate a trap. As much as I enjoy the violence inherent in traps (and, to some degree, we all do, seeing as we're playing D&D) I think I enjoy the creativity even more, which is why I think I actually enjoy watching players successfully deal with a trap even more than watching their characters caught, hurt, maimed or killed by my traps; of course, that's still an entertaining consolation prize.
Because there's creativity on both sides of a well-run trap of this type, I'd like to be on the other side of the screen when some of these are encountered; I'd like to be creatively dealing with traps for a change, and marveling at the creativity of the ref, instead of the other way around. In fact, I'd like to play in a game, no, a campaign with lots and lots of traps in it. I'd like to play in a game of the type that is commonly referred to as "Fantasy F---ing Vietnam." That is, I'd like to play in a game where dangerous traps are everywhere and a significant part of each game is working through finding and dealing with those traps, in a way reminiscent of the experience of soldiers fighting the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, who had to constantly be on the alert for all sorts of traps. (So, yes, in some ways, I'm a frustrated player, though I do honestly enjoy ref-ing; it's just that I'd love to be both ref-ing and playing.)
I currently own, in hard copy, two trap books. Both were originally published before I was born. One is Dragontree's Handbook of Traps and Tricks and the other is Flying Buffalo's Grimtooth's Traps Too. I bought them so that I could run Old School traps in my games. Both of them are excellent and full of nasty traps. I've noticed, though, that there are two different kinds of traps in these books.
The first kind of trap is the kind I bought the books for: devious, nasty traps that require creativity, cleverness and caution to survive. They're the kind of traps I hope I emulate in my Tuesday Traps series. I like to define them as "fair but cruel." They're likely to catch unprepared players off guard, but they're not unavoidable. I think it's fair to compare these to punji pit traps in Vietnam. These traps injured, maimed and killed hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers, but that was largely because they didn't have the luxury of poking about with ten-foot poles; to grossly oversimplify, they were carrying their rifles in their hands.
There's another kind of trap, though, that I could call the "gotcha" trap. It's a trap where there's really no escape, no way to detect the trap before hand and, even if you could detect it, no way to disable it. As an example, the last trap in Grimtooth's Traps Too is microscopic flesh-eating worms encased in the spine of a book; when a character opens the book, the worms are released and, unnoticed by the character, worm they way into the character's body. The ref now has carte blanche to do whatever he wants to the character, whenever he wants to do it. That's it, no warning, no discernable trap, no possible way a character can have any idea what happened until it's too late. I think it's fair to campare these traps to Agent Orange, the industrial herbicide that thousands of soldiers were exposed to without knowing (putting aside whether the government knew about it or not- I'm already a bit worried that I'm going to hit a raw nerve by digging deeper into this Vietnam metaphor) that it would do all sorts of horrible things to them, usually later on in their lives. There wasn't anything they could do to avoid it and there were no warnings, no matter how careful or creative they were.
These kinds of traps, then, are another way to decrease the kind of fun I look forward to with traps at the table because, once again, they kill creativity, because players can't use their creativity to defeat traps.
Not only that, but when players don't have any chance at all of dealing with traps through roleplaying, they eventually stop roleplaying and start asking to roll dice. When you can roll dice, you've got a chance, no matter how small, of detecting microscopic worms and then rolling again and avoiding or destroying them; you don't have to be able to explain how you did it. You just did, 'cus the dice said so. And that- having to use the dice to defend yourself against the GM- is lame.
Now, I understand that there are other kinds of fun out there. There's a goofy, let's watch our characters die sort of fun that is OK with gotcha/Agent Orange-style traps, and it's one kind of Old School kind of fun. There's a New School kind of fun where the ability to deal with traps is part of the character's build and dealing with traps with die rolls with really high modifiers is validation of the skill points or feats or powers put toward that ability- the kind of fun where playing the game is quite a bit about testing your character build.
Both of these are legitimate kinds of fun. They're just not my kinds of fun.
(At least, they're not the kinds of fun I am usually interested in when I'm playing an RPG; I actually think I could enjoy both of these kinds of fun, provided the first kind was for a one-shot or one uncharacteristic adventure and provided that the second kind had build options that didn't seem to me to be ridiculously arbitrary from the designer's standpoint; that is, I can appreciate character building in Risus much more than character building in 3.5. But that's another post for another day.)
My kind of fun, when it comes to traps, is where both the ref and the players are clever, creative and careful and both the ref and the players get to enjoy watching whoever's on the other side of the screen be, or show off the fruits of being, clever, creative and careful.
What's my point in all this? My point is first of all that it's a good thing, if not particularly of life-or-death importance, to know what kind of fun you like. I've done that, and maybe helped you figure out what kind of fun you like, in which case this post will have been worth something.
My second point, though, is that certain kinds of fun can be fragile, especially the kinds of fun that take more work. I think that running traps the way I find most enjoyable takes more work than running traps of either the "gotcha" style or the roll-roll-done style, and I think that's why it's rarer. If not intentionally maintained, this style of play will naturally morph into one of the other two styles; if I'm not careful to make sure this trap has feasible ways to be discovered or if I don't put enough work into it and include enough detail so that this trap can actually be role-played, it's going to be a gotcha or roll-roll-done trap. If I let my players roll to discover traps because it's the umpteenth time they've asked, or if I let my inner tyrant-GM push aside my inner referee because the players are frustrating me somehow and I want to "show" them, I'm going to be slipping into the other kinds of fun (or un-fun, in the case of vengeful GM-ing).
It's easy to slip one way or the other. I don't want my traps to be wimpy, so it's easy for me to slip into gotcha traps. I don't want my players to get frustrated, so it's tempting whenever they ask to roll for something I want them to role-play (they, to their credit, don't do this nearly as often as they used to). Even though I recognize that these other types of fun are legitimate, if I want to have my kind of fun then I have to be intentional and put work into defending it. That's part of why I adopted Courtney's format for traps for my Tuesday Traps; they force me to make sure I'm not pulling any gotcha traps. Sure, it takes more work to think of at least a few ways to deal with the trap, but I have to put the work in if I'm going to have this kind of fun.
So I think about my fun and I defend my fun, not by tearing other kinds of fun down but by putting in the work to maintain the style of play that I find fun.
Because there's creativity on both sides of a well-run trap of this type, I'd like to be on the other side of the screen when some of these are encountered; I'd like to be creatively dealing with traps for a change, and marveling at the creativity of the ref, instead of the other way around. In fact, I'd like to play in a game, no, a campaign with lots and lots of traps in it. I'd like to play in a game of the type that is commonly referred to as "Fantasy F---ing Vietnam." That is, I'd like to play in a game where dangerous traps are everywhere and a significant part of each game is working through finding and dealing with those traps, in a way reminiscent of the experience of soldiers fighting the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, who had to constantly be on the alert for all sorts of traps. (So, yes, in some ways, I'm a frustrated player, though I do honestly enjoy ref-ing; it's just that I'd love to be both ref-ing and playing.)
I currently own, in hard copy, two trap books. Both were originally published before I was born. One is Dragontree's Handbook of Traps and Tricks and the other is Flying Buffalo's Grimtooth's Traps Too. I bought them so that I could run Old School traps in my games. Both of them are excellent and full of nasty traps. I've noticed, though, that there are two different kinds of traps in these books.
The first kind of trap is the kind I bought the books for: devious, nasty traps that require creativity, cleverness and caution to survive. They're the kind of traps I hope I emulate in my Tuesday Traps series. I like to define them as "fair but cruel." They're likely to catch unprepared players off guard, but they're not unavoidable. I think it's fair to compare these to punji pit traps in Vietnam. These traps injured, maimed and killed hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers, but that was largely because they didn't have the luxury of poking about with ten-foot poles; to grossly oversimplify, they were carrying their rifles in their hands.
There's another kind of trap, though, that I could call the "gotcha" trap. It's a trap where there's really no escape, no way to detect the trap before hand and, even if you could detect it, no way to disable it. As an example, the last trap in Grimtooth's Traps Too is microscopic flesh-eating worms encased in the spine of a book; when a character opens the book, the worms are released and, unnoticed by the character, worm they way into the character's body. The ref now has carte blanche to do whatever he wants to the character, whenever he wants to do it. That's it, no warning, no discernable trap, no possible way a character can have any idea what happened until it's too late. I think it's fair to campare these traps to Agent Orange, the industrial herbicide that thousands of soldiers were exposed to without knowing (putting aside whether the government knew about it or not- I'm already a bit worried that I'm going to hit a raw nerve by digging deeper into this Vietnam metaphor) that it would do all sorts of horrible things to them, usually later on in their lives. There wasn't anything they could do to avoid it and there were no warnings, no matter how careful or creative they were.
These kinds of traps, then, are another way to decrease the kind of fun I look forward to with traps at the table because, once again, they kill creativity, because players can't use their creativity to defeat traps.
Not only that, but when players don't have any chance at all of dealing with traps through roleplaying, they eventually stop roleplaying and start asking to roll dice. When you can roll dice, you've got a chance, no matter how small, of detecting microscopic worms and then rolling again and avoiding or destroying them; you don't have to be able to explain how you did it. You just did, 'cus the dice said so. And that- having to use the dice to defend yourself against the GM- is lame.
Now, I understand that there are other kinds of fun out there. There's a goofy, let's watch our characters die sort of fun that is OK with gotcha/Agent Orange-style traps, and it's one kind of Old School kind of fun. There's a New School kind of fun where the ability to deal with traps is part of the character's build and dealing with traps with die rolls with really high modifiers is validation of the skill points or feats or powers put toward that ability- the kind of fun where playing the game is quite a bit about testing your character build.
Both of these are legitimate kinds of fun. They're just not my kinds of fun.
(At least, they're not the kinds of fun I am usually interested in when I'm playing an RPG; I actually think I could enjoy both of these kinds of fun, provided the first kind was for a one-shot or one uncharacteristic adventure and provided that the second kind had build options that didn't seem to me to be ridiculously arbitrary from the designer's standpoint; that is, I can appreciate character building in Risus much more than character building in 3.5. But that's another post for another day.)
My kind of fun, when it comes to traps, is where both the ref and the players are clever, creative and careful and both the ref and the players get to enjoy watching whoever's on the other side of the screen be, or show off the fruits of being, clever, creative and careful.
What's my point in all this? My point is first of all that it's a good thing, if not particularly of life-or-death importance, to know what kind of fun you like. I've done that, and maybe helped you figure out what kind of fun you like, in which case this post will have been worth something.
My second point, though, is that certain kinds of fun can be fragile, especially the kinds of fun that take more work. I think that running traps the way I find most enjoyable takes more work than running traps of either the "gotcha" style or the roll-roll-done style, and I think that's why it's rarer. If not intentionally maintained, this style of play will naturally morph into one of the other two styles; if I'm not careful to make sure this trap has feasible ways to be discovered or if I don't put enough work into it and include enough detail so that this trap can actually be role-played, it's going to be a gotcha or roll-roll-done trap. If I let my players roll to discover traps because it's the umpteenth time they've asked, or if I let my inner tyrant-GM push aside my inner referee because the players are frustrating me somehow and I want to "show" them, I'm going to be slipping into the other kinds of fun (or un-fun, in the case of vengeful GM-ing).
It's easy to slip one way or the other. I don't want my traps to be wimpy, so it's easy for me to slip into gotcha traps. I don't want my players to get frustrated, so it's tempting whenever they ask to roll for something I want them to role-play (they, to their credit, don't do this nearly as often as they used to). Even though I recognize that these other types of fun are legitimate, if I want to have my kind of fun then I have to be intentional and put work into defending it. That's part of why I adopted Courtney's format for traps for my Tuesday Traps; they force me to make sure I'm not pulling any gotcha traps. Sure, it takes more work to think of at least a few ways to deal with the trap, but I have to put the work in if I'm going to have this kind of fun.
So I think about my fun and I defend my fun, not by tearing other kinds of fun down but by putting in the work to maintain the style of play that I find fun.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Tuesday Trap #4
Yeah, I know it's Thursday, but I've decided that I'm actually going to catch up on the traps I missed. So you get a Tuesday Trap today.
My Rolls:
10: Melee Attack
20: Touch Trigger (magical)
15: Blade Slash
12: THAC0 14 (+6 to hit)
9: 2d6 Damage
Trigger: Touch (magical)
Save: AC
Reset: Automatic
Effects: None
Duration: Instant
Bypass: Larger steps, clogging
Description: Of a set of stairs, one or more of them is trapped. When a trapped stair is touched, no matter how lightly, a blade swings out from below the stair one step higher. The touch and the magic involved power the swinging blade, so no reset is required. The blade hits at +6 and only the character's armor protecting the shins or calves (depending on whether the character was ascending or descending) counts towards calculating AC for the attack. The blade does 2d6 damage and may cripple characters at your option (characters may, again, at your option, get a saving throw to mitigate or avoid crippling). Characters should make a saving roll not to fall, taking whatever damage is appropriate. Cruel referees will place multiple traps on the same stairway and/or have this stairway run along a drop-off for increased damage from falling.
Detection/Disarming: The simplest way to detect this trap is to tap each stair with a pole or other object before stepping on it; amusingly, even players who think to do this on a dungeon level's floor will often not check stairs before descending or ascending them. Once detected, taking a larger-than-usual step is sufficient to avoid the trap (unless the next stair is also trapped…). The small slot the blade emerges from should be camouflaged, perhaps by a dark strip of cloth that hangs over it and blends in with the stair, or another method of your choosing; visual detection should be difficult. Detect Magic will also detect that something is magical about the stair, but will not indicate anything about the blade; the magic portion of the trap is wholly contained in the stair. This trap may be jammed or broken by roughly and forcibly inserting items such as poles or crowbars into the trap.
My Rolls:
10: Melee Attack
20: Touch Trigger (magical)
15: Blade Slash
12: THAC0 14 (+6 to hit)
9: 2d6 Damage
Trigger: Touch (magical)
Save: AC
Reset: Automatic
Effects: None
Duration: Instant
Bypass: Larger steps, clogging
Description: Of a set of stairs, one or more of them is trapped. When a trapped stair is touched, no matter how lightly, a blade swings out from below the stair one step higher. The touch and the magic involved power the swinging blade, so no reset is required. The blade hits at +6 and only the character's armor protecting the shins or calves (depending on whether the character was ascending or descending) counts towards calculating AC for the attack. The blade does 2d6 damage and may cripple characters at your option (characters may, again, at your option, get a saving throw to mitigate or avoid crippling). Characters should make a saving roll not to fall, taking whatever damage is appropriate. Cruel referees will place multiple traps on the same stairway and/or have this stairway run along a drop-off for increased damage from falling.
Detection/Disarming: The simplest way to detect this trap is to tap each stair with a pole or other object before stepping on it; amusingly, even players who think to do this on a dungeon level's floor will often not check stairs before descending or ascending them. Once detected, taking a larger-than-usual step is sufficient to avoid the trap (unless the next stair is also trapped…). The small slot the blade emerges from should be camouflaged, perhaps by a dark strip of cloth that hangs over it and blends in with the stair, or another method of your choosing; visual detection should be difficult. Detect Magic will also detect that something is magical about the stair, but will not indicate anything about the blade; the magic portion of the trap is wholly contained in the stair. This trap may be jammed or broken by roughly and forcibly inserting items such as poles or crowbars into the trap.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Tuesday Trap #3
Tuesday Traps are back! I'm quite pleased with this trap. It's weird and unsettling (I hope) in a silly sort of way, and it has many, many ways to get around it, but all require some thinking. It's also much shorter than the previous traps in this series. Here's hoping it's the start of a trend.
Rolls:
15: Magical Devices
17: Trigger: Sound (magical)
10: Inflict Wounds
Trigger: Sound
Save: None
Reset: Automatic
Effects: Never Miss
Duration: Instant
Bypass: Move silently, Silence spell, Fly spell, Levitation spell, Spiderwalk spell, Long carpet, Dispel Magic spell, Destroy trap, etc., etc., etc.
Description: This trap is a hallway (as long or short as you want it- if it takes more than 10 seconds to go though, the first character in- and those following- will get zapped; if it takes less than 10 seconds to go through, the first character, at least, will be spared- that will be confusing to the party). The stone walls are carved so that they appear to be covered with the life-size ears of humans, demi-humans and humanoids (at your option, they are painted with lifelike color). The floor of the hallway is made of 1 cm square ceramic tiles arranged in a checkered black-and-red pattern. Whenever the ears carved into the wall hear any noise, the red tiles discharge an Inflict Wounds spell upon any living creature in contact with them. It takes them 10 seconds to recharge. The Inflict Wounds spell allows no save; victims lose 10% of their hit points.
Detection/Disarming: The decor of the hallway makes it obvious that something is up, and even points to the nature of the trigger. Discerning characters can attempt to move silently through the hallway through either skill or magic, move through the hallway without touching the floor (if the characters put something on the floor to walk on, they are saved from the Inflict Wounds spell, but mere footwear- definable as something they are actually wearing- will not shield them), disable the magical trap with magic or merely set about destroying the ears or tiles by hand. Only perfect magic ears and tiles work, so breaking them with a mace, club, etc. will do the trick handily, but characters will run into trouble when they discover that destroying the ears makes quite a lot of sound and a good number of the ears are out of reach of the areas outside the hallway… destroying the tiles is much more effective and safe, but less obvious- players should be informed of the damage without being told that the attack is coming from the floor. Moving through the hallway in this way should be very slow.
Rolls:
15: Magical Devices
17: Trigger: Sound (magical)
10: Inflict Wounds
Trigger: Sound
Save: None
Reset: Automatic
Effects: Never Miss
Duration: Instant
Bypass: Move silently, Silence spell, Fly spell, Levitation spell, Spiderwalk spell, Long carpet, Dispel Magic spell, Destroy trap, etc., etc., etc.
Description: This trap is a hallway (as long or short as you want it- if it takes more than 10 seconds to go though, the first character in- and those following- will get zapped; if it takes less than 10 seconds to go through, the first character, at least, will be spared- that will be confusing to the party). The stone walls are carved so that they appear to be covered with the life-size ears of humans, demi-humans and humanoids (at your option, they are painted with lifelike color). The floor of the hallway is made of 1 cm square ceramic tiles arranged in a checkered black-and-red pattern. Whenever the ears carved into the wall hear any noise, the red tiles discharge an Inflict Wounds spell upon any living creature in contact with them. It takes them 10 seconds to recharge. The Inflict Wounds spell allows no save; victims lose 10% of their hit points.
Detection/Disarming: The decor of the hallway makes it obvious that something is up, and even points to the nature of the trigger. Discerning characters can attempt to move silently through the hallway through either skill or magic, move through the hallway without touching the floor (if the characters put something on the floor to walk on, they are saved from the Inflict Wounds spell, but mere footwear- definable as something they are actually wearing- will not shield them), disable the magical trap with magic or merely set about destroying the ears or tiles by hand. Only perfect magic ears and tiles work, so breaking them with a mace, club, etc. will do the trick handily, but characters will run into trouble when they discover that destroying the ears makes quite a lot of sound and a good number of the ears are out of reach of the areas outside the hallway… destroying the tiles is much more effective and safe, but less obvious- players should be informed of the damage without being told that the attack is coming from the floor. Moving through the hallway in this way should be very slow.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday Trap #2
Tuesday Trap Time, albeit late. I'm not sure if fleshed-out traps just take a lot of space to cover adequately or if I just need to work on being less verbose when describing traps. I feel like I'm writing a stat block for a rules-heavy system or something… we'll see if I can get these more succinct as I continue this series, I suppose. In the meantime, at least this trap works.
My Rolls:
2: Pit
10: Breakaway
2: 10' Deep
14: Poisoned Spike
3: Number of spikes with a chance to hit
4: THAC0 of 18
16: Average trap damage range of 6d6
5: Number of items rolled up for bottom of the trap
59: Broken wooden ladder rungs
36: Snake skeleton
78: Smashed eggs
72: Ivory scroll case
42: Brass ring
Trigger: Pressure
Save: Trap only is triggered 1/6 of the time/ Dwarf stonecraft check if your system uses them/ Optional weight minimum to trigger /Poison
Reset: Manual
Effects: Poison
Duration: Instant
Bypass: None/ Optional low weight
Description: This trap can easily be placed in three situations. The first is your standard "I/ the bad guys that live in this dungeon want to make it dangerous for strangers to traipse about this dungeon." Not as fun as the other two options, in my opinion, because it doesn't make as much sense, seeing as this is an expensive and extra-deadly trap, but it'll work.
Situation two is to place this pit trap in the obvious path to some treasure. There may or may not be an easy way to walk around it.
Situation three is that this trap is placed in an NPC's lair. If confronted and unsure of victory, the NPC will flee via an escape passage (which may or may not be hidden by a tapestry, painting, bookshelf, false wall, etc.) which is thin enough to force anyone going through it to step on the top of this pit trap. The NPC should be lighter than your average PC.
The trap is situated in a place with a floor that is made of stone. Possible options include stone tiles, solid stone and irregular chunks of stone. The chances of noticing the trap should probably be higher if the floor is solid and continuous.
The pit has a lid that is a slab of stone that has been weakened on the underside. If the general floor is continuous, the edges of the slab may be camouflaged with dust; if the floor is made up of tiles, the lid is a tile. When sufficient pressure is put on the lid, it will break apart, dropping anyone on the lid into the pit. The fragments of the lid will be quite big and will contribute to the damage suffered by anyone who falls into the pit. The pit will only be triggered on a roll of 1 on a d6. If more than one character steps on the lid at a time, roll again each time a new character steps on the lid, increasing the chance of the trap being triggered by one, cumulatively.
That is, if Hogarth steps on the trap, roll a d6 and trigger the trap if you roll a 1. If Stella steps on the trap while Hogarth is still standing on it, roll a d6 again and trigger the trap if you roll a 1 or a 2. If Bill steps on the trap while Hogarth and Stella are both still on the trap, roll a d6 once more and trigger the trap if you roll a 1, 2 or 3 and so on.
If you keep track of your players' characters' encumbrance to the degree where you know how much your players' characters weigh, you can say that pressure below a certain weight will not trigger the trap, a certain range of weight will trigger the trap on 1/6 and pressure above a certain weight will trigger the trap on a 2/6, etc.
If you are running an NPC that uses this trap in an escape route, the NPC can automatically not trigger the trap at your option, depending on how competent your NPC is in designing and producing traps.
The trap is 10 feet/3 meters deep. A character that falls in will automatically take falling damage according to your system of choice's rules for falling damage (1d6 dmg suggested if your system doesn't include falling damage) and damage from the chunks of the lid falling on them (another 1d6 dmg).
There are spikes at the bottom of the pit with a distribution so that each character that falls in has a chance to be injured by three spikes. The spikes each hit at +2 (someone please correct me if that's an incorrect translation of a THAC0 of 18) and do 1d6 damage.
The spikes are also poisoned. Any character hurt by a spike must save against poison or take an additional 1d6 damage and begin to hallucinate. The player should not be informed that the character is hallucinating, but you should inform the player that the character is seeing strange things of your choosing at regular intervals. Ideally, these hallucinations should make safe situations seem absurdly dangerous and dangerous situations seem laughably safe. An example might be seeing a gelatinous cube slipping down a perfectly safe and empty stairway or seeing a contingent of benevolent demi-humans menacing an evil sorcerer who is in fact alone and able to devote all of her attention to fighting the PCs. These hallucinations should last for 1d4 game sessions and then go away as the poison works its way out of the character's system.
At the bottom of the pit, among the spikes, are broken wooden ladder rungs, a snake skeleton, the rotting, smeared remains of broken eggs, an ivory scroll case (covered in egg residue) and a cheap brass ring with the insignia of an ancient minor kingdom, a secret society in your setting, a favorite chariot racer, or something like that on it.
Detection/Disarming: This trap is difficult to detect, but not impossible. Ideally, the context of the trap will be the biggest clue that there may be a trap in the area; players should not expect that, for example, a treasure on conspicuous display in a room is not guarded by a trap of some sort.
Mere poking with a 10 foot pole will not reveal the presence of this trap, though a hollow sound may be produced if a 10 foot pole is thwacked against the lid instead of merely tapped. If large amounts of pressure are exerted against the lid, it will break according to the normal procedure outlined above. Other methods of detecting pit traps, like watching the behavior of liquid cast about the floor to check for the liquid dripping through seams of a lid, should generally work as makes sense to you. Reward efforts obviously meant to detect a pit trap.
The trap may also be detected passively if your particualar ruleset allows for that. This trap counts as stonework for the purpose of detection by a dwarf. At your option, you may modify the chances of detection to be poorer than normal, especially if the floor is tiled.
This trap may be disarmed by covering it with something that can support more weight than the lid can. It can also be rendered obvious by triggering it. If PCs are particularly zealous in their efforts, the trap could be filled with rubble to render it completely safe.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Tuesday Trap #1
I've decided to start a new feature! Every Tuesday, for as long as I can manage it, I'll post a trap I've generated using Tricks, Empty Rooms and Basic Trap Design. Hopefully, this will turn into a good source of traps for myself and for readers. Well, here goes.
My Rolls:
16: Magical Devices
19: Visual Trigger (Magical)
17: Phantasmal Killer
Trigger: Visual (Magical)
Save: Intelligence Check
Reset: Automatic Reset
Special Effects: None
Duration: Instant/1d6+6 Rounds
Bypass: Sheath All Blades/Destroy Trigger
Description:
This trap is situated in a room that once served as the bedroom of an illusionist (or someone served by an illusionist, at your option). If you have an illusionist that fits this trap for your campaign, use that character; otherwise, you may have the illusionist be some long-forgotten anonymous NPC or you may want to fully develop the illusionist as an NPC in your game.
Whatever the case, this illusionist was afraid of assassination and set a magical eye in the wall to watch for drawn blades. When this eye sees blades of any sort, it casts Phantasmal Killer upon whichever characters are bearing drawn blades.
The spell Phantasmal Killer is found on page 112 of OSRIC. It's an illusion, but an illusion that will scare its victim to death if it's not disbelieved with an intelligence check and if it succeeds in hitting the victim. It will dissipate after as many rounds as the level the spell is cast at. If you don't know the level Phantasmal Killer is being cast at, roll 1d6+6.
Detection/Disarming:
Every entrance to this room is a door with carvings on it. The carvings should, in some way, with whatever level of subtlety you think is appropriate or entertaining, signal that characters should sheath their blades.
One possible carving is a simple exhortation to sheathe blades in a language that the party members may or may not know, or in magical writing, requiring an expenditure of a Read Magic spell to read.
Another possibility is a relief showing figures entering the room. In one panel the figures enter with weapons drawn and a fearsome beast attacks them, slaying them. In a second panel the figures enter without weapons drawn and they are unharmed.
The key is to have some sort of warning on the door for the players. The warning may be obvious and clear or somewhat convoluted, requiring effort, time and/or resources the players may or may not be willing to have their characters expend. It should be obvious to the players that there is media on the door; whether they choose to examine it or not is, of course, their choice.
The magic eye inside the room should also be obvious. Personally, I would have it be a stylized eye in a relief on the wall. The eye is obviously deeper than the rest of the relief and, at your option, glows. The relief should be some scene that the illusionist would find enjoyable or comforting, such as an achievement, promotion or victory of his or perhaps a central scene from his religion's teaching. Smashing the eye to pieces will disarm the trap and cause any active Phantasmal Killers to dissipate. Note that the trap only activates when the magic eye sees a blade; other weapons (such as a club to smash the eye) may be brandished with impunity. It is your option whether sharp points count as blades or not.
My Rolls:
16: Magical Devices
19: Visual Trigger (Magical)
17: Phantasmal Killer
Trigger: Visual (Magical)
Save: Intelligence Check
Reset: Automatic Reset
Special Effects: None
Duration: Instant/1d6+6 Rounds
Bypass: Sheath All Blades/Destroy Trigger
Description:
This trap is situated in a room that once served as the bedroom of an illusionist (or someone served by an illusionist, at your option). If you have an illusionist that fits this trap for your campaign, use that character; otherwise, you may have the illusionist be some long-forgotten anonymous NPC or you may want to fully develop the illusionist as an NPC in your game.
Whatever the case, this illusionist was afraid of assassination and set a magical eye in the wall to watch for drawn blades. When this eye sees blades of any sort, it casts Phantasmal Killer upon whichever characters are bearing drawn blades.
The spell Phantasmal Killer is found on page 112 of OSRIC. It's an illusion, but an illusion that will scare its victim to death if it's not disbelieved with an intelligence check and if it succeeds in hitting the victim. It will dissipate after as many rounds as the level the spell is cast at. If you don't know the level Phantasmal Killer is being cast at, roll 1d6+6.
Detection/Disarming:
Every entrance to this room is a door with carvings on it. The carvings should, in some way, with whatever level of subtlety you think is appropriate or entertaining, signal that characters should sheath their blades.
One possible carving is a simple exhortation to sheathe blades in a language that the party members may or may not know, or in magical writing, requiring an expenditure of a Read Magic spell to read.
Another possibility is a relief showing figures entering the room. In one panel the figures enter with weapons drawn and a fearsome beast attacks them, slaying them. In a second panel the figures enter without weapons drawn and they are unharmed.
The key is to have some sort of warning on the door for the players. The warning may be obvious and clear or somewhat convoluted, requiring effort, time and/or resources the players may or may not be willing to have their characters expend. It should be obvious to the players that there is media on the door; whether they choose to examine it or not is, of course, their choice.
The magic eye inside the room should also be obvious. Personally, I would have it be a stylized eye in a relief on the wall. The eye is obviously deeper than the rest of the relief and, at your option, glows. The relief should be some scene that the illusionist would find enjoyable or comforting, such as an achievement, promotion or victory of his or perhaps a central scene from his religion's teaching. Smashing the eye to pieces will disarm the trap and cause any active Phantasmal Killers to dissipate. Note that the trap only activates when the magic eye sees a blade; other weapons (such as a club to smash the eye) may be brandished with impunity. It is your option whether sharp points count as blades or not.
Monday, June 27, 2011
The Scoundrel, Part 8: Trap Skills
So, now we've hit the part where I go through each chunk of prospective skills and sort them as either Out, a Skill or an Ability. Let's start with trap-related skills…
Notice Traps: This is a passive skill; "I'm just traipsing through this dungeon and I spotted that tripwire" kind of a thing, sort of like an Elf passively sensing a secret door in some iterations of D&D. If I were to include this, that would mean rolling dice in secret, because we obviously can't have automatic passive trap detection. Having tried to do that for Elf characters when they pass secret doors, I've found that I tend to forget to roll passive checks for my players half the time. Other refs may also have the problem of players figuring out what they are rolling for and taking the hint to actively look for something. (I roll for wandering monsters regularly, and have been known to roll my dice just to make sure my players don't try to figure out why I'm rolling my dice, so that's not a huge problem for me.) Besides the fact that I hate passive rolls that I have to make because I hate forgetting them, I feel that this will cut down on trap-finding roleplaying; every trap that is passively noticed is one less trap that the players find through roleplaying and one more time that they are rewarded for not roleplaying. Verdict: Out
Find Traps: This is active. "I'm looking for traps, probably poking around with a pole or something, and just found that tripwire." I figure this can be roleplayed without a problem, and I'm willing to allow players to find traps with no chance of failure, provided that the way they describe their character's actions would reasonably reveal a trap. So, a PC that's probing ahead with a 3-meter pole would find a pit trap without a problem, but, if only concentrating on the ground, would miss the scything blade trap from the ceiling that's activated by the stylized magic eye in the wall. Anyway, I'm willing to trade fail-proof trap detection for good roleplaying, even if it means that less traps will actually go off. I've found that, as a ref, I gain as much, if not more, pleasure seeing my players creatively get around a problem as I do in watching their characters die because of creative traps. Verdict: Out
Disable Small/Mechanical Traps: This, the way I understand it, is an attempt to keep thieves from being able to abstractly deal with all traps, but still keep mechanical traps of some sort, like poison needle traps or traps with clockwork or dart-shooting traps, as something that can quickly be dealt with by thieves. I don't like that because I think players are perfectly capable of roleplaying this kind of thing out. I also think this is the kind of thing any class should be able to do, and don't like the idea of having high chances of failure when attempting this- in fact, I'm pretty comfortable with just letting a player succeed in doing what he concretely describes with at least all but the most difficult mechanical traps. Verdict: Out
Disable Traps: I really don't like this one, which you could probably figure out by the way I rejected Disable Small/Mechanical Traps. I'm a big fan of roleplaying trap disabling. The important thing to remember in rejecting this as a skill or ability, though, is that, when placing traps, you have to think through at least one way that the trap can reasonably be avoided or disabled by the PCs. Courtney's got some resources for doing that here and here. I've found the first one helpful and just discovered the second. Verdict: Out
Well… that's… consistent… I really do plan on a verdict other than "Out" for other skill/ability candidates, I promise.
Think I've got something wrong, or just misunderstood something, for one of these? Let me know! Next time: skill/ability candidates loosely related to doors.
Notice Traps: This is a passive skill; "I'm just traipsing through this dungeon and I spotted that tripwire" kind of a thing, sort of like an Elf passively sensing a secret door in some iterations of D&D. If I were to include this, that would mean rolling dice in secret, because we obviously can't have automatic passive trap detection. Having tried to do that for Elf characters when they pass secret doors, I've found that I tend to forget to roll passive checks for my players half the time. Other refs may also have the problem of players figuring out what they are rolling for and taking the hint to actively look for something. (I roll for wandering monsters regularly, and have been known to roll my dice just to make sure my players don't try to figure out why I'm rolling my dice, so that's not a huge problem for me.) Besides the fact that I hate passive rolls that I have to make because I hate forgetting them, I feel that this will cut down on trap-finding roleplaying; every trap that is passively noticed is one less trap that the players find through roleplaying and one more time that they are rewarded for not roleplaying. Verdict: Out
Find Traps: This is active. "I'm looking for traps, probably poking around with a pole or something, and just found that tripwire." I figure this can be roleplayed without a problem, and I'm willing to allow players to find traps with no chance of failure, provided that the way they describe their character's actions would reasonably reveal a trap. So, a PC that's probing ahead with a 3-meter pole would find a pit trap without a problem, but, if only concentrating on the ground, would miss the scything blade trap from the ceiling that's activated by the stylized magic eye in the wall. Anyway, I'm willing to trade fail-proof trap detection for good roleplaying, even if it means that less traps will actually go off. I've found that, as a ref, I gain as much, if not more, pleasure seeing my players creatively get around a problem as I do in watching their characters die because of creative traps. Verdict: Out
Disable Small/Mechanical Traps: This, the way I understand it, is an attempt to keep thieves from being able to abstractly deal with all traps, but still keep mechanical traps of some sort, like poison needle traps or traps with clockwork or dart-shooting traps, as something that can quickly be dealt with by thieves. I don't like that because I think players are perfectly capable of roleplaying this kind of thing out. I also think this is the kind of thing any class should be able to do, and don't like the idea of having high chances of failure when attempting this- in fact, I'm pretty comfortable with just letting a player succeed in doing what he concretely describes with at least all but the most difficult mechanical traps. Verdict: Out
Disable Traps: I really don't like this one, which you could probably figure out by the way I rejected Disable Small/Mechanical Traps. I'm a big fan of roleplaying trap disabling. The important thing to remember in rejecting this as a skill or ability, though, is that, when placing traps, you have to think through at least one way that the trap can reasonably be avoided or disabled by the PCs. Courtney's got some resources for doing that here and here. I've found the first one helpful and just discovered the second. Verdict: Out
Think I've got something wrong, or just misunderstood something, for one of these? Let me know! Next time: skill/ability candidates loosely related to doors.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Foray into Dungeon Building, Part 7
So, the map is finished and the monsters are placed. Time to figure out what all is in these rooms besides monsters.
Treasure first, since it's so simple. Treasure goes in rooms 9, 11, 13, 14 and 16. Using Sham's Treasure Tables, but converting gold to silver, as my campaign uses that as its base metal, this is what I roll up:
9: 50 silver
11: 100 silver
13: something worth 60 silver
14: 50 silver
16: something worth 60 silver
So, rooms 13 and 16 need something worth 60 silver. Enter Taichara's Little Treasures, a list of 100 items to stick in treasure. I roll percentile dice and get a carnelian flask with a poppy-based beverage in it and a bronze torc (after re-rolling when the second result seemed too valuable for 60 silver). Unfortunately, it seems that the Little Treasures aren't hosted for download anymore, but it also seems that Taichara is willing to email them to those who ask.
On to traps for rooms 6 and 15. I had originally planned to use OSRIC's trap charts, but just about the time I started this project, Courtney over at Hack & Slash put out a really, really cool resource called Tricks, Empty Rooms and Basic Trap Design that I'm going to use instead. In it, Courtney lays out a format for traps that almost amounts to giving them a stat block. Traps each have triggers, effects (maybe), saves (maybe), duration, resets and ways to be bypassed (maybe). As someone who wants to be a fair-but-deadly referee, I like this a lot because it forces me to make sure that each trap I set is avoidable by player choice; if the players can avoid it, it's fair, no matter how deadly.
So, rolling up two traps on Tricks, Empty Rooms and Basic Trap Design's Appendix I, this is what I get:
Room 6: Scything Blade Trap
Trigger: Magical Proximity
Effects: None
Save: AC
Duration: Instant
Resets: Manual
Bypass: Be Short
Description: Over the western door is a stylized, eye-shaped magical proximity sensor that triggers the trap whenever any being approaches the door. When triggered, a scythe blade swings out from the western side of the door at human neck level. The Kobolds who set this trap avoid it merely be being short and the regular patrols coming and going to the front door reset and maintain it. The trap does 8d8 damage and hits at +10.
Detection/Disarming: The first clue that something is amiss is the eye-shaped proximity sensor above the door. The second is the poorly camouflaged slot that the scythe comes out of. The easiest way to avoid the trap is just to crouch while approaching the door, but it is conceivable that PCs may jam the blade or disable the proximity trigger.
And I think I'll end there for now. These posts have been getting really long, and I want to curb that for ease of reading. Next time I'll keep fleshing out the rooms in Level 1 Area 4.
Treasure first, since it's so simple. Treasure goes in rooms 9, 11, 13, 14 and 16. Using Sham's Treasure Tables, but converting gold to silver, as my campaign uses that as its base metal, this is what I roll up:
9: 50 silver
11: 100 silver
13: something worth 60 silver
14: 50 silver
16: something worth 60 silver
So, rooms 13 and 16 need something worth 60 silver. Enter Taichara's Little Treasures, a list of 100 items to stick in treasure. I roll percentile dice and get a carnelian flask with a poppy-based beverage in it and a bronze torc (after re-rolling when the second result seemed too valuable for 60 silver). Unfortunately, it seems that the Little Treasures aren't hosted for download anymore, but it also seems that Taichara is willing to email them to those who ask.
On to traps for rooms 6 and 15. I had originally planned to use OSRIC's trap charts, but just about the time I started this project, Courtney over at Hack & Slash put out a really, really cool resource called Tricks, Empty Rooms and Basic Trap Design that I'm going to use instead. In it, Courtney lays out a format for traps that almost amounts to giving them a stat block. Traps each have triggers, effects (maybe), saves (maybe), duration, resets and ways to be bypassed (maybe). As someone who wants to be a fair-but-deadly referee, I like this a lot because it forces me to make sure that each trap I set is avoidable by player choice; if the players can avoid it, it's fair, no matter how deadly.
So, rolling up two traps on Tricks, Empty Rooms and Basic Trap Design's Appendix I, this is what I get:
Room 6: Scything Blade Trap
Trigger: Magical Proximity
Effects: None
Save: AC
Duration: Instant
Resets: Manual
Bypass: Be Short
Description: Over the western door is a stylized, eye-shaped magical proximity sensor that triggers the trap whenever any being approaches the door. When triggered, a scythe blade swings out from the western side of the door at human neck level. The Kobolds who set this trap avoid it merely be being short and the regular patrols coming and going to the front door reset and maintain it. The trap does 8d8 damage and hits at +10.
Detection/Disarming: The first clue that something is amiss is the eye-shaped proximity sensor above the door. The second is the poorly camouflaged slot that the scythe comes out of. The easiest way to avoid the trap is just to crouch while approaching the door, but it is conceivable that PCs may jam the blade or disable the proximity trigger.
Room 15: Triggered Bear Trap
Trigger: Trigger Wire
Effects: None
Save: None
Duration: Until Reset
Resets: Manual
Bypass: Avoid or Block
Description: In the wall of this room is a hole that any human, humanoid or demihuman could fit their arm into. If light is shined into it, a glinting can be seen; there is a large, worthless, crudely and irregularly cut chunk of quartz at the back of the hole. A trigger wire goes through the middle of the quartz, suspending it between the walls of the hole. When the quartz is moved at all, the wire is triggered and a bear trap slams down on whatever was pulling on the quartz, holding him, her or it in place until a wandering monster or the Kobolds come. To the right of the hole, hidden by moss on the wall, is a small key-hole that will release the bear trap; the Kobolds will release PCs from the trap for a fee of 10 silver if the party is on good terms with them.
Detection/Disarming: A random-looking hole with a glinting a few feet in is pretty clearly a trap and PCs should know that this is best left alone. If the PCs investigate, they can discover that it is a trap by sticking something besides their own arms into the hole, which will be held in place or snapped by the bear trap. If a PC does get trapped, the rest of the party can search for the key-hole and attempt to pick it, or they can attempt to pry the bear trap open. To open the trap enough for the character to escape, they will need a combined strength score of 35 and something thick and metal, like a crow-bar. Wood or even weapons will not work.
And I think I'll end there for now. These posts have been getting really long, and I want to curb that for ease of reading. Next time I'll keep fleshing out the rooms in Level 1 Area 4.
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