ADVANCED TECHNIQUE: LOCAL THEMES
The traps in a particular complex (or in one section of a larger environment, like a megadungeon) should follow certain patterns/themes/principles: The kobolds cover their pit traps with woven grass mats. The archmage painted rooms in his sanctum containing magical traps purple so that his servants would know to avoid them. Traps throughout the Storm Lord’s stronghold can be bypassed using the current passphrase. The smell of gas warns of the risk of explosion.
In terms of the game world, this obviously makes sense: The kobolds use the materials they have available. The archmage and the Storm Lord have practical considerations. The threat of gas usually threatens an entire mine or cave complex.
In terms of game design, these patterns allow the players to learn from their experiences. As they learn the patterns, the players are gaining expertise which they can then use (either to activate their character’s expertise or to trump it). “Do I see any black rubies inset into the walls? No? Okay, we’re probably fine.”
When executed well, this technique can shape the entire experience of a dungeon, creating interest even in areas WITHOUT traps. For example, I had a dungeon filled with sideways-gravity pit traps (that looked just like side corridors until you walked in front of them and then— Ahhh!). Once the PCs knew they existed, they had to (a) figure out how to get people out of them, (b) figure out how to get across them safely, and (c) spent the rest of the dungeon paranoid about every side corridor they came to. This particular group figured out that they could tie a weight to a rope and throw it into an intersection to see what would happen. Later, when they were running from a monster, they saw an unexplored side corridor up ahead and suddenly had a unique dilemma to grapple with.
Once you set these patterns, you can also play with them through variations and red herrings: We know that rooms with black rubies set into the walls are dangerous, but now there’s a room with red rubies. Is it safe? Will the red rubies have some different effect?
ADVANCED TECHNIQUE: FORTUNE-IN-THE-MIDDLE
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about how traps can be detected and disabled, but what happens when they actually get triggered?
Design traps that are more interesting than “single mechanical interaction = damage or no damage.”
Framing trap interactions using fortune-in-the-middle techniques can be useful here:
- “You hear the click of a pressure plate under your boot, what do you do?”
- “Suddenly arrows start shooting out of the walls! What do you do?”
- “There’s a sharp hiss and green gas begins shooting out of nozzles in the ceiling. What do you do?”
Even if the ultimate outcome is still damage-or-no-damage (as with the arrow trap), giving the players a chance to actively react to the trap as it’s being triggered makes the trap more interesting and engaging.
I find this to be true even when 95% of the possible reactions are likely to end up being mechanically modeled the same way: Drop to the floor, dive for cover, raise your shield, try to grab the arrow out of the air… It probably all boils down to a Dodge action that gives me disadvantage when making the attack roll for the arrows, right? Despite this, the player is actively engaged with the game world and a vivid picture is being collaboratively painted.
Random Tip: In situations like this, have the player roll the disadvantage d20 they’ve created. I’m indifferent to doing this in actual combat and it’s statistically irrelevant, of course, but it’s another way of getting the player engaged in the trap’s resolution.
This technique can often be particularly effective if the player has incomplete information on what they’re reacting to: They hear a click or a hiss; or there’s a sudden change in air pressure; or the sound of clockworks ticking down behind the wall. Do they freeze? Do they turtle? Do they run? Which way?
You might notice that any trap is resolved using a fortune-in-the-middle technique when it’s found before triggering: You’ve found a pressure plate in the floor… how do you disable it or bypass it?
Fortune-in-the-middle is also one of the reasons why the classic pit trap remains so popular: If you trigger the trap and fall into the pit, you are immediately faced with the question of how you’re going to get out of the pit. (And this can range from a relatively simple solution to a fiendishly difficult one depending on the nature of the pit.)
ADVANCED TECHNIQUE: DYNAMIC TRAPS
Any trap that presents the PCs with a new situation or dilemma is gold, and you can extend that response/problem-solving interaction beyond a single resolution point with dynamic traps.
Pay particular attention to traps that create or change the environment. Classic examples include flooding rooms (which you can extend to flooding an entire dungeon), confusion gas that turns friend against friend, or a trap that releases monsters that the PCs now have to fight. The trap is merely the instigation for a larger and more involved interaction.
Another example are the old school traps that teleport the entire group (or a single PC) to a different location: Not only do they create the immediate, ongoing, short-term complication of needing to figure out where you are (and how to get out!), but in the long-term such a trap can actually turn into a resource (with the PCs using it to quickly move around the dungeon).
Also: Traps that result in one of the PCs getting stuck immediately compel the group to figure out how to solve the problem. Consider a trap that causes anyone walking within a 10-foot square to fall into a magical coma. Somebody walks in and falls unconscious. Somebody goes to help them: BAM! Also unconscious. Can the rest of the group figure out how to get them out of there without succumbing themselves?
(You’re thinking of solutions right now, aren’t you?)
A variant of this is the trap wall that slides down and seals off a room or corridor. This one is interesting because its effect can vary greatly depending on how the PCs trigger it (and combines well with trigger uncertainty): If the scout triggers it, they’re now trapped on the far side. Or it might split the group in half. Or the whole group might get through and the net effect is that they can no longer backtrack (unless they reverse the trap or tear down the wall).
On that note, clearly triggering something and then not knowing what the trigger did is a great away to get the players engaged in paranoid speculation and anxiety. Maybe it’s just a broken trap. Maybe it caused walls to shift positions throughout the dungeon. Maybe it was an alarm summoning monsters from afar.
On the other hand, a non-obvious trigger with a non-local effect can create satisfying puzzles for the PCs. It may take them a long time to figure out that the walls are shifting every time they walk across the cartouche of the Grey Emperor.
So, to briefly sum up, think about traps that:
- Create new situations/dilemmas.
- Change the environment or create a new environment.
- Can also be a resource for the PCs once they figure it out.
- Endanger or imprison the victim of the trap.
- Have varied effect depending on position/circumstance.
- Have non-local (possibly wide-ranging) effects when triggered.
ADVANCED TECHNIQUE: ONGOING EFFECTS
GMs often fall into thinking of traps as bang-bang interactions. (Pun intended.) You hit the tripwire, an arrow fires from the wall, and the trap is done.
But it’s also possible for a trap to pose an ongoing threat or hazard. For example, if a non-drow enters the sacred hall, the statues of Lloth in the entryway activate and begin filling the entrance with webs while an alarm sounds. Or the turret of spinning blades that rises up into the room, once activated, continues spinning for an hour.
Obviously such traps are often dynamic ones, with the ongoing effect creating the new situation or dilemma for the PCs to solve.
This can also include traps that reset. Traps that instantly reset (and can trigger every time someone walks over the pressure plate, for example) are fun, but traps that take 2-3 rounds to reset (so that you might think it was a one-shot trap only for it to reactivate and zap you again) can be devilish puzzles for the players to figure out.
Longer reset intervals are also possible, but are generally only meaningful in xandered dungeons where the PCs are likely to come back to the trap later. Longer intervals might also mean a trap that needs to be manually reset (i.e., the monsters have to come by and do it), and this can even include traps that have been disabled by the PCs (i.e., the monsters find their sabotage and repair it).
ADVANCED TECHNIQUE: TRAPS AS COMPLICATION
Traps don’t have to be isolated encounters. They can be incorporated into larger, more diverse encounters to add interest and complexity. For example, fighting an ogre chieftain in a big room is fine. Fighting an ogre chieftain in a big room filled with pit traps (that the chieftain knows the location of, but the PCs don’t!) is a very different and very memorable encounter!
This can be particularly true with dynamic traps and traps with ongoing effects. A trap that can be triggered halfway through an encounter and completely changes the character or tactical situation of that encounter is a great way to spice up a battle. Such trap-like effects can also be deliberately triggered by the bad guys (they don’t have to wait for the PCs to trigger them accidentally!).
Running the dungeon as a theater of operations is great for this technique because any trap can dynamically become part of the tactical situation. Plus, once the players have learned to think of the dungeon like this, they’ll start using the traps they find to their advantage! “Let’s lure them back to the hall of alchemist’s fire and then pull the pin Diego used to jam the triggering mechanism!”
We’ve been talking about traps being integrated into combat encounters, but that’s not the only option. For example, traps can be combined with other traps to create cool, combinatory effects. A simple example I’m particularly fond of are pressure plates on the opposite sides of pit traps: You jump over the pit trap or climb out of it or disable it and walk across it… and then immediately trigger a trap on the far side.
(A Bigby’s hand that shoves them back into the trap they just avoided is always hilarious if used sparingly.)
Keep in mind that such interactions can be themes in a particular dungeon: The players can learn to be cautious of the far side of pits in Leopold’s Lair.
And what about other types of encounters? Could a nobleman lure victims into a charm person effect when negotiating? What about trying to solve a puzzle while an ongoing trap spits fire at you?
ADVANCED TECHNIQUE: NATURALLY OCCURRING “TRAPS”
We have a tendency to think of traps as designed mechanisms: Someone intentionally made the trap as a security measure.
But trap-like interactions can also be naturally occurring. Quicksand is the pulp classic, along with giant entangling lianas, spouts of lava, and icy crevasses covered by thin layers of snow.
If you’re having difficulty getting into this mindset, think about how the effect of a designed trap could naturally occur:
- A pit trap might be floor or rock ledge that has become unstable.
- A sleep spell that targets everyone in a room might be a cavern filled with soporific fungus.
- A fireball trap can be a cavern filled with explosive gas
A related technique are dungeon features that were designed for a practical purpose, but which can be traps for the unwitting or unwary. (“What does this lever in the old dwarven forge do? Ahhhhhh! Molten lava!”) You can also have features that have been broken down and become hazards due to neglect and the passage of time.
ADVANCED TECHNIQUE: BROKEN & SPENT TRAPS
Traps themselves can break down over time. The PCs can find their shattered and spent remnants as they explore the dungeon.
If you’re running an open table, this sort of thing is happening organically all the time, with groups coming across the wreckage left by previous expeditions. In any case, these scenes often paint a story of what came before: The skeleton at the bottom of the open pit. The flame spout hacked apart by a magical blade. The arrow hole with a piton spiked through it.
As such, these are cool dungeon details. But more than that, they are an opportunity for the PCs to learn about the types of traps that might be found in the dungeon. They’re an opportunity to gain expertise.
In many cases, traps don’t actually need to be broken in order to contain (or be surrounded with) evidence of the carnage they’ve wrought in the past. (Or, conversely, the absence of any signs of activity in an otherwise busy complex can itself be a clue.)
One excellent example is the classic landmine scene sprinkled liberally among any number of films: the “click”, trying to figure out a way to resolve the situation, possibly adding in complications, and then, ideally, an injured player who now represents an interesting dilemma for the party. Someone who can no longer run away easily, who probably needs help walking, might need to evacuated for proper medical care, etc. And the players still have to figure out how to get across the mine field.
Whether you trigger them on totally unsuspecting players or give them a tense scene where they try to make it across (possibly with a fake-out as they turn out to have stepped on an old, half-buried can), you have a great tool for interesting traps. Transplanting the concept to other settings can easily be done with only a small amount of work.
For me, one of the biggest obstacles to using traps in my games is just trying to justify them within the gameworld. You’ve touched on this a few times but I’d be interested in a more thorough discussion since heavy use of traps isn’t something that happens very often in real life.
Paul Goodman (2) said:
“heavy use of traps isn’t something that happens very often in real life”
I take dungeons to be hostile environments, akin to a warzone. In that case, traps make perfect sense.
In “clearing” traps, I’d ask players for a roll to detect, then roll to identify, as a pre-requisite to clearing, then a coherent procedure (described by the player) to effectively “un-trap”. So, with a poison needle trap in a chest latch, finding the trap isn’t enough, without also knowing what kind of trap it is, & just knowing the kind doesn’t automatically open it. So, too, just detecting doesn’t automatically make the “safe un-trap” method obvious.
That might be more “granular” than warranted for all cases, & is liable to slow play down….
Check out The Tunnels of Cu Chi by Tom Mangold and John Penycate. Describes the immense, booby-trap-laced tunnel complex created by the Viet Cong in Cu Chi province during the Vietnam War.
They’re not D&D dungeons (’cause those don’t exist), but it’s a very cool book and can give some realistic grounding for a subterranean environment that was laced with traps despite people working and living there. Get grounded, then flip up into fantasy.
Military booby-traps in general are what you want to look at. There’s a long history of those. If you think of the classic megadungeon as being riven by factions constantly at war with each other, it’s not hard to imagine generations of booby traps filling its hallways.
Then you’ve got tomb complexes. In the real world their security measures were limited by architectural and scientific ingenuity and most of the traps we think of are a conceit of adventure fiction, but in a world of magic and magically assisted building the imagination literally becomes the limit.
Are you familiar with the Angry GM’s “click” rule?
“It probably all boils down to a Dodge action that gives me disadvantage when making the attack roll for the arrows, right?”
Actually, I’d handle each of those reactions differently. Drop to the floor? You’re now prone, so ranged attacks are at disadvantage against you. Dive for cover? Add a +2 or +5 to your AC depending on how substantial the cover is. Raising your shield might be considered equivalent to a Dodge action, or just allow them to add the shield’s AC bonus, depending on how lenient I am about assuming the PC always has their shield at the ready even outside of combat. Snatch the arrow out the air? If they’re a monk, refer to the Deflect Missiles ability, otherwise the answer would be “Yeah, right!”
Really cool article… some of this reminds me of the 3 perils of fire swamp…
WESTLEY
I mean, what are the three
terrors of the Fire Swamp? One,
the flame spurts. No problem.
There’s a popping sound preceding
each, we can avoid that. Two, the
Lightning Sand. But you were
clever enough to discover what
that looks like, so in the future
we can avoid that too.
BUTTERCUP
Westley, what about the R.O.U.S.’s?
WESTLEY
Rodents of Unusual Size? I don’t
think they exist…
My favorite trap I’ve had in an adventure so far was from a mini adventure (based on Matt Colville’s Delian Tomb) that I found and used as an intro to Lost Mines.
There’s a trap, triggered by a pressure plate at the bottom of a staircase, that has blades come from the ceiling, potentially hitting anyone on the stairs and then locking into place at the top of the stairs and separating the party.
To me, this trap has lots of elements that make it fun and interesting:
-the pressure plate is on a tile clearly marked with a coat of arms, so it would be obvious to people who are supposed to be able to bypass it
-the trap is in a realistic-ish location because it separates the public and private areas of the tomb / temple
-it’s more interesting than just damage, and doesn’t directly hit the character who triggers it
-the trigger condition is clearly defined for the DM, but not necessarily clear to the players right away (a certain amount of weight is required to trigger the pressure plate, such that a small character normally won’t trigger it, nor will most objects you could put on it to test it)
-it separates the party and introduces a new puzzle – how do we raise the blades and reunite the party – but with a simple solution. There’s a hole in the wall for a crank, and the crank is just around the corner. Finding the crank requires taking a risk by exploring into the unknown, possibly alone.