Post by StoryTeller on Jan 22, 2006 7:02:24 GMT
The Painful Foot Dart
From: Viola Krings <krings@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>
This trap is triggered by weight on a part of the floor. The walls are plated
with wood. When someone steps on the trigger, a click is heard, and a dart
shoots out from the wall on each side, leaving the wooden panels ripped off. The
dart shoot out at the height of one's hips.
A few yards after that, again a pressure plate will cause the click, but this
time, the dart pairs come at foot level, and one pair in front of the passing
character, one a bit behind, so he will go unharmed unless he tries to jump
away.
Chooser Ain't the Loser
From: neil@clo.com (Neil Watson)
The party falls down a chute which was originally a set of stairs. Just as they
begin collecting their wits they hear the sound of stone grinding on stone. They
look up just in time to see a huge stone block sliding down the chute to crush
the players. Here's the twist, where the players are standing there is an alcove
to hide and be safe from the block. It's only large enough for one person!!!!
Will they die together or fight for survival (every man/women for themselves)?
Deadly Pit of Doom
From: Berg <berg@eskimo.com>
This trap is for when the PCS venture into a truly lethal dungeon (drow shrines
and illithid strongholds for example). It is gonna kill the guy who trips it,
and probably anyone nearby as well.
The trap is a 30' deep, 10' wide square pit trap. The bottom 10' of the shaft is
filled with green slime. At the 11' mark, there is a side passage off of the
main shaft, at a right angle. Also at that point is an angled mirror. The effect
is of an empty-looking 30' deep pit. From the mirror, up to within 4' of the
top, is pure, clear water. For purposes of this trap, it doesn't matter if it is
open or closed, open is far more dramatic, closed is more lethal. Place a
skeleton in the side passage of the pit for aesthetics.
Further, the water is invisible, and has an illusion of a water filled pit over
it.
What does this mean? It means that the pit looks like a 30' deep pit filled with
water, with a skeleton at the bottom, as seen from the top. It's a killer in 3
ways. First, you could drown, second the slime could eat you, and third, you
could die in the fall.
A clever party will try to disbelieve the pit trap, and if they succeed, will
see a dry 30' deep pit with or without a skeleton at the bottom. Anyone who goes
in in heavy armor is gonna have trouble when they hit the water. But that isn't
the worst part. The mirror is capable of supporting the weight of the water on
it, but NOTHING else. Entering the pit causes the mirror to break. This drops a
volume of water, 15'x10'x10' into a 10'x10'x10' volume of green slime. The water
drops, and the wet slime fountains up and onto the party around the top of the
pit. Anyone in the pit dies. Anyone within 10' makes a half dex check to avoid
the slime, anyone within 20' makes a normal dex check (30' total).
To make matters worse, waterlogged green slime does NOT burn.
To disarm the trap, cast dispel illusion, dispel magic, transmute water to dust,
shatter, and fireball. This will make it just a 30' deep pit. Possibly with some
sort of door at the bottom.
If someone falls in, make the next 2 or 3 pits water filled, dry and empty,
and/or illusionary, but otherwise fairly safe. It's far better to scare the
players with the possibility of character death than it is to actually kill them
all off.
Cold Feet
From: brian@stars1.den.mmc.com (Brian Martin)
A room of various dimensions can be used. A chandelier with various amounts of
oil burn above a pit trap. The walls of the pit trap a covered with brown mold.
The chandelier is rigged to fall in when the pit trap is sprung.
Most characters that fall in the pit will die as by the time they are able to
work on getting out, they are frozen. The people left out of the pit or the
trigger'er can also be caught as the brown mold can grow to epic proportions
Also, do not forget the flame damage of those in the pit from the fire.
Chess Is the Best
From: jon_b@oldham.gpsemi.COM (Jonathon Buckel)
You need a chessboard, and a chess set to run the trap. Do not show the PC's the
chessboard and pieces until the first player steps on a square, else you might
give the trap away.
OUT
-------| |-------
| |
-----------------
h |w|b|w|b|w|b|w|b|
-----------------
g |b|w|b|w|b|w|b|w|
-----------------
f |w|b|w|b|w|b|w|b|
-----------------
e |b|w|b|w|b|w|b|w|
-----------------
d |w|b|w|b|w|b|w|b|
-----------------
c |b|w|b|w|b|w|b|w|
-----------------
b |w|b|w|b|w|b|w|b|
-----------------
a |b|w|b|w|b|w|b|w|
-----------------
| |
-------| |-------
IN
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Essentially you find a room with a chess board for a floor with a space at each
end. Some force prevents you from flying across or climbing the walls. Or
teleporting across, etc. A force also stops you from being able to stand across
or between squares.
Once you step on a square, you essentially become the chess piece for the
relevent square you stood on. You are white and thus move first. You can only
move as that piece can move. A rook up/down/sideways, a bishop diagonally only,
etc. Only the 8 back row pieces are available, no pawns.
Also a corresponding piece appears at the other end of the chess board. The DM
controlled piece.
Thus if you step on square a1, you become a rook and a rook appears at square
h1. At a2, you are a Knight and a Knight appears at h2. At a3 a Bishop and a
Bishop appears at h6. If you step on a4 you are a Queen and a Queen will appear
at h5. King similarly.
If a player reaches the DM's back row and is safe at that position, then the
player may leave the chess board. (Obviously if the PC takes the DM's piece he
can safely stand at the DM's side of the chessboard) The DM's opposing piece
also disapears.
The fastest way across is to become a rook, you get to move first, thus you can
immediatly move 8 spaces forwards and take your opponent. This of course is how
the owner of this little trap uses this room. The player characters of course
don't even know it is a chess game and will thus most likely not do this.
Usually you end up having 3 or more PC's on the board.
The PC's cannot afford to swap pieces to gain an advantage whereas the DM can,
thus giving the DM an advantage. 1 on 1, crossing isn't difficult. Multiple
pieces makes it more interesting. heh heh heh!
If a PC steps onto the same square as a PC's piece that is already in the game,
you can either allow 2 (or more) of the same piece, in which case another DM
piece arrives. swap the second PC for the first and the first exits back to the
PC side of the board, or not allow this.
What happens when one side loses the King is also variable, from all pieces of
that side then die, (ouch for the PC's :-)) to just the King can die.
What happens if a PC loses his piece is up to the individual DM, I usually
described a pretty horific scene of the PC being suitably killed by the chess
piece, (see the PC game battlechess for ideas) but was actually transported to
some prison cell less his equipment/clothes/etc. Whatever equipment/clothes the
DM was nice enough to return to the PC could be found elsewhere, perhaps another
cell in the same room. The cells could be found by the other PC's at a later
time in the dungeon.
The DM should play his chess game at the level of the PC's if possible. ;-)
After 2 tries at this, I always had more than 2 or 3 PC's on the board. Both
teams lost pieces before the others crossed safely. One team were in dire
trouble when they had a really good idea of getting another PC to join the game
as King so the King of the DM side appeared, their move then was to immediately
take the DM's King. Fortunately they had a piece positioned appropriately. I
removed all the DM pieces from play at that point. I was feeling leniant and it
was a good idea. And if they hadn't come up with something quick, none of them
may have successfully got across.
It is a very 'open' trap, it can be modified as the trap progresses. You could
also do this with draughts, rather than chess pieces.
From: Viola Krings <krings@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>
This trap is triggered by weight on a part of the floor. The walls are plated
with wood. When someone steps on the trigger, a click is heard, and a dart
shoots out from the wall on each side, leaving the wooden panels ripped off. The
dart shoot out at the height of one's hips.
A few yards after that, again a pressure plate will cause the click, but this
time, the dart pairs come at foot level, and one pair in front of the passing
character, one a bit behind, so he will go unharmed unless he tries to jump
away.
Chooser Ain't the Loser
From: neil@clo.com (Neil Watson)
The party falls down a chute which was originally a set of stairs. Just as they
begin collecting their wits they hear the sound of stone grinding on stone. They
look up just in time to see a huge stone block sliding down the chute to crush
the players. Here's the twist, where the players are standing there is an alcove
to hide and be safe from the block. It's only large enough for one person!!!!
Will they die together or fight for survival (every man/women for themselves)?
Deadly Pit of Doom
From: Berg <berg@eskimo.com>
This trap is for when the PCS venture into a truly lethal dungeon (drow shrines
and illithid strongholds for example). It is gonna kill the guy who trips it,
and probably anyone nearby as well.
The trap is a 30' deep, 10' wide square pit trap. The bottom 10' of the shaft is
filled with green slime. At the 11' mark, there is a side passage off of the
main shaft, at a right angle. Also at that point is an angled mirror. The effect
is of an empty-looking 30' deep pit. From the mirror, up to within 4' of the
top, is pure, clear water. For purposes of this trap, it doesn't matter if it is
open or closed, open is far more dramatic, closed is more lethal. Place a
skeleton in the side passage of the pit for aesthetics.
Further, the water is invisible, and has an illusion of a water filled pit over
it.
What does this mean? It means that the pit looks like a 30' deep pit filled with
water, with a skeleton at the bottom, as seen from the top. It's a killer in 3
ways. First, you could drown, second the slime could eat you, and third, you
could die in the fall.
A clever party will try to disbelieve the pit trap, and if they succeed, will
see a dry 30' deep pit with or without a skeleton at the bottom. Anyone who goes
in in heavy armor is gonna have trouble when they hit the water. But that isn't
the worst part. The mirror is capable of supporting the weight of the water on
it, but NOTHING else. Entering the pit causes the mirror to break. This drops a
volume of water, 15'x10'x10' into a 10'x10'x10' volume of green slime. The water
drops, and the wet slime fountains up and onto the party around the top of the
pit. Anyone in the pit dies. Anyone within 10' makes a half dex check to avoid
the slime, anyone within 20' makes a normal dex check (30' total).
To make matters worse, waterlogged green slime does NOT burn.
To disarm the trap, cast dispel illusion, dispel magic, transmute water to dust,
shatter, and fireball. This will make it just a 30' deep pit. Possibly with some
sort of door at the bottom.
If someone falls in, make the next 2 or 3 pits water filled, dry and empty,
and/or illusionary, but otherwise fairly safe. It's far better to scare the
players with the possibility of character death than it is to actually kill them
all off.
Cold Feet
From: brian@stars1.den.mmc.com (Brian Martin)
A room of various dimensions can be used. A chandelier with various amounts of
oil burn above a pit trap. The walls of the pit trap a covered with brown mold.
The chandelier is rigged to fall in when the pit trap is sprung.
Most characters that fall in the pit will die as by the time they are able to
work on getting out, they are frozen. The people left out of the pit or the
trigger'er can also be caught as the brown mold can grow to epic proportions
Also, do not forget the flame damage of those in the pit from the fire.
Chess Is the Best
From: jon_b@oldham.gpsemi.COM (Jonathon Buckel)
You need a chessboard, and a chess set to run the trap. Do not show the PC's the
chessboard and pieces until the first player steps on a square, else you might
give the trap away.
OUT
-------| |-------
| |
-----------------
h |w|b|w|b|w|b|w|b|
-----------------
g |b|w|b|w|b|w|b|w|
-----------------
f |w|b|w|b|w|b|w|b|
-----------------
e |b|w|b|w|b|w|b|w|
-----------------
d |w|b|w|b|w|b|w|b|
-----------------
c |b|w|b|w|b|w|b|w|
-----------------
b |w|b|w|b|w|b|w|b|
-----------------
a |b|w|b|w|b|w|b|w|
-----------------
| |
-------| |-------
IN
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Essentially you find a room with a chess board for a floor with a space at each
end. Some force prevents you from flying across or climbing the walls. Or
teleporting across, etc. A force also stops you from being able to stand across
or between squares.
Once you step on a square, you essentially become the chess piece for the
relevent square you stood on. You are white and thus move first. You can only
move as that piece can move. A rook up/down/sideways, a bishop diagonally only,
etc. Only the 8 back row pieces are available, no pawns.
Also a corresponding piece appears at the other end of the chess board. The DM
controlled piece.
Thus if you step on square a1, you become a rook and a rook appears at square
h1. At a2, you are a Knight and a Knight appears at h2. At a3 a Bishop and a
Bishop appears at h6. If you step on a4 you are a Queen and a Queen will appear
at h5. King similarly.
If a player reaches the DM's back row and is safe at that position, then the
player may leave the chess board. (Obviously if the PC takes the DM's piece he
can safely stand at the DM's side of the chessboard) The DM's opposing piece
also disapears.
The fastest way across is to become a rook, you get to move first, thus you can
immediatly move 8 spaces forwards and take your opponent. This of course is how
the owner of this little trap uses this room. The player characters of course
don't even know it is a chess game and will thus most likely not do this.
Usually you end up having 3 or more PC's on the board.
The PC's cannot afford to swap pieces to gain an advantage whereas the DM can,
thus giving the DM an advantage. 1 on 1, crossing isn't difficult. Multiple
pieces makes it more interesting. heh heh heh!
If a PC steps onto the same square as a PC's piece that is already in the game,
you can either allow 2 (or more) of the same piece, in which case another DM
piece arrives. swap the second PC for the first and the first exits back to the
PC side of the board, or not allow this.
What happens when one side loses the King is also variable, from all pieces of
that side then die, (ouch for the PC's :-)) to just the King can die.
What happens if a PC loses his piece is up to the individual DM, I usually
described a pretty horific scene of the PC being suitably killed by the chess
piece, (see the PC game battlechess for ideas) but was actually transported to
some prison cell less his equipment/clothes/etc. Whatever equipment/clothes the
DM was nice enough to return to the PC could be found elsewhere, perhaps another
cell in the same room. The cells could be found by the other PC's at a later
time in the dungeon.
The DM should play his chess game at the level of the PC's if possible. ;-)
After 2 tries at this, I always had more than 2 or 3 PC's on the board. Both
teams lost pieces before the others crossed safely. One team were in dire
trouble when they had a really good idea of getting another PC to join the game
as King so the King of the DM side appeared, their move then was to immediately
take the DM's King. Fortunately they had a piece positioned appropriately. I
removed all the DM pieces from play at that point. I was feeling leniant and it
was a good idea. And if they hadn't come up with something quick, none of them
may have successfully got across.
It is a very 'open' trap, it can be modified as the trap progresses. You could
also do this with draughts, rather than chess pieces.