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Traps:
J.McGuire (73223.664@compuserve.com) In the center of an otherwise empty, totally
ordinary, middle-sized room, a gem-encrusted crown floats in a sparkling
column of golden light. Any detection reveals that the entire room radiates
magic. But it's not the magic that's going to harm the hapless adventurers...more
like the lack of it. Sooner or later, someone is probably going to try
to dispel that glowing column to get the crown, since the golden light
appears to be some sort of magical force field. (This works best in
a system like AD&D where "Dispel Magic" is an area-affect
spell) As soon as that spell goes off, the *floor* vanishes. So does
the pillar of light, but nobody is going to be worried about the fact
that the crown is fake; under the floor, of course, is a pit built to
your specs. (I like about a 20' drop to a thicket of spikes, myself)
The floor was a magical wall of stone, deliberately cast to be "magically
brittle" and with no defense against any attempt at dispelling
it. It's their own magic that does them in. Variation of Chooser Ain't the Loser (Trap Collection
v1) If you would like to get your players really
pissed off, make that walls stop if they are about a foot of each other,
look out for raging players!! How Do You Like Your PC: Sliced, or Fried? First you have your typical trapdoor (or any
variation). Once the party member(s) fall through the trapdoor the fun
begins. My favorite thing to do after that is to have the victim(s)
go sliding through a Blade Barrier, and end up landing in a vat of oil
(that just happens to have a Red Dragon lounging next to it.) Arno's Sleeping Paradise (NOT) You should have a flask of wine standing on a
table, with a bed behind it, and you should let the players get out
of desert or some thirsty thing, without any water or wine. If any of
the PC's drink some water, they'll have a great desire to sleep (on
that bed). This bed is actually nasty trapped: if you lay on it, you'll
sink 5 feet down, into 20 spikes (they can be poisoned or whatever)
each of these nasties dealing 1d8 damage. If any pressure is released
on these spikes, above him there are 10 spikes which will flip out,
angled 45 degrees down, so you will only get hurt if coming up, not
down. The one in there will notice that the walls are coming together
very slowly. After 10 minutes of "sleeping" the walls will
finally crash into each other and squish the victim. Sinking floor As you are walking through a dungeon you come
to a door with a stalagmite which can be hopped over. When you open
the door you see shelves on the walls which contain gold and platinum
ingots and various large magical items. The shelves are on all sides
of the room except for the door's side. When the greedy PC's step into
the room it sinks 1 inch for every 4 pounds the players are carrying.
The same occurs when the items are removed from the shelf. The walls
are slippery to the touch and not climbable. A dispel magic disintegrates
the floor, but the players will plummet to their death. Solution: Tie
a rope to the stalagmite and pull yourself up, the magic items may be
obtained by flight spells or other whatever. Tinker Slammer This trap is best used if designed by a Tinker
Gnome, and built by a dwarf. The trap is constructed by removing a 2'
thick 4' wide sheet of rock from the wall. Then excavate the interior.
After placing the pressure plate in the floor (useful to have a mage
cast phantasmal force over it) and a giant spring in to hole, place
the original sheet of rock back over the opening (again concealed by
a spell of illusionary wall) When triggered, this trap slams across
the hall, and the person triggering it must make a dex check at -7 or
take 3D10 points of damage, and must save verses paralyzation -4 or
have a limb broken (1D4 1Rarm 2Larm 3Rleg 4Lleg) Buy some shoes! The players are walking through a forest, and
step into a small pit, which traps their feet. The only way to get out
is by taking off the shoes. The shoes are stuck, so they'll have to
go one barefoot. Later on, they'll reach a open spot in the forest,
and if they step on it, they crack through into spikes of about 1/2
foot long, into there feet. Everybody who still wears metal shoes will
only get scared, but the rest are stuck in the spikes. The Spiked Wall of Falling Death The trap appears in a room with a ceiling of
any height, but for this description I will use a roof twenty feet up.
In the middle of the room is another wall of about fifteen feet so it
is possible to climb over the top. The only way the PC's can exit the
room is by going through the exit on the other side of this wall. The
wall is flush against the side walls so the only way past it is over
it. The wall has half foot long spikes sticking out of it on the PC's
side. The PC's climb the wall, but it is only after
they reach the top that the wall falls. It can fall either way, so that
the wall crushes them on the side they started on, or the wall falls
the other way.....the wall stops when it hits the ground, but the PC
doesn't, ending up with half foot long spikes in them again. The only fault with this trap is that magic can
help fly over it, or teleport around it. The PC's may be clever and
know that the wall will fall on them when they climb it, so describe
how there are supports preventing it from doing this.....of course just
don't tell them that it can fall the other way. Bones, Bones Everywhere! As the PC's walk down a hall, have walls spring
up on all sides. Now have two panels in the ceiling open and bones drop
out in massive numbers. Have some of the bones become skeletons, not
all, though or it will simply be too much for the PC's to fight off.
I find 20 in all works well to wear them down. If not, make a special
regenerating skeleton appear from all the leftover bones. It is a normal
skeleton except turning it is treated as "special" and it
regenerates as follows: fire and acid have no effect; a solid blow (20)
smashes it into a pile of bones but it reforms! The only way to dispose
of it is blasting it into the next plane. The point is the PC's can't
win. Once they fall over from damage, exhaustion, or whatever, the lich
shows up and he reveals his evil plans (insert demonic plan here.) At First Glance... This trap is best used in goblin dungeons. The
PCs walk down a section of passage with many small holes in the roof.
They may well be suspicious and may think of using a magical shield
above them, but the holes are not what they seem. In the middle of the
section of passage is a pressure pad, when stepped on, the area of holes
divides in two with previously hidden hinges in the middle. Spikes suddenly
appear from the holes and the, now spiked, slabs swing inwards dealing
14d6 damage to anyone caught between them. However the trap is not yet
done, the slabs are now revealed to have murder holes behind them, from
which any number of things can be dropped upon those poor, unsuspecting
PCs "lucky" enough to be outside the slabs! Cool off Time The PCs enter a square room. The entrance and
the exit both seal up. The ceiling is really a glass panel with a horde
of water just sitting on top of it. There is an illusion to make the
glass look like the ceiling. There are tubes in the walls about 1"
in diameter and plugged with stone stoppers. This trap works good if
you have done one where water has poured through similar holes. The
PCs trigger a pressure plate that sends a lead ball from above the glass
ceiling down into the water. Of course the ball drops through the water,
breaks the glass, and water pours out onto the PCs. The walls have to
be very clay like here. The PCs hopefully realize that getting the stoppers
out will allow the water to drain out (the water leaves about 1' at
the top for breathing, air will get lousy but there will be air because
of any reason you want). It works, that is, if the PCs can get the stoppers
out (make it easy). The water drains out to a point (at the level, what
ever it may be) and a layer of clay is washed off the walls. The PCs
can then see a seam around the exit door. They can pry (with swords
that might bend! Or anything else they may have) the door off and then
leave. *** Optional *** Be nasty and have some kind of monster in the
water. UNLOCK THE DOOR! The PCs enter a passage about 20' long, ending
in a dead end. As they enter, the door locks behind them and the end
of the passage suddenly sprouts spikes and moves towards them at about
5' per round! The door has a magical lock on it and requires two save
rolls to open, one against magic and one against lock picking. IT'S NOT OVER YET! This trap should only be pulled if the PCs have
just carved their way through one of your finest adventures with barely
a wound to show for it. After last big baddie has been killed, the PCs
advance into a room that is absolutely crammed with treasure and magical
items. The players will probably be feeling smug after just decimating
the GM's adventure and also be a little uncautious, thinking it is all
over. When they go for the treasure, have all the weapons of the party
suddenly animate and turn on their wielders, and several statuettes
in the treasure pile grow and turn into powerful creatures and attack.
And if this isn't enough, when (if?) they finally kill their opponents
and leave (probably without touching the treasure) they find that the
big baddie has been restored to life, fully powered up and healed! Oh
yeah, and he's pissed off too. GO JUMP IN THE LAKE The PCs come to a shallow lake outdoors with
a small island in the middle. The water is very clear and it can be
seen that there is nothing in the water that could possibly harm them...
or so they think. But the white sand on the bottom is actually enchanted
and when stirred up by the PCs wading through the water (assuming they
try to get to the island) it will stick to them. At first this does
nothing, but when the PCs exit the water it hardens within seconds into
a plaster coating harder than stone and impervious to anything except
magic (of course, any forceful spell used will hurt the PC inside as
well) and this would be a good time for some nasty beastie to appear
from the trees on the island. If he/she is feeling generous, and the
PCs manage to get out of this, the GM may reward them with some treasure
hidden in the creature's lair. (This nearly killed off my players, but
luckily a mage was still in the water and he dealt with the Ogre I threw
at him.) DIP...S#!T If one of the PCs is a thief and he/she tries
a little pick-pocketing, have them steal a silk purse off a wealthy-looking
gentleman/lady fairly easily. When they go to open the purse it starts
to shout, "Help, Help, Thief!" hopefully they manage to get
away if they are still in a crowd, but if they are not it doesn't matter
(except maybe for an angry innkeeper wanting to know what the noise
is about) but still, the only thing in the purse is a scruffy piece
of paper with the words:- 'The curse of [some vengeful god] on you,
thief!' And this is no idle curse either, the reader of the note (not
necessarily the thief) is suddenly stricken with a crippling curse which
reduces ALL their scores and non-mental skills by a number previously
set by the GM! Rich pickings, eh? OPEN SESAME (sesame-seed hand) The PCs come across an iron-bound door with no
handle and a small, protruding face made of iron on it. The face has
an iron ring in its mouth. If a PC tries to knock with the iron ring,
the face spits it out and lodges some very long and very sharp teeth
in their hand! This causes only 1d6 damage, but the teeth are coated
with a nasty poison which paralyses the hand and slowly spreads throughout
the body, shutting down vital organs as it goes. (Unless otherwise stated,
assume that the hand used was the PC's weapon hand.) This trap should
be used deep into the adventure, far from any herbalist, and so relying
on the PCs' knowledge of medicine to avoid death. No immune system can resist the poison, but the
GM may have provided some antidote earlier in the adventure. (This is
even better if the players don't know what the antidote is.) If the PCs manage to get past the door (perhaps
by blowing it off it's hinges with magic or firepowder) they find that
all the door was guarding was an old chest which has already been looted
by earlier adventurers! On a Pedestal first is the summoning trap. This one was originally
in a priest-mage's castle. After making their way into the room they
see the illusion of a treasure chamber, so most of them will rush in.
As soon as they're all in, a trap springs and blocks the entrance. Since
I have such a strong party physically, I used a prismatic wall to block
the wall. In the room are three pedestals. On each one is a gem, a ruby,
a sapphire and a diamond. Only by removing one can the party escape
(I suggest adding a riddle somewhere in the castle for the answer.)
The other two trip the trap, I used one to summon an ta' nari and the
other started replacing the flagstones (floor tiles ) in the room with
stones that have magic runes inscribed on them (death, destruction,
blindness, etc) Jason Cox (coxie@iastate.edu) In this illusion trap the party is trapped in
a box corridor with only two ways out, down a trapdoor in the side of
the wall, or back the way they came. The illusion is that there is a
large party of trolls bearing down on the party, complete with sounds,
smells, and sight. Outnumbered five to one by trolls, most people choose
to try the trap door which puts them into the next trap: Trapped in a room that is apparently sealed (but
there is a hidden secret door) and in a zone of null magic, the party
must first find the door, and decipher the riddle to find the switch
in the far corner ceiling, then work together to reach the fifteen foot
ceiling. Then after they've tripped the switch that unlocks the deadbolts,
they need to then pick the lock and free the door, which leads to a
room with a spiked pit that they need to work to get to the landing
across the pit and to safety. The ceiling must be high enough to force the
party to work together and the pit room must not be too wide that the
party couldn't string a tightrope across. Basically don't make them
death traps, though I did add a sand trap in the room to make them hurry.
A room filling up with sand makes people work faster. Collapsing Ceiling While the PC's are walking down a 10' x 50' hallway,
they see a door at the end. (This is where the fun begins.) Once the
PC's open the door they see a 100' x 100' x 100' room. The PC's notice
that there is a ledge at the top of the room. In order to get to the
ledge they will have to use unconventional means (ie, magic, ring of
flying, ring of teleportation, etc.). Once the PC's enter the room,
start counting. Once you get to 100 tell the PC's that they can feel
the room shaking and can hear granite scraping against granite. Start
counting again. Once you get to 25 each PC that has not made it to the
ledge gets crushed to death by an invisible granite block. (Nasty!)
Where The **** Is My Leg? There is a small hole covered up with leaves
and branches. When a PC stands on the hole with both legs he falls through,
though he manages to hold on to a branch or something like that. He
is hanging just above a teleport but his legs are in the teleport and
are teleported away... Now there is a rotating blade coming down on
him and all he has to do is let go of the branch, but most likely he
will try to escape but this doesn't work (he's too slow without legs)..... Spontaneous Kobold Kombustion So, we're a group of 5 PC's of levels 7 to 9,
merrily traipsing through some tunnel in an underground cavern in pursuit
of some holier-than-thou objective. We come to an opening that reveals
a deep fissure in the cavern, with a wide-and-sturdy stone bridge leading
across to the continuation of our passage. There are many ( > 20 ) kobolds on the other
side, taunting us!! The leader, we suppose, steps onto the bridge and
beckons to our overgrown barbarian (who's at the head of our march),
like he's gonna kick his ass. We scoff at this and begin to engage.
After 1/2 a round, we've taken out a handful of over-anxious kobolds. Suddenly, one of the kobolds on the other side
pulls something off a chain around his neck, and throws it at the melee
crowd. It seems that the evil dude we're chasing had given all 20+ kobolds
a single bead from a necklace of missiles. They were instructed to defend
their position; if things looked grim, throw a bead. This had the obvious domino effect of setting
off every bead around the head of every kobold in melee. A chain reaction
of Spontaneously Kombusting Kobolds. We suffered much fire damage, one
of us missed a dex-check and fell off, suffering falling damage, and
those miserable KamiKazee Kobolds Kicked our Keysters. Great story though, I just wish I weren't the
victim... Shocking Surprise Are you familiar with chemical cells (batteries)?
If you get two different types of metal, i.e. copper and zinc, with
an electrolytic solution, i.e. salt water, between them and connect
metal plates with wire to complete circuit, you get a current induced.
This trap is of a set of double doors: with metal handles on the iron reinforcing of
the door. The metal of either door is NOT touching the other but the
metal hinges are connected to the iron reinforcing and to the metal
handrails of the stairs leading up the door. The other ends of the rails
end in two corroded statues (one zinc, one copper) in the center of
a little crescent pool of salt water. The two pools are connected underground
through a pipe. The trap is sprung when someone grabs one handle in
each hand, with skin or conductor, closing circuit :) They take 2d6
each round till they let go. Catch is that it is electricity (HUGE battery)
so they can't let go, plus anyone else who touches them takes 2d6 dmg
and is flung back 10 feet, or if they grab, and stuck to them and take
2d6 each round too until released. Also anyone touching rails or statue
at time takes dmg too and may also become stuck. Wet Death Enter a small chamber through a corridor (A).
On the other side of the chamber is a door (C). When someone opens the
door, they realize that it is really a mimic which holds them and attacks
them. Behind them, a hidden portcullis (B) falls down preventing the
retreat. The builders made a tunnel to a subterranean
river (D) on the other side of the mimic door. In time the river has
grown and flooded the tunnel. When the mimic door is opened the water
rushes in and fills the entire chamber and most of the corridor (A)
which they came from. To escape they will have to locate the hidden
lever (E) at the other end of the tunnel and pull it without being swept
away by the current of the river. The lever opens a door (F) in the
tunnel by just by the mimic. The door leads to some stairs (G) which
goes up above the water level. The party DOES have a chance of getting out alive,
but they will have to act very quickly. To make things more interesting a sadistic DM
may let a water elemental pass by just as they open the mimic door.
It will believe that it is under attack and will defend itself with
every means in what is it's natural habitat. If the group manages to parlay with it, it might
help them to survive... The Mysterious footprints The PCs come to an iron-bound door which opens
easily. Behind the door is an armory with many weapons hanging from
racks all over the walls except for one spot directly opposite them.
In the thick dust on the floor, a trail of footprints can be seen to
lead to the bare patch on the wall... but not away from it. The players
will obviously suspect a hidden door, but they couldn't be more wrong...
If they step up to the wall, all the weapons in the room animate and
attack them, but they are rusty and easy to break. However once several
of the weapons are destroyed, a teleport spell is activated and all
the animated weapons appear behind them! Then if a few more are destroyed
the same thing happens again! This continues until the PCs try to escape...
running out the door, straight into the arms of a party of orcs attracted
by the noise! Luckily, the animated weapons fall to the ground once
the PCs leave the room. Running Water The PCs discover a valve (hidden). After turning
the valve they can hear water running in the distance. Tracking the
sound of the water they come to a door(has a clasp handle). The door
appears to be water tight but is damp to the touch. This would lead
the PCs to the conclusion that the room is filling up with water. In
actuality the room is draining. If the PCs grasp the clasp handle a
wall shifts from behind them to reveal a bed of spikes. The door then
swings open and throws the helpless PCs against the bed of spikes. They
can save for half damage. You Again! A magical networks of rooms, the intentions of
which was to test the trust of the characters in their companions, as
well as their general good intentions... First separate the party members by a teleportation
device (a narrow portal should do just fine, as they can enter it only
one by one). Have each of them appear at the end of a corridor, with
a nice huge stone eye with a hole for center engraved on the wall behind.
It is not necessary, but it adds a nice touch, I'd say. The corridor
runs a few meters before meeting with a side passage connecting (in
an 'H' shape) with another parallel corridor (supposedly the appearing
site for another PC). Have a clone of another character coming at the
same time from this second corridor, and acting exactly as if it was
the second PC. Then, they have to go on advancing along either corridor
(they should not feel like splitting again after finding themselves
together again). Then have your creature use the very first opportunity
to attack the real PC. Now it gets tricky for both the DM and the players:
have the same thing happen to the real character impersonated above,
and so on with every couple of PCs. Let's call X the real character
and X' the mimicked one. As the attack goes on, the DM should spend
his time running from one player to the other, as the attack of X on
Y' is exactly the same as X' on Y (after the initial attack made by
both X' and Y' -don't choose a character so disgustingly caring and
good that s/he will let him/herself be beaten to death). The players
should feel something is wrong as they are not allowed to talk to each
other (the clones doesn't talk anymore once combat is engaged), but
they will guess that it really is the other player's attacks that damages
him, so... On the very moment one of the player should die (one of the
clones too), have only the clone die, and then both clones be sucked
up with their possessions by the stone eye (we wouldn't want some clever-minded
party end up with double their items -magical included- would we? Now the corridor goes on for a long time (say
100') before meeting a perpendicular passage, leading to a parallel
corridor...you got it right, the same situation, but this time, it really
is the connection between the two corridors. The two REAL PCs should
meet, one next to death and the other in a bad shape if you thought
to balance the powers... Of course the DM should still talk to the players
separately if they are to believe they face another clone. Good-natured
players will talk first and discover what really happened (but can they
really be sure the other is what he says he is ?), while aggressive
players will either strike or run... I love this 'trap' for 2 reasons :
Glue-Time! This is the classical kind of trap, that you
can set in front of a door, or in a corridor, or virtually anywhere
you like... Jars of Universal Glue (for those who don't know it, imagine
the ultimate glue... this is a hundred time worse). Try to prevent a
jar from breaking ON a PC unless that's what you want... You can allow
a Saving Throw, or DEX throw, or whatever you like if you feel in the
mood... Now at least one character should find himself walking bare-footed,
and there are plenty of ways to have fun in this situation (for those
who don't remember the scene in Die Hard with the riffle-shattered glass
panels, I am sure they can get an idea by themselves...) What! the character
was already bare-footed ? My, that's just too bad, isn't it ? Variants:
Magic Amulet The PCs find a rune-carved amulet which on closer
inspection (detect magic, scrying spells, etc.) is revealed to have
magic powers. The power of the amulet is this: when the person wearing
the amulet is in danger, the amulet heats up and glows. Unfortunately,
when a PC puts the amulet on, it immediately starts to glow! But however
much the PCs look around they can't find the danger. Then the amulet's
second power is revealed; it blows up! Ability scores R' us This trap is not necessarily deadly but can be.
The PCs enter a room filled with potions. The first player to quaff
a potion has one of their ability scores raised temporarily. (Which
ever the DM chooses.) then after a time chosen by the DM it starts dropping
at a much faster rate. Karim (karim@ambr.com.br) 1) This trap should be used to stop PC's greed. It should take place in a room with difficult
access. In the room, there will be nothing but a chest. The DM should
lead the PCs to think that it is probably where all the treasure of
the dungeon lie. The chest is locked but will be opened easily with
an open doors check. When opened, it will create an energy capsule containing
the character who opened the chest. Suddenly the capsule will start
closing upon the character. It will completely close upon the PC in
5 rounds, obviously killing him. If the character touches the capsule,
it will inflict 1d10 damage. The only way to cancel the trap is for
another character of the party to close the chest. Inside the chest
there will be a short sword +3 (but how will they get it out?) 2) This trap will challenge the PC's intellect. While walking through a corridor, all the PCs
with some kind of metal will stick to the wall. The wall contains some
sort of magnet that will stick any piece of metal to it. If carrying
some metal there is no way (even with super str.) to get free. The only
way out is by leaving all metal items on the wall. If PC's are smart,
they will slide the metals out of the corridor. Jon larsen (kmlarsen@ptialaska.net) There's a large room about 20'x20' with two doors
opposite each other. The ceiling to this room rises high into darkness
and hanging out of the darkness to the floor are three ropes. As soon
as the last PC enters the room, the door slams shut and magically locks
behind them. Both door are very difficult to force, or pick open as
there are no visible key holes. The object here is to get the PCs to try to climb
the ropes. Once a force greater than fifty pounds is applied, the rope
pops free from the ceiling, dropping the contents of a small secret
compartment to the floor below. One drops a delayed blast fireball,
another a stinking cloud, and the third releases the key to get out
of here. Placing the key near the door will allow it's magic to show
the key hole that earlier was non-existent. I hope other gamers out there find this one as
fun to use as I did. I used it in a higher level campaign to prevent
actually killing the PCs but to teach them not to yank things that they
are clueless to where they lead! Elmar Bihler (bihler@mathpool.uni-augsburg.de) Place: Dungeon, Deserted Castle, whatever,...
Party: Low-Level, best with unexperienced players Aim: Catch/Delay Damage:
Low or none The party is exploring some deserted castle and comes to
a side-corridor. When the last PC has entered, a stone block is triggered
and blocks the way behind them, so their only choice is to go forward.
After a few steps they come into a room that is totally dark. The darkness
is magical, so torches won't help. (If a low-level mage tries some 'kid-stuff'-magic-light,
tell him, the spell produced some kind of short-circuit, so his light
spells are burned out for that day...) The party will then begin to explore the room
on their hands and feet, and discover that the room ends at a sharp
edge: 10 feet below there is a lever that lifts the
stone block and the floor where the lever is, so the only thing the
PCs have to do is to jump down and pull the lever. (Nice DM: Place treasure
chest here !) The point is, that the party has no way to discover whether
beneath the edge is a 10 feet or a 1000 feet drop, because there are
other spells besides the darkness-spell to prevent them from going on:
e.g. magical silence, so when they throw something down, they won't
hear it when it hits the ground,... When they finally let someone down on a rope,
roll some dice (just for show), and tell them, the sharp edge just cut
the rope, oops... (Be really nasty here !!!) Shadow Wall This one is a great trap for several reasons.
You can put it in any room and no one can resist triggering it! The
PCs walk into a well decorated room, you know, chairs, tables, bookshelves,
fireplace. Any wizard with them can find magical aura in the room and
even the most idiotic newbie at the game can see that one section of
one of the walls is "illusionary". It's a cheap job of illusion,
it wavers, shimmers and ripples, but in no way should the PCs be able
to see beyond it. When the wall is in anyway pierced, touched or looked
through, then a huge spiked slab of stone on the end of the hallway
that the illusionary wall leads to detaches from its springs and holdings
and flies out to pin the guy to the wall (I usually say it kills 'em
instantly). The beauty of this trap is that no one can resist looking
through it. It gets em every time if once in a blue moon you actually
put something good behind it. Trick o' the Eye Your PCs walk into a fair sized room. The floor
has to have some kind of pattern and an ambient light zone must exist
in this room. About halfway through the room is a huge hole leading
from Left wall to Right wall. Completely impassible unless by tightrope
walking, magic etc. The thing is that the pattern on the floor goes
halfway down the opposite side of the pit so it looks like there is
no pit. The PCs merrily stride to their doom. It cannot be detected
by a detect trap magic because it's just a Trick o' The Eye. SMILE The PCs walk down a long corridor, with in the
end a deep hole, that's completely visible. When they close in on the
hole (about 50 feet), they hear crying. When they reach the edge, they'll
see a little baby, crying in the hole. BUT when they touch the baby,
the PCs hands are stuck on the baby; they simply won't get off. Its
a paralytic poison to, they can't move a muscle anymore. The baby starts
laughing and slowly begins to eat them. (By the way, the baby has got
AC 10, (it doesn't wear a metal diaper or something) but when there
are PCs on, it gains the combined AC of all of them. (100 xp) Ankle Sickle The trap is small, about the size of one tile,
that when weight is placed on it descends downward. Optimally this weight
will be a foot, in which place the twin blades extract and slice. The
twin blades are carved similar to a quarter moon, or sickle. The come
together around the ankle and slice the tendons, and everything else
to the bone. This will maim any character, not to mention the process
of releasing the character from the trap. (The blades each take 20 Pts.
of damage) Damage can vary with the armor worn, but the
maiming is always the best part, for any character, to move is their
greatest treasure. AN ICE LITTLE PROBLEM The party arrive at a room with what seems like
water on the floor. On touching it they will discover it is a powerful
acid causing extreme damage to the appendage used to sample it. In alcoves
in the wall of the corridor leading to the room there are several bottles
containing various liquids. One of these is poison which will do (not
too much to kill) quite a bit of damage to anyone drinking it. When
thrown over the acid, however it will freeze creating an ice bridge
to the door on the other side. THE THIRD GUY'S F****D As the party walk down a corridor they come to
a place with several statues in glass cases in the wall. Shortly after
this they come to a doorway leading to a room full of treasure. On entering
this room the third person entering will be teleported to a glass case
in the previous wall and turned to stone. The Slide The players enter a 20x15x10 (length-width-height),
or a similar one, and two etched carvings of knights are a few feet
from the walls. Opposite the door is a spiraling staircase. The
players can search the murals to their hearts content, yet, nothing
is apparent. The steps are touch activated, the first stair
sinks ever so slightly (5% chance of noticing) and remains that way
for awhile (see below). When the fifth step is hit, the murals explode
(not too powerful, within five feet takes 1d6 from the stones), exposing
two images of _____s). The players will most likely sprint up the stairs,
which spiral upward seemingly endlessly. When a certain stair is picked
(make sure the players are now at least 100 feet up) have the stair
fall, tripping the foremost player. The players will probably tumble
over him. The stairs flip over, exposing a oily, rounded
surface, now the fun starts! The players slide at amazing speeds down
the oiled stairs. Have the stairs fork at certain places. Have two players
go one way, two another, one here, one there, be creative. If the players
have a retainer or hired mercenary, have him be lost forever, all his
goods gone. This is an excellent way to test the players
survival skills alone. Make it difficult. Put the fighters together,
put the spellcasters together, put the players that have both magic
and fighting alone (elves, paladins). Where they land is totally up to you. Remember,
they have been falling down a oiled half-pipe, so when they land, they
land hard. If you want some egotistical bastard to die, land him on
a bed of five foot spikes. I guarantee he'll die. The Chest The players will smack themselves when they figure
this one out. Put a chest in the middle of a 10 by 10 by 10 room. Make
it extremely suspicious looking. They can search to their hearts content,
yet they find nothing (because nothing is there) on the chest. The walls
are clean, too. They probably won't open the chest, but if they
do, the trap is ruined. You see, the door is charged with an electrical
current as soon as its opened. When they open the chest, the door is
undone. This is best with a very cautious group. Andy/Terry Zerger (tzerger@gunnison.com) This trap will make a PC think twice about snatching
any seemingly magical item they see. The PCs are adventuring, looking
for treasure or something or are just passing through a sort of ruin,
when they come to huge double doors. Upon passing they doors they are
greeted by a tome standing on a pedestal in the middle of the room as
well as seemingly-holy-light gleaming off the book. Way more then likely
either a mage or cleric from the group will run up and grab it, desperately
wanting its spell contents. However, just when the player has attained
the prize, the beam of seemingly-holy-light diverts and blinds/wounds/whatever
whoever it is that grabs the book. I used this to humble my caster and
he always uses summoned creatures to get such things now. The Wall It's a wall that throws back whatever you threw
at it. In other words, it somehow provokes the PC's. Maybe a NPC told
the PC's to attack it, or the wall speaks, maybe the wall throws at
the characters something that had been thrown at it before. Whatever
it is, when a PC's hits it physically the wall hit him back with the
SAME DAMAGE, maybe by growing an arm or throwing a brick, if they cast
a fireball at it, the wall throws it right back, DOUBLE DAMAGE (double
with magic attacks only). It behaves like a creature with all the same
bonuses as the attacker. The cool thing is that it can't be destroyed
unless a clever idea is used, like attacking yourself. You see if you
attack the wall it attacks back automatically, if you attack yourself,
the wall will take damage. Get it (double if magic, regular if normal).
Another cool thing is that if they heal themselves they actually heal
the wall, double. If you heal the wall you heal yourself double, etc.
Of course all this only works within a certain range of the wall...
say 100ft. Guy A. Jett (gajett@ix.netcom.com) The Party comes into a small room about 10ft
tall and 10x10ft wide and long. The doors slam shut and lock behind
them. There is a sound of grinding as the floor slowly moves down. It
stops and the ceiling moves away. Bugs or some small crawly things fall
into the room. There is a gate on the new exposed wall, but if the players
move, they are attacked by the bugs... The Party comes to a room, 50x50ft and 10ft tall.
The floor is covered with white powder. The door slams and locks. There
are two doors, one is the way out, but the other has a lever, if pulled,
the lever disintegrates the floor and the party falls 40ft down into
a pit of lava, the powder is TNT, BOOM. As the party comes into the room, they see nothing
but a door at the other side. If the party heads for the door, they
pass a fulcrum and the room spins down a track, and spins, and spins,
hitting the PC's. They fall into the pit trap desired Temple of Doom Have the PC's enter a temple in a jungle somewhere.
on the way in they get shot at by wall mounted poison crossbows and
nearly fall into collapsing floors, and nearly get skewered by wall
spikes etc. Then, they will arrive in a chamber with a magnificent golden
statue covered in jewels sitting on a pedestal. If the PCs detect magic,
none will radiate (This is a mechanical trap.) Sooner or later one of
them will pick it up. Suddenly the pedestal drops 18 inches and a loud
rumbling is heard. Any PC's with brains will start running, because
a large boulder is about to descend from the wall behind the pedestal
and chase them through the passages, of course setting off al the other
traps on the way out. Or, in English, The Boulder Scene from Raiders
of the Lost Ark. My DM pulled this one on us (at my suggestion) and
all the party except me and one other died in the temple. You can disable
other traps as you see fit, to insure PC survival. THE LIQUID FLOOR TRAP Have the characters open a door into a metal
corridor with a paneled floor. There is a cold wind blowing from the
end of it, and a bright light, not unlike sunlight, is emanating from
the end. Preferably, the characters have been in a dungeon for a while
and are looking for a way out. The trap in this room is a pit in the
paneled floor. This pit has a permanent HEAT METAL spell cast on its
bottom. This pit is about 8' deep and is filled with molten aluminum.
When in its molten form, aluminum looks just about the same as it usually
does with just a hint of silver. This makes it look no different from
the rest of the floor panels. The wind they feel is actually a NORTH
WIND spell (found in DRAGON MAGAZINE ANNUAL #1) with permanency cast
on it. This gives the illusion of an exit and gets rid of the heat from
the pit. The light is from a LIGHT spell cast on the wall at the end
of the corridor. Falling into the trap usually means instant death,
but you can apply whatever damage you want. Trick Pit Trap This trap is works great on thieves and mages.
First have the party be chased by a monster(s) and make them arrive
at a pit that cannot be crossed by a teleport spell (It is dark and
they can`t see the opposite side.) Actually, the pit is an illusion.
It is impossible to levitate because there is an anti-magic barrier.
The only way to cross is to climb the walls. But in the ceiling there
are many holes where crossbowmen can fire bolts at the PCs without being
harmed. Teeter-Totter Room The players enter a room that is 60'around, with
a 40'high domed ceiling. On the right is a fountain, filled with water,
and a few coins in the pool of water. On the left is a statue with a
pile of gold at the base. Opposite the entry is another door to get
out. The entire floor is a giant teeter-totter, with the center being
the safest place to walk. If the players take any of the gold at either
side, the following occurs simultaneously:
Next, the floor begins to tilt to the side that
the players are not on, sliding them through the rods that have appeared
into one of four holes at the bottom of the pit. If anyone should manage
to hold onto one of the rods, they will retract once the floor is perpendicular
to the ground. LRhinoJr@aol.com As the party walks down a corridor, one member
falls down a VERY deep pit (200-300'). The pit is a cubic curve so that
it comes out gently and the PC doesn't take any damage. But the 'chute'
deposits the character in a room and a stone door closes off the pit.
The character is in a 10' x 10' room with a door on one wall with a
3 position lever beside it. The current position is in the middle (off).
One position opens the door to a very long ladder, and the other position
opens a valve for water or sand to fill the room, and seals the door. Well, isnt that cute. This trap consists of a room (the GM decides
how big,) well lit by thousands of tiny multi-colored lights flitting
about the room. The room is well decorated, as if it were a mage's sitting
room. There are no books, scrolls etc. In one corner of the room, there
sits a small pile of metal objects. If a piece of metal is tossed into
the room, it is immediately swarmed and carried by the lights over to
the pile (alternatively it could be dropped onto a teleport pad, disguised
as a rug, in this case there would be no pile). If anyone enters the
room with even a metal filling, the person is immediately swarmed and
devoured (bone and all) by the lights, the metal being dropped onto
the pile/pad. If a PC is brave enough to enter sans metal (especially
after seeing his companion get eaten), he finds that the swarm does
not devour him, but rather tickles. The remaining PCs can now pass through,
metal and all, safely. The PC who entered sans metal will find that
when he tries to leave, the swarm plasters itself against the air in
the doorway where he/she exits. If the party was nice enough to bring
the PC's equipment along with them, he/she can now retrieve it from
them. The lights cannot exit the room, and if a spell is cast into the
room, the lights flash, blinding the party for an amount of time equal
to the spell's level in minutes. A Slippery Path This is a take-off of the classic collapsing
corridor trap. The party is walking down a slippery hall, when, after
the party has passed the midway point in the hall, one PC trips, slips,
whatever. To keep from falling, they grab a torch holder. This triggers
the walls to fall away, leaving a void in either direction. Also, the
void is gaining strength, making the floor ever slimmer. The PCs can
see that the "e;real"e; world is still though the door
at the end of the hallway. They have to tiptoe along the floor, which
is still very slippery. If one of the PCs is unfortunate enough to fall
into it, you can make up whatever you want to happen. Perhaps a teleport
to another world? For those GMs who are feeling especially malevolent,
the PCs may be in a hopeless situation: the door can keep moving away
at the same pace as the party moves towards it, thereby dooming the
party. Healer Man The PCs enter the room (Preferably from an area
to which they can't retreat back to) and find a large room. The room
has no exits other than a door on the far side of the room (Locked for
now). In the room, the is a statue of a warrior and bard with a glowing
ball of light in the between the two: When a character touches the light (which they
will do in frustration of being trapped) the light takes the shape of
the PC that touched it. Basically, this causes great confusion. Everything
on the two must be the same. If someone attacks the "e;Twin"e;
then the wounds will appear on the real PC. If you attack the real PC,
the wounds only appear on the real PC. The only way to kill the "e;twin"e;
is to heal it. This can be by spell, chant, potion, herbs (you get the
idea.) It can take as little as one of these to kill it or more. (The
less needed, the more ticked your PCs will be) Took my PCs about 45
minutes. William655@aol.com The PCs are in a large abandoned castle, and
stumble upon the treasure room. There isn't much treasure, but there
is a small corridor in the back of the room. As the players walk down
it, they see a light shining from a room on the left. There are two
rooms, one further down. When they move into the doorway of the first
room, an invisibility and mute spell is cast on the character in the
back. There is a sudden panic in the group, and then an image of the
"e;missing"e; character is portrayed in a cage on the
other side of the room. As the characters move towards it, a trap door
opens that drops them into a slowly narrowing pit. On all sides are
rotating buzz-saws. The pit ends up only being 6 inches wide at the
bottom, but before the players die, they "e;see"e; what
was in the other room... a full arsenal of +15 weapons and armor! It
is best to use this with a group of players with a good sense of humor. Angus (thekid@voicenet.com) Have the PCs see a very likable artifact in a
room. When they enter the room, have the door close. The artifact (which
they find to be an illusion) disappears, and they find themselves trapped.
The door doesn't budge. In the room is a skeleton, and in the skeleton's
hand is a silver dagger. On the door is seen the markings below:
T N E S S F F T T _ In order to open the door, they must figure out
what goes into the blank (_). Also, they can only scrape it into the
door using the silver dagger. No other weapon, chisel, or object can
even mark the door. If they take the dagger and scratch in the correct
letter with it, the door opens. The letter that they must scratch in
is "O". The reason is this is that the letters stand for:
Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, and One. This took my PCs about half an hour...and that
was only because one of them vaguely remembered it from a puzzle book
he had read. So, I judge it to take a little longer than that for the
average group. FLOOD THE DUNGEON This trap is very difficult to set up, but great
for getting a lot more time out of a dungeon. When the players are finished
with the final villain of the dungeon, have them find the treasure room.
Once inside, of course they find a very large amount of gold, silver,
gems, etc. The treasure is large enough that just preparing it for transport
out of the dungeon will take about a day. The room is also somewhat
elevated from the rest of the dungeon, say, about 15 - 20 feet above
the lowest point. One of the chest's will be stuck to the floor. When
it is opened, it will set off the trap. Once it is opened, elsewhere
in the dungeon, a floodgate will open, and begin filling the dungeon
with water. At the source, there is a silence spell, to keep the players
from hearing this. What should happen, is that the players will be focused
on the treasure, and have the door to the room closed. When they go
to leave, they will find that a little way down the stairs or ladder,
or whatever, that way down is filled with water. Getting out of the
dungeon will be much more interesting now, especially if the players
have to continually surface for air. Also make it clear that carrying
any significant amount of the treasure will weigh them down. Also remember
that torches do not burn underwater. If you wish to improve their chances
of escaping, allow the treasure to contain one or two magical items
that will allow survival under water. Scissors Trap In this trap, if a PC opens a door [It should
open away from them and hit a wall on the other side.] it will trigger
a button that will do two things:
If a saving throw is failed, they take 4d8 points
of damage. If they make it ask them if they jump through the doorway
or backwards. Make sure you don't tell them about the spike behind them!
If they jump back they impale themselves on the spike [1d10] and get
hit by all four blades! If they jump forward, some GMs might want to
be particularly mean and put a pit just right outside the door. Others
might want to be nice and keep a safe way through it all. If you do
put a pit, you should make a different path leading to that same room. The Voodoo Trap Imagine the players entering a room, when the
old trap of the lances coming from the walls and the floor. When they
think that they are dead meat, the lances only make a little wound,
just the necessary to get some blood, then they retract. The doors open
and they are free. One hour later, one of then begins to fill as if
he has been wounded by a small lance. Then they find something that
explains everything. The objective of the lances was to get blood to
help a wizard to create voodoo dolls of them and now they have to do
something for the wizard or else he will kill them using the dolls.
This can be the beginning of a new Chapter, don't you think? The Voodoo Trap, Part 2 When the group enters a small room they find
a big golden jar over a pedestal, if they try to take the jar they fill
something pushing their heads to the ceiling. If the characters take
the jar out of the pedestal they will be decapitated. The two voodoo dolls were placed with their heads
through a hole in the bottom of the jar, and their necks firmly held
by two ropes, one with the sides attached to the bottom of the trap
and the other with the sides attached to the inside of the pedestal. David (Crystalthorn@hotmail.com) A door is opened to a basement setting. It's
dark and damp, but the players have to rush. So they go down the stairs.
After a few minutes, the players should realize they're not getting
anywhere. If they turn around, the door is gone. They are really trapped
in a time-teleporter trap. They can only get out if they walk back up
the stairs backwards. David (Crystalthorn@hotmail.com) Another trap is a good one for lonely thieves.
Place them in a cell on a ship. Have a group of pirates on deck down
the hallway and a bunch of other dark cages around, making no sounds
and the occupants are unseen. The thief picks the simple lock, and gets
out. Fellow prisoners to take over ship probably comes to mind, but
they won't answer the thief. The thief may free all the cells, but when
he opens the last cell, he turns to find a lot of minotaurs armed and
mind controlled ready to attack him. For added fun, have a giant squid
attack the boat. Spin-Cycle This trap is intended for the greedy party, most
likely the thief (of course). It is a circular room of whatever size
you want, two exits (the one they entered and the exit, both easily
opened and used), and a 5' wide groove around the outside of the room.
The entire area has a very faint aura of magic, ala spell-casters. Whenever
the party enters, the greedy is dragged to the center of the room, lifted
off the ground about 5' and, quite literally, put the spin cycle. EVERY
item on their person, except for the clothes on their back and a normal
weapon, if they have one left, is flung from them towards the outside
wall. This continues until the character is 'cleaned' completely of
their stuff. The trap then drops the character (for falling damage where
you see fit), opens the 5' wide along the wall into a collection pit,
and dumps all the stuff into it. For nice DMs, you may allow the character
to find some of their things later on. I can assure you, for those characters
who figure themselves sneaky and greedy, having nothing for awhile will
humble them to an extent. Having a Ball The party comes across an obstacle in a 10' wide
hallway, with a roof a few feet higher- a 10' spherical object, grayish-brown
in color, pocked with small bumps, leathery in texture. Slightly springy
to the touch, it blocks the hallway! Fighter-types will probably want
to slice it open, or at least stab it. Striking the object will let
the players know what it is; a giant puffball! Anchored to a small plot
of earth at its base, it will pop quite loudly (50% chance of attracting
a wandering monster or guard) and fill an area 10-15 feet in front and
behind it with spores. The safe way to get around it is climb carefully
over top of it! Extremely heavy characters may pop it anyway, or it
may be accidentally punctured. A small puncture may release only a jet
of spores, which would affect only a single character. Throwing something
like an axe at it from further than 15' away will avoid the spores,
but still get the noise. Possible spore effects:
Polymorph gas A chest that is always chained shut (with the
regular needle traps, so players don't get suspicious), will release
a small puff of gas when opened. This gas will cause the player to be
randomly polymorphed. How you determine the random effect is left up
to the GM's discretion, but I like to use the summoning tables. Ben Ramey (bramey@clark.edu) Any thing that gives poison:
Curses:
Hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil. Within a Labyrinth the PCs will come upon a dead
end. On the wall in front of them they will see three statues of monkeys.
One with his hands covering his ears, one with his hands covering his
eyes, and one with his hands covering his mouth. Underneath each of
the statues there is a lever. Player characters will have to pull these
levers in order to find the way into the next part of the Labyrinth. When the lever is pulled under the statue: Hear
no evil, a creature that can not be heard will be released into the
Labyrinth somewhere near the group. The group will have to fight this
creature when it arrives, but they will not be expecting it because
there will be no sign that anything has happened when the lever is pulled. When the lever is pulled under the statue: See
no evil, a gas that is highly flammable will be released through small
holes in the ceiling above the statue. Any contact with flame of any
sorts will instantly ignite the gas causing an explosion that will make
the group wish they had been hit with a fireball instead. Note: Sparks
from spurs or scraping of any metal on the stone walls to a torch that
is lit to magical fire will ignite the gas. PC's will not be able to
smell the gas, unless someone in the group has a very keen sense of
smell. When the lever is pulled under the statue: Speak
no evil, a door will open up next to the statues. The character who
pulled the lever will feel a slight numbness in his head and will become
cursed. If he speaks anything even remotely evil, he will be teleported
away from the party into the lower levels of the Labyrinth, even if
he and the rest of the group has already made it out of the Labyrinth.
The curse will stay with the PC until a Remove Curse spell is cast upon
him, and only a Remove Curse spell will work on the PC. Note: A Dispel Magic spell will have no effect
upon the statues. Corridor of Chains Within the labyrinth is a corridor about 50'
long. From the ceiling hangs chains of differing lengths and sizes.
There is no floor, just a pit of spikes about 20' deep. What the PC's
need to do is get across the pit without falling in. Sounds easy enough,
except that a few chains are attached to triggers. Many different things
could happen, use chart for easiness:
The space from the bottom of the pit to the ceiling
is 40'. The chains can hang all the way down to the bottom, so the space
from where a PC is to the top of a spike will have to be left to the
DM. Also, when a chain falls a certain amount of feet, it raises the
spikes up as fast as the PC's weight pulls the chain. So in effect,
a PC can impale himself on a spike because his weight pushed it up as
fast as he fell, and squuuiiishhhhh. OUCH! Hall of Clones This hallway is about 20' wide by 40' long. Now,
when a party member steps into the hallway, everything seems fine. The
further he goes he starts to notice that he is walking beside himself.
An exact duplicate of the PC is made but with only half the hit points
and without the ability to cast spells or use magical items. At the
end of the hallway the clone will attack the PC. The PC is fine until
he steps out of the hallway. Imagine the whole party entering the hallway
at the same time. Note: Clones can use any ability, skill, talent,
etc., that the PC can. Magical items are not cloned. If a mage or spell
user of any type is cloned, clone can not use spells or spell-like abilities. Monster Summoning With A Twist The PCs are facing a high-level spellcaster,
and when they finally get close to defeating him, he casts a spell unfamiliar
to the PCs. Suddenly, half of them disappear and pop up in front of
the mage, facing the remaining PCs. The bad part is that they act as
summoned monsters. If any of the remaining players are good, they will
probably want to save the others - unless, of course, this gives them
a good excuse to pound on that evil/chaotic neutral character that has
their character pissed off. After however many rounds you want, the
summoned PCs flash back to where they were. Sean Hickey (smc@mindspring.com) The PCs reach the end of a large hallway with
double doors at the end. They open them and walk through, and enter
a large chamber with a window in front of it. Past the window is a room
about 100' lower than the PC's room. Inside, they see a huge red dragon
chained up, with a gigantic axe hanging above it. They will also see
stairs leading down out of the room and a doorway leading into the room.
Also in the room is a rope that runs out of the room, and leads up to
the axe. They will, of course, chop the rope, killing the "red
dragon". Notice the quotation marks. The red dragon is actually
some sort of beast that will split up or release more monsters (in AD&D,
a Grand Old Master Neogi). The new monsters run up the stairs and attack
the PCs. When/if the PCs actually go down the stairs, they realize the
monster room was off on a side passageway. This will certainly make
them scout ahead next time. On Ice The players have entered a room the floor is
slick glass or ice and the ceiling is low enough so a normal person
has to bend a bit. There is also a null magic zone covering the whole
room. The players have to get across but they can't walk, fly, or magic
themselves across. The obvious solution (but nobody thinks of it at
first) is to stand on the ice/glass and throw a heavy item in the opposite
direction of where you wish to go, you slide right to the wall or door. It's the PITS, again and again and again... A pit in the floor of a dead end looks inviting,
as a rope hangs down into it. Looking down in the pit, it seems to be
pitch black (A darkness spell has been cast on a set of spikes on the
floor some 110' below.) A slight smell of gas, pitch-tar or some other
flammable substance should encourage players NOT to drop a torch into
the pit. If a source of magical light is dropped it will pass through
the darkness spell and become hidden by it. Seeing the rope is knotted for climbing, an adventurous
PC might wish to climb down to take a closer look. Now comes the part
of the game where we find out just HOW much stuff the character is carrying.
If a player has more then 200gp weight not including the player himself,
the rope breaks and activates the trap. The player falls but doesn't
hit the bottom. Instead 1 foot above the spikes is a teleporter that
will send them to the top of the pit 10 feet below the opening where
they fall to the bottom and teleport to the top again. This will continue
to happen until the player can be saved. The sides of the pit can be
either slick with an oily substance on the walls, or it can be very
jagged so if someone tries to catch himself on the walls all they do
is cut themselves up pretty bad. Damage: Well consider they fall 100'. That's
1d10 per 10 feet. so the first time, they fall about 100' so its 10d10
damage. The second time they fall another 100' that's 20d10 then 30d10.
Assume they reach terminal velocity after falling about 700 to 800 feet.
Now damage doesn't matter. If dispel magic is used then the teleporters
are disabled and the player falls at his current relative speed and
distance of falling say 250 feet to the spiked floor below. That's 25d10
points + 1d6 for every spike hit in the floor. The problem of saving
the player is apparent. If you try to catch him at some point the weight
and speed could easily tear an arm off someone. Does not make for a
very fun and friendly family game. Or it could knock another player
into the hole as well. At present I have no solution to this puzzle
unless you can teleport the player somewhere safe. NOTE: The magical source of light passes through
the teleporter because it has magic on it. Anything magical will pass
to the ground so if they lose the player they might have a nice collection
of magical items to pick from on the floor, even if they have to pick
through their friend. (Extra note. After the 3rd time falling even
a monk could not slow down.) Candygram! It is actually a ancient trap that was developed
by a Chinese War Lord. You just need a crevice with an oak tree and
over a thousand bowmen hiding on each side. Then, you carve the message:
"Lord Badaud died under this tree." and wait until dark. By
this time Lord Badaud and his guards walking down the crevice comes
by the tree. Curious about what the message says, he orders a torch
to be lit. This is the signal for the thousand bowmen to open fire on
him. Surprise surprise! Interesting enough, a descendant of this warlord
had his own way of causing confusion in his enemy's ranks. At the start
of the battle, the front row of his warriors would cut their own heads
off. The opposing army would be so stunned that it took awhile for them
to react to being killed. However, if you do this one I suggest you
don't do it all the time as you will diminish the respect of your henchmen
not to mention diminishing the number of your henchmen. Kavanagh (kavmacwa@iinet.net.au) One trap I like
using is a secret door, which is rather obvious. The party triggers
the door, and the area is filled with magical darkness. If they move
close to the wall, they will all fall into a slide. However, this slide
is very tight, and they can only go in single order. The slide actually twists and turns, and at one
point, splits into two passages. Both of these passages join back up
later (characters crash into each other?) The slide then ends in a large
room with a swinging door entrance. Once in the room, they can see a large monster,
or if the DM is rather nasty, a trap may have been rigged in the slide,
blowing it up if they try to get out. Or a large nasty monster comes
sliding down the slide after them (Giant slug, Metalmaster, etc.) The only way to get out is via the slide but
it cannot be climbed. Magic will not work. The only way to escape is
to dig handholds or something with a weapon or something. Descending Ceiling The players enter a room with a pedestal and
probably very valuable item lying on the pedestal (some powerful monster
should probably guard the item, just to keep them from getting suspicious).
The moment the players touch the item, it activates a Contingency which
activates a Dispel Magic on the 50-ton stone block that looks like the
ceiling, which happens to have (or had, in this case) a Reverse Gravity
cast on it. A Round Table Trap The PC enter a round room and there in the center
of this room is a round table. On top of the table is a large round
cup, or statue or what ever your PCs are greedy for. Now the wall is
not smooth, each block has a hole in it. This room has a 17' radius
and the table has a 7' radius (which keeps the item just out of the
reach of the character.) What happens is when the character leans on the
table he trips the trap. The table falls about 2" and poisoned
darts fly out of the wall - all flying towards the center of the room.
That means that every person in the room will be hit by several darts.
The table is one solid piece of stone that is 2" thick and weighs
over 2000 lbs. After the trap has been set off, it resets itself and
is ready to go again. The secret to disarming this trap is to turn the
table 180 degrees. The characters may find this out by looking at
the markings on the table. The table is split up into sections, by lines.
Each section is the same except for one. You can make this one section
stand out by any means you wish. I had mine stand out by having a crown
carved into the table and having a king's throne at the seat opposite
of the door, while the section in the table was at the door you entered
from. A PC may try to wedge something into the bottom
of the tabletop but with no avail because of the sheer weight of the
table and also because of the way the table was designed. The table
is held up by one center leg and the center piece comes straight down
so there is no way you could wedge the table top to the center piece
of the table. Water Trap This trap is found normally in a small room.
When a character enters this magical room he doesn't notice any magical
auras or anything. Though, if he steps on a certain spot on the ground,
he will notice soon enough. When he steps on the spot, he will be magically
sent into the wall. His back is on the wall and he is unable to move
even with magical assistance. Then an invisible hose attaches to his
nostrils and his mouth. Next, water is heavily pumped into him and there
is no way for him to take his mouth away from the hose. The only way
to stop this horrible death is to cut the hose. (The man in the trap
can't cut the hose because he can't move.) Marcos Monteiro da Cruz (sturm@esquadro.com.br) In a straight long stairway (long enough that
the PCs can not see the end), somewhere in the middle one player will
trigger the trap. Once triggered, the trap will launch an Ice Storm
Spell (the PCs take the damage from the spell if the GM desires) so
that the floor will be slippery and they will have only 50% of chance
to stay where they are. At the end of the stairway are 6 very long iron
spears pointing in the stairway's direction. Anyone that falls will
be hit by 3d2 spears. If anyone falls on top of the first person, the
first victim will take double damage and the second normal damage. If
a third member of the party falls, the first takes triple damage, the
second double damage and the third normal damage. If all the PCs fall
this procedure must be done up to five times. (Quintuple damage for
the first, quadruple damage to the second, triple to the third, and
so on. Very nasty if you are the first to fall). Another aspect of this
trap is if the first member of the group stands his feet, the second
character can fall taking his balance away. There are only 15% of chance
that an off-balanced PC will not fall. Sex Appeal The hero(s) walk into, a short hall that is covered
in gold. The hallway is 20' long, 7' high, and 5' across. At the end
of the hall is a cage with a beautiful woman dancing in it. After a
minute of watching, the hero(s) have charm cast upon them, unless they're
undead, female or gay. The hero(s) will try to walk into the cage but
will instead take damage from a pitfall, covered by a carpet with levitation
cast upon it. The hero(s) do not have saving throws on the charm. Rushin' Roulette The hero(s) come to an immensely tall free standing
tower of about 500'. There is a door at the bottom and about 5 windows
every 100'. The tower is 20' in diameter and circular. When the hero(s)
enter the door, it automatically closes behind them, trapping them inside.
They suddenly hear the sound of rushing water, in five turns a 100x100x100
block of water falls on them. The lock on the door is able to be picked
and the door can be forced open, and if they do get out, put them up
against a Water Elemental when the water comes rushin' out at them.
And when the water comes out the whole tower falls down on the hero(s)
doing 4d20 damage, if they survive make em' find a cursed amulet of
water breathing or something that will really piss them off next time
they're in the water. Drow Death When the heroes enter a Drow colonies "home",
they see a tall 100' high castle. It emanates a nice steady glowing
green color. The castle is 200' away and as they progress the ceiling
gets higher, it has quite a few jagged edges on it and stalactites hanging
down. The walls also spread apart for about 100' each. The cave they
emerged from is only 5' across and about 10' high. Just before the entrance
they will encounter many bones and small bits of silver lying on the
ground. There will also be quite a deep pit that is totally visible.
At the bottom is a small little door, with a skeleton and some pretty
nice items, weapons, etc. If someone goes down the pit they are instantly
transported into the castle, where they will fight some Drow, not too
hard though, maybe only 60-80 Drow, more than enough to kill them. Korbett Cockrell (korbett@passage.com) The party
is walking down a 10' x 10' corridor and comes to a very deep, open
pit about 20' The passage continues beyond the pit for about 30' and
ends in an impressive looking door. The bottom of the pit is 60' down
and studded with spikes, and the walls appear greased. In reality the
continuance of the passageway and the impressive door are merely illusions
designed to waste the party's time trying to get beyond the pit. I had
expected an extended climb down and harrowing climb up the far side
to find disappointment only. What happened was the thief-acrobat in the party
suggested to the barbarian that he could be easily tossed across the
pit by someone with high strength. He would tumble into the passageway
beyond and secure a rope for the rest of the party. He was tossed into the opposite wall and then
plunged to his death in the pit below. Falling Block In have a long corridor of about 50 feet or so,
the roof has holes spaced apart about every 15'. Then place in one a
huge square block or granite so when one player steps on the pressure
plate the block drops on them. The only thing you don't tell the players
is that the center is hollowed out and there is enough room for the
PC not to get squished. On the underside of the bolder have sheep bladders
filled with blood. That way it appears that the PC which sprung the
trap got squished. Also you say that some wizard cast a spell that muted
all sound from exiting the block so the PC stuck inside can yell and
scream all he wants. This is especially nasty if you want to hurt the
party. Fake Pit The PC's have just entered a corridor through
a stone door. The door slams and locks behind them. They see a pit spanning
the width and most of the length of the corridor. There is a door at
the end of the hall. The PC's are unable to jump, or do anything else
to get over it, besides magic. The wall behind the PC's starts to move
towards them, pushing them into the pit. But the pit is covered with
thick glass, and the PCs are able to walk over one at a time. This is
a good waste of spells, or the PC's might be pushed over onto the glass
all together and break it. Floor of Rats or Dwarf Slayer In one room a player trips a magical trap. With
an intelligence check, the mage of the group may identify it as a very
strong summon spell. The next room is a long, curved, dark corridor
ten feet wide. The walls are featureless and may not be climbed, and
the ceiling is only six feet high, making flight purposeless. Ten feet
into the romm, the floor appears to become rats (1d6 hp). In reality,
it is a pit that is ten feet wide, twenty deep, and 120 long that is
full of rat (about 200,000 ranging from 5"to 2-3'. Concealed under
the rats, the pit contains about 5 feet of water as well as bamboo pungee
spikes. The edges of the pit overhang, so nonmagical climbing is impossible. Upon entry into the room, the party doesn't suspect
that the rats are actually filling a deep, long pit. They also cannot
see the other side of the pit because the corridor curves. One choice
is to burn the rats. If this happens, an intelligence check tells the
group that it will burn for at least 24 hours. If the party sleeps nearby,
they are attacked by hundreds of flaming rats that last 1d4+1 rounds.
When they come back to the room, the ashes and rat corpses still conceal
the water and spikes. It is still almost impossible to climb out. No character should be allowed to levitate or
fly over, and it is impossible for a character to see to the other side. The correct way to defeat the trap is to run
over the tops of the rats. If the player declares that they will run
over the rats, they must make a dexterity check, heavy characters with
a -1 penalty. If they pass, they harmlessly run over the rats. If they
fail, they sink through the rats and onto the spikes for 3d6 points
of damage. They also will take 1d12+2 points of damage from rat bites.
They DM may also choose to give them a disease of choice with a con
check. Dwarves also find themselves in water to their dismay! It should
be very difficult to get out. One possible solution is to tie a very
heavy weight to a rope, and hope that the victim can grab on. Players
that declare non-running actions such as standing on the rats must make
the dex check with a -5 or -6 penalty, or even higher if desired. Heavy
characters should have very high penalties. Dwarves should sink like
stones. This trap may be easily overcome if all characters
decide to run. It does, however, offer humorous responses from dismayed
players! Gust of Death The trap is several Gust of Wind spells cast
through needle-holes in the wall. Permanency has been cast to keep the
Gust of Wind continuous. The trap essentially creates an air laser with
the ability to cut in half anyone that steps through it. Only a character
with keen hearing or other senses can detect it without actively looking
for it. The Kobald-Pults This trap is best either when you have just started
an adventure or with a higher level party. The party enters a LONG corridor
(perhaps 300 yards) with an extremely high ceiling (10 yards high).
The corridor is only 10 yards wide, though. At the other end of the
corridor (firing range) are three gnolls manning catapults. When the
party enters the firing range, the door they entered through disappears
and the entire wall glows. Then the gnolls begin firing kobolds from
the catapults at the party. I suggest having 30 kobolds at the far end
to begin with. If the kobold misses whomever it was fired at, it hits
the wall and is teleported back to the gnolls. However, if the kobold
hits the person, he/she takes minor damage (2d4 damage) and the kobold
stops where he is. The kobold will rise and fight normally on the next
round. Use the gnoll's normal chance to hit someone (they fire once
every three rounds). If at any time there are no kobolds down by the
gnolls, then they charge to attack. The kobolds will always wait down
by the gnolls, never charging on their own. When using this trap, watch
your players reactions ("They're firing WHAT?!? at us?"). Notes: A smart party will charge the back wall
when they see the first kobolds teleported back. This will let them
stop the gnolls from firing on them and make the fight more even. Also,
a nice DM will make the catapults collapsable so that the party can
carry them with them. If you do this, place a large room up ahead where
they can use it. (Maybe firing large rocks at some tough monster, or
launching a party member over a high wall.) A Messy Way To Go This trap can be used anywhere but it works best
in a courtyard of a castle. Once the PCs get past the main entrance
way of the castle the ground begins to slope. Make it seem normal for
this to happen.... say the castle was built on a hill for better defense.
The door that leads inside the castle is at the bottom of the slope
and is slightly battered. Tell the PCs that this castle had been attacked
once and the occupants had never repaired the door. When they get close
to the door and turn the knob to open it they will hear a rumbling for
a few seconds. Tell them that it is PROBABLY (see if they can guess
it is a trap) just the door opening up. Then the rumbling stops. Little
do they know.. a huge rock was pushed out of a secret chamber in the
wall and came rolling towards them. Because the slope suddenly gets
steeper near the door they had no idea that the rock becomes airborne
when it reaches the steeper part of the slope. So as the PCs start to
force open the door (which is stuck) SPLAT! Try it, very messy though....
BTW the castle needs to be repainted after this trap is sprung! The Torch of Incineration As the PCs enter the room magical stone doors
seal the room making it air tight, and there is an alcove 1' by 1' and
2' deep in a wall with flames burning in it and a switch in the back.
(now would be a good time to remind your PCs that fire uses oxygen and
people kind of die without it) Any item weapon, stick, rock, etc. that
enters the flame must save vs. Magical Fire or explode causing 1D8 points
of fire damage to anyone within 2 feet. If a person puts a hand in the
flame it will be slightly warm but not hot enough to hurt them and they
can easily flip the switch and raise the doors. The amount of time it
takes to run out of air depends on the size of the room. Gumbies I created a unique race called gumbies who are
an inch tall and are immune to magic. Everything else varies. A trap
you can use is while walking in a forest, have the players walk into
red (Fire! Smart but primitive) gumby territory and step on their leader!
Too bad the gumbies have grappling hooks and can pull players to the
ground and stab them with their claws! As a reward for thinking a way
out of this one you may give them a friendly gumby of another color
to help the Purple (Sonic sometimes ninjas) for example! Elton Robb (GLENNROBB@prodigy.net) This trap involves a pressure plate which is
hard to perceive When a PC steps on the pressure plate, a mechanism
under the plate sets a few gears and stops them from rolling. The minute
the PC lifts his foot off of the plate, the walls begin to move. If
he doesn't move his foot, then trap doors in a few select places will
open and skeletons will spring out. The Pressure Plate can hold a maximum of 200
lbs. and is very hard to disarm. This is because the disarmer must find
a way down without fighting the skeletons. The skeletons will voraciously
attack the party. Ding dong. You're Dead! A long hallway leads into a small room. As soon
as all the party enters, a large iron wall cuts them off. On the other
side of the room is another iron wall. Next to the wall is a door bell.
Some witty PC presses it and the floor falls out from under them (DM
chooses what happens next). Elton Robb (GLENNROBB@prodigy.net) This Trap is designed to use the character's
personality weaknesses against them. Inspired by a trap that was shown
on the D&D TV show, this trap breaks up the party into individuals
who are ultimately whimpering and hitting themselves. The trap is actually a whole building and uses
illusions to mislead the characters into thinking that they are alone,
in trouble, or impotent. here are some suggestions:
This is also a trap that is subject to the GM's
creativity and Knowledge of his characters. It's wonderful! Richard Wiseman (rwiseman@gte.net) There is an inclined corridor about 30' long
with a treasure in the back wall. Also there is a row of spikes on the
floor at the last 4' of the corridor. Some force causes an object 5'
from the spikes to trip the PC entering the corridor. If the PC is careful
and doesn't trip, the same force knows and causes a giant boulder to
come out of the beginning 5' of the wall. Because the corridor is inclined
the boulder rolls, crushing the person. The whole time the treasure
chest is an illusion. You can put a teleporter where the illusion of
the chest is as an escape route(If the PC can jump that far). Flaming Ball The trap is rather simple in concept; the characters
enter a round tunnel, slightly curved and running in excess of 240'.
The tunnel is usually 8' in diameter. Along the sides of the wall, spaced
every 20' are steel slats, sticking slightly out of the wall. In addition,
a series of ten small holes are spaced every 10' along the ceiling.
At the end of the corridor is a door with a massive iron ring. When
the party opens the door, a combined strength of 23 is necessary, behind
it they find a large ball set on a high ramp. The ball stop is mechanically
inter-linked to the door opening mechanism, so once a certain point
is reached, the door opens automatically and the ball begins rolling
down the corridor. The characters promptly begin running away. What
is happening along the remainder of the corridor is very interesting.
Oil is dropping out of the ten small holes, while the ball is striking
sparks from the steel inlays.... For added fun, iron bars can drop out
and seal the end of the corridor. J. R. Koches (admin555@nosc.mil) In the center of the room is a small marble pedestal
containing a sealed crystal cube. In the center of the cube is a magic
item of your choice. The cube opens easily to the touch and is not trapped.
Upon the item is cast a spell of avoidance. As the party tries to get
close to this item, which either skitters away or repels them, the real
trap clicks in. I usually use a series of magic mouths or alarm spells
to alert a platoon of guards or nasty major monster to come and clean
up. This one really captures the greedy ones. The Spiked Door This trap is a simple one but quite amusing.
It will be particularly effective against gung-ho adventures and moronic
fighters. Placed in a wall or at the end of a corridor is a door. It
can be tailored to look like the rest in your scenario but it has one
main difference; all handles/locks/etc are fake. Upon inspection the
door looks quite solid although if tapped in the right place sounds
fairly thin. The reason for this is simple; when the players go to kick
or bash down the door, behind it is a wall of spikes upon which they
will impale themselves. Here is a diagram: Make the spikes poisoned if you want. It may
also be a good idea to make sections of the door solid and others thin,
so if they tap test the door it may sound solid. Smashed Statues The players walk into a room and they found lots
of statues in the room. Most of the statues seem normal but around a
pile of rubble is a group of statues that looks like a group of adventurers
standing around a pile of rubble with expressions of surprise and agony
on their faces. The statues of adventurers still have all their equipment.
If any statue is smashed it will release a gas that turns animate matter
to stone. The group of adventurer statues made that mistake by shattering
one. If the players try to take anything from a statue they will find
out that the statues are very poorly balanced. They have to make a DX
check to avoid knocking it over. If they knock it over, it will shatter. If the players make it to the other end there's
a lever on the far wall. If they pull the level Boulders will fall from
the ceiling shattering the statues. Hall of statues There's a long wide corridor that the PCs have
to cross. Every ten feet in an alcove is a statue of a warrior (about
first level). This is fine but it ends at a locked door. Should they
bash it down or pick the lock that's also fine but if they cast any
spells in this room a statue comes to life. A mage heavy party (like
mine) should just cast more spells at them bringing more statues to
life. Any magic causes this affect, however the spells/whatever do not
have any effect except bringing statues to life. Fill the Room With Water The PCs come into a room that has two levers
in it. One starts filling the room with water the other drains it of
water. The doors lock behind the players. The only way out is to fill
the room with water (the pressure on the doors almost breaks them open.
They can then smash the door down and all the water comes flooding out.
I gave the party a suitable reward for this trap. The levers were knocked
out of the wall by the retreating water. They were made out of silver
(aren't I a nice DM .....hehehe) The Four Elements Some of you might recognize this from a MacGyver
episode but hey it was full of traps (they were in some ancient temple
or some such). They find four rings each one supporting a bowl. The
bottom bowl is empty, the next is full of oil, the next is full of water
and the top one is also empty. There is a bowl of dirt sitting beside
it. They are locked in the room with a limited supply of air. They must
complete the four elements (if your nice there's a plaque saying that).
If they put dirt in the bottom one, then they have two of the elements
(Earth and water. I know the top one is full of air anyway but that
is no fun.)) If they set the oil on fire they have the third (fire.)
The oil will evaporate the water which will rise up to the top creating
the element of air (well water vapor but it is sort of air) the door
will open and they're out. Waiting For Weight This is from the same episode.. They are also
locked in a room again with not much air. Sitting around is a statue
with two hands. On one is a weight and lying around the room are other
weights. They must find another equal weight and put it in the other
hand. If they do the door will open. Supernova This trap can only be used in very strange circumstances.
Mine was that aliens were trying to take over the world (These aliens
used combination magic/technology). At the end of the adventure they
find the aliens power source which was a 12' ball of bright light. The
players each need to have something to escape gravity at this point.
The sphere is actually a smaller version of a star. They can destroy
it by either casting any spell at it or by throwing in a magic object.
The door to this room is automatic but since they destroyed the star
it has no power to open. The star starts expanding and contracting.
Anyone caught in these takes a lot of damage. The star collapses in
on itself and turns into a black hole. It starts sucking the PCs in
(it's stronger than the antigravity they used to get there). When they
reach the black hole well... See sphere of annihilation in the DMG for
details... (hehehe) Zach Toups (lord_zerax@geocites.com) The players walk into a room, it (the room) can
be of any size. It has a continual light spell in effect. The walls
are speckled with lots of holes (about the size of a quarter). The trigger
for the trap is a several infra-red beams that cannot be avoided or
seen (infravision is useless in the light). If darkness is cast, the
light will be negated and the room will return to normal darkness, anyone
with infravision can see the beams. If anything blocks a beam, it causes
multiple darts to fire from the walls, hopefully hitting the PC. Andreas Iseli (IseliA@BENTLEY.DEVETWA.EDU.AU) The PC's fall down a chute into a large "checker
board" room. You can have as many tiles as you like. Each "square"
is a pressure plate which has four holes it. At the other end of the
room, there is a lever which opens a door. The problem is, every pressure
plate stepped on causes 4 spikes to shoot from the ground on another
tile! For example, stepping on tile 5 causes spikes to shoot from tile
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