I am a children's librarian and I am running a DND campaign for tweens and teens this summer (the group tends to average about ages 9-13). Because my table-top games have attracted a regular group of kids, I decided that rather than run a "beginner's" campaign I'd run a homebrew at higher levels. The starting level is level 10.
I am looking for some interesting and fun traps and riddles to throw at a group of 10-13 year olds. Something not too complicated, but still challenging. I admit my traps are not as creative as they could be.
the theme of the campaign is Jurassic Park, and revolves around a dungeon that has been turned into novelty entertainment by an entrepreneur. Like in the films and books, something has gone wrong and the employees and creatures in the dungeon have gone out of control; it's up to the adventurers to delve into the mystery and find out who really is the final boss at the end of this dungeon. (It's the entrepreneur. He's the BBEG).
The trick? the Entrepreneur doesn't want any of his lucrative beloved attractions to be killed. and he will deduct gold based on how much damage is done to the surrounding dungeon (He doesn't care about the employees)
the map is straightforward; there are seven chambers which each contain a different encounter. Some are traps, some are monsters, and some are both. there is a room that explains the lore of the dungeon and a room of respite halfway through so that the kids have a chance to relax.
I have several encounters that the players can fight or negotiate with in order to descend through the dungeon, but I'm finding myself at a loss for traps (and worried I've thrown too many strong creatures into the mix and that the kids won't be able to handle it).
Encounters:
Zookeepers (fighters)
2 sacred statues possessed by Eidolons
A druid in training (the kids have to knock them out of their various wildshapes and then fight the druid)
a union of 5 Kobolds on strike
a gelatinous cube with googly eyes (it's part of a trap)
2 displacer beasts
a wyvern/basilisk hybrid on a rampage
and finally, a miniature dinosaur who is actually a red dragon that has been polymorphed against his will after the entrepreneur tricked him into a terrible contract.
as for traps I really only have 2:
The eidolons are part of a riddle: one can only take magical damage, the other can only take physical damage. a DC 15 Arcana/Investigation check reveals this secret to the party which will make the battle easier. Once the eidolons are beaten, the doors unlock.
Benny the Gelatinous Cube: The room has rainbow levers that can only be pulled in a specific order. players have a limited amount of time to figure out that order as Benny the Cube slowly oozes through a grate above their heads and enters the room. if the levers are all pulled correctly, benny is sucked into a side pipe and the door below opens to a spiral staircase; if not the party has to fight Benny the Cube, and upon his defeat the door beneath them will open and reveal the spiral staircase.
I would really appreciate some advice on traps and encounters for this dungeon crawl; I'm not very creative when it comes to traps.
thank you!!
Edit: 5/15/25
Hi all! I wanted to thank everyone for their contributions to this thread. They were extremely helpful in tweaking my campaign. I did forget to mention that this is more a "monster of the week" type of crawl, as I only get about an hour and a half for each of the six sessions.
I loved the different ideas you all came up with to help spice up this dungeon! Thank you so much for all of your advice!
Why would the party fight the zoo keepers or druid? It would make much more sense for those to be social encounters as the party asks for help & information about the amusement park and what has gone wrong.
Also have these kids ever played D&D before? If not starting at 10th level is a really bad idea, any of them that play spellcasters will be completely overwhelmed, and even those playing martials will not know how to use their feats etc... None of the combats are likely to be satisfying since they will mostly involve the kids asking if they can do something and you having to spend 5 minutes explaining whether they can are cannot. Plus you will have to give them premade characters since there's no way a 9 year old is going to be able to build a functional 10th level character from scratch with no previous experience.
If you want to avoid the deadliness of 1st level, then I'd recommend starting at 5th level, IME kids tend to really like playing around 5th level since that's when they get some cool stuff and feel like effective adventurers without getting overwhelmed.
"a miniature dinosaur who is actually a red dragon that has been polymorphed against his will" - that requires some deep understanding on D&D mechanics and lore, the kids are not going to have any clue what is happening unless the dragon or entrepeneur explicitly tells them what is going on. Plus why would the kids even kill the mini-dinosaur to reveal it? They've been told to avoid killing things as much as possible.
First of all, how is the party supposed to determine the order of the levers for the puzzle? Do they just guess? Second of all, I would recommend having just a normal dragon rather than a weird polymorphed one. They're plenty exotic, and dragons are iconic in, well, Dungeons and Dragons.
That's not to say I think the whole thing is a bad idea, I think kids would love a Jurassic-park themed D&D campaign, but you're making it way too complicated. Just a zoo filled with classic fantasy monsters gone awry + zoo keepers trying different strategies to contain them / stay alive sounds completely awesome! But these encounters feel incredibly disconnected from that idea.
Here's some suggestions for encounters:
1) Griffin rodeo -> a bunch of griffins have escaped from their exhibit and are flying around the area looking for food, a zoo keeper has found a big bag of meat to try and lure them down but needs the party's help to capture them and get them back into the appropriate enclosure. This can include grappling, using nets, using spells to slow them down, and/or hiding to ambush them or animal handling to coax them, and could include a simple puzzle to activate the magical field around the enclosure.
2) Hydra in the sewers -> while the party are exploring the zoo, randomly heads of the hydra pop out of sewer grates and attack one of them a couple of times before backing of and retracting back into the sewers. The party have to first figure out how to get into the sewers then track down the hydra (e.g. survival) then fight/defeat it. Possible Traps: crumbling pipes, purple/green mould on the roof that falls on them, a puddle filled with pirana they have to cross.
3) Cyclops or Ettin on the loose -> the Cyclop or Ettin has been convinced by the BBEG that keeping these animals locked up is evil and is wandering around smashing open the enclosures / exhibits. The party can either fight them or try to talk them down.
4) Displacer beast ambush -> the Displacer beasts have been released and are hiding in the shadows of the rafters/roof of some admin buildings, the party are directed to go there to get supplies either by zookeepers or the entrepeneur but nearby zookeepers warn them that something keeps grabbing people when they walk near [door/hallway/building]. The party need to figure out how to sneak by and/or defeat the displacer beasts or force them out of their hiding place.
5) A druid obsessed with one of the exhibit creatures, who is trying to get their beloved creature out of the zoo but is under attack by a carnivorous escapee. The party can try to help the druid, can try to convince the druid to help them, or fight the druid as the entrepeneur demands.
6) zoo keepers hiding in a closet out of fear from a Phase Spider, or a group of invisible pixies / quasits.
I run a couple of kids groups as well, 12-16 and 15-19 in my case, and one puzzle I recent ran that totally stumped them was so easy but took them ages: Put a red key in a red lock and a green key in a green lock and turn them both. The trick is it was in a dark room and dark vision only gets you black and white images, my players are that stereotypical chorus of "I've got dark vision" everytime I describe a dark room so I thought I'd use that against them. All they needed to do was light a torch and they'd be fine. Took about 20 minutes and me telling them to read Dark Vision very carefully before they solved it
Hello!
I am a children's librarian and I am running a DND campaign for tweens and teens this summer (the group tends to average about ages 9-13). Because my table-top games have attracted a regular group of kids, I decided that rather than run a "beginner's" campaign I'd run a homebrew at higher levels. The starting level is level 10.
I am looking for some interesting and fun traps and riddles to throw at a group of 10-13 year olds. Something not too complicated, but still challenging. I admit my traps are not as creative as they could be.
the theme of the campaign is Jurassic Park, and revolves around a dungeon that has been turned into novelty entertainment by an entrepreneur. Like in the films and books, something has gone wrong and the employees and creatures in the dungeon have gone out of control; it's up to the adventurers to delve into the mystery and find out who really is the final boss at the end of this dungeon. (It's the entrepreneur. He's the BBEG).
The trick? the Entrepreneur doesn't want any of his
lucrativebeloved attractions to be killed. and he will deduct gold based on how much damage is done to the surrounding dungeon (He doesn't care about the employees)the map is straightforward; there are seven chambers which each contain a different encounter. Some are traps, some are monsters, and some are both. there is a room that explains the lore of the dungeon and a room of respite halfway through so that the kids have a chance to relax.
I have several encounters that the players can fight or negotiate with in order to descend through the dungeon, but I'm finding myself at a loss for traps (and worried I've thrown too many strong creatures into the mix and that the kids won't be able to handle it).
Encounters:
as for traps I really only have 2:
I would really appreciate some advice on traps and encounters for this dungeon crawl; I'm not very creative when it comes to traps.
thank you!!
Edit: 5/15/25
Hi all! I wanted to thank everyone for their contributions to this thread. They were extremely helpful in tweaking my campaign. I did forget to mention that this is more a "monster of the week" type of crawl, as I only get about an hour and a half for each of the six sessions.
I loved the different ideas you all came up with to help spice up this dungeon! Thank you so much for all of your advice!
Why would the party fight the zoo keepers or druid? It would make much more sense for those to be social encounters as the party asks for help & information about the amusement park and what has gone wrong.
Also have these kids ever played D&D before? If not starting at 10th level is a really bad idea, any of them that play spellcasters will be completely overwhelmed, and even those playing martials will not know how to use their feats etc... None of the combats are likely to be satisfying since they will mostly involve the kids asking if they can do something and you having to spend 5 minutes explaining whether they can are cannot. Plus you will have to give them premade characters since there's no way a 9 year old is going to be able to build a functional 10th level character from scratch with no previous experience.
If you want to avoid the deadliness of 1st level, then I'd recommend starting at 5th level, IME kids tend to really like playing around 5th level since that's when they get some cool stuff and feel like effective adventurers without getting overwhelmed.
"a miniature dinosaur who is actually a red dragon that has been polymorphed against his will" - that requires some deep understanding on D&D mechanics and lore, the kids are not going to have any clue what is happening unless the dragon or entrepeneur explicitly tells them what is going on. Plus why would the kids even kill the mini-dinosaur to reveal it? They've been told to avoid killing things as much as possible.
First of all, how is the party supposed to determine the order of the levers for the puzzle? Do they just guess? Second of all, I would recommend having just a normal dragon rather than a weird polymorphed one. They're plenty exotic, and dragons are iconic in, well, Dungeons and Dragons.
That's not to say I think the whole thing is a bad idea, I think kids would love a Jurassic-park themed D&D campaign, but you're making it way too complicated. Just a zoo filled with classic fantasy monsters gone awry + zoo keepers trying different strategies to contain them / stay alive sounds completely awesome! But these encounters feel incredibly disconnected from that idea.
Here's some suggestions for encounters:
1) Griffin rodeo -> a bunch of griffins have escaped from their exhibit and are flying around the area looking for food, a zoo keeper has found a big bag of meat to try and lure them down but needs the party's help to capture them and get them back into the appropriate enclosure. This can include grappling, using nets, using spells to slow them down, and/or hiding to ambush them or animal handling to coax them, and could include a simple puzzle to activate the magical field around the enclosure.
2) Hydra in the sewers -> while the party are exploring the zoo, randomly heads of the hydra pop out of sewer grates and attack one of them a couple of times before backing of and retracting back into the sewers. The party have to first figure out how to get into the sewers then track down the hydra (e.g. survival) then fight/defeat it. Possible Traps: crumbling pipes, purple/green mould on the roof that falls on them, a puddle filled with pirana they have to cross.
3) Cyclops or Ettin on the loose -> the Cyclop or Ettin has been convinced by the BBEG that keeping these animals locked up is evil and is wandering around smashing open the enclosures / exhibits. The party can either fight them or try to talk them down.
4) Displacer beast ambush -> the Displacer beasts have been released and are hiding in the shadows of the rafters/roof of some admin buildings, the party are directed to go there to get supplies either by zookeepers or the entrepeneur but nearby zookeepers warn them that something keeps grabbing people when they walk near [door/hallway/building]. The party need to figure out how to sneak by and/or defeat the displacer beasts or force them out of their hiding place.
5) A druid obsessed with one of the exhibit creatures, who is trying to get their beloved creature out of the zoo but is under attack by a carnivorous escapee. The party can try to help the druid, can try to convince the druid to help them, or fight the druid as the entrepeneur demands.
6) zoo keepers hiding in a closet out of fear from a Phase Spider, or a group of invisible pixies / quasits.
I run a couple of kids groups as well, 12-16 and 15-19 in my case, and one puzzle I recent ran that totally stumped them was so easy but took them ages: Put a red key in a red lock and a green key in a green lock and turn them both. The trick is it was in a dark room and dark vision only gets you black and white images, my players are that stereotypical chorus of "I've got dark vision" everytime I describe a dark room so I thought I'd use that against them. All they needed to do was light a torch and they'd be fine. Took about 20 minutes and me telling them to read Dark Vision very carefully before they solved it
Thank you for the response!
yes they have; many of these kids are repeat players and have been playing my games for at least 2 years. They understand the dynamics pretty well.
oh I love this!! This will be really fun to stump them with.
Thank you so much!
Thank you for the encounter ideas! These are a lot better than what I initially came up with, and i love the griffin rodeo especially.