Hey guys. I am a brand new DM for my brand new party of three players. I'm making my own campaign for them to play and when creating dungeons I was wondering what would be a decent way to implement traps that can be more than just a hindrance but doesn't kill off players who are unprepared. (we are all new and they love the characters they made so we aren't trying to kill anyone) Any other tips for a new DM would be cool too. :3
I've asked a similar question to this before and the advice I got centered around the determining purpose of the trap. Once you figure out what it's meant to accomplish, it's a lot easier to work out the details. Here are few things to ask yourself:
Where is the trap? In a room? A passage? A treasure chest? A door?
Who set the trap? Did goblins holed up in a cave set it recently? Was it set ages ago do defend an ancient tomb? Did bandits set it to injure horses so travelers could be robbed?
What is the purpose? Is it meant to kill one who springs it? Should people see it and be deterred? Does it capture or kill? Is it just a challenge? Keep people out? Keep people in?
What is the environment like? Falling logs in a forest make sense. A spiked pit in a dungeon? Poisons gas and drowning pools near a swamp?
Look at it from the perspective of the one who set it and what they were trying to accomplish. Now look at it as something that creates a problem that the players have to solve. A trap that is more of a hindrance to beginner players might be a pit trap where the floor gives out and someone falls into a 10' pit. they take a small (non-life threatening) amount of damage, but now you have to figure out how to get the player out. Maybe there is some green slime in the bottom of the pit. Now you have a slippery situation and you also have an encounter where only one player is in danger. Does the rest of the party jump in to help? Now all of them are in the pit! Or maybe someone steps on a snare and gets pulled up off the ground (DEX check to jump out of the way) and the same springing snare could have bells on it to make a lot of noise and call someone so the party has to deal with the intruders while the snared player tries to get free so he or she can join the fight.
Sometimes you want traps that play to the strengths of monsters. Ghouls are immune to poison. I had a ghoul encounter planned on a recent dungeon crawl, so I put in a pressure plate poison gas trap. Affected players were poisoned which made it a little harder to deal with the ghouls. That also works thematically.
Anyway, that's my thought process when it comes to traps. Don't let the rules box you in either. If you have a cool idea for a trap, plan it out then figure out how to use the rules to shape your encounter.
Thank you that's a great step by step. A vindictive smuggler leader is using a large trap in the very middle of a big room to get anyone that would walk straight through without looking. She is the type of person that would want to watch someone suffer. She usually deals with commoners so I came up with a trap that is a pit fall that holds some rats that can kill commoners but maybe not adventurers. Would that be plausible
Hey guys. I am a brand new DM for my brand new party of three players. I'm making my own campaign for them to play and when creating dungeons I was wondering what would be a decent way to implement traps that can be more than just a hindrance but doesn't kill off players who are unprepared. (we are all new and they love the characters they made so we aren't trying to kill anyone) Any other tips for a new DM would be cool too. :3
I've asked a similar question to this before and the advice I got centered around the determining purpose of the trap. Once you figure out what it's meant to accomplish, it's a lot easier to work out the details. Here are few things to ask yourself:
Look at it from the perspective of the one who set it and what they were trying to accomplish. Now look at it as something that creates a problem that the players have to solve. A trap that is more of a hindrance to beginner players might be a pit trap where the floor gives out and someone falls into a 10' pit. they take a small (non-life threatening) amount of damage, but now you have to figure out how to get the player out. Maybe there is some green slime in the bottom of the pit. Now you have a slippery situation and you also have an encounter where only one player is in danger. Does the rest of the party jump in to help? Now all of them are in the pit! Or maybe someone steps on a snare and gets pulled up off the ground (DEX check to jump out of the way) and the same springing snare could have bells on it to make a lot of noise and call someone so the party has to deal with the intruders while the snared player tries to get free so he or she can join the fight.
Sometimes you want traps that play to the strengths of monsters. Ghouls are immune to poison. I had a ghoul encounter planned on a recent dungeon crawl, so I put in a pressure plate poison gas trap. Affected players were poisoned which made it a little harder to deal with the ghouls. That also works thematically.
Anyway, that's my thought process when it comes to traps. Don't let the rules box you in either. If you have a cool idea for a trap, plan it out then figure out how to use the rules to shape your encounter.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Thank you that's a great step by step. A vindictive smuggler leader is using a large trap in the very middle of a big room to get anyone that would walk straight through without looking. She is the type of person that would want to watch someone suffer. She usually deals with commoners so I came up with a trap that is a pit fall that holds some rats that can kill commoners but maybe not adventurers. Would that be plausible
Sounds pretty cruel to me. "Welcome to my pit of starving rats! Enjoy being devoured because I will enjoy your agonizing screams!"
"Not all those who wander are lost"