Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Avenging Angel 02-04-04, 09:41 AM	I call forth to all DM's. I need traps, puzzles, and other types of encounters. The idea: A mystical place (magic dungeon) filled with 36 rooms. Each room is a test of a person's mettle, integrity, skill, etc. etc. etc. Each room will be an individual and independent trap/encounter puzzle all its own. Think of the Kung Fu movie by the same name but with fantasy elements. It is set in an oriental game I'm running (obviously). I have a few but not nearly enough. The traps i do find are not really what I'm lookin for either. I want traps that "ARE" the encounter not just a side note. Like a room filling with water or the walls are closing in about to crush them and they need to solve the puzzle or riddle in order to get out. Hmm those are not bad ideas. Now how would the machnic work. Any way I ask all to put forth ideas. The more the merrier. And I thank ye all in advance.
Aranamarunda 02-04-04, 10:00 AM	Well, I made this one once: A room: About 20 x 20 feet. A door on one side only, no other openings When the players enter the room, the whle thing starts to turn and grow. They are now, for some reason, on the otherside of the room, and feeling very tiny. They are about the size of an insect and the room is now about a mile across. Thy see the door on the otherside of the room, an it seems the only way out. So they start walking and, in the middle of the room, are ambushed by an amazingly large Ant! the battle is very difficult, but they shoul be able to win. Now they get to the otherside of the room, and try to leave, but the door is an illusion! They walk into solid stone, not even able to climb the threshold. They are thinking and thinking, but can't come up with a solution. Divination spells, which still work on the whole room, tells them, however, that the door is actually still on the other side of the room, only an illusion makes it appear like it is a wall. So they turn back and start for the other side of the room again. About halfway, they hear a sound from behind them, and see an army of roughly 20 of the same ants, coming after them. now they must run for it, and hope they are a lot faster, or win in some other manner. Once back, they climb the threshold, and leave the room, and the room shifts back to it's normal size. The ants aren't a threat anymore either! Important! make the threshold a stone one. Otherwise, when at the beginning of the room, they might notice they are leaning against a wooden wall, while it should be stone. If they even search the wall. the threshold is about 25 feet high, which keeps them from discovering that it is the doorway initially, unless, offcourse, they start castin div spells straight away. if your party is like this, then make it so that the wall has turned solid, until they touch the other side of the room first!
Stormweaver 02-04-04, 11:26 AM	Try traps & treachery I & II from Fantasy flight games. Lots of Ideas there.
krichaiushii 02-04-04, 12:22 PM	Judges' Guild once produced a series called Grimtooth's Traps. They are currently working on an 3.5 version of the greatest hits from the 8 volumes they put out, oh so long ago. WotC has the Book of Challenges. Some of those might prove useful. I second the recommendation of Traps and Treachery I & II - they are like monster manuals full of traps. The adventure, though not d20, Crypt of Lyzandred is full of puzzles and traps and such. As is the venerable Tomb of Horrors. Just be kind enough to only use challenges the PCs can survive with a save or intelligent skill use. Dungeon Magazine occasionally has an adventure called Challenge of Champions. CoC 5 is in issue 108. Anyhow, each contains a series of noncombat encounters that require intelligence to pass. Seek them out. When given the opportunity, use fine sand instead of water. It takes care of those pesky water-breathing spells, as well as shapeshifting into something with gills. Take inspiration from the skill list in the PHB. Build challenges based on the usage of them - or at least are greatly reduced in challenge by them. If your PCs have the necessary skills, that's great. If not, perhaps they should diversify... A door with a plaque reading "Test Your Metal". As long as you don't spell the word "Metal", your players may believe you intend "Mettle" and will be more shocked when the rust monsters or large magnet (lodestone) affect all the metal. Perhaps some of the rooms have interactive murals, requiring search and knowledge checks to operate properly. Knowledge to know what the murals are about (legends, most likely) and search to determine which parts of the mural lead to victory and which to death. Doors which require successful turning (as in undead) checks to pass. Murals on the doors give hints that a successful Knowledge (religion) check can provide. What is the makeup of your potential PCs? Race, class, level, significant magic items.
therazoreater 02-04-04, 12:37 PM	The players step through a doorway and suddenly they are home, each player finds themself home, wherever that may be, they feel a strange sense of peace and contentment. Everything seems right. Allow the players to make Will Saves to disbelieve the illusion (DC appropriate to your campaign) If they fail they experience more of the illusion. They are in the midst of a happy moment when suddenly they vomit forth a stomach full of water, and blackout. Awaking just as suddenly they find themselves back in the dungeon of the 36 Chambers. The room they are in is almost done filling with water, giving them one round to breath before their is not space for air. There is a large stone trapdoor in the floor is held closed by a large adamantine bar that can be slid open with a successful strength check made by at least two PC's simultaneously. Disbelieving the Illusion: Any player who makes a successful save to disbelieve the illusion of home, wakes up when the room is still filling with water. This gives them 5 rounds to act before the room is completely filled. If they try to awaken their companions, the companion immediately gets a second saving throw at +2. There companions are floating scattered about the room so swimming will be necessary to reach them. Any player searching for a way out who searches the ceiling and succeeds at their search check can find a small hole (1/2 inch thick) in the ceiling near the northwest corner of the room. The hole leads to the surface or a room above and allows one character to breath at a time. If the bar to the trap door is slid back it causes all the water to suddenly rush out of the room dragging the players down into a 300 foot deep pit. Once the water and the players settle in the pit, strange stones begin to glow all over the walls of the chasm. These stones help by illuminating the way back to the room. The problem is that these stones are lit by electricity, and cause any player in the water 2d6 points of electrical damage for every turn they remain in it. There is a secret door located in the southeast corner of the room that only opens when the room is drained. Activating the secret door causes the room to begin draining, which takes 5-10 rounds depending when the players find the door. The water drains through small openings that appear near the floor in the north and west walls. Once the room is drained the door opens allowing them to exit.
therazoreater 02-04-04, 12:46 PM	:embarrass
Treskin 02-04-04, 08:27 PM	Cube (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123755/) Could be a good movie to watch for inspiration.
Rasmus 02-05-04, 05:07 AM	Look for "Grim Tooth's Traps". The traps in those books are encounters in themselves, and some are extremely lethal.
xect 02-05-04, 08:10 AM	Personally, I have a problem with riddles. I feel they test the players rather than the characters. I would suggest letting the most intellegent characters in the party have a chance of thinking up the answer without their players having to.
claytonian 02-05-04, 08:19 AM	Originally posted by xect Personally, I have a problem with riddles. I feel they test the players rather than the characters. I would suggest letting the most intellegent characters in the party have a chance of thinking up the answer without their players having to. or you could give them hints if they roll high enough on int and/or wisdom checks
Trillia 02-05-04, 09:15 AM	Door shuts behind the party and locks. Door on opposite wall is also locked, and has a wheel next to it counting slowly down from 9 to 0. A lever next to the wheel sets the counter back to 9, but does nothing else. The door out opens when the counter gets to 0. Not that hard to do, and no real danger, but it can hold up a paranoid party for an incredibly long time. ;)
therazoreater 02-05-04, 12:48 PM	Someone said Cube so how about Cube 2: Hypercube
Slider33 02-05-04, 04:52 PM	That countdown 9-0 trick sounds like fun! I shall try it out on my players..... Here's also one I thought of putting in my campaign: I remember one puzzle in a video game I played, really had me stumped for a long time. The game is Grim Fandango, and a lot of you may know what I'm talking about. Of course if your players have ever played this game it's not going to work. It's very simple to implement, but proved to be a real pain for me at the time. I can see this one being applied to a dungeon room or something, although if your players (like me at the time) don't catch on it could take forever. By itself, this puzzle doesn't harm the players in any way, but it can easily be modified to apply the appropriate "punishments" wherever you want em. It could easily be deadly if they don't catch on quick. Surround the room in as many portals as you want. As long as there are portals placed in every direction, the amount of portals doesn't matter. The portals are actually a red herring, and mean absolutely nothing to solving the puzzle. Going through one, or any of the portals will just bring you back through another portal in the room, basically transporting you from one side of the room to the other, or some random location. This makes a distraction from the real solution. It could be random portals, or they could specifically correspond to a particular portal. Depending on how devious you want to be with this. There is a knocked down signpost in this room, which is the key to it's solution. It is a simple sign, when stood up, it will automatically align itself in a particular direction. The solution is to pick up and place the signpost at a precise spot on the floor in the room. No matter where it is moved, the arrow will automatically align itself right to the sweet spot. No one knows this sweet spot but the DM of course... Only when the sign is placed directly on top of the sweet spot, the exit will appear. The trick is, this "arrow" will *seem* to be pointing at some particular portal that surrounds the room, depending on where the signpost is placed. Thus, misleading the players to utilize the portal system, which will ultimately get them nowhere, or get them killed. There can even be multiple "sweet" spots after one sweet spot is found, to increase it's difficulty. I'm going to try this one out, and see how it goes. If it works on them like it did me, it will be hard to figure out.
RobTzu 02-05-04, 04:59 PM	36 chambers was the best Wu-tang album ever! I remember the darkmoon video games, you could have magic mouts say riddles, then the pc's have to put objects into a box, then pull a lever. If wrong they should get a zap of lighting. The Hobbit has some good riddles in the chapter "Riddles in the dark".
bjorntfh 02-05-04, 07:25 PM	A hallway with 4 traps in it. On the floor of the hall is the word "Duck" written in chalk on the stones. A scything blade whips by at chest height across the hall (+15 to hit, 3d8 19-20/x4, search DC 26, disable DC 26, resets after 1d4 rounds) If they duck it automatically misses. Twenty feet down the hall another message is written "Look Left" The left wall of the corridor shoots 6 spears across the hall (+5 attack 1d6+2 20/x2 each, search DC 26, disable DC 26) If they're watching they can jump out of the way with a DC 10 reflex save. Twenty more feet down the corridor is written "Above" Acid falls down from the ceiling doing 3d6 damage to everyone in that and adjacent squares (search DC 26, disable DC 26). If they follow the note they get a reflex save DC 10 to negate, otherwise it's DC 15 for half. The last trap says "Jump Back" and if the person does, they fall down a 20' shaft. Around the pit is a pressure plate, if it's tripped a stone block drops into the pit (pretty much killing everyone inside. it's a 5'x5'x10' block of granite. Search DC 26, Disable DC 26 for the plate) Written on the wall of the pit is the word "Sucker"
Avenging Angel 02-06-04, 07:46 AM	Thx for the references. But since I'm not a regular/steady DM and I don't have the cash to spare I really don't wanna pick up any more books. I have liked the ideas that have come out so far. Please keep them coming. I only need another twenty some odd more rooms. Keep'em coming. Again thanx in advance.
Avenging Angel 02-06-04, 07:48 AM	And you are so right RobTzu 36 chambers truely was the best Wu-Tang album ever.
trentlanthier 02-06-04, 10:44 AM	Don't always make them riddles I find that maybe 1 or 2 people excel in riddles but not all. Make sure there are rooms that need magic to solve. (So the cleric/wizard/bard/sorc etc) can partake in it. Some challenges will require strength and agility Some will require Rogue skills to get through. take your party and make 1-2 rooms where 1 person in the party will excell. Then make 1-2 rooms where 2 - 3 members have to join forces and work together to get through. THe last room should have something for every person to do to get through. (I personally love depleteing magic from casters makes the last fight more memorable when they'er low on magic its a slight thrill of dying)
WhtKnt 02-06-04, 11:08 AM	While I agree that the aforementioned sources are great references, I'm going to offer something that is a little more in line with the request. Here's a trap I devised for an adventure that took place in an Egyptian-style tomb: Start with a 10-foot wide section of corridor. At some point earlier in the adventure, the group has activated a trigger that brings a stone wall down across the corridor, effectively sealing it off. Thus, this trap works even in a corridor that they've already explored. The space immediately in front of the newly-created dead end contains a pressure plate which, where it had previously been supported from beneath, is now released and active. This trap works best if placed in the entrance corridor and then triggered once they have passed it, so that they encounter the newly-formed dead end on their way back through what they thought was open corridor. When anyone moves forward to investigate the wall (such as to look for secret doors, or to read the odd heiroglyphics printed on it), the pressure plate is activated and causes a wall to fall into place 10 feet behind the first (i.e, the hapless adventurer finds himself trapped in a 10-foot by 10-foot space). You're almost assured to get one, and you may get lucky and pick off two members of the group like this. The wall descends very quickly, so the person standing at the dead-end will almost certainly be captured. Generous DMs may permit a Reflex save for others to avoid the trap. As soon as the wall touches the floor, the ceiling slides open and sand begins to pour into the corridor, filling it at the rate of 1 foot per round (in one minute, the section will be full of sand if the ceiling is 10 feet). Once a character is completely engulfed in sand (usually 5-7 rounds), they begin to suffocate. Once the sand is above the level of their arms (one round before engulfment), a character cannot cast any spell that require somatic components and may not use weapons. The walls are superior masonry (Break DC 35, Hardness 8, 90 hp). Optionally, ten minutes (100 rounds) after the trap is initially sprung, the ceiling closes and the floor opens up, dropping everything in the space between the walls into a deep pit. Six seconds later, the walls retract into the ceiling and the trap is reset, leaving only an empty stretch of corridor, with no sign of the victim(s).
Avenging Angel 02-13-04, 10:10 AM	Aww come on guys DM floundering. I need some more ideas and I'm fresh out. A DM reachin out to all other fellow DM's plzzz help me out. :( :sad: (On knees begging)
Lord T Hawkeye 02-13-04, 03:44 PM	I got a good one for the wizard or sorceror of the group. There's a pedastle with several scrolls on it. A magic mouth appears in front of him and says that he must use the scrolls to counter his spells or suffer their effects. The mouth then begins to chant one spell after another. Spellcaster must quickly use spellcraft to identify the spell and use the appropriate scroll to counter it. You like?
khyron1144 02-13-04, 04:01 PM	This is from my thread Death Traps and other Unfairness. (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=2567917) Here's the final version: Here's my new version of the "Great Power" pillars: How to detect: Search or Spot DC 6 to find indentations and inscription. Search or Spot DC 18 to find left over ashes ( a cleaning crew comes in regularly, but they missed a few spots). The inscription is in an ancient dialect of common. Decipher Script DC 7 to understand great power portion of the message, DC 17 to understand warning part of the message. This should be rolled as one check, with better rolls providing more information. Or to put it another way: The full message reads something like: Warning: Great Power, but it's much easier to get the Great Power than the Warning: Listen DC 15 to hear low humming or buzzing vibration from the pillars. If all the clues are gathered, but the players are unable to put them together, then I might allow a wisdom check (DC 12) to let the PCs guess that putting their hands in the indentations is a Bad Idea. Other clues: Elsewhere in the dungeon, in a room that might be encountered before the pillar room are medium size copper golems with a small electrical charge. In another room is the above-mentioned copper bar with hand-like projections that powers up soemthing big when put in place. Why does it look like it does? Because the pillars are meant to serve a triple purpose: 1) Frying the stupid. 2) Charging the copper golems. 3) Powering up the Big Effect. Hand-like indentations in the pillar allow all three purposes to be served. Effect if hands are put in indentations despite clues, warning, etc.: 6d8 Electricty damage, Reflex save (DC 18) for half (I usually intepret that as 3d8, rather than 6d8/2). Here's the original post that started things: I found some very old issues of White Wolf Magazine (low double digits, maybe high single digits) from back when it was the generic answer to Dragon before there was a White Wolf the company for it to be a house organ for. One of the feautures of these early issues were contests, where readers were asked to send in their homebrewed things for use in a game, and the best ones got printed in the magazine and a subscription or something. What does this long bit of a reminisce about a kind of cool find at the game store have to do wtih this board? I'm getting to that. The results of the trap contest were interesting. I particularly liked one result: A pair of pillars with aproximately a character-sized space between them. They both have a hand-shaped indentation in them, and some sort of inscription about great power on them. If a character puts his hands in both indentations, he completes a circuit and gets "great power" a massive dose of electricity, sufficient to cause instant death. In 3e terms, such a thing would probably involve a Fortitude save, right? Where would you set the DC? How would you set the damage and what would the results of a succesful Fort save be? Right now my figures are something like save DC of 15, and the trap does 6d20 electricity damage normally, with a succesful save lowering the damage to "only" 2d20. Am I a sadist for even thinking of including such a thing, particularly after including statues with inscriptions on them that granted permanent attribute increases and other goodies if the conditions of the inscription were met? Another post that brings up a few key points: Originally posted by Dasein Also, when it comes to traps, think of why such a thing would exist - why would someone go to the trouble of building this device and leave it lying about some dungeon? Perhaps if it were not a 'trap', but rather a magical construct recharging station, it would make more sense, but then, it should also be placed in such a way as to indicate what it's function would be. Dasein Thank you Dasein. That's the question that needs asking. Here are some of my ideas: 1) It's in the dungeon/ keep/ fortress of a misanthropic wizard or lich, who expects adventurers to bother him eventually. He knows of the ability score boosting statue type beneficial dungeon feature and hopes that invaders will mistake this for a similar thing. Psychologically it's like keeping an alligator pit under your Go Away! mat. Makes it effectively a mind puzzle version of the classic pit, spear or needle death traps. 2) It's actually a power source for something. In the same dungeon somewhere there's a copper bar of the right span ending in two hand-shaped projections and just to be extra nice a pair of very thick cloth gloves for insulation. When it's put in place it turns something on such as: a) the lights in the city on the demiplane accessed through one of the other dungeon rooms. b) The god-computer, which will answer 1d4 questions- Are you really the god-computer? Yes. Really? Yes. Really? Yes. No, seriously really? Yes. Thank you for your service. Please talk to me again in another two millenia. Good bye. Anybody else got ideas?
Donnavin Snowolf 02-13-04, 05:49 PM	My best guess as to why theres 36 trapped rooms is because theres something really nice at the end, like a magical helmet, or a candy bar, or something. Honestly I can see some old wizard setting it up because he knows no rogue would be able to look at it and say "Theres probably nothing worth while in there." A puzzel I designed for a friend of mine went as follows. There are four statues in the room, one at each corner, each pointing at the senter of the room (with their arm or sword or whatever. They're pointing, not just facing). Now you make up a set of rules for the statues. If UL (upper left) statue turns 1 quarter right, BL (bottom left) statues turns 2 quarters right. Set up a definate set of rules like this for each statue. Naturally if statue 1 is turned because of its relationship to statue 2. Statue 3 shouldn't turn, even though it turns whenever statue 2 is turned. Anywho. Spin them around and mix them up according you these rules so that they're pointing all over the room, and the PCs must get them to point at the center, at which time something happens, like the door opening. However this is a pretty basic puzzle really. As an extra quirk one of the statues has been broken, and a PC must stand ontop of its square and point at the center of the room. Or there might even be no trace of the statue to begin with. Hell, you could make it a hexagonal room and really mess with them. I have others, but they're really long winded, and themed at that. *shrug*
Avenging Angel 02-18-04, 09:54 AM	Plz Donnavin Snowolf, feel free to post your ideas i'm looking for unique rooms/traps. The way this is supposed to work is its a Mystical dungeon of 36 (obviously). At the end...well I can't say what s at the end or why any one would go in just in case my players read this. Its bad enough they will have an idea of what to expect. But I do need rooms and the more i can get the better to keep my players off gaurd. So all you DM's that wanted to get back at your players you can do it vicariously through me. Keep those traps comin plz. And thanks to every one else for the ideas.
Nived 02-18-04, 10:25 AM	This is a little something I pulled on a PC as part of his Test of High Scorcery in a Dragonlance campaign. If you're familiar with Shakespere then it should be intimately familiar since it is directly inspired by "The Merchant of Venice" PCs walk into a room, in the room they find three caskets, one gold, one silver, one lead, and one locked door. The door's lock is insanely complex, but it isn't magical. On a table in the center of the room there is a message telling the PCs that a key is in one of the caskets, and the other two hold great perril. On each of the caskets is written a 'clue' as to the contents. The clues have not been changed from the original Shakespere, though what's inside has been given a D&D flavor. For instance the Death's head turned into an undead, and the mirror... well see below. First the Gold Casket which is, of course, wrong. "Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire." Inside should be an undead that is capable of creating spawn. What they gain is 'life eternal' after a fashion. What kind of Undead should depend on the level of the party but the important thing is it can create spawn. Next is the Silver casket, again wrong. "Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves". Originally I placed a Fetch in this casket. A assassin demon that comes out of mirrors that's detailed in the Dragonlance Campaign Setting. Though the same effect can be more or less achived with evil versions of the PCs walking out of a mirror. The last base lead the correct choice, "Who chooseth me shall give and hazard all he hath" in my campaign this was refering to the test taker giving himself over to magic... but that's beside the point, anyway in this casket there is the key. Now it may seem obvious that the lead one is the right choice... but it seems the answer is TOO obvious. My players out-thought themselves, went against thier guts (to go with lead) and opened the Silver casket first. The Fetch nearly killed one of the wizard of high scorcery hopefull... such is the price of a wrong choice.