Traps are some of my favorite things in D&D, and while I've put forth a number of puzzles, riddles, and nefarious traps as a DM that I might describe, I can't help but think of one of the simplest yet most-effective traps I've come across as a player.
It would be the time our old 2nd Edition D&D group was hunting down a Lich's phylactery (I think?) and we came to a Well we had heard was an entrance to his tomb. As we discussed how to knot the various sets of 50' rope we had brought along and who to send down first, Marcus got impatient and decided to jump in the well since he didn't have any paper on him that could get wet and ruined (our DM was very strict about those sorts of things), and he wanted to move the game along. Upon hitting the water, the DM rolled a handful of dice behind the screen and said "You take 26 points of damage!" This almost-killed or immediately-killed (not sure) poor Marcus, so Quinn decided he had to act fast!
Assuming the water was in fact acid or some magic death-water, and having on him a 'Protection from Water' scroll (in 2e anyone could use Protection scrolls), Quinn pulled out the scroll and slid down into the well while casting it so he could rescue Marcus. The water was repelled, and Quinn saw the entrance to the Lich's lair, as well as Marcus's body laying on the ground. But it was covered in Crawling Claws! The Lich had filled the well with Crawling Claws, which is what tore Marcus to pieces. So simple of a trap, yet so effective. The claws immediately lept on Quinn and his only option was to drink his treasured Potion of Gaseous Form to escape, not only using two of his extremely-rare one-use Magic items in two rounds, but also leaving the body of Marcus at the bottom of the well to be torn to shreds by the animated hands for his final death. It was a sad day in the Forgotten Realms.
3 comments:
The favorite trap I ever ran was for a Tower of Gygax-like game I was running with my Madison Crew. It was a long hallway with a doorway on either end but no floor (bottomless pit). The walls were slimy and extremely difficult to climb. In front of door was a pedestal a few feet away that you had to jump to (Dex check). Once you landed on it, a golden-child like pillar descended from the ceiling with two movable cylinders on it that made a tune when you turned them. You had to play a particular song on the pedestal cylinders to get the next pedestal to appear (Wis check), which is a little farther away than the previous jump (harder Dex check). When you land on it, another pillar with cylinders on it appears and the pedestal behind you starts to drop. You have to play a song on that pillar (harder Wis check) to make the pedestal in front of you to appear and the one behind you to stay up. There are six pedestals in all to get to the other door (or four pedestals and a series of ropes and pitons spiderwebbed around the tunnel if you're my players).
Oh and one more thing, every fifth time someone lands on any pedestal, a trap goes off that shoots something nasty at the person on the pedestal just behind the one that set off the trap, just to be a dick.
The bottomless pit with pedestals to hop across was super great. I enjoyed it so much that I stole it for my Dark Heresy game. Imitation is the highest form of flattery.
About the bottomless pit: What I thought was so fun about it was how you described that you could only see a little ways down, because of the thick fog. And immediately I piped up with "The Golden Child!", then without missing a beat you immediately said "I, ah, ah-ah I, I, I want the knife" while acting like you were spinning a cylinder.
Roaring laughter, and fun games.
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About the well/crawling hands trap. I remember the general consensus was that it was waaaay to deadly and mean for a regular game. You weren't too thrilled about using those items, however it was probably the best use, and very well timed. I didn't expect anyone to just jump right in.
I think we know by now, that if you just jump into wells or water in general, bad things happen. Kind of like throwing rocks into lake outside of the gate of moria. Everyone should know not to do that.
Don't sprint into mirrors, or dive into wells or dungeon pools. Don't run all pell-mell into brown mold rooms.
No more running and jumping and pole-vaulting and steeple-chase.
Or perhaps we should do more of that. Because that brings the laughs.
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I think the "craziest" thing I ever saw in a game was Marcus the Mage sprinting into the mirror. In the previously mentioned DeathKiss lair there was a large full-body mirror. It had claw feet, and was ornate. The whole 9 yards. It was an pretty much a palanthir. It was the 2-way video phone that all the bad guys were using to communicate with each other. (more than 2 way) But mostly it was a vehicle to advance the game, so you could know the other major players in the region. Everyone carried it all the way out into the open, stood there admiring their treasure.
I think he assumed that it was a gate or something, so he proceeded to sprint like Carl Lewis directly into a full body mirror, destroying the priceless palanthir. I'm sure I made him take some damage, but everyone was astonished. Just astonished.
It was at the end of the battle, so everyone was in the "enjoy the loot" mood. It was the equivalent of finding a Rembrandt, then taking a huge dump on it... accidentally.
I remember that mirror destruction thing. It happened right after we saw the next-level big-bad in there as a foreshadowing event. (Vicar Eyebild, right?) Then Marcus bashed it to pieces. You can't really blame him for that one. Mirrors in D&D are notorious for creating bizzaro-heroes and getting spells cast through them and stuff. In fact if he hadn't run into it at full speed I'm sure Quinn would've smashed it shortly thereafter just to be safe (though through more conventional means, like with a morningstar or something).
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