What I'd suggest you do is give a short description of the bridge (if it's the one I'm thinking of in the spoiler there's an official one) or area around the trap.
Say something like "The bridge creaks and sways in the wind, but SEEMS sturdy enough for someone to cross", and that should be enough to tip them off that maybe they should be careful, but without giving anything major away.
Make a habit of doing this, even when there are no traps. Every now and then designate that a room, bridge, walkway or what have you looks kinda skeevy, but don't always make it trapped or dangerous. Keeps them on their toes and always wary, but doesn't necessarily give anything away.
|
They clearly did not move across the bridge one at a time carefully checking for traps. They move all their minis across to the other side without concern for the bridge or its properties. I would have watched them move the minis, and as soon as I saw enough on the other side, I would have yelled "STOP!" and instructed the players to leave their minis in place. Any not yet moved across, are not yet on the bridge. Any move across are the bridge. If a player still has his mini in hand, have him place it across the bridge, or allow him to chose if you already have enough across. Then place those who "crossed" on the bridge, and tell them what happens when the trap is triggered. If they argue with you, remind them they didn't say they were crossing in any special way and no one was checking for traps.
One way to avoid things like this in the future is to call for both a 5' and 10' wide marching order, including spacing between characters, and assume that unless you are otherwise informed, these marching orders are how the group is arranged when moving. Then you can simply place the minis where things happen.
One way to avoid things like this in the future is to call for both a 5' and 10' wide marching order, including spacing between characters, and assume that unless you are otherwise informed, these marching orders are how the group is arranged when moving. Then you can simply place the minis where things happen.
I agree, before they get to the bridge or any trap/ambush and start crossing, ask them to confirm their positioning in marching order. Your party will likely be paranoid enough to send the rogue ahead to check for traps on the bridge, if not then place them in marching order on the bridge as they say they're crossing and activate the trap.
Edit: the bridge trap may have been blown this time (although they may come back that way later and forget if it wasn't triggered), in the future consider sowing doubt even where there isn't a trap or ambush by asking for specific party formations at odd times. Use vague or misleading language to keep them guessing (you do not find a trap, instead of no traps, etc.)
@Rynjin: Nope, this bridge is not that bridge.
@Dust Raven: That might work, if they'd all been moving their own minis. But actually it was one just one player who moved the minis for the entire group all at once -- so the other players didn't get to decide what they did before it happened. And it wasn't a meta-gaming thing, I don't think. He was just placing the whole party because it was literally the first 30 seconds of the session. He just stuck 'em all on the closest bit of land. (The side of the bridge they initially approached was on the previous map and no longer visible on the table).
"Sticking the minis on the closest bit of land at the start of the session" is not the same as "everybody crossed the bridge with no regard for traps" in my book. You should have just told them that they put their minis in the wrong starting place, moved them back to the edge of the map, and then said "You come across a bridge..."
|
|
@Dust Raven: That might work, if they'd all been moving their own minis. But actually it was one just one player who moved the minis for the entire group all at once -- so the other players didn't get to decide what they did before it happened. And it wasn't a meta-gaming thing, I don't think. He was just placing the whole party because it was literally the first 30 seconds of the session. He just stuck 'em all on the closest bit of land. (The side of the bridge they initially approached was on the previous map and no longer visible on the table).
So the previous session ended before crossing the bridge, and the following session began with the bridge not even on the map? Unless you mean the bridge was on the map, but the other side of it wasn't. In either case, it doesn't sound like you gave your players a chance to trigger the trap.
If I got that wrong, I agree with Rynjin. You should have started by having the players (or player responsible) place the minis in the correct starting area.
|
The bridge as map border, and it happening between sessions... I think you made it awkward for yourself. If the minis didn't start out at the near side of the bridge, saying that they fell in between sessions would strike me as arbitrary.
Instead, start them out on the old map, and move them to a map with the bridge somewhere in the middle of it (though not the precise center), and show something on the other side that looks like it might be enemies, like shrubberies moving suspiciously.
Maybe the party will decide to use the bridge as a bottleneck, or try to cross as fast as possible to avoid being bottlenecked itself. Trap triggers.
On the other hand, maybe they do a "let them come", and nothing happens for a while. Maybe they send the rogue to stealth the bushes, crossing safely.
Either way, don't give away that it's about a trapped bridge, by distracting them with something else. Then just see if they trigger it; they might, they might not.
---
It can be helpful for cases like this, to establish the party's marching order from the outset. Get them to clarify how close the PCs walk to each other. Some players will want to keep distance, afraid of area attacks. However, that has a risk too: getting one PC beaten up by monsters before the other PCs can come to the rescue.
|
|
The bridge as map border, and it happening between sessions... I think you made it awkward for yourself. If the minis didn't start out at the near side of the bridge, saying that they fell in between sessions would strike me as arbitrary.Okay, full discussion of the map will require actual spoilers.
** spoiler omitted **...
Between sessions I would have come up with a map extension; some extra page of hand drawn or printed map which displays the started end of the bridge.
I'm not familiar with the AP or this encounter, so I can't really comment on whether or not the use of minis are appropriate or not, but if the book provided the map, no harm in using minis really. Still, it would have done wonders to describe the bridge before anyone crossed.
I also can't recommend this enough: have your players establish a standard marching order. If they aren't used to doing this on their own, allow them to reestablish that order after every encounter until they find one they are comfortable with as being the default, changing only when they say it does.
One of the things I've done, and seen other DMs do, is draw on an unused portion of the map a 5' wide and 10' wide corridor, and have the players place their minis there when they are between maps or combat, and use that for situational traps/encounters like this one. It's also good for determining if anyone has LoS/LoE or is taking penalties to (Perception due to being further away (or if an NPC is taking greater penalties to hear the party because the clanky dwarf in full plate is in the back instead of in front).
I think it's unavoidable that going from a verbal description of activities to looking where everyone is on the map is a give away that some sort of encounter is happening, but, as you said, this is a choke point. So it's a likely ambush point and if they're reasonably experienced, they should be keeping an eye out. What shouldn't obvious is that this is a trapped bridge rather than concealed guards at the far end, or a flying predator about to attack, or some other encounter.
|
|
(I'm not reading that spoiler because I just might be joining a RotRL game one of these days. I appreciate the tags.)
I think the only real way of letting a trap like this work naturally is by misdirecting the players' attentions to something else. If you present the bridge as the dramatic center of the map, with nothing else noteworthy in sight, of course they'll be suspicious. If you make them think that something else is noteworthy, like the possible ambush on the other side, they won't focus on the bridge, and deal with it more naturally. They might all cross at once (collapse), or send out a scout first (who gets a Perception check to notice dangerous creaking perhaps?). But their decisions won't be influenced by too much OOC emphasis on the bridge, making it more honest.
If you're not using a mat for the scenario, then the march order is essential.
|
|
I have a group I run where I deal with this same sort of issue, and another group that I play in. I have a player that in my opinion cares more about the combat portion of everything then the story. SO to not take anything away from the experience everyone has I started keeping everything in initiative. It is a little more owrk on my part, But no one can use the excuse that they were not actually there when a trap went off, as they have moved their character to whever ever they choose to move themselves. It keeps the players honest.
Before the game session, I have the players lay out their minis sitting on the side of the battle mat in their typical marching order. My players understand that as they are moving around the map, the party is staying in the same basic configuration. If someone wants to deviate from this order, they have to speak up.
In the example that you give, once the order was given to cross the bridge, it is expected that the whole party moves together in their marching order and triggers the trap, since no one spoke up about hanging back or inspecting the bridge for traps ahead of time. If they balk, I tell them that they didn't think ahead of time to go single file, just like they did in real life. My players' characters are extensions of them as individuals, and if they forget to check for traps in real life, their characters forget as well.
My players have learned quickly that if they are going to be expecting trouble to plan ahead before moving forward.
Using this method I very rarely have issues with traps or ambushes.
I understand the issue about having a drawn map seem like an encounter, trap, ambush-in-the-making, etc, and so what our group does is draw EVERYTHING. Unless we're going somewhere purely for shopping, a discussion with an NPC in town, etc. so we always move in formation, and we can never cry foul if we step on a trap, cause we sure did. I guess it adds a little more time to everything, but as we use a 3-foot by 2-foot, 1-inch gridded Whiteboard and various colours of pen, it is pretty fast to draw everything, and it helps us visualize our surroundings.