Traps involving black powder, bullets, pellets...?


Advice


Does anyone have any traps they've created using black powder and other firearm ammunition? I'm planning an adventure where a group of Kobolds have gotten a hold of a shipment from Alkenstar and I'm looking for some inspiration. I'll probably have a few kegs lying around in some of the dungeon, but I also want to have some traps specifically crafted by the Kobolds.

Shadow Lodge

Just use the old classic door booby-trapped with a shotgun.


I'm guessing you mean aside from the big bag of gunpowder going BOOM.

The problem with this concept is that most firearm ammunition is two things: the gunpowder, and iron balls. Gunpowder explodes if it's ignited. Iron balls... do nothing.

I suppose if you had a LOT of iron balls, you could use them as marble traps. Dump a lot of them on the ground, now people have to make Acrobatics checks to move around. If you had a REALLY BIG LOT, then you could just dump them on the characters as a deadfall.

Gunpowder explodes, like I said. Any sort of trap used with gunpowder is going to explode. Put some iron balls in a bag of gunpowder and you have an improvised fragmentation grenade. Put a bag of iron balls in front of a bag of gunpowder in a hole in the wall which will shape the explosive, and you have an improvised claymore mine. For added fun, put the hole in the flooring, and put a thin flagstone on top, and now the explosion is hitting the characters' feet first.

Monsters like kobolds just aren't going to have the intelligence to use the powder effectively, and might miss the whole concept of using the iron ball ammo. And if they don't have a means of remote detonation -- perhaps a Spark cantrip -- then everything has to have an accessible fuse. But I could see a trap where two bags of powder suddenly come swinging out of the rafters, and simultaneously explode at head-height.

Shadow Lodge

John-Andre wrote:
Monsters like kobolds just aren't going to have the intelligence to use the powder effectively, and might miss the whole concept of using the iron ball.

Kobold average INT score = 10. Human average INT score = 10.

I mean, they even have their own kobold-only gunslinger archetype, for Odin's sake.


I had ideas for an AoE blunderbuss (or dragons breath cartridge) trap, maybe replace the "arrow" in the arrow trap with bullets... I wondered if anyone else had any more creative ideas. Maybe something using black powder as a controlled explosion...


I know it may be farfetched to assume kobolds could figure out how to use this stuff immediately after swiping it, but I'm having a little fun with this idea. I'm also giving a few kobolds the "bushwacker" archetype in the adventure as well.

Shadow Lodge

Not far-fetched at all. There is literally no difference between the distribution of INT scores for Kobolds, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings; and only a minor variation from those and Elves, Humans, Half-Elves, and Half-Orcs.


Think your typical dart trap, but with bullets instead of darts. Use pitted bullets if you want to add poison to it.


John-Andre wrote:

I'm guessing you mean aside from the big bag of gunpowder going BOOM.

The problem with this concept is that most firearm ammunition is two things: the gunpowder, and iron balls. Gunpowder explodes if it's ignited. Iron balls... do nothing.

I suppose if you had a LOT of iron balls, you could use them as marble traps. Dump a lot of them on the ground, now people have to make Acrobatics checks to move around. If you had a REALLY BIG LOT, then you could just dump them on the characters as a deadfall.

Gunpowder explodes, like I said. Any sort of trap used with gunpowder is going to explode. Put some iron balls in a bag of gunpowder and you have an improvised fragmentation grenade. Put a bag of iron balls in front of a bag of gunpowder in a hole in the wall which will shape the explosive, and you have an improvised claymore mine. For added fun, put the hole in the flooring, and put a thin flagstone on top, and now the explosion is hitting the characters' feet first.

Monsters like kobolds just aren't going to have the intelligence to use the powder effectively, and might miss the whole concept of using the iron ball ammo. And if they don't have a means of remote detonation -- perhaps a Spark cantrip -- then everything has to have an accessible fuse. But I could see a trap where two bags of powder suddenly come swinging out of the rafters, and simultaneously explode at head-height.

Ha! I didn't even think of using the materials for other purposes other than BOOM :) I like the suggestion for marble traps.

Joanna Swiftblade wrote:
Think your typical dart trap, but with bullets instead of darts. Use pitted bullets if you want to add poison to it.

I was thinking of using pitted bullets too, seems appropriate for Kobolds.

Also, sorry for the double-post of the thread. I was having some weird internet issues.


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