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I'm considering running a campaign somewhere down the line (time allowing) and one of the first thoughts I had was that I wanted this perspective campaign to have an Indiana Jones / Tomb Raider feel to it: more about the dungeons with the elaborate booby traps and puzzles to reveal the ways to bypass my devices cleverly engineered to jam a pointy stick up the rear-ends of any foolish enough to enter these bastions of a long dead civilisation.
I particularly want to do this because my usual group tends to be in more combat orientated campaigns; so a campaign more about the lost city of Atlantis-ripoff and playing with brains more than brawn seems like a nice change of pace. And when I mentioned this idea, my usual GM expressed an interest in such a campaign, so once we have our schedules clear, I would like to run this campaign.
However, I know my limitations. I could probably get in a couple of good locales, I could probably even get away with recreating a couple of stages from the Tomb Raider or Uncharted series, (the Lost Valley from Tomb Raider 1 would be a joy to recreate), but I'm not that creative at making elaborate puzzles. Much as I enjoy working at them.
So I'm here looking to you good people for interesting ideas. And don't hold back on the cruelness of them. I plan to make it clear to the prospective Archaeologists / Tomb Raiders that if they wander into the trap from the Last Crusade that decapitates anyone not on their knees, failing a reflex save will leave them a head shorter. I want to drill it into them that brains are their best weapon here. Well, that and their wits.
If you want traps and puzzles look for
old copies of Grimtooth's traps I think there is 7 books of of the series, with one as a whole dungeon.
and the old 3.0 book, The Book of Challenges.
Ooh, a collection of books on traps? Now to find these most valuable tomes so I may create the stuff of nightmares! BWAHAHAHA.
*Goes to find the books cackling evilly*
Suggested fiction for ideas would be the books by Matthey Reilly - Seven Ancient Wonders; The Six Sacred Stones; The Five Greatest Warriors.
Besides being great reads, there are tons of ancient era traps and dungeons in it and how the heroes defeat them.
There's also some more books, specifically dealing with traps and puzzles from the 3.0 era, not WotC though:
Traps & Treachery part 1 & 2
I've used them to great effect! (from CR 1 to CR 12+ traps)
they're on Amazon too:
http://www.amazon.com/Treachery-Dungeons-Dragons-Fantasy-Roleplaying/dp/158 9940202
The great thing is that it includes images and worked-open versions of the traps, exposing the inner workings so you can adapt them even more if you detect weak points :-)
Enjoy!
What levels are we looking at? I assume low levels for a gritty indiana jones feeling,but if you go higher up, remember pc capabilities and make them part of the trap - instead of lettibg fly ruin you chasm, make the air above noxious winds that they have to maneouver.
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If you're interested in making elaborate puzzles for your players, you may want to check out the archives for puzzle hunts such as the MIT Mystery Hunt, the Microsoft Puzzle Hunt, etc. Alternate reality games used to be fairly puzzle-based, so you may also want to look at some of the puzzle trails archived on the forums at Unfiction.com.
I haven't done puzzle design for RPGs, but I have done it for alternate reality games (which are sort of like GMing for a million of your closest friends), and based on that I'd advise against trying to make really hard puzzles for a small group of players. The smaller your group, the harder it can be to gauge difficulty, and generally the goal of good puzzle design is to make the players feel really smart for solving it, not necessarily to make it super-difficult for them.
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The most important piece of advice is to not let the game become a "guess what the GM is thinking" game. You want to build dungeons such that the PCs get to use their abilities in an interesting way.
Basically, you want to arrange the dungeon in such a way that would be make sense for the builders to have built. The rule of thumb is that if the party is thinking like players solving a puzzle, that's BAD. You want them to think like characters solving a puzzle.
An example:
Situation: There is a room with a doorway that can only be opened by equalizing the weight of three bowels using specially weighted stones of unknown weight. There is a riddle to provide clues.
Bad approach:
PCs: We arrange the weights like this: X, Y, Z
GM: There is a loud wail and you take 3d6 fire energy damage. Try again.
Fighter: Hmmm. I break the door with my adamantium pick.
GM: The door is magically reinforced to hardness 25. It also regenerates damage.
Rogue: I search for a way to bypass the door.
GM: (aside: ha the search DC is 53) go ahead!
Fighter: I break the wall.
GM: They also regenerate.
PCs: spend 30 minutes moving weights around and spend a bunch of healing
Good approach:
PCs: We arrange the weights like this: X, Y, Z
GM: There is a loud wail and you take 3d6 fire energy damage. Try again.
Fighter: Hmmm. I break the door.
GM: The door is magically reinforced to hardness 25. It regenerates damage.
Rogue: I search for a way to bypass the door.
GM: (Perception: success, disable device: success) The mechanism is behind one of the walls, but you can't reach it.
Fighter: I break the wall.
GM: The walls only have hardness 15, but they self repair at the rate of Xd6 per round.
Sorcerer: I use dispel magic to suppress the wall's regeneration (dispel check: success)
Fighter: I tunnel to the mechanism.
Sorcerer: I re-dispel if the walls start up again.
Rogue: Ha, we see the mechanism, I bypass it.
GM: The door opens!
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In the bad approach, the world seems fake. Everything is set up to negate the PC's powers, often is a way the rules don't support. In the Good approach, the players can use their characters' abilities and role-play the scenario.
The best way to get the good situations is to design puzzles From inside the world. So the door is not a "puzzle lock" its a "Steel door reinforced with a CL 12 spell. The walls are protected by traps of Make Whole." You don't need to plan everything in advance and you don't have to tell the PCs everything outright. But you should have some idea of the builder's power level and how the dungeon is put together. Also, let the PCs use their skills.
A good rule of thumb is that every encounter should have at least 3 solutions that you are aware of. However, don't limit yourself to just your plans. If the PCs think of something that makes sense, it should work. Get used to improvisation.
Also, tell the players it will be a more "Indiana Jones" type of game so that they can build characters that fit the theme. You know you are doing it right if they make level-up choices that are focused specifically on being better at your dungeons since that means they are actually role-playing tomb raiders!
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I hope you found my rambling useful. Good luck! Tell us how your puzzle dungeons go.
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Some random puzzle ideas since I am in a puzzly mood. I've used some of them before to some success.
These were for more combat-y games so you can change some of the punishments depending on how puzzle focused you want to be.
Good punishments are those that drain resources in interesting ways but don't stop the adventure. If you are making a tomb-focused adventure, the best punishment is loss of time. Then you can set up rival parties who are raiding other tombs.
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level: Low-level PCs, no easy access to Dispel Magic.
description: You enter an opulently appointed room. There are cushions, tapestries and silks everywhere protected from the ravages of time by magic. There are four glowing orbs in the centre of the chamber. It is evident from illustrations that these must be touched in the correct order to open the way forward. There are illustrations that give hints to the correct order.
Unknown to the party, all the contents of the room are actually moldy and rotten but concealed with illusions (Major Image) with a high DC (10-20% chance for good save characters).
The way forward is a flimsy wooden door with a stony texture covered with the same illusion.
danger: Incorrectly touching the stones summons some terrible creature, as Shadow Conjuration.
solution 1: There is an additional orb hidden in the ceiling via invisibility. Touching it will dispel all the illusions and open the door.
solution 2: Attacking the walls at random will find the door. PCs who suspect a door way can find it by tapping on the walls.
solution 3: The tomb is old and decrepit. Perhaps searching the surrounding area will find another way in?
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level: Mid-level non-casters or low-level casters
description: This is an automated testing facility for apprentice mages at a ruined university. However, time and magical fallout has made the traps more deadly and disabled many of the safety conjurations.
This room has some number of different potions (they are conjured) and a poem that gives a clue as to the danger that will face them. It is clearly stated that they can choose only one potion and the others will vanish. The one bottle has enough doses to effect the whole party.
The test is that they can identify the potions, and guess which one will save them. The potions are: Water-Breathing, Resist Energy (acid) (CL 7) and Feather Fall (CL 7). Once the PCs drink the potions, the room will flood over a minute or two. A little while later, it will drain.
danger: Drowning. The water should stay long enough that a level 1 NPC wizard would probably perish but a tough PC has a moderate chance to survive.
solution 1: Correctly choose the potion.
solution 2: The water is turbulent, but a strong swimmer will be able to grab a few breaths near the roof. He might even be able to keep a weaker swimmer afloat. Since the trap is old, the room never fills fully. There is always a few inches of air-space left.
solution 3: A careful search of the room discovers runes of conjuration on the ceiling that cast dimension door to summon water and hidden floor drains. There is also some water stains. This should be an obvious clue as to which potion to choose. A careful search and disable device check finds that the potion-makers are powered by specially enchanted stones. An appraise check reveals that one of those stones is much more robust than the others. This is the one under the Water-Breathing potion since it needs to be re-conjured more often.
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I'll most some more later.
I've used puzzles a lot, but I always remember this one piece of advice,
"You're friends are not as smart as you think they are."
That is to say if make your puzzles easy they will be a challenge for your players, but if you make the puzzles hard they will just be impossible to solve.
I look up puzzles and riddles online. There are pages devoted to such interests. I then change the context to whatever setting I need. For instance, if the riddle is about three dogs fighting over a bone it can easily be changed to three brothers and a sword or a crown.
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So I'm here looking to you good people for interesting ideas. And don't hold back on the cruelness of them. I plan to make it clear to the prospective Archaeologists / Tomb Raiders that if they wander into the trap from the Last Crusade that decapitates anyone not on their knees, failing a reflex save will leave them a head shorter. I want to drill it into them that brains are their best weapon here. Well, that and their wits.
1. Traps that cast Enervate or Black Tentacles are pretty cruel, as well as traps with a high crit range. Traps that shoot bullets are somewhat original.
2. Consider a room with an icy floor. The pc's have to go across the ice, and pull the lever on the other side. The force required to pull down the lever is too much for Mage Hand. As long as they are in the ice room, a trap will shoot at them.
3. Consider also a mist/darkness trap or even a smoke, poison gas trap.
Trap goes off, and keeps pumping out stuff until the pc's find the lever/disable the trap. Of course, IN the now-obscured room, there are also other traps, such as pressure plates.
4. A trap that spouts oil on the pc's. They will be anxious for any nearby fire trap..whih may or may not be there, depending on what you want.
5. Alternitavely, for an extra challenge, have a trap that:
blinds or silences, 6. A pressure plate in front of a door...or right behind it.
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AP #40 "Vaults of Madness": (Serpent's Skull 4 of 6) has some nifty traps. Actually there's some great traps all throughout that AP and it has a great Indiana Jones vibe since
Now here's some good ideas to keep in mind.
The majority of traps in Pathfinder are at their core terrible. Mostly due to misguided design principles carried over since I don't know when. Most of the time a trap has the following effect:
Player: "I walk into a room."
GM: "What's your flat-footed AC?"
Player: "Uh 14, why?"
GM: *rolls dice* "You are hit by an arrow trap and take 1d8 damage, make a Fortitude save."
Player: "Uh, 12!"
GM: "You are poisoned take 1d3 dex damage. You'll need to save again in a minute."
PCs just spend a couple of heal spells and ultimately the game was slowed down while the player was acted upon, rather than acted. A Good Trap should go off over multiple rounds and make PCs fear for their lives. You don't have to use the base trap rules either.
Here's an example of a Crumbling Dungeon.
Crumbling Dungeon Trap CR 5
Type: Mechanical; Perception DC: 25; Disable Device DC: 30
EFFECTS:
Trigger: Removing the Golden Idol Reset: None
Effect: When the Idol is removed the dungeon begins to rumble terribly. A wall slides open revealing a massive boulder behind it that begins rolling after the PCs.
At this point roll initiative and lay out the following chase cards:
Chase Card 1 - Escape the Shaking Room:
Keep your Balance (Acrobatics DC 10)
Dodge Crumbling Ruin (Reflex DC 20)
Chase Card 2 - Darts of Death
Avoid the Trap Triggers (Perception DC 20)
It's Not That Bad! (Fortitude DC 15)
Chase Card 3 - Angry Bat Room
Sneak Past the Bats (Stealth DC 25)
Scare 'Em Off! (Intimidate DC 20)
Chase Card 4 - The Crumbling Hall
Beware of Falling Rocks! (Reflex DC 15)
That Bit Looks Safe (Knowledge Engineering DC 10)
Chase Card 5 - Geyser Room
It Only Burns a Little (Fortitude DC 15)
Underwater Tunnel Swim (Swim DC 20)
Chase Card 6 - The Spear Pit
Jump It! (Acrobatics DC 20)
Climb Across! (Climb DC 25)
Chase Card 7 - Golem Guardians
Fend Them Off! (Melee Attack DC 20)
Sneak Past! (Stealth DC 15)
Chase Card 8 - Vine Choked Room
Burst those Vines (Strength Check DC 10)
Swing Those Vines! (Climb Check DC 15)
Chase Card 9 - Angry Locals
Sweet Talk Your Way Past (Diplomacy DC 25)
Bullrush 'Em (CMB 20)
Chase Card 10 - The Closing Door
Slide Under! (Initiative Check DC 15)
Hold Her Up! (Strength Check DC 20)
Each round the Boulder moves 1 chase card automatically with no check at initiative 0. Anyone in the room with the boulder at the end of their turn takes 4d6 damage. Each round the PC must make a successful Escape Artist or Strength Check (DC 20) as a move action or be unable to move except when the boulder does taking 4d6 damage each round they are caught under the boulder.
Special: A successful Disable Device check does not turn this trap off, but does reduce all DCs to escape the dungeon by 5 points. Any character with Trap Sense may add that bonus to any and all checks during the Chase.
Thanks for all your words of advice. Many ideas of how to do this. And looking into all books mentioned, and the archives for the Alternate Reality games. Let's see if I can make myself some really memorable adventures with all this helpful advice.
@Stringburka: Aye, they'll start at low levels. And you make a very valid point about the whole 'fly ruining my chasm'. Knowing one of the prospective players, he'd do it as well. Ha, I'll do as you said and introduce him to some noxious fumes, see how he likes that.
@Dudemeister: Ooh, chase cards! I hadn't heard of them before, and when reading that article, I realize why: I still don't have the DM Guide, which I have now corrected. So I'll naturally be giving that a good read as well. But those chase cards like a look great idea.
*Evil cackling*
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Lots of great ideas, but I'll offer one additional bit of advice:
If you're designing puzzles (word puzzles, logic puzzles, riddles, etc), make sure that there is a way for the PCs to bring their character skill into it.
For example, you may have a logic puzzle with several parts. If the PCs make a successful relevant skill check, provide them a major clue to its solution, or else solve one part of it for them. It helps to put a time limit into play on these things to move them along.
The old copies of Grimtooth's traps are game universal, so you can adjust everything as needed,
and the traps are measured in Skulls, on a scale 1->5,
one being that someone's gonna be hurt, and five being close to TPK.
The 4E version of Tomb of Horrors did an extremely good job of mixing puzzles and traps. It re-created the feel of the original without being nearly as - arbitrary. Clever thought makes a big difference. On the other hand, assuming that a specific solution from a previous puzzle will be the same solution to a new puzzle is often a very bad idea.
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Do your players (other than your usual GM) want to play in a game focused on traps and puzzles, as much you want to run such a game?
I ask because you mentioned they were a very combat-oriented group. It would be a shame to spend a bunch of time crafting a campaign that your players aren't really in to.
I'd put out some feelers to your group, and make sure they're on board...
I will make certain of how much everyone would enjoy this sort of campaign beforehand, at least two perspective players I know would enjoy that sort of thing, the others I'm not certain, so putting in some feelers would prove enlightening.
I believe they'd try it out, and we've all shown that we're open to experimenting with various campaigns.
Even if I don't get a group right away, writing down such a campaign for future use with a party actually interested is a given. I have this in my head, it will be written down for future use. And some of the advice here can help even in running a regular campaign, after all, traps aren't exclusive to these kinds of campaigns, I doubt the Dreadlord of Woe in a combat oriented campaign would impartial to using traps to defend his home base. Just less awesome ones.
I've occaisionally supplied puzzles to my groups that are physically tactile, and it can be fun for the right people (others are just going to want to roll a skill check to get through or "skip to the end!" as Prince Humperdinck would say).
What I'm referring to are things like wooden blocks, cut-out pieces of paper, foam shapes (my wife is a kindergarten teacher so we have a ton of this kind of crud), dice, etc.
I'll come up with some arrangement based on colors, numbers, shapes, whatever strikes my evil fancy at the moment. Then it's time to provide a set of instructions that the players will get to read that outlines the nature of the puzzle like "arrange all the shapes in such a way that the red ones do not touch," or "the numbers printed on each face of the block must touch the same number on any adjoining block." After that, I assign a time-frame allowed to solve the puzzle and depending upon how the characters perform in-game (player actions, skill check results, general level of GM cheer) they may get more or less time to solve the puzzle.
It's not something that you can do all the time without annoying players ("Jesse if you put those blocks in front of us one more time they are going inside you...capisce!?"), but every once in a while it's fun to pull players out of the game mechanics for a bit and let them work together on a brain teaser that has some significant bane-or-boon to their current in-game situation. It's also fun to see how groups might solve a given puzzle or arrangement correctly, yet differently than you had envisioned. Or when they get it done in like 10 seconds and you thought you had come up with the greatest puzzle of all time.
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Stuff
OMG - did you read my idea? I know the boulder version was IJ but I totally had that trap as a flooding wave effect instead!
So the party comes to a landing overlooking a vast, winding stair. The stairway winds down among several balconies into a an enormous vaulted hall which has become ruined and flooded over the centuries. On the wall behind them is a massive monster face from which the sounds and smells of the sea outside can be heard.
They triggered the trap, heard the water and felt briny spray; the "chase" then began with a bat swarm menacing the square they were in. Then as they fled down the stairs the water consumed a pair of squares every round behind them but the sound and rumbling floor gave them a couple round head start. There were fallen rubble hazards, gusts of wind and water spouts...not to mention the rogue wave nipping at their heels! Per my players that was the highlight of the session.
@ Solin: I second the Dude; try and add a bit of cinema to your traps if you can. I have foreshadowed traps with bodies on the ground in varying states of demise and decay; odd stains on the wall such as chars, acid burns, blood, chemical stains and even oxidization; I've also included puffs of air, buzzing sounds, wierd smells, anything to provide clues to the trap.
As for making them go longer; I don't know. Some traps, like the arrow trap example above, are meant to catch the players off guard. But like our favorite archaeologist the players shouldn't suffer the sudden arrow if they notice that through the entire temple there hasn't been any light, and suddenly for no reason there are holes in the ceiling allowing shafts of light into the hall at odd but exact angles...
By way of example:
CR1 Vine Net Trap; Perception DC 15, Disable Device DC 20
The game trail you follow suddenly narrows amid several boulders and fallen logs, beyond which it widens into a vale flanked by steep, wooded hilsides. The trees here are thick with tangles of vines and moss while the debris littering the trail seems oddly devoid of the green.
If Perception check is made: you notice that the vines at the edge of the boulders and logs see taught and the ground amidst the obstruction seems uneven beneath a thick blanket of fallen leaves.
Disarm: the expert mus go among the vines to jam the twig triggers holding the vines in place.
Bypass: either a series of 2 Climb rolls DC 10 ea to go up and over the debris and foliage, otherwise a DC 15 Acrobatics check to running jump the net area.
Effect: if the trap is triggered the victim(s) in a 10' burst centered in the center of the debris field suffer a +5 CMB attack (Grapple). If hit they are carried 10' off the ground and are considered Entangled until free, which unless preventitive measures are taken causes a 10' fall to the ground below.
Dot +100
I've been catching up on the GMery Guide, so I only just read the posts after my last. Fun fact, as I was reading Herbo's post, my playlist decided that the Raiders March was the next thing to play. Fitting, considering the topic.
@Herbo: I like the idea of physical puzzles, though I'd have to make certain that the group is down for this campaign before making them, else they'd gather dust / get lost before I actually find a group willing. Wouldn't want to waste the effort.
@Mark: Valid point about the foreshadowing that I hadn't considered, yet makes so much sense! Made me feel a bit of a dunce, but eh, I'm used to that. It'd certainly make the party feel nervous, especially since I tend to roll the die, and look at the group with a smirk even when there's nothing to roll for.
Out of curiosity, how would you guys GM the Shadow Puzzle from Drake's Deception?
If you don't know what I'm talking about, it was a puzzle where you had a room full of body-parts (only statues) suspended in the air, a mural of a stabbed man on the back wall. Using a staff with a focusing lens and a lit candle on it, you had to place it so that it shone the light in such a way that it used the shadow created from the suspended body-parts to create a second person stabbing the figure in the mural.
This was easily one of my favourite puzzles in that game, but I can't picture how it would be done in Pathfinder. At least, not without a lot of time and skill to create a physical puzzle of that sort, the latter of which I definitely lack and wouldn't even know how to begin such an endeavour. A puzzle of that flavour could easily have the solution hidden in plain sight by having paintings of the complete image scattered across the place. Would the party remember the painting I described not so long ago? If not, well, that'd be their fault.
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The difficulty with that particular trap is that it requires a 1st person mode of view. Pathfinder is primarily top down. I once put together a trap that required the PCs to set up some scattered mirrors. There were 6 mirrors but only 5 pedestals each of the mirrors had a line of a riddle:
"I watch you
Even when you can't see me,
At noon I'm gone,
At midnight I sparkle
Summon me now,
Or face my summons."
I set a timer: 1 minute per point of Intelligence bonus in the party one minute minimum.
Every time they did something I minused time. 6 seconds per round and I just kept the timer going for real time discussion. When the timer hit 0 I used a Summon Monster spell equal to the party APL. PCs fight the monsters and then the timer resets.
The answer is for the PCs to be in the room at noon when a shaft of light shines from the ceiling and arrange the mirrors to the beam forms a star.
At which point a secret door opens, or a secret chest is called from the ethereal plane full of treasure.
I had Perception/Disable Device DCs to turn off the summoning trap, but the proviso was that disabling the trap also disabled the room's other effect. (Clever players might disable the trap until they had everything in the right configuration and then reenable it at the right time.)
@ Dude: that's awesome and its been yoinked.
@ Solin: never played the game but it sounds like a really tough scenario. Personally I try to follow the rule that puzzles are extraneous; they don't stopgap the action so if I presented this puzzle in my game (all tactical gamers in my campaign too) more than likely it'd be a side chamber that they'd choose to ignore...unless it was foreshadowed.
So you want to form a shadow who stands in for stabby mc'stabberson in the mural right? Why not have the stabbed man appear in 2 other rooms. Not just in murals, but ACTUALLY shows himself. In a hall the party rounds a corner and sees a man clutching his side. On the floor here is a trail of blood drops. Looking back up the man is gone but following the trail leads to something significant.
The party figures it's over right? In another room they find a corpse, somewhat fresh, with a stab wound in its side. Enter a haunt or other creepy scenario, complete with the corpse saying "why would he do this to me? He was my dearest friend; like a second shadow to me!"
The very next room is the mural and floating pieces. In the description of the room explain how the parts make shadows that dance across the mural, as if taunting the stabbed man. Hand them a $.25 magnifying lens glued to a twig and tell them they find something like it lying on the floor.
Now they might not know what to do yet, but your players will recognize the stabbed man from before, so they'll realize its significant. When you hand them something physical to handle its human nature for them to be curious and want to play with the device. Foreshadow its use by telling them that each time the lens moves one of the shadows cast by a body part moves with it, like a puppet on the string of its master.
Their curiosity, the specificness of your description and the foreshadowing you've provided will hopefully incentivise your party to try and figure it out. If not you can use monsters, timers or whatever threat you'd like to keep them to task. You can also use positive reinforcement - when they pursue using the lens to cast specific shadows explain how suddenly their torch's flame suddenly stops flickering, as if the entire chamber is holding its breath in anticipation of something; perhaps they hear the stabbed man's voice muttering "steady...steady..."
Finally there's Operation by Milton Bradley. Put it on a side table and tell them to pluck a bit, any bit, from the man, when someone announces they want to line up the body parts in a full shadow on the wall. This is to simulate that it takes a VERY steady hand to pull this off. Of course you COULD have the player just roll a Ref save or some skill check, but this is WAYYYYYY more fun...
The difficulty with that particular trap is that it requires a 1st person mode of view. Pathfinder is primarily top down.
Aye, that was the immediate problem that I foresaw. Even if I were to tear asunder WarHammer minis, stick their limbs on matchsticks and prop them, it means naught if my players are watching from a birds eye view. And even if they got down to table level to see everything, the mess of body-parts might obstruct the view they need to find. And I don't actually have an army of WarHammer minis with which to tear asunder.
Oh, and that mirror puzzle? That was glorious, and I might have to use that myself.
@Mark:
Ooh, the ideas. Bringing in spirits and phantoms to foreshadow and pique interest. I love it. I also love the idea of using Operation as you suggested, I can just picture everyone jumping at the buzz as they fail, before looking to me in dread, wondering whether they triggered some diabolical trap.
Also makes for an interesting sub-plot if spirits become involved in such a way: why did the supposed best friend betray him like that? WAS it a betrayal?
How about some other, basic PF traps with foreshadowing and fluff:
Swinging Axe Trap/CR1
Mechanical; Per 20; Dis Dev 20
The party comes to an area with long crimson spatters along the wall over their left shoulder up ahead, as well as cast off in an arcing pattern on the floor towards the wall to their right.
If perception check is made: just ahead on the floor is a quadrant of floor tiles slightly higher than their environs; the wall to the right has an imperceptibally thin seam along its length.
Disable Device successful: just beneath the lip of the pressure plate on the floor are recessed chords bound to the mechanism. After some tense moments of prying you've managed to coax one from it position to deactivate the plate, meaning whatever it activates will no longer be a problem.
Bypass: either a DC 10 Acrobatics to jump the plate or a DC 10 Climb check to go up and over.
Other skills useful in this scenario: Knowledge: Engineering to recognize the plate as a pressure plate; Craft: Trapsmith (obvious reasons); Heal to do a little forensics and track the arc and reach of the blade.
Effect: if the trap is sprung it makes an arc from one side of the right-hand wall to the other, making an attack on anyone in the 10' line of that arc. +10 Melee (axe; 1d8+1/x3).
Javelin Trap/CR2
Mechanical; Per 20; Dis Dev 20
Before the PCs get there: they hear blustering winds. After they go a bit farther they identify the source: an arcade framing the entry to a hallway overlooked by a monstrous face. The mouth of the face is open like a great "O" and its cheeks are flared, as if spitting.
Perception: the air blows only on the inside of the archway, from tubes concealed to the left; on the right each has a corresponding return. In the heart of the creature's maw looming overhead you could swear you saw something glint for just a moment.
Disable Device successful: the insides of the tubes have a little give so you have angled several into alignment with higher returns in order to stoop and enter without issue.
Bypass: there is a tiny gap at the bottom roughly a foot high by a few feet wide; you might be able to wriggle through with an Escape Artist (DC 20) check.
Effect: the face above on the wall opposite the archway "spits" a javelin at the tresspasser - Attack +15 ranged (Javelin; 1d6+6)
Greatest disabling trap (at least the funniest) I read in the old Grimtooth guides was the 20ft high plush carpet room. Add giant tics and fleas. A titan with a vacuum cleaner came through once a month to sweep up the skeletons.
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Greatest disabling trap (at least the funniest) I read in the old Grimtooth guides was the 20ft high plush carpet room. Add giant tics and fleas. A titan with a vacuum cleaner came through once a month to sweep up the skeletons.
I found the "Duck" trap the funniest one, it's in book Fore.
Stupid question, but what does "dot" mean. I see it all the time but never knew?
Dotting is a form of bookmarking the thread.
as after you post in a thread a dot appears beside the thread's name.
Thnx.
Shameless plug for more traps
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... I particularly want to do this because my usual group tends to be in more combat orientated campaigns ... don't hold back on the cruelness of them ... I want to drill it into them ...
I'm not saying, "Don't do this."
However, I am saying, "Please be careful." Talk to ALL of them (not just the alternate GM) and be sure they are ok with the concept.It sounds like you group doesn't like puzzles and you are trying to get even with them for it. I can't see that ending well.
The GM hat seems to attract people that like puzzles. That doesn't mean everyone does.
I was in a group for a short while where the GM just loved puzzle traps. However, none of us players loved them or were any good at them. He was frustrated, because we couldn't figure them out and he constantly had to give bigger and bigger hints or dumb them down. We were frustrated because it felt like a showcase of our shortcomings. The group broke up pretty soon because he could not get beyond us not wanting to spend hours trying to solve puzzles.
On the other hand, there are lots of groups and people that do like puzzles (both my brother and a cousin love them). They thrive on puzzle trap quests. So if your group is up with the idea, then go for it with gusto.
Don't worry, I am checking with everyone whether they'd be up for it. Haven't had a chance to talk to all of them yet, but the two I've spoken to so far seem to like the idea. I'll get a chance to talk to the others at our next gathering. And our group has never been afraid of discontinuing a game that hasn't been enjoyed, or letting the GM know WHY it isn't being enjoyed.
Most of the time we're up for experimenting, and we enjoy the role-playing in different scenarios. If not everyone is up, then I'll hold onto the idea until a latter date when I get a group that wants to puzzle it out.
In other news, I've gotten a hold of The Wurst of Grimtooth's Traps. I think I'm worrying anyone who passes my door, what with the diabolical laughter I've been giving off as I read them. To people who have other Grimtooth books, does 'Wurst' cover most/all, or should I continue to seek the other books?
It does not cover them all, The Wurst of Grimtooth's Traps only takes a piece from the collection of seven books, so you could be missing half of the original traps.
And the original Seven books are more free form in DC's as the traps were more system independent.
Burning Dream Spider Web Trap/CR1
Mechanical; Perception 20, Disarm 20
Before the PCs get there: the rough-hewn circular chamber is dimly lit by a weird cobalt light. A glowing tapestry of gauzy fabric hangs overhead; 3 smoldering sconces sputter out additional glimmers.
Perception: looking closely at the tapestry a breeze wafts through the chamber. As the whispy stuff dances on the current you realize it isn't fabric at all, but webbing emanating the otherworldly gloaming. Despite the dimness of the luminescence you note an outline in the threshold to the room beyond of a 5x10 pannel raised just a hair's breadth higher than the surrounding stone.
Disable Device Successful: the mechanism beneath the pannel is a great bellows. Finding no release for the device you've managed to slip a long, slender blade into the crevice and pierce the bladder, rendering it useless. As it deflates the raised pannel descends into place.
Bypass: you may just simply ignore the room. Otherwise you will have to vault over the pannel (Acrobatics DC 12) or scale the wall of the entryway and inch your way around on the wall (Climb DC 15).
Effect: the pannel slams down sending a surge of air into the smoldering sconces; flame gouts erupt through the chamber, not only exploding out toward you but consuming the whisps above in a brilliant cerulean flash. Take 1d4 fire damage (DC 12 Ref save for half) and also breathe in the toxic fumes of the disintegrated webbing: 1d4 Wisdom damage (DC 11 Fort save for half).
Wurst of... Is good, really good. It isn't even a third of the traps, though,
Don't worry, I am checking with everyone whether they'd be up for it. Haven't had a chance to talk to all of them yet, but the two I've spoken to so far seem to like the idea. I'll get a chance to talk to the others at our next gathering. And our group has never been afraid of discontinuing a game that hasn't been enjoyed, or letting the GM know WHY it isn't being enjoyed.
Most of the time we're up for experimenting, and we enjoy the role-playing in different scenarios. If not everyone is up, then I'll hold onto the idea until a latter date when I get a group that wants to puzzle it out.
Well, that fun of roleplaying goes out the window when our (yours and mine) GM decides to stop running the campaign that we're all enjoying, just because of one player not wanting to continue after a single TPK in a party of 5.
It's not fair on the rest of us who are enjoying it, constantly stopping one campaign to play another until we die, then stopping that one and playing another.
You know, in Sam's campaigns, we haven't once finished a single Adventure Path and the furthest we've ever gotten is to the first part of book 2 in Legacy of Fire, because he or ONE person gets bored and then stops running it to go onto something else, without consulting/asking the rest of us and instead telling us how it is.
It annoys me, especially when one of my characters still exists and the campaign CAN continue....
I like playing, but I cannot stand going through the character creation process every single time the GM or another player decides they don't want to play anymore. It's not fun.
That's why the one I'm running WILL go on to the end. Though sadly for me, I can't play in such a campaign, because GM'ing and playing are two completely different things.
I have more fun trying to kill the BBEG's than trying to kill the party as a GM, because I grow attached to some of the characters.
That's the problem with the group you and I play in. They don't consider the feelings of others and instead force their desires upon you. There is no reasoning, only irritation and anger towards one another.
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Well big bad baandavar, that sounds like a puzzle trap of a different sort; a puzzle trap of the heart.
No seriously though I feel for you and your group. I've played in 2 campaigns and run 3 over the past 7 years; all homebrews. However NONE of these have gotten past 5th level.
For me though I'm usually the GM and I enjoy both equally. Also I think I've pinned down what was happening to me in my games. All of the guys I usually play with are all hardcore powergamers raised on video games and board games. I on the other hand LOVE story, plot, character and roleplaying.
One of the 2 games I was a player in the GM told us to create characters for his game over a week so we could start that saturday. I pestered him monday and tuesday with backstory questions, got almost no direction, so I made 2 characters; a young blaster wizard, a hothead named Ithrix Aracanathane and the gruff but fair warlord bodyguard who kept the young punk out of trouble: Bahn (pronounced Bane).
I labored for a few days optimizing them both stat wise but also to fit a theme. Ithrix was a rip off on Jonny Storm/Human Torch; a young punk with fire powers and a chip on his shoulder out to prove himself while Bahn was the archetypical strategic old warhorse who'd seen enough battle to give him a permanent 3 day stubble and 1000 yard stare.
I made them a town, a little family history, and some clever plot points. I even created a 3-pointed firey kind of symbol for the kid. We sit down at the table and everyone else created their character there with 4e online and stock names.
My entire homeworld was obliterated in seconds as an evil demigod shunted us all onto a dimensional slave ship that then crashed on an island plagued by constant storms.
Bottom line; I don't play w/those dudes anymore, except for one offs.
I found a new group online that happened to be in my backyard, we met at a gaming shop, and it turns out that there ARE still a few old fashioned roleplayers out there.
Hang in there buddy and who knows; maybe you WILL inspire some new fire in your old GMs...
Dotting hardcore