Traps!, Running The Game
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- Traps! AAAHHH! They're going to kill every one of us!
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You know, this is not the most exciting video in the world, but new DMs are being made every day and this can help them. We got more exciting videos in the future. :D
Speak for yourself, this is the most exciting video of my entire month! I've been looking forward to your insight on traps
Great to have more Matt Colville content these days!
Don’t be like that! Trap can be extremely exciting if your game has emphasis on positioning! This video will DEFINITELY help me out a lot, and I’m sure it’ll help others as well!
Its super solid. Going back to the Dealian (sp?) tomb is awesome.
I concur. My players are about to see a lot more, and spicier, traps!
I had somewhat often skipped them if they were in a module because I found them boring. I see value in them now and how they can add atmosphere to a dungeon.
I... never thought about it that way. Traps are made to prevent players from bringing all their force to bear, not just to drain resources and the like. I think I’m going to start using traps now, thank you.
An Indiana Jones style mosaic tiled floor (randomly trapped) with appropriate treasure visible on the far side. Crumbling floor tiles that fall to great depths, vines for grabbing to save yourself. On a complete set of failures (DC 15 avoid trapped tile, DC8 grab a vine) they fall and automatically become entangled in vines 20 feet below hanging in the void for rescue, taking some fall damage (2d6). To add the right amount of tension, once a tile crumbles, or the first character makes it across, skeletal warriors start to rise up and attack from the treasure, but they are also prone to falling through the tiles, except they don't grab the vines. Made for great tension and some real hilarity as characters could reach out to grab adjacent falling friends or vines. I also had some of the random treasure tumble down the pile and roll out onto the dodgy tiles, or have the skeletal warrior pick up the obviously magic weapon to use. Disarming came into play and so did abseiling into the depths to retrieve the fallen treasure.
Whats the difference?
@@ollep0lle Containment rather than punishment.
Thanks for the laugh. The gelatinous cube ... ROFLMAO! Doing an awesome job as always!
Thinking about the 2 stories of a dungeon. I actually reused a dungeon but chronologically 30 years later. That was fun. 3 stories! Mwahahaha!
I remember when Dael was star-struck in the extreme and over the moon because you had made a reference to her Druidic Language video... how times have changed lol
Hey Matt, what about 4e? I've pulled out my 4e Dungeon Master' Guide, and traps have stat blocks just like monsters.
Admiral Ackbar disliked the video.
took me way to long to get it.
Nicely done. Clappingpicard.jpg
Well done.
I see what you did there
So did the mods
Matt, I know you read some of these comments, so I'd just like to say what an amazing thing you're doing here. Your running the game videos are one of the reasons I started playing D&D, and it's since then become a huge part of my life. Your help, advice, and witty comments on fantasy, politics, and whatever else happens to be on your mind are invaluable to me. You have made my life just a little bit better with these videos, thank you.
I second this. Big time.
I third this, I wouldn't have been a DM if not for Matt, and I might even be a better person then if I hadn't come across running the game. It's also inspiring to see such a talented and passionate DM designer and writer make awesome stuff (refrencing S&F and the chain as well).
I’ll have to fourth this comment. My confidence as a DM comes from this series, and it always challenges me to not run the game by the book
Thank you!! You didn't have to worry, my birthday's coming up this week so you're perfectly on time!
Happy birthday, fellow Leo!
Happy human day!
It's a Factory of Monarchs in the wild! I'll have to check-out your Greek myth stuff as I've been back-burner noodling with a Greco-Roman setting for years! I'm happily reading through Theros atm!
Happy Birthday Ms Monarch
Happy b-day (that was?), love your stuff, and have permanently implimented your thieve's cant idea into my DMing
Curious is the trapmaker's art - his efficacy unwitnessed by his own eyes.
Underrated reply
Unless it is a dragon that has made an arrow that can kill it but traps it to just watch the horror of adventurers as their Trump card sabotages them.
Ancient traps lie in wait, unsprung and thirsting for blood
Cruel machinations spring to life with a singular purpose!
Ambushed by foul invention!
Xanathar's Guide to Everything has an entire chapter dedicated to traps. It even introduces the concept of "Complex Traps" which play out like 1/2 combat 1/2 puzzle. I thought it was pretty neat. Sounds kinda like what you mention towards the end of the video. Keep up the great work Matt! =]
I forgot about that, thanks for the reminder!
+
Sometimes, not all the time but some of the time, it can seem like Matt hasn't read the newer books. I think he even admitted he hadn't read the DMG.
@@Akeche Yeah I figured that might the case, and I don't blame him. He seems like a very busy guy, and he's learned several editions of the game already. Just figured it would be helpful for others looking for trap resources. I'm definitely gonna check out the book of challenges.
Came to say the same, and also agree that Matt may have all the stuff he needs in is head, or existing references already. However the XgE is so good in many ways, Id recommend it fro all new players / DMs / at least a couple of copies in a play group :)
One of the things I've adopted from a discussion on reddit is the "What do you do?" mechanic for traps.
"As you step forward, you feel a slight tug on your foot. A tripwire. It's too late to not trigger the trap, what do you do?"
Depending on what the trap is, and what the players say they do, changes the outcome of the trap. If it's a pitfall, and the player says they drop to the floor... well make your save at disadvantage and try again next time. If it's an arrow trap however, that same floor drop might give advantage on the save! Leaping from the trap might avoid it altogether, or it may put you more squarely in it.
I also typically only give them a few seconds in real life to make their decisions, if they hesitate at the table their character hesitates and just stands there. Adds some drama and encourages quick thinking methinks.
I'll never get tired of Matt giggling gleefully when a trap like the Gelatinous Cube/Pit trap or his own Cube/Mimic trap works and the players are induced into 'running around like chickens with their heads cut off' mode.
I'm putting this in my next session.
I love traps that aren't just Dex Saves. Give the players an easy puzzle instead, a riddle, a difficult RP scenario, etc.
My favourite kinds of traps will always be runes of reverse gravity. Especially in the middle of a fight. Suddenly, players are literally on different playing fields. Featherfall is a good spell to have in my games, FYI.
Those arent traps, then. They’re puzzles, riddles, or difficult RP scenarios
MCDM: Raises 2M
Matt: It's like we're a real company!
Never change, man.
"What is the fastest way to end up with a million dollars in the RPG industry? Start with two million dollars." :P
@@dahlmanerik Yeah, but I love Matt's humility. Like he appears to think he's no big deal.
@@TheGoblinoid I realize. It's just a funny quote I heard from when I worked in the gaming industry. :)
@@dahlmanerik oh gotcha. Man, is it that rough?
@@TheGoblinoid Definitely can be. I was with a larger company and wasn't actually in the RPG department. But, said large company just let their entire RPG department go about 5-6 months ago.....
Hey Matt, I've been Dm'ing for my Dad and sister throughout quarantine and I'd like to say thank you for this series. Its been a wealth of helpful guidance.
Coming from older editions one of the times I got confused was “where the heck is the disarm trap skill”. It took some time for me to realise that there isn’t any and players have to come up of the way to disarm it and describe how to the dm.
Tbph i always just thought that sleight of hand was expanded to cover it. I always ask my players to describe what they are attempting to do though to make sure it would even work if they are successful
Its thieves tools in 5e. The describe hw to do it approach is more OSR
Collin I do that for lock related traps. But some traps can’t be disarmed by thief tools. Leaves covering a spiked pit for example.
Jordyn Young Yes me too because I was stuck with the mindset that one of these things had to be the disarm trap skill. It can be used sometimes depending on the trap I guess.
Thieves tools is the default but you have to take the trap into consideration. Leaves over a pit isn't a "disarmable" trap. You have to go around it or though it. There isn't triggering there. A trip wire, pressure plate, or something of the like is where thieves tools come in.
Oh I'm early I better say something funny, uhh
Haha Matt Colville hair go ✨✨
Crab? Crab! Hey man, how you doing?
All hail the crab king 🦀
I love that you comment on stuff.
All hail the crab king
"If you want to skip this video..."
That is the exact opposite of anything I've ever wanted.
So hyped to see more RTG videos. Easily my favorite series on RUclips. Love these vids Matt!
"I put my information at the front so you don't have to spot through the whole video"
...instant like. Proceeds to watch whole video.
The iron gate trap was the one where they used the portable hole to go through right?
After months of drought, we're getting so many videos so soon. Maybe 2020 is getting better...
He is a river to his people
www.twitch.tv/mcdm/ is another great place to get your Colville fix!
He's been busy with Kingdoms and Warfare, which I am stoked for!
I see this commentor didn’t use the company issued time machine. Unlucky ☹️
Speaking of Dael, her video on traps is a great follow on from this, it talks more about theming and in world explanations of traps
This one? ruclips.net/video/wXZXSYjlnGE/видео.html
A Matt Colville video under 45 mins?? Sacrilege of the highest order!
I love you, Matt!! I am making a dungeon, so I needed this urgently!
Matt Colville, slowly succumbing to Lycanthropy right before our eyes!
My husband has been the "forever DM" and I wanted to give him a chance to play. Your videos have been so helpful to me as I try my hand at running the game. I am excited to see that you are still making them. Thank you for all the tips and tricks- I have been really enjoying being the DM.
Bless you for DMing, I'm sure you'll do great
real fake doors
I almost fell into a spike pit trap to hit this notification
When you’re considering if a trap is what you need to make your encounter more interesting, and in that moment your phone tells you Matt just uploaded a video about Traps.
I love synchronicity.
Serendipity.
Yeah, he's really honing his psychic skills recently!
Ugh... Stage 4 lock-down... mandatory masks... beginnings of cabin fever.... This week su- A running the game video! Best. Week. Ever.
Hey ive just started stage 4 too. Must be an aussie
@@sjlemmon and both Victorians I'd wager.
That time seems so distant now.
OMG is that a didgeridoo in the background? I'm aussie, maybe that's why I noticed
Matt, please do tell about the didgeridoo in the doobliedoo.
@@theviewerofart LOL! This comment is gold
MATT! It's funny you mention Traps. Logan from the channel Runesmith has a video about traps. Where your video talks about the narrative of the trap and how it fits into the overall adventure or dungeon, Logan talks about how to construct a trap that functionally makes sense. He breaks it down into Visibility, The Trigger, The Failsafe (Because the people who live with the traps don't want to be a victim in their own traps), and The Outcome. Seriously, it's a good primer for those looking to make their own traps, especially if you want to avoid the "roll to detect and roll to disarm" rinse and repeat methods of traps.
The video is found here: ruclips.net/video/1uSyptdcsOc/видео.html
Missed you, Matt! Can we get a video on planning heists? How to not make it repetitive stealth roles till sudden but inevitable disaster.?
Any time your players are at risk of just making the same roll over and over, introduce elements of the adventure that force your players to make choices, to change their strategy. Perhaps an opportunity arises! Regarding failed stealth rolls not ruining the mission, see Matt’s Multiple Fail States video.
Fail states and skill challenges cover a heist very well
The fun of a heist is in the planning stage; what do the heroes know, how do the heroes get more information, what are their options for getting in, what elements of the environment can they exploit in interesting ways. You probably want to have a few complications that are harder to find out about (like the fact that the best day to do the heist, an inquisitor will be there), but you probably want avoid the thing that happens in heist movies, where their entire plan gets thrown in to disarray just after they start, because while that adds tension for the audience of the movie, it will probably feel like a screw job for the players in a game
First thing that comes to mind, based on all the movies, is give every NPC an individual motivation/goal/want, maybe some history with a PC, maybe someone else is on the same mission (rivalry/competition), maybe someone unexpected would benefit indirectly from the PCs succeeding, maybe people are open for negotiations, maybe every NPC is ready to stab every other NPC in the back, maybe someone is more interested in extorting the PCs than busting them. PCs might know a little bit about some of the people they are stealing from, perhaps from spying in advance or from someone who hired them or some of it may be common knowledge, or they may overhear conversations as they sneak about during the heist. Maybe they acquire some inside help, but that person is discovered to have helped them, and so they have to choose whether to focus on making the heist, or to save their ally. Can they manage both?
@@scottsbarbarossalogic3665 I have to respectfully disagree. I think planning can be a lot of fun (for the right group), but it's not the only draw of a heist. And planning is generally only fun if you feel like you've got a solid enough grasp of the scenario to make well-informed plans that won't instantly fall apart on you.
Trap Theory and Trap Theory II by Runehammer are some of the best content I've seen for describing the purpose of traps for rpgs where they're relevant. Purpose in both mechanical and roleplay perspectives. TLDW on these is that you always need constraints to apply to the players, and the players need clear goals. If they're familiar with their character sheets, then mechanical traps should be fun. If they're familiar with their characters, then roleplay traps should be fun.
Links:
ruclips.net/video/D3HSw-ANugg/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/wdca18nObAk/видео.html
I love how it all boils down to bait, a threat, and a timer, and how that can really apply to just about everything in the game, not just mechanical traps in dungeons.
@@duskworkerdron5901 Me too. Depending on how far you take the idea, it can give you a very different perspective on the game. Those are always useful.
The T-section trap sounds like a perfect example of chronic and sustained cruelty. I love it
Absolutely love that you tell everything in the beginning without a stupid intro music video etc. I always watch the whole video because you have great content
I'm way earlier into the RTG series and am so happy you're still coming out with more! I'm not COMPLETELY new to DMing (I've DMed maybe 3ish campaigns with a new one this Saturday) but every single video I basically learn at least one new thing and it's so engaging and interesting! Thanks so much and excited to learn more!
Update: last night was session 1 with my new party, and it went so smoothly and everyone was laughing nearly the whole time. I took lots of advice from the RtG series and I think it really helped
I set up a room in a Beholder's dungeon that was a sort of broad, vertical hallway- like the hall the players were in led into the midway point of a tower that had no floors or stairs. The chamber disappeared into darkness both above and below them, but on the other side of the tube, they could see a doorway with several locks, flush with the room itself, so you had nowhere to stand to pick said locks. They thought it was just a pit- until I described a series of whooshing sounds, as several bodies and objects fell from above, disappearing into the darkness below. Then, after letting them discuss for a moment, I made the same whoosh sounds as the same bodies and series of objects fell from top to bottom... again. The bodies noticed the heroes this time around, and on their next lap, snarled and swiped at them. An endless fall- vanish into the dark on the bottom of the pit, reappear maintaining velocity at the top. Already falling in the chamber (as they had been for who knows how long) was a set of zombies and a wight, as well as the keys needed for the opposite door. There wasn't a wizard or anything in the party, and they were all fairly low level- and they had to get the keys, while avoiding being impacted by undead travelling at terminal velocity. As they discussed what to do, I would periodically repeat the whoosh sounds, and it made them laugh every single time. Hands down, best trap I've ever ran.
10:34 So this trap is basically 2020 in trap form
"[The DM's Guide has] a little bit more info, but it's sort of a cop out." Sums up my feeling on the 5e DMG as a whole if I'm honest
That T-junction trap is so evil, I'm laughing
That gelatinous cube trap is messed up. I'm gonna do it }:‑)
Another fantastic third edition book is "Traps & Treachery" which has detailed mechanical descriptions for traps and how to describe them to players who notice them and what they can do to disarm them.
One of my favourite things for the third use of traps, especially when it comes to higher levels, is the glyph or warding spell. The spell can do a lot of dynamic things - silencing spellcasters, wall of fire and the like the split the party, etc. It can even do something "traps" definitely aren't intended to do, and a powerful cleric could throw a glyph of warding down to cast Heal on themselves (or a similar beneficial spell) in response to a certain trigger.
In my game recently a Drow Matron Mother had a very mediocre time when the party got a clutch Feeblemind off on her, making her far less threatening. If she ever comes back from the dead (very unlikely, but not impossible) she'll be sure to have a glyph that Heals her if she makes an attack with her Demon Staff - a last resort option normally, but really the only thing she can do once feebleminded.
I think generally when it comes to traps to make a seemingly easy or manageable encounter spiral out of the party's control, traps that divide and conquer, or debilitate the party somehow, are much better choices than traps that simply do some additional damage. The goal with a trap in this scenario in my opinion is to make the party ask "well how to we deal with this new problem in addition to the enemies we face" and a trap that just fireballs the party or similar is easily answered with "heal through it".
Another great video, I know I'll be checking out the book of challenges and maybe throwing some of these nasties at my players in the future. :)
Matt, Digging the longer hair. Hope you and your team are doing well given everything going on in the world. Thanks for the content!
In 5e, when deciding how much difficult a trap's stuff should be to interact with, or how much damage a trap would do, it's a good idea to use the stats of a monster in the dungeon. I could swear i heard this first in one of your videos, but since I didn't hear it in this one I wanted to vouch for that advice.
It's also useful to consider what, in-universe, the trap is intended to do. Not "what are the mechanics of the trap", but it's function within the larger space it occupies.
Traps take a great deal of time, effort, knowledge, and resources to build and maintain. The more complex the trap, the more of all of those you need. A trap built to last hundreds of years without maintenance even moreso. No one goes to those lengths without a good reason. Nor do they implement them within spaces they intend to occupy (even for a brief period) without good reason.
Tombs tend to just want to discourage looters, so their traps will be designed to hurt or kill casual grave robbers (1d6 damage is often more than sufficient). If the trap is designed to slow intruders down, the traps will be more inconvenient than damaging (though a foot stepping into a spiked-filled hole that cripples it for life will certainly inconvenience and slow them). If the trap makers would rather capture intruders, the traps will be built to _literally_ trap them in a confined space, knock them out, or otherwise make locating them easier (instead of a spiked pit trap, it might just be a regular pit). Even "insane wizard dungeons" (Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain) have some esoteric purpose, even if known only to the insane wizard who built it. Etc, etc.
Eh, I don't think you should do that with using monster stats to determine. Part of having a trap is to break up the monotony of "Let me throw another monster at the party". Which means, unlike a random encounter, the trap's going to have some purpose or goal in mind of its creator. Some traps (like pit traps without spikes, net traps, snare traps, and those snapjaw traps (bear traps)) are all designed capture, immobilize, and/or restrain a target without killing the target. (Maiming, however, is still on the table.) These are used by group who do believe in taking prisoners or like to recruit more slaves. This is why they're found all around goblin lairs. And, since they're generally not lethal (and hopefully the home teams knows where they are), they won't typically have a disarm or kill switch.
Then you have what I call "the corridor traps". These are usually built into structures, and their primary purposes are to slow down any attacking group, alert the defenders that an attack is on the way, and buy those defenders time to organize their defenses. Again, these aren't generally designed to be lethal, but at this point the defenders probably aren't too interested in taking captives. Since these people are living with these traps in a manner akin to "sleeping with a loaded gun under their pillow", these traps won't be "fully lethal" and will have some sort of deactivation mechanism or bypass so the locals don't generally fall in them. But in no terms should a party of adventurers take these traps on willy nilly.
Finally, we come to what I call "treasure traps". These traps are there to guard something, someplace, or someone very important. These should be the traps that leave red stains on the walls and brown stains in armor. If the party fails to detect or disarm the trap, there should be a good chance someone dies. A trap could be something as small as a needle or as large as a 50 foot corridor. The outcome could be poison, magic, a rain of rocks and rubble, or just some good, old-fashion sharp blade of steel on a swingy stick. But these traps should be the hardest to detect and disarm. Again, for these traps, they'll have ways to disarm them, and I'm generally of the mindset that there should be some clue as to the danger and disarming. It could be as simple as the corpse of some unsuccessful thief, odd stains on the floor, or even watching some retreating kobold forget the trap was there in their panic and tripped it.
Which brings me to the other thing: detecting the trap. You're not going to get that from CR rating of the local monsters. That's going to be a combination of many factors: Skill of the trapmaker, age of the trap, and how much your goofy party is paying attention to their surroundings. A goblin who has to tie up two dozen snare traps probably isn't going to be too bothered making a perfect slip not for the trap or completely covering it with leaf litter. Likewise, a pit trap dug ages ago isn't going to have the greenest of cover and recent rains might have started eroding the side. Then again, maybe those dwarven miners and sculptures were talented enough to make those pressure plates nearly indistinguishable from the flagstone around them. But, even the most poorly concealed snare trap can snag a party on the run from a band of bugbears because the party wasn't watching where they were going.
@@Bluecho4 I agree about thinking of their use in-universe. Personally, that's why I don't use most of the really Indiana-Jonesque traps, and prefer to play with simple, practical ones. There's a lot your local kobolds/goblins can do just with hidden pits, nets, tripwire-crossbows and some hidden bear traps. I think they add a lot of immersion to some creatures, meaning attacking them on their turf is a real pain. Like, Matt's example with orcs and their pit traps is excellent.
@@jackielinde7568 If one has monotony in the story then one has no story. If the players are not eager to reach a certain point like getting the princess before the dragon eats is then you have two choices. Simply close the book as the adventure is over or get more interesting fast.
New monster: Bucket o' Goblins. "It's what you think it is."
This is going in my next dungeon.
Traps can also encourage exploration of more complex dungeons - if the party spot a trap, and there are routes they haven't yet been, they might decide to explore one of those routes to see if there's a way around the trap. Locked doors can have the same function.
In terms of splitting the party with traps, pit traps are excellent for this. It's a little bit of fall damage - but if you put a couple of zombies at the bottom of a 15' pit, you've created a situation where only one or two party members are in immediate danger - leading the others to focus on helping whoever ended up in the pit. If a couple of ghouls then take advantage of the distraction, you've got yourself a pretty tense fight. I mean, for a party of four level 4 PCs, two zombies and two ghouls are a medium encounter, but if you've split the party like that, it's a whole (hole?) other situation to deal with. Sure, provided they have a cleric, the party will almost certainly get through largely unscathed, but during the fight itself? Much like with the portcullis, they're having to deal with not being able to use the tactics they're used to using.
The important thing with traps is that they have to make sense when you consider who lives in the area. Nobody is going to defend their lair with a trap they themselves cannot easily get past.
What about a cave-in instead of a pit trap? A natural weakening of the floor in a catacombs built too close to an underground river or cistern -- the stones fall away, the characters fall into a sinkhole beneath. The noise attracts a bunch of undead. Same trap, but now it's more synchronous, makes more sense within the setting. Not to mention, the adventurers now have difficult terrain to negotiate when they are on their way back out of the catacombs, maybe while being chased by a large army of undead they disturbed deeper within. Hmm.
@@lfoster6759 Works just as well; the idea of a pit trap was more because a necromancer could just throw a couple of corpses into the pit, then cast animate dead on them (I forgot that it has a 10' range, but the necromancer could animate them and then order them to dig the pit - at that point, the control over the zombies will wear out, but the necromancer won't need that control because they're at the bottom of a pit.
"It's like we're a real company with this stuff." -Matt
Matt, you *are* a real company
No, he is a river.
Im using some simple traps in my campaign right now. The adventures have to get thru a tunnel complex with 2 groups fighting inside. Goblins and kolbolts. Kolbolts are using traps and tactics to fight back. Sometimes the adventures comes across a trap that has already tripped with some troops in the middle of recovering. Or come across the trap maker and a defense squad resetting traps and looting bodies in those traps. The nice thing is when they start going the wrong way the traps get more elaborate and patrols become more common. And this makes sense because it is getting closer to one group or the other. This is great for lower levels because I dont know if they will but they can always come back once they are stronger to wipe out one or both of the groups of monsters. Plus they can role play, they are lost and come across a hobgoblin nearly dead in a trap that was set off. They could kill and loot him or they can pull him out and use him as their guide. Then the question becomes how do they do this? Threats and intimidation vs mercy and kindness. Each thing has their own perks and benefits
Nathan Kelly - Brilliant idea to have the characters in the middle of two fighting factions and they actually see what is going on.
5:31 I think Wizards is leaving money on the table by not having toy soldier style Bucket of Goblins (with attachable bases so you can use them as minis) for sale.
My favourite trap from Grimtooth's was Fibber McGee's Cupboard of Caltrops. Literally just a cupboard full of caltrops that would fall out all over the players when they opened the door
“If you spend this time making traps, you’re just making the game more tedious.”
Amen and AMEN.
For 5e masters: You can buy Xanathar's Guide to everything for extra rules or traps and cool traps. I've used it a couple of times and it can be fun!
That ooze / portcullis trap is amazing... I simply must include that in my next dungeon XD
In my opinion, the guidance given by most D&D rulebooks, for how and when to use traps, sucks. And that makes the traps themselves suck in-game, because even the cleverest mechanic for traps is useless if you don't know when, where and how to actually use a trap in your game.
What I'd advise people to think about most of all, is *where* would the traps be, and why? Put them in logical places, with a good no-Perception-needed clue if the players pay attention to your descriptions, and a trap might work in favor of verisimilitude. If you don't telegraph them and/or give a good pattern to them, the players will just grind the game to a halt inspecting every 5-foot square for traps, which slows the game down to an extreme.
A good example of what I'd consider "sensible" trap usage, which I've blatantly stolen from Angry GM, is a kobold's lair with some collapsed tunnels that let the daylight in. The Kobolds get blinded in these sunlit areas, so they can't patrol them efficiently, but they can bury tripwired crossbows in the rubble. That makes sense. It's also easy enough to telegraph, even before the party gets in deep - they'd also have put something similar up outside, for similar reasons, but it could realistically have gone off already and skewered some hapless animal to the cavern entrance.
This accomplishes a few things: There's a clear pattern, there's a reason for the traps to be where they are, and they're telegraphed in a safe way without forcing the players to stop and think everything might be a trap.
I love that we occasionally get directed to 2e or 3e books to look through for specific content, such as Gary Gygax's Book of Names in another video, and now the Book of Challenges. It's a bit of a challenge sometimes to port content to 5e, but it's not all that hard if you look past the minutia.
What's the book of names focus on?
@@cynistar742 dont want to be that guy but .... names. lol its book of names form different cultures and mythos to help name npcs and such.
I actually like having a reference to other sources in general. It’s nice to make a wish list of all the things I would love to read through and have a play around with.
Tamazaaa Exactly! I love ordering PODs of old books on drivethrurpg. Just the other day I ordered the old Spelljammer book.
@@cynistar742 It's quite literally a guide on how to name things for different cultures: Primarily characters, but also cities, rivers, etc,... It's quite thorough and would recommend it to anyone homebrewing!
I watched Dael Kingsmill before she introduced me to this channel. I still remember when she started a video talking in shock about how "Matt Colville watches my videos". Who is this matt Colville she speaks of in such high esteem I must investigate? Started from the bottom now I'm here :-D
Oh *that's* the Dael he was talking about. Dunno why, that totally didn't click for me. XD
I wouldn’t call Dael “the bottom”! They’re both wonderful teachers!
One of my favorite stories involving a trap was when I was a player, my first 5e game actually. We were in the underdark going through a cave with old worked stone (I was a dwarf and my stonecunning check revealed to me this place is old and was important at one point(red flag #1)). We came to a narrow passageway that led to a T intersection. In the middle of this passage unbeknownst to us was a pressure plate. One of the players stepped on it and it clicked. Nothing happened. They stepped off fine. The next player went, click, nothing. The third player, cocky and assuming the trap old and broken after all this time, crossed it, click, and a fireball went off at the plate's location burning him. I was the 4th to cross and I remember sitting there like "oh well that's simply amazing!"
Pathfinder 2e has some of the best trap design, including haunts, out of designs I’ve seen, especially regarding giving lots of ways of using different skills to interact with them.
one thing I found in grimtooth's that I really liked was something called the "idiot's vase", although I modify it to be more fun and less brutal. My interpretation is an enchanted vase that visibly has a key or some other piece of loot at the bottom, but if you stick your hand in, you never seem to be able to reach the bottom. if you break it, the enchantment shatters and deals force damage. the real trick to it is to simply turn it upside down and let gravity do the work.
The thing that goes for traps as well as all dramatic devices - simple premise, with an unexpected twist, and opportunity for further drama. It's nearly a foolproof format. Gate slams down, but just between the two groups of party members! And now, hobgoblins are coming to see what happened. Let me make one - a pressure plate fires out arrows, moderate damage. But they hit oil lanterns on the far side of the corridor, and now flames rush towards the players. The entrance to the mine they just came in, propped up by wooden beams.
I've watched your videos for years, the Delian Tomb was the first adventure I ever ran after 20 years of pcing, the biggest takeaway I've gotten from these videos is this: look to the books of the past and steal from them. . . Steal the shit out of them!
My favourite thing to think about when designing a dungeon is a big mechanism for getting a gelatinous cube to the top of the dungeon to clean it, activating whenever someone steps on a pressure plate near the entrance.
The mechanism takes time, so the players have plenty of time to wonder what the 'trap' may have been as they descend.
Add in a room at the end of the dungeon with 10ft square grid in the floor that the cube falls through to reset the mechanism, filtering out any loot it might have picked up.
My goodness a sub 30 minute Matt video? Were you drinking too much coffee before filming?
Love how straightforward you are with your early explanations! Keep being an outlier, for me it gives me even more incentive to watch the full video!
I made a poison trap that is the classic "the doors close and poison starts to fill the room." The trick was the trap opens in three rounds, but the characters can easily plug the pipes where the poison comes from. There was very high anxitey and basically told the players that if they're not careful they could die. By the way, this was in pathfinder 2e.
Wow. Traps in DnD 5e must be very different from Pathfinder. There are traps and hazards built into the modules, examples in the Gamemaster Guide, and the rules how to build your own. They have stats, what triggers it, how to disarm them, and if it has one action or multiple actions.
Love the traps in pathfinder 2e. We use alot of traps in our dungeons. Sometimes the players can lure the baddies into a trap.
i own that book and it really shaped how I view encounter design. i was lucky to read it early in my gaming career
honestly, the first chapter with it's 10 rules for encounter design are all you really need from the book. it gives you a handy checklist of things you should ask yourself as you design not just encounters but dungeons and story beats.
everything else is just examples of how to use those 10 rules in action so you can brew your own ideas
Pathfinder's traps system is great, and "haunts" is one of the best implementation of traps.
They gave way too much XP though
They give a lot less (relatively) in 2e but have a lot of the same feeling
I remember a few of the haunts in RIse of the Runelords. They could be pretty nasty if you failed enough rolls but always had some great failsafes to continue into more RP opportunities or info about the area you were exploring.
One was within an abandoned cabin in the mountains. A blizzard hits during travel and the players are forced to take shelter. Inside however, they're met with the ghosts of dwarves who try desperately to warn the players. Fear and madness spiral out of control, hindering the players more than helping them despite their best efforts before the wails of a CR 17 Wendigo ring through the night. The haunt is just a setup for the encounter to build atmosphere and it's such a great use for it!
Another was the haunted mansion on an oceanside cliff where foxglove took up hiding, in which you learn about his dead lover and her demise. Failure to resist the haunt had a character get possessed. It starts slow by opening the window in her bedroom, gazing out to an ocean but soon escalates into leaping out onto the steep roof. At this point the player can break free of the haunt and try to grab onto the edge but if one rolled bad enough, multiple times, they'd fall to their demise into the ocean or even get skewered on the weather vane!
Most traps end up being a "Surprise!" one and done event that either causes damage and has the players feeling cheated for rolling poorly or on the other hand, grinds the game to a halt as they find a trap and endlessly plan on how to avoid it if the disable device check fails.
Haunts on the other hand, give so many more opportunities.
@@bryal7811 Exactly. And the solution to a haunt is always creative, too. It's not just a disable device roll, but you have to figure out and satisfy the condition. Delivering the ghost's last letter written while it was alive, or somesuch.
Animemes subreddit: The word trap is illegal now
Matt: Makes a video saying the word trap hundreds of times
Was gonna make a similar joke, the timing of this is hilarious
I miss these videos so much. Hope you make a return matt
In all reality, it’s BECAUSE Matt puts the crux of his videos at the beginning that I want to watch through the whole thing: “That’s his advice eh? This warrants an explanation!” 🙂
15 minutes of evil DM giggles.... can't wait for my upcoming game....
Grimtooth's books of traps are awesome.
In 3.5 the rules on traps are more precise. I use traps in my campaign (3.5).
I haven't played a lot of 5e but I've never encountered one in 5e.
Interesting video.
I love traps! I always use traps in dungeons, to ramp up the tension
Traps don't always have to be deadly or dangerous to spice up a mission. I remember during one campaign through an enemy stronghold, we passed through a normal looking hallway only to discover the hard way one of the walls had a powerful magnet installed behind it. Everyone with metal armor or weapons needed to do a strength save; easy for the ones with only a few things, and damn hard for anyone in heavy metal armor like our paladin who failed and found themselves pinned to the wall.
This put us in the situation of figuring out how we free them before a guard patrol could find us. The paladin could take off his armor to un-stick himself, but then he'd have to adapt to, well, not having any armor until we could get it unstuck. While the trap itself was never the danger, it really helped break up the flow of the dungeon and forced us as the players to get creative.
So here is a way I made to incrrase the potential for traps: Reaction encounters.
When something happens, like a trap activating, or an ambush, PC's have only moments to react. Usually, this is a single save or check, but reaction encounters gives you more options.
Reaction encounters come in three lengths; fast, normal, and slow. If all you do is make a single check or saving throw, you get advantage on if it's a slow encounter, and disadvantage if it's a fast one.
In effect you have one, two, or three reactions, based on the length, and assuming all rolls are made with disadvantage initially, you can spend one reaction to remove the disadvantage of one other reaction roll that has disadvantage, or grant advantage to a reaction roll which has neither advantage nor disadvantage.
Alternatively, you can spend one reaction to take a reaction or a bonus action you qualify for, but never more than one of each type of action, or you can spend three reactions to perfom a single action.
This system makes it so when the dart trap triggers and the monk, druid and wizard are about to be hit while the paladin stands by, the wizard can use shield as a reaction, the monk can use deflect the missile, and if the druid fails, the paladin can nobelly jump in to push them out of the way, getting dramatically hit themselves instead, allowing roleplay and personality to spring out from a trap, like say if the paladin doesn't jump in, typically it's because they can't make a save for someone else, but now it was a chaoice and the player can roleplay the characters guilt, or when the thief disarmed the trap while it was triggering, and everyone is majorly impressed, and the thief player gets to be smug af.
Matt sais stuff like this can make the game more tedious, but I think if you just take what already exists, like a simple save, and extrapolate from it a reasonable way to vary it without adding tons of stuff, it's not that bad. Like using deflect missiles, shield, or pushing an ally out of the way is alreaddy stuff I would be inclined to allow, this just makes it more rigid, and feel less like I am permitting someone to ignore the rules as a mercy, but rather encouraging players to be clever as a challenge, which is exactly what I want.
This isn't the final systwm btw, just a basic outline, but even this is way long for a yt comment so it's what I give for now.
This is absolutely ridiculous! I did not subscribe to your channel for your advice for Dungeons and Dragons and tabletop games in general! The only reason I'm subscribed to you is because of your artsy-fartsy beret-wearing analysis of movies that were not entertaining but won awards! I do not like this kind of garbage cluttering up my subscription feed!
For reference: twitter.com/mattcolville/status/1288956545753968640?s=20
This one time, I made a room, full of mimics, and the moment the party started examining the treasure on the far end of it... mimic. Also, the room is filling with gas, fort save vs11, 12, 13, better get outta there! 14! Oh no your str is dropping fast! Thing is, why couldn't they just turn around and run? Well, they could, but the carpet was a mimic too, and so was that chair, and the pictures on the wall, and they all started blocking the door.
Dael Kingsley is great, she’s so good with lore highly recommend, I love when people I follow recognize each other
Noticed a Dune game at Barnes and Noble which seems to be a new incarnation. Have you seen/tried it?
A reprint of a pretty old game, they've played it numerous times for the Wednesday game night. All on the mcdm channel ruclips.net/video/Js_WINTqtjo/видео.html
Keep on the Borderlands does have some interesting details intended for new DMs and has a pretty good 5e conversion for it. Traps are part of it! That plus the 3e Book of Challenges, Grimtooth's Traps etc. are super useful for thinking about traps and "hazards".
Just a few hours too late for me, I've just had my session earlier today (started about 12 hours and 40 mins ago). Though I.will be keeping this in mind for my next dungeon!
Awwww, this is going to make Dael's day. I love you man, thanks for continuing to be a river to your people.
that trap description made me laugh so hard I started coughing. I love traps like that!
NGL, I don't really care what the topic is, I just like hearing you talk about things Matt. It beats listening to the nagging of family members. XD
Thieves tools: this set of tools includes a small file, a set of lock picks, a small mirror mounted on a metal handle, a set of narrow-bladed scissors, and a pair of pliers. Proficiency with these tools lets you add your Proficiency Bonus to any Ability Checks you make to disarm traps or open locks.
Collin - Most traps can't be disarmed like a pit with spikes under it. What you are talking about is a toolkit to open locks.
This is just a direct quote. It works to disable traps OR locks. Of course some traps wont be interacted with this way.
I ran my first ever campaign for 3 of my friends on Sunday and it went INCREDIBLY. Even though it was over Google Hangouts. We all had a blast and are excited to play again this Sunday. And it was entirely due to your videos! (as well as dimension 20 and naddpod inspiration). The tips you provided helped make my first session 1000 times better than it would have been otherwise, though I do also have my incredible players to thank for such a good time too.
Thank you so much for helping me gain the confidence I needed to run a game of D&D. When I got into it, it wasn't even hard! Excited to see where this incredible hobby takes me and my friends and I'm excited to steal more of your ideas and put them in my game
Did anyone else think “super tetanus” when Matt mentioned frictionless surface traps?
"A Bucket of Goblins" made me laugh harder than it reasonably should have.
Com Truse has some dope beats
for that pit-cube trap how are you supposed to "beat" it tho?
That's for the player to figure out, my countably infinite friends
@@channingman if you were a player in that situation what would you do then? from the way it is presented it looks like certain death for at least one character
@@Aleph-Noll If I am observant, I may notice the portcullis, the pressure plate or the cube, tipping me off there is something up. I think that would basically "beat" it. Goal is to take out the cube independent of the trap part. If you wanted to be fancy try to lure the cube into the pit fall.
@@Aleph-Noll Maybe there's a secret door in the side of the bottom of the pit leading to small cavity which holds the reset mechanism for the trapdoor. If the character survives the fall they might be able to find that and squeeze into it to wait for the party to rescue them. Unfortunately perhaps a small swarm of rats has taken up residence in there too... and there's not enough room to swing a sword and no light to see... 😁
I think I finally understand the elevator trap in Castle Ravenloft! It's supposed to split the part like the portcullis trap!
Always love to get your take on things, and traps and puzzles are high on my priority list for my upcoming games. Thanking you kindly :D
Xanathar's Guide To Everything also has a section on simple and complex traps, how to make them, and examples of each. It's a good starting point for making your own traps.
Thanks for the links! (Also omg is that the didgeridoo??? It's actually bought?!?! Omg omg!)