If you had the time, which I know you dont, I would love to see the Chronicles of Deathbringer with all the minis. I do miss the Campaign Updates. I know why you stopped but they're little masterpieces.
I think the whole skill (ability) system is misunderstood by a lot of people, especially those who played 3e. We often think about skill checks - where a skill has a particular ability associated with it but you’re rolling the skill. But really they’re all ability checks, and the skills/tools you’re proficient with affect what modifiers you add to that ability check. I think applying skill/tool proficiencies to ability checks other than their respective defaults should be more common than it is, and that’s not really explained well in the 5e rules
I had a trap once that was the ceiling would fall down and stop at a certain height. It was done that was so even when triggered it wouldn't hinder the kobolds that lived there, but would hit and hinder the taller races, by making them crawl around instead of walking. gnomes wouldn't be to worried but still.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 When i used it only one player was short enough not to be attacked and hindered. And the kobolds they fought were completely unhindered. I think it was one of my best uses. they never found the button to turn it off.
The 2e boxed set Dragon Mountain had a deadly kobold trap that was basically an upside down bear trap that would fall from the ceiling to a height of four feet. If it hit a character's head before then, the jaws closed around their neck. Anyone shorter than 4 feet was fine.
Yoink! Totally going to use this whene my party has to fight Dark Elves! (It's a long story and involves obscure theories about Norse cosmology, the short of it is Dark Elves=Dwarves)
Oh I've tried to make existential traps a real thing in D&D. Stuff like disassociative illusions where like they "can hear their own thoughts" or they see things from a 5th dimensional perspective and every possible action they and those around them might take simultaneously and are stunned by the sheer volume of stimulus Or existential in the sense of a statue of justice points at them saying they have to choose who dies among the other players, and depending on how they react what really happens, happens. I went a whole campaign with literally nothing but traps for them to try avoiding leaving these elaborate maps I made with escape rooms while doing my Jigsaw impression and sense they kept demanding music, I played Magical Trevor.
@hughmunguss4019 All existential traps stem from questioning the deeper meaning of one's existence. At their core, they are not merely the question of "Who am I" but "What am I to this existence" which is usually followed by existential dread and psychosis. For example, becoming aware that the life is a hoax and that you live in a fancy slaughter house which made sure its livestock enjoyed a free life full of positive feelings, is one of the classic existential horrors in literature, although existentialism deals with much more profound psychological loopholes rather than this one primitive example. But the point is that the premise usually invalidates any intelligent course of action, as the crisis is simply inescapable, so you can only embrace nihilism.
Observed at Gameholecon during a DCC game: Roll a d6. That's how many fingers you have left. Choose which ones! Traps that dismember or polymorph your player characters are under used.
I feel that the most important part of trap design ought to be, 'what can the residents install or maintain?' In a megadungeon, that could even lead to slow mastery over the map: If the PCs kill or drive off a group that was maintaining traps for several other groups, suddenly those traps stop working as well, and once triggered there's a chance (depending on the trap's logic) that it won't be reset. That said, I have yet to see a DM resource that approaches traps from the watsonian angle, so designers don't share that concern of mine.
My favorite trap room is a simpler button in the middle of the room when pressed starts a 20 second timer. Every 5 seconds the timer clock becomes more decrepit. The room starts to ooze blood from the wall (other scary stuff for a butch of characters in a dungeon). If they press the button again (which they will because that’s the only other thing to do in the room) it’s restarts the time and the room magically back to normal this starting the now 20 second timer again. How the room is beaten is by just letting the timer run out. But I’ve had parties repeatedly press the button none stop for upwards of 3 hours. I just keep stringing them along by adding more details. It’s a blast. Sadly only once
Definitely a classic. Now, after I ran this puzzle, I followed it up with a similar puzzle where it DID matter when and how they pressed the button... the regret and reality kicked in after lightning coursed through their veins for letting the timer run out, lol.
On the topic of ten foot poles, I always have any adventurer NPC's carry D10 foot poles. Because if you are going to use it on every dangerous thing it's gonna get short quick
The most important thing to me as a DM is to make sure that the trick, trap, puzzle, hazard and/or encounter makes sense to be there in the first place. I also make pains that such a trap would logically work and fit into the space it is in. I have found that by just having this information available, it shows players when and if they question it why it is there and how it works. An old resource I used in the past is Grim tooth's Traps by Flying Buffalo, [showing my age]. These showed how and where to place such things. I have always admired DM's like yourself who can create things with just a few notes. I am on the other end of that spectrum. That being said, as long as everyone is having fun, I think that it is fine. Great Stuff still going through your videos.
I once used a nearly identical setup to the trap at 9:00 during my first campaign as a DM. My players had been tracking down a bard for vital information he had regarding the main plot. This led them to a bathhouse, where the bard had been captured by the local slave traders and tortured. The pcs use their guile to gain access to the backrooms and find the bard dangling above a pool of water inside a cage. Once combat begins, the cage was dropped and they had only 4 rounds to save him, while fighting a tough min-boss and his goons, or else lose the info forever. It was definitely one of the more memorable sessions of that campaign.
One of my favorite traps is the first one I ever ran into in DnD, a simple needle that deals only 1 damage but removes the use of one hand for a couple hours. Changes how you have to play your character for a bit.
Solid, straightforward, refreshing I don't agree with every aspect of PDM's opinions on things, but the ideas are always solid, straightforward and refreshing. Even if I don't agree, it sparks some creative thinking on what my take of his take is. Great channel.
For players who enjoy puzzles playing low-int characters, I have an approach I've tried recently and been happy with: I tell the player they can work on the problem with the other players, but any discoveries or ideas actually come from the high-int characters regardless of which player thought of it
I run the "princess dilemna" (yes, i'm spelling it that way on purpose, sue me lol) all the time and it's my favourite kind of "trap" - even though i've never seen it as a trap per se. They come across a fire giant. He wants them to kill the nearby dragon, claiming it constantly raids him and steals any/all valuables faster than he can craft them - do so and he will craft for the party any magical weapons/armour they like.... Enter the dragon. When they interrogate it they find that the fire giant is the true villain (in it's eyes) as he killed the dragon's mate and all the hatchlings, using their scales/hides for his crafting. "The giant will betray and enslave you once i am destroyed. Help me kill the fire giant and you can call on me for aid in your direst of needs" Which do they help? Who is the good guy and who is the bad guy? Do they take the (alleged) guaranteed immediate boon, or opt for the (potential) greater later boon? I like the murky shades of grey. Which is the correct path? Just like in real life, sometimes the true and virtuous path isn't always obvious. We don't live in a "black & white" world; it's all shades of grey - and a lot more than 50 of them as well lol. So why wouldn't a thriving fantasy world have similar issues?
Combining Runehammer's trap theory with his 'Spawner' theory makes some really fun encounters. I set up one encounter where the party had to figure out a puzzle to open one door (the exit) and close another (a high ceiling opening). Every turn they didn't figure it out, another gargoyle entered the room containing the PCs.
A fun mechanic for timers that i really like is that you roll a bunch of d6 and if they come up as 1 you remove them from the pool. When the pool is empty the time is up. Now you are free to add mechanics that add dice to the pool or removes dice from the pool. You could of course expand the range of number to include 1-2 etc.
By the way, the RuneHammer channel is the best channel on RPGs on RUclips, with a margin. No offence to Dungeon Craft, it is a strong contestant to the same title. But RuneHammer is the only channel I have found that actually tells me things that are qualitatively different from anything else I have heard even after thirty years of RPGs.
Another award-worthy essay, PDM! Concerning Traps: I don't do them often. Mostly because I find them tedious. However, when I do a trap this is how I do it: Trap Premise: There is some objective (or "Bait"). There is one and only one solution. However, I prepare an additional 3 - 4 solutions that *seem* like they would work, i.,e. that is to say, on the surface they seem to be reasonable solutions, but in reality they are not. Trap Mechanic: 1. Heroes identify that a trap is present / objective needs to be met. 2. All players involved roll Intelligence checks (if 5E, or whatever your game system equivalent for this mechanic should happen to be). DC is ALWAYS 25. 3. Based on how close to 25 they are, players get 2, 3, 4, or 5 possible solutions to choose from. Explained: - a Nat 20 gets the solution and only the solution. (I'm a fan of Nat 20s and what they stand or, what can I say?) - The person who rolled the highest gets the correct answer plus one other solution. - The person who rolled the lowest never gets the correct answer. - Divvy out the solutions according to the roll. 4. Let the players determine which is the correct solution.
Fun topic, well done! I'm an old-schooler at heart, so I always find a way to include puzzles and traps in my games. By the way... I may know a resource where folks can find dozens of fun, engaging and memorable puzzle encounters right here on the RUclipss. :-)
@Dungeon Craft I am a fellow RUclipsr that specializes in Puzzle and Trap videos, plus I wrote a puzzle book on DriveThruRPG... tons of puzzle ideas for ya to steal for game nights. :)
I designed a room in an underground druid grove to have the doors lock and fill with water if the party walked into the center of the room. The mechanic I kept thinking about was how would the trap reset, which was one of the solutions the party could use to escape. The entire floor was a pressure plate which after a certain amount of weight (the water) would cause the trap to reset. I had the party member that explored the corners to notice a water line or discoloration that would increase in depth as the floor sank down inches after inch. I had 4 large statues in each corner of the room that could be knocked over with a 20 Athletics check which would increase the weight and cause the trap to reset early. I was prepared to kill them all, but the druid could have shape-changed into a rodent and sit on top of the grate covering the entire ceiling and watch his party drown. I also had the foliage to outside the grove to include thick hollow reeds which also could have been used as well. It was a risk, as I didn't want to kill the entire party, but could have. I think the hardest part is accurately describing what the party sees clearly (so the don't get confused) but also not too much to give away a solution. I try to have multiple solutions so the party doesn't feel railroaded. I guess that would be a puzzle trap with a little dash of grinder?
A more memorable trap theory mnemonic courtesy of Christina Cooper: Temptation = the bait or desired outcome Restriction = confinement in space and/or in time, or even social convention Action = the trigger and the mechanisms Peril = the danger, whether in physical damage, or social consequences, etc
I would add: Purpose, why the trap is there. Hurt, capture, kill, to stop, delay. Based on that, the design of it and everything else presented in the video. Great material.
One (imperfect) 'solution' to the player/character problem with 'solve these puzzle' type of traps is to only take suggestions from players in strict order of their characters' intelligence scores - highest makes the first suggestion. This will require a bit of strictness on the part of the DM! If, as may sometimes happen, the least intelligent character (and maybe player!) ends up offering (from real-world, un-role ability) the best or correct suggestion last...well, come on, it does happen. We've all had that needed but humbling experience - an important life-lesson - of under-estimating someone in a group who then surprises us and dents our pride and cockiness, revealing something important about our judgements of 'intelligence' and our own cleverness. It happened all the time in school - and has continued to happen often enough to reveal that I, for one, don't have a good handle on what someone's 'intelligence' even is. The 'slow-witted' character has, after all, also had more time to spend mulling thIngs over while the 'bright' characters are sometimes going to be speedily offering hasty and totally wrong suggestions - and the 'less intelligent' character has also heard their other suggestions. So, suggested solutions must be offered in order of character INT scores. Sorry this is a bit wordy. Does it make sense?
Nice to meet you, Professor. I'm from chile, I just discovered your channel less than a week ago, and I wanted to tell you that you have become a true teacher to me. All his videos are amazing and reinforce ideas that I thought were wrong, like setting my own values in hit points and throws. Anyway, I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your channel, I'm trying to catch up on all the videos posted. You are a cool and great example for me as a DM and as a Professor. Greetings from Chile!
Thanks for watching. Funny thing is this video really underperformed when it was released. The prior video hit 100k and this one got only 12k in the first month. The algorithm is strange indeed.
im calling it right now... this channel has THE BEST content for table top rpg ever . Great video Thank you, this is making me so happy to watch, think, and learn. and yes i would like to patron if i could, i will try to figure it out (it kinda hard on my country to make payments on other currencies, even by paypal, etc...)
Ok my favorite trap I designed was a door, it could only be opened by the players tapping a long series of colored glass set in the wall near the door. A magic mouth spell continuously repeats the phrase you are surrounded by deadly enemies who will kill you. Players always assume this was a warning left by a previous party as evidenced by old humanoid remains. To get the sequence for the door one player had to volunteer to peer through a small hole and watch flashing colors calling out each color as it flashes. The trap is the flashing lights were a hypnotic pattern that would effectively put the player into a suggestive state. I also made them roll at disadvantage on the intelligence save to avoid being hypnotized, because after all they were voluntarily staring right at it. In this state and listening to the magic mouth the character is hypnotized into believing their party is going to kill them. Nothing is sweeter to me then making the players kill each other, because they design those characters to be as lethal as possible. I flat warn the hypnotized player failure on there part to act accordingly to their state results in me taking their sheet and using every potion, one off magic item, and spells/smites/Kai etc. they have to kill their enemies, but if they succeed in killing them double XP!
I like to use a lot of common sense traps. Rather than being spread out randomly in my dungeons, I would put them at key places of interest. Like outside a master bedroom, near expensive pieces of art, outside (or even inside) the treasure room. I had a new player once who insisted on carrying a 10 foot pole. At every turn, I asked him how he was getting it through the corridor. He also insulted the rogue all along the way, saying because of the pole, the party didn't really need him. Also, all along the way the party kept running into random packs of rats. They get to the treasure room and the guy pokes all along the door, especially the lock, and the floor. No traps. They get the door open, the guy using a mace on the lock. Once the door was open the guy walks in. I tell him he feels a stone shift under his feet, the trap door opens an he falls 20 feet into a spiked pit and dies. The player was furious with me. I explain: if traps could be set off simply by tapping them, any rat running across the floor would trigger them. All of my traps require 20 pounds to trigger them.
The 3 areas of the trapezius muscle, or traps, are the upper, middle, and lower. The upper traps- Oh, right. Grinder, puzzle, and situation. The Situation being on Grindr would be quite the puzzle for his wife- But seriously, great video.
I love your videos Professor DM. I get a lot of inspiration for devious things to throw at my players. We don't even play D&D or Pathfinder. We play Starfinder and 99% of your suggestions/advice can still be applied even in space. lol Keep up the amazing work.
There are two basic ways to set off a trap, the most common being one initiated by the victim. The less common way is a remote trigger. Tapping every tile on the floor won't matter if it's triggered by a kobold hiding in a secret room.
I really like the situational traps. They can work well for players and even dms who aren't fans of traps as they can be structured to be simply dillemmas and challenges rather than traps. Replace the collapsing tower with a slow acting poison as a timer etc. Same effect in a different guise.
I just ran my players (3) through a short campaign that included an escape room. The three were brought in from other cities, put up in the tavern, and called for the following night were they were drugged and kidnapped by the thieves guild they agreed to join. Hooded and put into the back of a wagon and taken to an unknown warehouse to where they meet the guild leader and feed to neutralize the drug they were given in their meals while at the tavern. After they eat and feeling better, a pledge/oath had been given and they were then lead through a secret door and down a long maze of hallways until they ended at a room. The two guards opened the door and motioned for them to enter. Once they did they were told they had 1 hour and not a minute more to escape. From there I pulled out an escape board game that I bought off Amazon. The setting was a medieval setting so it worked perfect.
For those who really enjoy solving puzzles make a puzzle that isn't a puzzle. The anti-puzzle if you will. I did this once... The characters came across a floor with a bunch of tile triggers. Each tile had a different symbol and color. The symbols and colors each created a "path" across the floor. Each "path" looks like a potentially safe way to get across, but really each tile is just a different type of trap. The way to get around it is to fly or jump over the tiles. My players spent about 20 minutes trying to solve it, even after figuring out they could just fly over the tiles! I recommend only doing this once, and only after you have given your players real puzzles. Otherwise the players may think that every puzzle is an anti-puzzle.
Really good content. I like your style and I love your approach to the game. I don't always agree with all of you ideas and all of the rules that you use at your table, but I do always agree with your gaming philosophy and implementation.
If I were playing a character w/ low soft stats, I would roleplay them down on my own accord: ... either A-leting the other PCs do the brain work. Then I help with the physical work. or B - ignore the fact it's suposed to be a puzzle, and try to brute-force it. or C-Use tool and skill profficencys and skills if applicable. (depending on my character's personallity.) ... Though I understand that not all players can be trusted to do that.
For puzzles I think players enjoy them more, if they're not road blocks. If there are other things to do, while they puzzle over them, or if they're not required but they do provide benefits, of better endings, if they are solved, then they should work.
So, last week, I played one of the best traps I've ever placed in a dungeon. My philosophy with traps are that player decisions should be the trigger, curiosity should be the bait. The players are in an ancient dwarven mithril mine now owned by a dragon served by a goblin cult. The players have met the dragon, been tasked with finding a lost "egg" that the dragon can sense is still in the mountain but just now where in the mountain. The players successfully lure a rust monster out of a large cavern and then feed it the weapons of the fallen goblin and hobgoblin guards they've already killed in sessions past. This allows them to escape having to deal with the rust monster for now, and they return to the large cavern. In the middle of the cavern are 3 massive "statues" that appear roughly dwarf shaped, holding huge pickaxes in each hand. In the center of the chest for each one is 3 slots perfectly shaped to accept large bars of mithril, exactly like the 7 large bars they'd found in a hidden room the session prior to this one. (This is the bait, the curiosity of "what are these statues and what happens if we put the bars of mithril in them" is meant to lure them into making the choice to sacrifice relatively valuable metal bars to satisfy that curiosity) They otherwise explore the cavern, find that there is are 3 exits. One is the path they took to enter, one leads in the same direction and connects to the same tunnel they took to enter, and the final one is an unknown. They decide to place the 3 bars into one of the statues, and little doors close over the bars of mithril. The statue comes to life, illuminating the entire cavern with light as it sprays itself with a fine mist that removes the rust from its metal body. It then proceeds to move towards one of the cavern walls and begins to mine into a vein in the rock. I described that the hammering sound of the pickaxes reverberates through the stone of the walls, floors, and ceiling. The players didn't initially realize they were on a timer, but I rolled 1d4 rounds and came up with 4. I use an egg timer that's set for exactly 1 minute per turn, so I began the clock without a word. They deliberate what to do with the machine, attempt to find a way to control it, nothing is working. Minute 1 is over, and I describe that rivulets of dirt, dust, and tiny gravel are starting to rain down on them from above. They continue to deliberate, suggest actions, take actions, nothing is working to help they deal with the mining machine. Minute 2 is over, I describe that the rivulets are coupled with the sounds of cracking, snapping like heavy timber beams, and the rivulets are now pouring. Finally they decide to run for it as the danger becomes more clear, and they start to head into the unknown exit. This is the trigger for the trap. There's a classic meme of a DM saying, "Oh yeah, rocks fall everybody dies." Well, this is that trope but reimagined. The unknown exit leads to a very long, very empty mine drift. They cautiously explored and moved down, making sure to check for traps and secret passageways all along the length. They were telling jokes, role playing within the party, and had a good amount of fun until they reached the end of the drift... and heard the ear splitting crack and thunderous boom, signaling the cave in. The hammering of the mining machine stopped and after a moment the entire complex went eerily silent. We stopped the session there, with the party only slowly realizing they'd trapped themselves alive because their curiosity got the better of them. This week's session, they were very clever and described actions to take to literally claw their way to freedom. They had to contend with the machine's arms acting as a swinging danger trap (like the classic swinging axes in a hallway) and one of the party had an arm torn off on a failed saving throw. Ultimately they got past it, were forced to deal with the rust monster they'd left waiting in the path of the only way out. Then dealt with a gelatinous cube that would split apart if you used edged weapons to attack it, making more enemies to deal with over time. (The HP of the monster remained the same, the damage they dealt with a sword would be how much HP the new section of the cube had after splitting off from the main body, and the main body lost that much from its total. It basically just meant their edged attacks slowly turned 1 enemy into an army and their actions turned the action economy against them. They still won in the end, but it was a fun fight for them to deal with.) Can't wait for next Sunday's game, I've got a lot more stuff lined up in this dungeon for them.
Some monsters or opponents are also very 'traplike', e.g. Assassins, mimics, basilisks, ropers, rust monsters, etc. I think it's easier to run them more as classical traps than to use them as a standard encounter.
I was never a fan of the slow and go, prod every flagstone feel of dungeon crawling. Thanks for the content, always a nice break in my week. Stick to your day job Deathbringer. Cookie for the metric.
One of my players is stuck in a time loop, every time he dies he restarts when he meets the rest of the party for the first time. In their first long rest after the meeting a Homebrew devil with 12 spine devils and countless shadows comes to kill the Tiefling warlock who betrayed his patron. It's an impossible battle for a party of level 4 characters but it will be interesting to see how they make it out of the death loop.
There is another type of trap to pull on your players every so often, namely the reverse trap. The odd trapdoor they spot, leading them to a lever...well, yes, the lever controls it, but disarming it means that the door opens and they may just need another way around. Technically, you can also be mean by reworking traps to be beneficial...being perceptive enough to know that there's something that would happen if you do something is common enough, but not smart enough to realize that the inhabitants had a cure spell built into it rather than something actually dangerous. Things like the old cure spells doing damage to undead being a fun way to both justify having healing "traps" in the dungeon and make them actually useful (A Cure Wounds spell set off to hit anything going through a doorway, well, that leads to some crypts that have an undead infestation that they couldn't handle directly, but the positive energy patches up their people who need to deal with things down there, and helps prevent things from coming out...unfortunately 5e removed the entire thing of Cure/Inflict that made that work, though I've considered bringing it back)
I think there is a flaw in the way it's presented, slightly. First, it's assuming a trap/puzzle MUST be completed or solved. I think there is a fun middle ground that wasn't explored around placing bonus items, side-plots or motivations behind a puzzle. In a dungeon, for example, where a perception check might reveal a hidden door/passage it instead could be put behind an optional puzzle. Clues to solving the puzzle could be placed in other rooms. That way the players that want to solve a puzzle could work on that puzzle, WHILE continuing the adventure. The players that don't care can simply ignore it and miss the scrolls, potions, items, side-quest or treasure behind that puzzle. This makes it a self selecting process. Perhaps you can even give them the same puzzle in later sessions with a different set of inputs. They know how to solve it but don't know the physical gestures to solve it or the word to use or something like that. You encourage the self selected players to explore all parts of your dungeon. It could also show a connection within the world can too can be a mystery. It's the story by showing, not telling model. Remember, all of these things are tools in our toolbox.
Because an intelligence check gets rid of the fun of solving it lol I love puzzles and exploration, not all dungeons need enemies if the puzzles are fun enough to solve. I always think of Legend of Zelda and the types of dungeons they create and how those dungeons have had such a lasting appeal on me. You need to make the puzzles visual, not everyone can see what you describe, but having a visual representation of everything they see around them will get them investigating everything in my opinion. I think that's the trick
I personally prefer Tomb of horrors style traps, not a trick to avoid, just a unique danger either unknown to or not understood by the players. If you aren't careful it'll sap health quickly, but you might just be able to skill check and think your way out of it.
Matt Mayfield has a website: www.cloudkingdom.com/Authors/MDM.aspx (standalone comment to be helpful, rather than just at bottom of my rant about not having link in description)
P1 ... Wow, look at this! Trap, trap, trap, trap, traps everywhere. P2 ... Is that an old school D&D book or map? P1 ... No, Thailand vacation picture album.
Fun video- role play a trap or roll play the trap- traps are more than poison needles in a chest - as prof DM points out- the adventure is a trap itself 🤣
Thanks. The models take a long time to photograph, so I appreciate the compliment. I did get a haircut, yes. But if the length changes, that's because DungeonCraft is shot out of sequence. No witchery involved.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Did you make the mini display behind you? I would love to have something like that for my minis! Also Deathbringer is a brilliant idea, especially for asking people to like and subscribe! Keep up the good work!
With puzzles. If the player solves it that will get an inspiration. If they by pass with intelligence roll no inspiration. My players sometimes like to solve them other times the just roll intelligence.
I vote for Deathbringer always telling a joke at the end
I'll try my best.
Seconded.
If you had the time, which I know you dont, I would love to see the Chronicles of Deathbringer with all the minis. I do miss the Campaign Updates. I know why you stopped but they're little masterpieces.
YES! PLEASE!
Or at least threatening something.
The thieves tools proficiency is for disarming traps, in addition to picking locks.
Mmmm. Should have noted that. Thanks for watching carefully. If I could afford an editor, you'd get the job!
I think the whole skill (ability) system is misunderstood by a lot of people, especially those who played 3e. We often think about skill checks - where a skill has a particular ability associated with it but you’re rolling the skill. But really they’re all ability checks, and the skills/tools you’re proficient with affect what modifiers you add to that ability check. I think applying skill/tool proficiencies to ability checks other than their respective defaults should be more common than it is, and that’s not really explained well in the 5e rules
"Kinda like Twitter." My wife just came in and asked why I was laughing so hard lol.
Really enjoyed this one, Professor! This is the combo of old school D&D mentality with 5e simplicity that made me a fan of your ideas 👍🏻
5e simplicity is an oxymoron.
I had a trap once that was the ceiling would fall down and stop at a certain height. It was done that was so even when triggered it wouldn't hinder the kobolds that lived there, but would hit and hinder the taller races, by making them crawl around instead of walking. gnomes wouldn't be to worried but still.
That's a good one!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 When i used it only one player was short enough not to be attacked and hindered. And the kobolds they fought were completely unhindered. I think it was one of my best uses. they never found the button to turn it off.
The 2e boxed set Dragon Mountain had a deadly kobold trap that was basically an upside down bear trap that would fall from the ceiling to a height of four feet. If it hit a character's head before then, the jaws closed around their neck. Anyone shorter than 4 feet was fine.
Yoink! Totally going to use this whene my party has to fight Dark Elves! (It's a long story and involves obscure theories about Norse cosmology, the short of it is Dark Elves=Dwarves)
@@patrickbuckley7259 let me know how it goes.
The fourth type of trap: Existential trap.
You're just a character in someone else's (bad) roleplay session.
Somebody help, he's keeping me socially hostage!
Oh I've tried to make existential traps a real thing in D&D. Stuff like disassociative illusions where like they "can hear their own thoughts" or they see things from a 5th dimensional perspective and every possible action they and those around them might take simultaneously and are stunned by the sheer volume of stimulus
Or existential in the sense of a statue of justice points at them saying they have to choose who dies among the other players, and depending on how they react what really happens, happens.
I went a whole campaign with literally nothing but traps for them to try avoiding leaving these elaborate maps I made with escape rooms while doing my Jigsaw impression and sense they kept demanding music, I played Magical Trevor.
@hughmunguss4019 All existential traps stem from questioning the deeper meaning of one's existence. At their core, they are not merely the question of "Who am I" but "What am I to this existence" which is usually followed by existential dread and psychosis. For example, becoming aware that the life is a hoax and that you live in a fancy slaughter house which made sure its livestock enjoyed a free life full of positive feelings, is one of the classic existential horrors in literature, although existentialism deals with much more profound psychological loopholes rather than this one primitive example. But the point is that the premise usually invalidates any intelligent course of action, as the crisis is simply inescapable, so you can only embrace nihilism.
Setting traps is always a fun way to force the group to break routine, that’s why I like them in the games I play
Are you the puzzle genius?
Observed at Gameholecon during a DCC game:
Roll a d6. That's how many fingers you have left. Choose which ones!
Traps that dismember or polymorph your player characters are under used.
That's great!
They shoukd have used an eleven-foot pole.
Rolls a 6... gains a digit!
I feel that the most important part of trap design ought to be, 'what can the residents install or maintain?' In a megadungeon, that could even lead to slow mastery over the map: If the PCs kill or drive off a group that was maintaining traps for several other groups, suddenly those traps stop working as well, and once triggered there's a chance (depending on the trap's logic) that it won't be reset.
That said, I have yet to see a DM resource that approaches traps from the watsonian angle, so designers don't share that concern of mine.
Great post. A lot to think about here.
My favorite trap room is a simpler button in the middle of the room when pressed starts a 20 second timer. Every 5 seconds the timer clock becomes more decrepit. The room starts to ooze blood from the wall (other scary stuff for a butch of characters in a dungeon). If they press the button again (which they will because that’s the only other thing to do in the room) it’s restarts the time and the room magically back to normal this starting the now 20 second timer again. How the room is beaten is by just letting the timer run out. But I’ve had parties repeatedly press the button none stop for upwards of 3 hours. I just keep stringing them along by adding more details. It’s a blast. Sadly only once
Definitely a classic. Now, after I ran this puzzle, I followed it up with a similar puzzle where it DID matter when and how they pressed the button... the regret and reality kicked in after lightning coursed through their veins for letting the timer run out, lol.
I may steal this!
Thank you for this. Lol. I may use this.
I love the “muppet show” style monster rack you have in the back here.
On the topic of ten foot poles, I always have any adventurer NPC's carry D10 foot poles. Because if you are going to use it on every dangerous thing it's gonna get short quick
The most important thing to me as a DM is to make sure that the trick, trap, puzzle, hazard and/or encounter makes sense to be there in the first place. I also make pains that such a trap would logically work and fit into the space it is in. I have found that by just having this information available, it shows players when and if they question it why it is there and how it works. An old resource I used in the past is Grim tooth's Traps by Flying Buffalo, [showing my age]. These showed how and where to place such things. I have always admired DM's like yourself who can create things with just a few notes. I am on the other end of that spectrum. That being said, as long as everyone is having fun, I think that it is fine. Great Stuff still going through your videos.
I once used a nearly identical setup to the trap at 9:00 during my first campaign as a DM. My players had been tracking down a bard for vital information he had regarding the main plot. This led them to a bathhouse, where the bard had been captured by the local slave traders and tortured. The pcs use their guile to gain access to the backrooms and find the bard dangling above a pool of water inside a cage. Once combat begins, the cage was dropped and they had only 4 rounds to save him, while fighting a tough min-boss and his goons, or else lose the info forever.
It was definitely one of the more memorable sessions of that campaign.
"single wrong move means instant death...kinda like twitter" lol it's funny because it's true
Just saw this. LOVE your channel!
One of my favorite traps is the first one I ever ran into in DnD, a simple needle that deals only 1 damage but removes the use of one hand for a couple hours. Changes how you have to play your character for a bit.
I'm stealing that one
Solid, straightforward, refreshing
I don't agree with every aspect of PDM's opinions on things, but the ideas are always solid, straightforward and refreshing.
Even if I don't agree, it sparks some creative thinking on what my take of his take is.
Great channel.
Thank you. Even I don't agree with me all the time!
Best part of the week here we come!
Agree!
For players who enjoy puzzles playing low-int characters, I have an approach I've tried recently and been happy with: I tell the player they can work on the problem with the other players, but any discoveries or ideas actually come from the high-int characters regardless of which player thought of it
I run the "princess dilemna" (yes, i'm spelling it that way on purpose, sue me lol) all the time and it's my favourite kind of "trap" - even though i've never seen it as a trap per se.
They come across a fire giant. He wants them to kill the nearby dragon, claiming it constantly raids him and steals any/all valuables faster than he can craft them - do so and he will craft for the party any magical weapons/armour they like....
Enter the dragon. When they interrogate it they find that the fire giant is the true villain (in it's eyes) as he killed the dragon's mate and all the hatchlings, using their scales/hides for his crafting. "The giant will betray and enslave you once i am destroyed. Help me kill the fire giant and you can call on me for aid in your direst of needs"
Which do they help? Who is the good guy and who is the bad guy? Do they take the (alleged) guaranteed immediate boon, or opt for the (potential) greater later boon?
I like the murky shades of grey. Which is the correct path? Just like in real life, sometimes the true and virtuous path isn't always obvious. We don't live in a "black & white" world; it's all shades of grey - and a lot more than 50 of them as well lol.
So why wouldn't a thriving fantasy world have similar issues?
Combining Runehammer's trap theory with his 'Spawner' theory makes some really fun encounters. I set up one encounter where the party had to figure out a puzzle to open one door (the exit) and close another (a high ceiling opening). Every turn they didn't figure it out, another gargoyle entered the room containing the PCs.
A fun mechanic for timers that i really like is that you roll a bunch of d6 and if they come up as 1 you remove them from the pool. When the pool is empty the time is up. Now you are free to add mechanics that add dice to the pool or removes dice from the pool. You could of course expand the range of number to include 1-2 etc.
Excellent video that ill be saving to review again and again in the future.
Also don't forget to comment as commenting feeds the RUclips Algorithm.
Thanks. I'm hoping this one has a long, steady shelf life.
By the way, the RuneHammer channel is the best channel on RPGs on RUclips, with a margin. No offence to Dungeon Craft, it is a strong contestant to the same title. But RuneHammer is the only channel I have found that actually tells me things that are qualitatively different from anything else I have heard even after thirty years of RPGs.
Another award-worthy essay, PDM!
Concerning Traps: I don't do them often. Mostly because I find them tedious. However, when I do a trap this is how I do it:
Trap Premise: There is some objective (or "Bait"). There is one and only one solution. However, I prepare an additional 3 - 4 solutions that *seem* like they would work, i.,e. that is to say, on the surface they seem to be reasonable solutions, but in reality they are not.
Trap Mechanic:
1. Heroes identify that a trap is present / objective needs to be met.
2. All players involved roll Intelligence checks (if 5E, or whatever your game system equivalent for this mechanic should happen to be). DC is ALWAYS 25.
3. Based on how close to 25 they are, players get 2, 3, 4, or 5 possible solutions to choose from.
Explained: - a Nat 20 gets the solution and only the solution. (I'm a fan of Nat 20s and what they stand or, what can I say?)
- The person who rolled the highest gets the correct answer plus one other solution.
- The person who rolled the lowest never gets the correct answer.
- Divvy out the solutions according to the roll.
4. Let the players determine which is the correct solution.
Thank you for taking the time to make a detailed reply. I really appreciate it. It's pretty cool!
Fun topic, well done! I'm an old-schooler at heart, so I always find a way to include puzzles and traps in my games. By the way... I may know a resource where folks can find dozens of fun, engaging and memorable puzzle encounters right here on the RUclipss. :-)
Where?
@Dungeon Craft I am a fellow RUclipsr that specializes in Puzzle and Trap videos, plus I wrote a puzzle book on DriveThruRPG... tons of puzzle ideas for ya to steal for game nights. :)
I designed a room in an underground druid grove to have the doors lock and fill with water if the party walked into the center of the room. The mechanic I kept thinking about was how would the trap reset, which was one of the solutions the party could use to escape. The entire floor was a pressure plate which after a certain amount of weight (the water) would cause the trap to reset. I had the party member that explored the corners to notice a water line or discoloration that would increase in depth as the floor sank down inches after inch. I had 4 large statues in each corner of the room that could be knocked over with a 20 Athletics check which would increase the weight and cause the trap to reset early.
I was prepared to kill them all, but the druid could have shape-changed into a rodent and sit on top of the grate covering the entire ceiling and watch his party drown. I also had the foliage to outside the grove to include thick hollow reeds which also could have been used as well. It was a risk, as I didn't want to kill the entire party, but could have. I think the hardest part is accurately describing what the party sees clearly (so the don't get confused) but also not too much to give away a solution. I try to have multiple solutions so the party doesn't feel railroaded.
I guess that would be a puzzle trap with a little dash of grinder?
Great vid Professor! Love Deathbringer’s sense of humor.
Great subject, I love the idea of the "Seven trap" gotta/gonna work that one into my upcomming campaign. Thank you so much for the inspiration :)
Thank YOU for watching and taking time out of your day to comment!
Thank you Professor Dungeon Master !
Thank YOU for watching!
A more memorable trap theory mnemonic courtesy of Christina Cooper:
Temptation = the bait or desired outcome
Restriction = confinement in space and/or in time, or even social convention
Action = the trigger and the mechanisms
Peril = the danger, whether in physical damage, or social consequences, etc
Very good advice, and any crazy ideas from Hankerin are always good!
Yep!
The Grimtooth series of trap books are loaded with really imaginative traps. They even made a dungeon that is 100% trapped
Own those, several, and use them... just infrequently enough for suspense. puzzles, code breaking and riddles, too.
I would add: Purpose, why the trap is there. Hurt, capture, kill, to stop, delay. Based on that, the design of it and everything else presented in the video.
Great material.
One (imperfect) 'solution' to the player/character problem with 'solve these puzzle' type of traps is to only take suggestions from players in strict order of their characters' intelligence scores - highest makes the first suggestion. This will require a bit of strictness on the part of the DM! If, as may sometimes happen, the least intelligent character (and maybe player!) ends up offering (from real-world, un-role ability) the best or correct suggestion last...well, come on, it does happen. We've all had that needed but humbling experience - an important life-lesson - of under-estimating someone in a group who then surprises us and dents our pride and cockiness, revealing something important about our judgements of 'intelligence' and our own cleverness. It happened all the time in school - and has continued to happen often enough to reveal that I, for one, don't have a good handle on what someone's 'intelligence' even is. The 'slow-witted' character has, after all, also had more time to spend mulling thIngs over while the 'bright' characters are sometimes going to be speedily offering hasty and totally wrong suggestions - and the 'less intelligent' character has also heard their other suggestions. So, suggested solutions must be offered in order of character INT scores. Sorry this is a bit wordy. Does it make sense?
I will absolutely pick up Matt Mayfield books! Thanks for that great recommendation.
Nice to meet you, Professor.
I'm from chile,
I just discovered your channel less than a week ago, and I wanted to tell you that you have become a true teacher to me.
All his videos are amazing and reinforce ideas that I thought were wrong, like setting my own values in hit points and throws. Anyway, I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your channel, I'm trying to catch up on all the videos posted.
You are a cool and great example for me as a DM and as a Professor.
Greetings from Chile!
Thank you for taking the time to tell me how much you enjoyed this episode. Glad to have fans in Chile!
Read it again please 😅 I say nothing about the episode
This subject needs a revisit. With more products that have examples and how to make.
Thanks for watching. Funny thing is this video really underperformed when it was released. The prior video hit 100k and this one got only 12k in the first month. The algorithm is strange indeed.
im calling it right now... this channel has THE BEST content for table top rpg ever . Great video Thank you, this is making me so happy to watch, think, and learn.
and yes i would like to patron if i could, i will try to figure it out (it kinda hard on my country to make payments on other currencies, even by paypal, etc...)
Absolute positive remark! Genuine interest in content!
Thank you. I appreciate it.
A trap, extended slowly, over time, is called story...
Great video. What I do with riddle traps is to allow intelligence checks for clues to the solution.
I suck at traps btw. So this was helpful.
Thanks for watching. Those books are worth the money!
Ok my favorite trap I designed was a door, it could only be opened by the players tapping a long series of colored glass set in the wall near the door. A magic mouth spell continuously repeats the phrase you are surrounded by deadly enemies who will kill you. Players always assume this was a warning left by a previous party as evidenced by old humanoid remains. To get the sequence for the door one player had to volunteer to peer through a small hole and watch flashing colors calling out each color as it flashes. The trap is the flashing lights were a hypnotic pattern that would effectively put the player into a suggestive state. I also made them roll at disadvantage on the intelligence save to avoid being hypnotized, because after all they were voluntarily staring right at it. In this state and listening to the magic mouth the character is hypnotized into believing their party is going to kill them. Nothing is sweeter to me then making the players kill each other, because they design those characters to be as lethal as possible. I flat warn the hypnotized player failure on there part to act accordingly to their state results in me taking their sheet and using every potion, one off magic item, and spells/smites/Kai etc. they have to kill their enemies, but if they succeed in killing them double XP!
I like to use a lot of common sense traps. Rather than being spread out randomly in my dungeons, I would put them at key places of interest. Like outside a master bedroom, near expensive pieces of art, outside (or even inside) the treasure room.
I had a new player once who insisted on carrying a 10 foot pole. At every turn, I asked him how he was getting it through the corridor. He also insulted the rogue all along the way, saying because of the pole, the party didn't really need him. Also, all along the way the party kept running into random packs of rats. They get to the treasure room and the guy pokes all along the door, especially the lock, and the floor. No traps. They get the door open, the guy using a mace on the lock. Once the door was open the guy walks in. I tell him he feels a stone shift under his feet, the trap door opens an he falls 20 feet into a spiked pit and dies. The player was furious with me. I explain: if traps could be set off simply by tapping them, any rat running across the floor would trigger them. All of my traps require 20 pounds to trigger them.
My week is empty until I see this. Thanks again PDM
Here in Brazil, a publisher launched an illustrated Trap Guide. It's fantastic!
The 3 areas of the trapezius muscle, or traps, are the upper, middle, and lower. The upper traps-
Oh, right. Grinder, puzzle, and situation. The Situation being on Grindr would be quite the puzzle for his wife-
But seriously, great video.
Thank you!
Here's my comment, you rock Professor Dungeon Master! Great ideas as always!
Thanks!
I am pretty sure this is my pediatrician when I was a younger ! This dude is legit smart like smarter than most of us on here lol !
I love your videos Professor DM. I get a lot of inspiration for devious things to throw at my players. We don't even play D&D or Pathfinder. We play Starfinder and 99% of your suggestions/advice can still be applied even in space. lol Keep up the amazing work.
There are two basic ways to set off a trap, the most common being one initiated by the victim. The less common way is a remote trigger. Tapping every tile on the floor won't matter if it's triggered by a kobold hiding in a secret room.
I really like the situational traps. They can work well for players and even dms who aren't fans of traps as they can be structured to be simply dillemmas and challenges rather than traps. Replace the collapsing tower with a slow acting poison as a timer etc. Same effect in a different guise.
Great video! And I loved the joke at the end lol
I just ran my players (3) through a short campaign that included an escape room. The three were brought in from other cities, put up in the tavern, and called for the following night were they were drugged and kidnapped by the thieves guild they agreed to join. Hooded and put into the back of a wagon and taken to an unknown warehouse to where they meet the guild leader and feed to neutralize the drug they were given in their meals while at the tavern. After they eat and feeling better, a pledge/oath had been given and they were then lead through a secret door and down a long maze of hallways until they ended at a room. The two guards opened the door and motioned for them to enter. Once they did they were told they had 1 hour and not a minute more to escape.
From there I pulled out an escape board game that I bought off Amazon. The setting was a medieval setting so it worked perfect.
Just the video I hoped you would make next. Great stuff!
Cool! I love it when people can use my stuff.
The man delivers again :D !!!
For those who really enjoy solving puzzles make a puzzle that isn't a puzzle. The anti-puzzle if you will. I did this once... The characters came across a floor with a bunch of tile triggers. Each tile had a different symbol and color. The symbols and colors each created a "path" across the floor. Each "path" looks like a potentially safe way to get across, but really each tile is just a different type of trap. The way to get around it is to fly or jump over the tiles. My players spent about 20 minutes trying to solve it, even after figuring out they could just fly over the tiles! I recommend only doing this once, and only after you have given your players real puzzles. Otherwise the players may think that every puzzle is an anti-puzzle.
That thumbnail design rocks, And I was quite surprised to see it's from this channel, since I dind't even recognize
Awesome take on traps!
Really good content. I like your style and I love your approach to the game. I don't always agree with all of you ideas and all of the rules that you use at your table, but I do always agree with your gaming philosophy and implementation.
Great video Professor, as always! I'm on Cloud Kingdoms riddle of the week sub, an awesome riddle in my inbox every week!
Thanks for another great vid PDM!
Thanks, Brandon!
Love to see that you’re still at this!
It’s a trap!!!
Ah, you beat me to it!
They did Ackbar dirty in ep 7. It should have been him doing the kamikazi maneuver! Alas.
Ackbar going out: Welp. It's a wrap!
@@cypherix93 "I'm getting too old for this crap"
My favorite is the bar maiden with a strong jawline built for the bard who won't stop leading bastards across the country side.
Cool miniatures shelving!
I learned a lot from this video, thank you.
If I were playing a character w/ low soft stats, I would roleplay them down on my own accord:
...
either
A-leting the other PCs do the brain work. Then I help with the physical work.
or
B - ignore the fact it's suposed to be a puzzle, and try to brute-force it.
or
C-Use tool and skill profficencys and skills if applicable.
(depending on my character's personallity.)
...
Though I understand that not all players can be trusted to do that.
For puzzles I think players enjoy them more, if they're not road blocks. If there are other things to do, while they puzzle over them, or if they're not required but they do provide benefits, of better endings, if they are solved, then they should work.
So, last week, I played one of the best traps I've ever placed in a dungeon. My philosophy with traps are that player decisions should be the trigger, curiosity should be the bait. The players are in an ancient dwarven mithril mine now owned by a dragon served by a goblin cult. The players have met the dragon, been tasked with finding a lost "egg" that the dragon can sense is still in the mountain but just now where in the mountain.
The players successfully lure a rust monster out of a large cavern and then feed it the weapons of the fallen goblin and hobgoblin guards they've already killed in sessions past. This allows them to escape having to deal with the rust monster for now, and they return to the large cavern. In the middle of the cavern are 3 massive "statues" that appear roughly dwarf shaped, holding huge pickaxes in each hand. In the center of the chest for each one is 3 slots perfectly shaped to accept large bars of mithril, exactly like the 7 large bars they'd found in a hidden room the session prior to this one. (This is the bait, the curiosity of "what are these statues and what happens if we put the bars of mithril in them" is meant to lure them into making the choice to sacrifice relatively valuable metal bars to satisfy that curiosity)
They otherwise explore the cavern, find that there is are 3 exits. One is the path they took to enter, one leads in the same direction and connects to the same tunnel they took to enter, and the final one is an unknown.
They decide to place the 3 bars into one of the statues, and little doors close over the bars of mithril. The statue comes to life, illuminating the entire cavern with light as it sprays itself with a fine mist that removes the rust from its metal body. It then proceeds to move towards one of the cavern walls and begins to mine into a vein in the rock. I described that the hammering sound of the pickaxes reverberates through the stone of the walls, floors, and ceiling. The players didn't initially realize they were on a timer, but I rolled 1d4 rounds and came up with 4. I use an egg timer that's set for exactly 1 minute per turn, so I began the clock without a word.
They deliberate what to do with the machine, attempt to find a way to control it, nothing is working. Minute 1 is over, and I describe that rivulets of dirt, dust, and tiny gravel are starting to rain down on them from above. They continue to deliberate, suggest actions, take actions, nothing is working to help they deal with the mining machine. Minute 2 is over, I describe that the rivulets are coupled with the sounds of cracking, snapping like heavy timber beams, and the rivulets are now pouring.
Finally they decide to run for it as the danger becomes more clear, and they start to head into the unknown exit. This is the trigger for the trap. There's a classic meme of a DM saying, "Oh yeah, rocks fall everybody dies." Well, this is that trope but reimagined. The unknown exit leads to a very long, very empty mine drift. They cautiously explored and moved down, making sure to check for traps and secret passageways all along the length. They were telling jokes, role playing within the party, and had a good amount of fun until they reached the end of the drift... and heard the ear splitting crack and thunderous boom, signaling the cave in. The hammering of the mining machine stopped and after a moment the entire complex went eerily silent. We stopped the session there, with the party only slowly realizing they'd trapped themselves alive because their curiosity got the better of them.
This week's session, they were very clever and described actions to take to literally claw their way to freedom. They had to contend with the machine's arms acting as a swinging danger trap (like the classic swinging axes in a hallway) and one of the party had an arm torn off on a failed saving throw. Ultimately they got past it, were forced to deal with the rust monster they'd left waiting in the path of the only way out. Then dealt with a gelatinous cube that would split apart if you used edged weapons to attack it, making more enemies to deal with over time. (The HP of the monster remained the same, the damage they dealt with a sword would be how much HP the new section of the cube had after splitting off from the main body, and the main body lost that much from its total. It basically just meant their edged attacks slowly turned 1 enemy into an army and their actions turned the action economy against them. They still won in the end, but it was a fun fight for them to deal with.)
Can't wait for next Sunday's game, I've got a lot more stuff lined up in this dungeon for them.
great as always
Some good ideas.
I like using traps to keep the party on their toes.
You could do an entire video on examples of the seven trap. That would be super helpful!
Some monsters or opponents are also very 'traplike', e.g. Assassins, mimics, basilisks, ropers, rust monsters, etc. I think it's easier to run them more as classical traps than to use them as a standard encounter.
Great vid. PDM. I love that video by RuneHammer too. You guys together would be to much inspiration fory feeble mind!
Man, I would love to get more campaign journal stuff. Especially with deathbringer featured.
I was never a fan of the slow and go, prod every flagstone feel of dungeon crawling. Thanks for the content, always a nice break in my week. Stick to your day job Deathbringer. Cookie for the metric.
Thanks for the cookie!
I mean, I like Deathbringer but I would like to know him better. What are his interests? What does he do for a living?
One of my players is stuck in a time loop, every time he dies he restarts when he meets the rest of the party for the first time. In their first long rest after the meeting a Homebrew devil with 12 spine devils and countless shadows comes to kill the Tiefling warlock who betrayed his patron. It's an impossible battle for a party of level 4 characters but it will be interesting to see how they make it out of the death loop.
There is another type of trap to pull on your players every so often, namely the reverse trap.
The odd trapdoor they spot, leading them to a lever...well, yes, the lever controls it, but disarming it means that the door opens and they may just need another way around.
Technically, you can also be mean by reworking traps to be beneficial...being perceptive enough to know that there's something that would happen if you do something is common enough, but not smart enough to realize that the inhabitants had a cure spell built into it rather than something actually dangerous. Things like the old cure spells doing damage to undead being a fun way to both justify having healing "traps" in the dungeon and make them actually useful (A Cure Wounds spell set off to hit anything going through a doorway, well, that leads to some crypts that have an undead infestation that they couldn't handle directly, but the positive energy patches up their people who need to deal with things down there, and helps prevent things from coming out...unfortunately 5e removed the entire thing of Cure/Inflict that made that work, though I've considered bringing it back)
I think there is a flaw in the way it's presented, slightly. First, it's assuming a trap/puzzle MUST be completed or solved.
I think there is a fun middle ground that wasn't explored around placing bonus items, side-plots or motivations behind a puzzle. In a dungeon, for example, where a perception check might reveal a hidden door/passage it instead could be put behind an optional puzzle. Clues to solving the puzzle could be placed in other rooms. That way the players that want to solve a puzzle could work on that puzzle, WHILE continuing the adventure. The players that don't care can simply ignore it and miss the scrolls, potions, items, side-quest or treasure behind that puzzle.
This makes it a self selecting process. Perhaps you can even give them the same puzzle in later sessions with a different set of inputs. They know how to solve it but don't know the physical gestures to solve it or the word to use or something like that. You encourage the self selected players to explore all parts of your dungeon. It could also show a connection within the world can too can be a mystery. It's the story by showing, not telling model.
Remember, all of these things are tools in our toolbox.
Because an intelligence check gets rid of the fun of solving it lol I love puzzles and exploration, not all dungeons need enemies if the puzzles are fun enough to solve. I always think of Legend of Zelda and the types of dungeons they create and how those dungeons have had such a lasting appeal on me. You need to make the puzzles visual, not everyone can see what you describe, but having a visual representation of everything they see around them will get them investigating everything in my opinion. I think that's the trick
Nice miniature shelves in the background!
Admiral Akbar would be impressed with your analysis.
I personally prefer Tomb of horrors style traps, not a trick to avoid, just a unique danger either unknown to or not understood by the players. If you aren't careful it'll sap health quickly, but you might just be able to skill check and think your way out of it.
D4s make great caltrops!
Absolutely! Legos too!
Matt Mayfield has a website: www.cloudkingdom.com/Authors/MDM.aspx
(standalone comment to be helpful, rather than just at bottom of my rant about not having link in description)
Great video
A well earned thumbs up! :)
great video!
P1 ... Wow, look at this! Trap, trap, trap, trap, traps everywhere.
P2 ... Is that an old school D&D book or map?
P1 ... No, Thailand vacation picture album.
Fun video- role play a trap or roll play the trap- traps are more than poison needles in a chest - as prof DM points out- the adventure is a trap itself 🤣
I'm weak on traps thanks for this video I'm going to get my party
the models in the background really adds to the look. the lighting also seems really good... and did you get a haircut?
as always great work.
Thanks. The models take a long time to photograph, so I appreciate the compliment. I did get a haircut, yes. But if the length changes, that's because DungeonCraft is shot out of sequence. No witchery involved.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 lol awesome
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Did you make the mini display behind you? I would love to have something like that for my minis! Also Deathbringer is a brilliant idea, especially for asking people to like and subscribe! Keep up the good work!
@@BrockCombs Yes. The episode on how I made it will air within 3 weeks.
My favourite kind of trap is Astolfo
I use grimtooths ultimate trap book and its has been fun and I usually speed up time if they pull that 10 ft pole nonsense.
Boxes, barrels, crates, and cans,
What do you fill with empty hands?
With puzzles. If the player solves it that will get an inspiration. If they by pass with intelligence roll no inspiration. My players sometimes like to solve them other times the just roll intelligence.
Earned a like from me just based off the Twitter joke, let alone the good content after it.
Thanks!
I think a rogue/artificer, or multiclass would likely be good at traps.