The Chamber of Infinite Traps

[Gwaednerth]

So I've been having an idea and I wanted to run it by y'all. I shall start with an example:
The heroes enter a medium sized room full of pulleys, cranks, levers, buttons, the whole nine yards. Upon entering, they trigger portcullises which seal them inside. The only way to deal with the portcullises is to turn a crank- which, naturally, shoots darts at the person who turns it. Furthermore, the crank must be held in place or the portcullises fall back down over the doors. In order to secure the crank, the heroes have to spring the floor spikes trap, but to deactivate the spikes...
and on and on and on for as many traps as you like. I feel like this could either be really annoying or absolutely brilliant and I'm not sure which. Any ideas/opinions?

[Kazudo]

I like it, except that that's an awful lot of "Search for traps...disable device...search for traps....disable device..."

I had a hallway of traps I ran into once in one of those brief episodes where someone else was DM for once. Entirely my fault.

We were jokingly saying things like "Well, now we're gonna find a room with a pit-trap." And sure enough we found a hallway with a pittrap. So then, while figuring out how to get across it (10th level group, not a big issue) we decided that flying would be a terrible idea, because there could be a wall of force on the other side that would cause issues. We put a floor using one of the stone shaping spells and walked across and, sure enough, a wall of force. So then we got a disintegrate spell. After that, we predicted and ran into swinging axe traps, blowdarts, another pit trap, and a door locked at the knob with an activating ring of ram. Behind the door? We guessed it, a sign saying "hallway of traps under construction. Return in a few years and forget what you saw."

I like those kinds of things.

[NoACWarrior]

How long are the PCs going to stay in said room and playfully test each trap out? Depending on the group it could be a) really deadly, b) hilariously funny, or c) wierd.

If I was in the group I'd likely find it to be very funny, with each PC in the group getting a turn to see which trap does what. I'd imagine we'd laugh until we fell over on the ground clutching our ribs in pain, especially when PC A accidentally KOs PC D who told PC A that he/she didn't want a turn to pull a trap lever

But some groups take the damage seriously and could fight over it, causing a TKO. Or even other parties would try to salvage each and every trap (I'm looking at the ones who carved out the dungeon door made of adamantine when the rock was unimproved).

If your party is more light hearted and not prone to getting mad over in game stuff I'd say go for it

If the party likes to pry off everything not bolted down, it could also be interesting or weird. Such a party would have to figure out how to disable traps in the correct order to salvage all of them, at times with dwindling resources. I imagine maguiver situations ensuing with a pitten, a poor ration, and an arrow.

[Kazudo]

Sounds like something the Troubleshooters of Alpha Complex would be proud of: short-lived, extremely fatal, and hilarious.

EDIT: And fun. Because fun is mandatory.

[Jack_Simth]

So I've been having an idea and I wanted to run it by y'all. I shall start with an example:
The heroes enter a medium sized room full of pulleys, cranks, levers, buttons, the whole nine yards. Upon entering, they trigger portcullises which seal them inside. The only way to deal with the portcullises is to turn a crank- which, naturally, shoots darts at the person who turns it. Furthermore, the crank must be held in place or the portcullises fall back down over the doors. In order to secure the crank, the heroes have to spring the floor spikes trap, but to deactivate the spikes...
and on and on and on for as many traps as you like. I feel like this could either be really annoying or absolutely brilliant and I'm not sure which. Any ideas/opinions?

....

Why bother disabling all the traps? Any kind of a wall spell to stop the darts, crank the crank until the door is open, then something to lock it in place.

Or just sunder the portcullis and be done with it.

[Gwaednerth]

Hmm, maybe some kind of reward each time a trap is overcome? "ye pull yon lever and lodge the boulder trap with it. As ye do this yon candy doth rain from the ceiling granting a +4 tastiness bonus, however yon dungeon also begins filling with water at an alarming rate...

[NoACWarrior]

....

Why bother disabling all the traps? Any kind of a wall spell to stop the darts, crank the crank until the door is open, then something to lock it in place.

Or just sunder the portcullis and be done with it.

Thats a good point. I forgot about a party who d) is practical about the situation. In cases where the party is more practical than some of those who have members from a-b-c, you might need to make the trapped room the entrance to a dungeon for them to explore. OR, integrate a trap room for every important treasure vault claiming a talented artificer was hired to make custom trap rooms to guard the contents of the vaults across the land.

The only problem about that is a practical party will simply sunder the wall to get to the treasure room - perhaps trap the entire room with persistent walls of force. At that point though, the customer for this artificer would have spent more money than most treasure hordes.

[Stoneback]

Since we're talking about dastardly trap scenarios, I have had an idea for years that I've never had a chance to implement.

Four doors, side by side. Each has a trap. But only three are set. Pick the right door, and you can walk right through. But if you try to disable that trap, you will instead set that trap.

Through any of the doors, the players enter a hall with another four doors, with the same setup. Through that set of doors, another and another, for a total of four sets of four doors, and sixteen traps total.

The master of this trap gauntlet can change which trap is left unset every day. It works like a person-sized combination lock to keep out intruders that the master can bypass easily, because he knows which traps are set.


Another trap: two rays; one which heats metal armor, and another which causes leather armor to shrink and constrict it's wearer. Without magic or an escape artist check, the wearers will have to destroy their armor by cutting it off, or die! Yes, this is a mean, horrible trap- but also for the right players, a delight to play out.

It also softens up the combatants for the next monster encounter...

[Stoneback]

Okay, here's another one: a small chamber with two opposite doors, each opening into the room. The second door is barred from their side, locked, and inscribed with grave warnings not to open it.

When they open it (because they're PCs and they always do), thousands of gallons of water slam into them, closing the door behind them, and filling the room completely! Everyone takes some d6 of crushing damage, and risks drowning if they can't swim to safety (through one of the doors or another secret door? Can your wizard cast spells underwater?)

A couple of these kinds of encounters and nobody will be getting up to go to the bathroom or playing on their phones when the thief checks for traps or picks a lock.

I've got more. Lots more. Some diabolical, some hilarious.

Or if you're like me, the diabolical is hilarious!

[Gwaednerth]

not too much nastier than a rust monster as long as the DC is reasonable. As to the doors, I like the idea. I may have to steal-er, liberate, that.

[Stoneback]

not too much nastier than a rust monster as long as the DC is reasonable. As to the doors, I like the idea. I may have to steal-er, liberate, that.

Please! Use it! I never had the chance and I always wanted to know how it works out!

[Stoneback]

Here's one for a smaller party.

As they march into a room, someone triggers a pressure plate, dropping a very heavy iron cage from the ceiling, trapping them!

Luckily, there is a large wooden switch in the "up" position sticking out of the wall. The tallest character can just barely reach it using a long weapon.

When the switch is flipped down... The room starts filling with sand.