I hate Traps

[DataNinja]

Sources? Entrapment?

Have you never heard of Grimtooth and his books of traps? The 3.0/3.5 one is called The Wurst of Grimtooth's Traps.

I get the feeling that it was a play off of the double meanings of entrapment, given we're talking about traps here.

[Deophaun]

A trap that has the possibility of being interesting on its own is called a construct. All others must have some kind of distraction and/or time pressure added.

[Jay R]

The important difference is that you're talking about an idealized version of the game where things are changed and traps are actually a legitimate mechanical thing. We're talking about the game as it is.

I'm talking about the history of what traps have been for forty years. I agree that the structure of 3e/3.5e, by reducing everything to a single mechanic, made it far too easy to make bad, generic traps.

But you don't have to. You can also make good, specific traps, with details to interact with. That's what I'm recommending.