net.traps

This is the ASCII form of the net.traps book, last changed 4 Oct 1991.
There are several new traps, plus a list (immediately following) that
breaks traps down by location type. I maintain the basic trap
descriptions in a simple database, so can break things down by other
categories, too - I'd appreciate feedback on (a) whether this book is
useful to you (b) what other organization of this book would help -
e.g. a breakdown by trigger type or effect type.

Traps by Location Type
Type Name
Any The Ghostly Mother-In-Law
Chest Double Vision
Door Familiar Faces
Musical door
Hallway A Different Kind of Spiked Door
Spiked Tunnel
The Infinite Hallway
Lock The Pointless Trap
Pit Slime Slide
Room A Roleplaying Trap
Deadly Spikes
Floating Rug and Table
Glass Storm
Hole in Two
Pointless Trap (Part II)
Slime Ball
The Big Bag Bang
The Killer Maypole
Topsy Turvy
Water Water Everywhere
Stone floor Leg Trap

Name: A Roleplaying Trap
Creator: ibad01!mfh@oac.att.com
Location type: Room
Context: A rusty lever protrudes from the far wall. Overhead, a tremendous
block of iron hangs from a cable.
Trigger type: mechanical
Trigger: pulling lever
Effect type: mechanical
Effect: The GM should listen to the characters' debate about what to do. If
they decide to pull the lever for reasons such as "To leave no stone
unturned" then pulling the lever opens a secret door. If they decide to
pull the lever "Just for the hell of it" then pulling the lever will drop
the block, crushing all in the room.

Name: The Big Bag Bang
Creator: Brian V. Hughes (hades@eleazar.dartmouth.edu)
Game system: AD&D
Location type: Room
Context: Circular room 20' in diameter and 15' high, with a catch on the
ceiling with a leather bag, and a 2' diameter hole in the floor, directly
below the bag.
Trigger type: magical
Trigger: About 5 seconds after anyone enters the room, the bag starts falling
toward the hole.
Effect type: magical
Effect: Explosion when the Bag of Holding enters the Portable Hole.
Variants: For low-level parties, the bag might be subject to Feather Fall to
let people have more time to do something, or the ceiling might be higher.

Name: Double Vision
Creator: Unknown, collected by grms@marist.bitnet
Location type: Chest
Trigger type: mechanical
Trigger: failing to pick lock
Effect type: mechanical/magical
Effect: A blade chops off a piece of the player's finger, teleporting it to a
high-level mage's tower, where the mage will create a duplicate (clone) of
the character.

Name: Familiar Faces
Creator: Unknown, collected by grms@marist.bitnet
Game system: AD&D
Location type: Door
Context: 20' x 20' room, with 4 kobolds (originally).
Trigger type: magical
Trigger: Any party member touches door to enter room.
Effect type: magical
Effect: A bright flash of light blinds the players and when their vision
clears each player is in a room with many kobolds. Each player in the
party is teleported to a different location in the room and an illusion
spell is cast on each party member. Each party member sees the other
members of his party as kobolds but none of his/her companions are
anywhere in sight. Plus the extra four kobolds of course.

Name: The "Juvenile" Chest
Creator: Unknown, collected by grms@marist.bitnet
Game system: AD&D
Location type: Chest
Trigger type: mechanical
Trigger: opening lock
Effect type: magical
Effect: Within the lock of the chest are poison needles. If the character
fails to save against the poison, he/she loses 3 wisdom points, 4 strength
points, and 5 intelligence points. The character will also turn into a
juvenile (13 to 15 human years.) The "aging" poison can be cured with a
Remove Curse by a high level mage.

Name: Glass Storm
Creator: Unknown, collected by grms@marist.bitnet
Location type: Room
Context: Any large circular room. Thousands off glass shards (like broken
window panes) lying about the entire room. A pillar in the center of the
room, with some valuable object sitting upon it.
Warning: Touching the object causes a wind to blow through the room, causing
the shards to jingle together.
Trigger type: magical
Trigger: taking the object
Effect type: magical
Effect: A constant wind storm causes all the crystal shards to fly about the
room striking the party. Each party member in the room will take damage
(3D6) per round until the object is put back or the party can leave the
room.

Name: Hole in Two
Creator: Unknown, collected by grms@marist.bitnet
Location type: Room
Context: Any room not on the lowest floor. A large hole is cut in the floor
of this room. On the far side of the hole is a shelf on which is sitting
a valuable object. Through the hole, the floor below can be seen. Te
hole is actually a pane of glass thick enough to hold up a person. A
spell has been cast upon the window pane to give it the look and feel of
stone. (Have characters find this out on their own, so they will hope the
hole is an illusion).
Trigger type: mechanical or magical
Trigger: picking up the object
Effect type: mechanical
Effect: The illusion on the object is disspelled; it's really a small rock.
Large boulders fall from the ceiling directly onto the window pane,
shattering it, and the person who took the object will fall through to the
floor below taking damage (2D6) from the fall.

Name: The "King Arthur" Syndrome
Creator: Unknown, collected by grms@marist.bitnet
Location type: Room
Context: There is a mound of earth surrounded by a moat of acid. A strong-
looking rope is magically held so that anyone could take hold of the rope
and swing across to the mound. Stuck in the mound is a quite beautiful
sword.
Warning: The rope is really frail and decayed, but disguised by an illusion.
Trigger type: mechanical
Trigger: Swinging on the rope breaks it
Effect type: mechanical effect The character falls into the moat.

Name: The Pointless Trap
Creator: Unknown, collected by grms@marist.bitnet
Location type: Lock
Trigger type: mechanical
Trigger: Early in the adventure, the characters will find a large (2') Crystal
Key. After some time (hours?) of wandering the characters will find a
keyhole that the Crystal Key will fit perfectly into.
Effect type: magical
Effect: Keyhole swallows Key As characters continue through maze, if place
where Key was found originally is crossed again, Key will be there.

Name: Pointless Trap (Part II)
Creator: Unknown, collected by grms@marist.bitnet
Location type: Room
Context: Machine with 24 levers next to a door and lots of pretty Lights
Trigger type: mechanical
Trigger: pulling lever
Effect type: magical or electrical
Effect: The door cannot be broken through or opened; it's false. If any level
is pulled, everyone in the room feels an electrical jolt, but suffers
minimal damage (1 point). Lights change color. The purpose of this trick
is to see how long the characters will pursue a completely irrelevant
track.

Name: Slime Ball
Location type: Room
Context: Spherical room.
Trigger type: magical or mechanical
Trigger: entering room
Effect type: mechanical
Effect: The room is actually a sphere within a sphere. The inner surface of
the outer sphere and the outer surface of the inner sphere are lubricated
with highly slippery slime (non-toxic.) When someone enters, the door will
close. Due to Newton's Law, for every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction. When the character tries to move one way, the inner
sphere will rotate and the outer sphere will rotate in the opposite
direction.

Name: Slime Slide
Creator: Unknown, collected by grms@marist.bitnet
Location type: Pit
Context: Any pit big enough for one individual (human) is perfect. It
contains a waist high pool of slime (non-toxic, no ill-effect) that acts
as an extremely effective lubricant.

Trigger type: mechanical or magical
Trigger: 1-4 rounds after entering pit
Effect type: mechanical effect The floor will drop out from under the person
in the pit, who will fall onto a slightly tilted slide. It would be best
to use the Slime Ball trap as the destination of this slide.

Name: Topsy Turvy
Creator: Unknown, collected by grms@marist.bitnet
Location type: Room
Context: Any large cave (at least 20 x 20'). Upon close examination of the
floor and ceiling, many holes about the size of dimes and nickels (in the
thousands on both) are clearly visible. A large amount of treasure on the
opposite end of the room is piled against a wall.
Trigger type: mechanical
Trigger: The first player to step over the holes will set off the trap.
Effect type: mechanical
Effect: The holes on the floor will lift the character into the air with a
constant blast of air (up to 350 pounds). The holes in the ceiling will
also blast air of the same force downward, sending the character spinning
and tumbling in mid-air. The character caught in the trap will get sick
and suffer 1 point of damage after his constitution score divided by 4
(rounding down) number of rounds have past. If the character is in the
trap more than 5 rounds, he will black out.
Disarm: Behind the holes are large fans run by magical means. If a staff of
considerable strength (magical, etc.) are shoved into the holes, and a
strength roll is successful, the fan is jammed; otherwise, the character
attempting to disarm it will suffer d4 of damage. If the floor fan is
stopped first the character in the trap will be forced to the floor,
suffering damage and vice-versa for the floor fan.

Name: Water Water Everywhere
Creator: Unknown, collected by grms@marist.bitnet
Game system: AD&D
Location type: Room
Context: A 40' circular chamber with exits on opposite sides. Contains a 30'
circular pool with a 7' diameter base for a 20' high statue of a minotaur
in the center of the pool. The statue looks loose. Moving the statue
causes it to fall down and block the door through which the party entered;
below it appears to be a tunnel down to a passage parallel to the line
between this room's entrances. This is actually an illusion.
Trigger type: mechanical
Trigger: Entering "tunnel"
Effect type: magical
Effect: The character who entered the tunnel will see that s/he is in a
concave 6' deep pit. A force field goes up covering the top of the pit.
When another character tries to poke at the force field, s/he will be
pushed into the center of where the statue used to be by a rising wall of
water. A Water Weird (see Monster Manual) will attack the party. As long
as the water weird is alive, the force field covering the pit will drop 4
inches every round. When the Water Weird is dead, the force fields will
be broken.

Name: The Infinite Hallway
Creator: A Gamemaster from Hell
Location type: Hallway
Warning: The characters will begin to feel very disoriented and have a lack of
energy. This may warn them that there is something afoot. Also, any
character carefully studying the wall may notice that the patterns of
stone are exactly the same every ten feet.
Trigger type: Magical
Trigger: By some magical enchantment not known to any, including the vile
Gamemaster, the electrical impulses from a character's body striking the
first teleportation field are channeled back and activate the second
teleportation field. Any contact with the second teleportation field
provides energy to it by the same use of human (or elven or dwarven...)
vital energy.
Effect type: Magical
Effect: As a party of characters walks down a hallway, they contact a
(permanent) teleportation field, instantaneously teleporting them back ten
feet and creating a second teleportation field just behind them. The
teleportation is of a such a nature that it is too fast to be noticed,
except for a slight feeling of disorientation. Thus, the party would
walk, contact the field, be teleported back, and continue walking without
any stop. After about ten minutes of walking, the characters may begin to
get worried. If, however, they turn and go back the other way down the
hall, they will encounter the second field and be teleported just before
the first field, and much the same thing will happen.
Disarm: The only way to disarm this trap that I can see, other then digging
around it, is that the second teleportation field times out after twenty
minutes of the characters not contacting either of the fields, thus not
providing the field with any energy. The first field, as stated before,
is permanent.

Name: A Different Kind of Spiked Door
Creator: The Dreamer (asg102@psuvm.psu.edu)
Location type: Hallway
Context: A false door that looks important to the party. It should look like
it opens inward and is locked (unpickable).
Trigger type: mechanical
Trigger: Trying to force open the door
Effect type: mechanical
Effect: The door is a thin panel of wood attached to springs. behind the
panel is a set of spikes. If the party tries to force the door open the
springs will compress and the panel will give way, which usually means
that the person forcing the door open will impale him/herself on the
spikes. The damage done is adjustable by the number of spikes that were
behind the panel and their depth, but should follow something like (for
AD&D): 3d4 + strength damage bonus of the person trying to knock the door
down (since the harder they push the door, the more forcefully the spikes
go in).

Name: Deadly Spikes
Creator: iswinkel@gara.une.oz.au (Ian Swinkels)
Location type: Room
Context: The floor is covered with 2 inches of dust; there is miscellaneous
broken furniture around the room.
Trigger type: mechanical
Trigger: tripwire or pressure plate
Effect type: mechanical
Effect: 1D12 spikes, doing 1D10+10 damage each, strike and impale the
character automatically (no dodge or parry). An impaled character can't
get off the spikes unless helped by another character, or unless s/he can
fly or levitate off.
Variants: If there are other characters, skeletons in the furniture come to
life and attack them.

Name: The Killer Maypole
Creator: Unknown (reported by thornton@pollux.bucknell.edu (Katy Thornton))
Location type: Room
Context: The party walks into a room with stone walls. In the center of the
room is a metal pole with arms extending from it, near the top. The floor
is shiny and slick with some liquid.
Trigger type: mechanical
Trigger: Pressure plates in floor inside and outside room detect when the
whole party is inside room (that is, pressure plate outside has nothing on
it, and the one inside has something on it).
Effect type: mechanical
Effect: The door swings closed. The metal pole begins turning, and the arms
extending from it rub against the wall. More of the liquid is pumped out
of the top of the pole. The pole is made of steel, the walls are flint.
The liquid is oil.... you can guess what happens next.

Name: Spiked Tunnel
Creator: Unknown (reported by thornton@pollux.bucknell.edu (Katy Thornton))
Location type: Hallway
Context: A dead-end hallway, with spikes on the wall at the end of the hall.
Trigger type: mechanical
Trigger: Party crosses fulcrum point of hallway.
Effect type: mechanical
Effect: The "hallway" pivots 90 degrees, becoming a pit trap with spikes at
the bottom.

Name: Leg Trap
Creator: brunner@ssd32.ssd.loral.com (Brian Brunner (kazoo))
Location type: Stone floor
Trigger type: mechanical
Trigger: Stepping on a pivoted stone
Effect type: mechanical
Effect: When stepped on, one of the flagstones pivots on edge and drops the
leg into a hole, breaking the knee on the pivoted stone and piercing the
foot with the spike down in the hole. Then the spike, when stepped on,
triggers a crossbow firing into the leg *under the floor*. The bolt is
barbed along its length, with flange for feathers that stops its progress.
It is also longer than the hole is wide, trapping the pierced leg. This
is a bitch to remove, it takes a bolt cutter, hacksaw, or clever magic to
remove the leg from the hole now that is is pinned.
Variants: The firing of the crossbow can ring the dinner bell in the room of
the monster next door, can start flooding the room with burning oil, or
sewage, or water, or whatever. It can trigger a Magic Mouth that growls
like something hungry down in the hole. Good for panic. Or simply a
springblade that leaves a stump looking for a pegleg.

Name: The Ghostly Mother-In-Law
Creator: brunner@ssd32.ssd.loral.com (Brian Brunner (kazoo))
Location type: Any
Trigger type: Magical
Trigger: Stepping on a certain location by any sentient non-undead creature.
Effect: The victim is beset by a Ghost that is a Mother-In-Law with a
vengeance. No attacks, no damage, but life will be a misery. You can't
turn her with anything but a court order.

Name: Floating Rug and Table
Creator: ape@eskimo.celestial.com (Mark Newland)
Location type: Room
Context: In the center of the room is a pit (spikes optinal). Covering the
pit is a rug or tapestry with a levitation spell on it. In the center of
the rug is a small table, also levitated, on which is a small object of
the DM's choice.
Trigger type: Mechanical
Trigger: Stepping on the rug
Effect type: Mechanical
Effect: Falling into the pit, taking damage.

Name: Musical door
Creator: Russel Mays (reported by brunner@ssd32.ssd.loral.com (Brian Brunner
(kazoo)))
Location type: Door
Context: A plain metal featureless door.
Trigger type: Mechanical
Trigger: The locking mechinism is a chime. It magically or mechanically
listens for the ringing sound made when two metal objects clang together
(such as hitting a sword against the door). This sets up the proper
vibrations in the door to create the proper pitch to automatically unlock
and open the door.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I almost never use complicated traps. Usually, falling floors and
ceilings will do it. Sometimes I have fun splitting parties up with that
"rotating wall and section of floor" trick that's so famous. Other times,
I have rooms with Continual Darkness that have a nasty drop. Conveyor
belts, too, can be fun, especially when they stop and start sporadically.
One of my favorites, though, was the "lodestone-heavy section of wall
lowering into pit of acid [or your choice of nasty thing]" that almost
killed that arrogant fighter (stupid Wand of Earth and Stone!).

-------------| 1 |-------------
| | | |
| [~~~3~~~~ ~~~~3~~~] |
| [ oooooooooooooooooo ] |
| [ o################o ] |
| [ o################o ] |
| [ o################o ] |
| 4[ o###### #######o ]4 |
| [ o###### 2 #######o ] |
| [ o###### #######o ] |
| [ o################o ] |
| [ o################o ] |
| [ oooooooooooooooooo ] |
| [ ] |
-------------| |-------------

In this scenario, the players walk in through [1]. They see empty room,
with a rug on the floor [2]. They walk right past tapestries [3] or the
like. These cover the entrance to small passageways [4]. The players
attempt to walk across the rug, thinking there is nice sturdy floor
beneath it. Unfortunately, however, the rug is loosely secured to the rim
of a pit (on the diagram, parts of the rug over floor are represented as
"o" and parts directly over the pit are represented as "#"). The players
fall in the pit. To prevent them from climbing back out, goblins (or
orcs, ore kobolds, or whoever, but I think goblins are best suited to this
type of task) posh sections of the wall (represented as "[" and "]" over
to cover the pit. These sections are hinged at the bottom, to allw for
easy righting. Ideally, the room (interior dimensions) is twice as wide
as it is high.
--
-Alan Robinson "Non vivere sed valere vita est."
arobins@freenet.columbus.oh.us

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charl De Jager Department of Computer Science
email: s9243089@itu1.sun.ac.za Stellenbosch University
"They are all dead, they just don't know South Africa
it yet" - Brandon Lee - The CROW