Would like help making dungeons interesting

[slaydemons]

My group which I normally complained about since I am the dm and they sucked one major guy particularly, we even stopped playing , now the other day we got a new player he was a bit more experienced and I am a new dm still. so the first dungeon I did was run a bit easy and stupid, he creamed it and even commented that it wasn't interesting.

That got me a bit excited and started to think about some fun traps and monster fights (little tuckers kobolds even though I didn't know how they were made to be used, I just knew they used traps and hit and run) and even made a plot hooking mechanic. though I think I gave away too nice of treasure (couple magic items for level 1 characters) now I was wondering if you guys could give me some fun traps and their dc for finding and disabling besides the reverse gravity trap onto spikes they expect it after I gave them a test of it.

[Flickerdart]

Have you ever heard of the Tomb of Horrors? If you're raring for traps, you won't find any more cruel.

[slaydemons]

Have you ever heard of the Tomb of Horrors? If you're raring for traps, you won't find any more cruel.

I have indeed, I am reluctant for super cruel traps, but it could be worth a look

[Fenryr]

Have you inspected 3rd party books? Some 3rd party books have interesting traps. They may not be official but many ideas are good.

[Gotterdammerung]

I have always enjoyed enhancing normal traps with environmental changes.

Like for instance,
Instead of just a pit trap, Create an illusion of pit trap. Then behind the illusion of a pit trap, put a real pit trap. Then cover the real pit trap with an illusion of a floor.

At low levels this one is real fun. 9 times out of 10 the players figure up that its only a dc 10 jump check with a running start to clear the pit. And they figure they can probably team up once one guy is across with a rope. So the most athletic of the group gains speed and leaps the imaginary pit only to land into the real pit.

Another fun one is to have a 15ft long and 20 ft deep hole with spikes at the bottom. Then put obvious handholds (like monkey bars) in the ceiling. There is not enough ceiling clearance to running jump the pit, and the handholds seem solid when tested. But the middle rung activates the trap. When a player puts his weight on the middle rung, it releases the lock in the pulleys. This causes a 10 foot tall by 15 foot long block of the ceiling to crash down into the spikes. Good news though, any player that didn't get smooshed can walk across now.


Here is another trap i designed. My players actually enjoyed this one.
The players walk into a cone shaped room. In the center of the room is a altar holding 10 orbs of different colors. At the point of the cone is a elaborate statue of tiamat. Along the walls, there are 5 holes on each side. Next to the holes there is draconic text. The orbs appear to fit into the holes, but the holes shut once a single orb has been placed. The draconic text, once deciphered, appears to contain riddles. The riddles give vague hints about a particular chromatic or metallic dragon. For example "I smell of Ozone". If the players are experienced, let them try to do as much as possible on there own, without skill checks. Try to arrange the riddles so that some are more vague than others, this way if skill checks are used, some of them will have a higher DC. Once each orb has been placed, the doorway into the room shuts, altar lowers even with the floor, leaving no place to hide for cover, and the dragon heads open their mouths. At this point, every dragon head that received the proper orb remains dormant, but every dragon that received the wrong orb will breathe a cone shape blast of the appropriate energy. Each head has a separate save. And the damage and DC of the trap can be scaled to whatever lvl power you feel is appropriate. Mine was set at 6d8 dmg per head and dc20+1 per head reflex save. But they were much higher, and i didn't expect them to get everything wrong. After the heads breath, a door opens in the body of the dragon.


So summing up,

#1 use the environment to enhance your traps.

#2 Layer traps so that the obvious bypass for one trap, triggers another trap.

#3 Make the traps interactive so these seem more like a challenge and less like a pointless hindrance.

[Serpentine]

As someone who's been told they're particularly good at dungeons (83)...

I think one of the best ways to make a dungeon interesting has nothing to do with traps at all, and everything to do with its history and purpose. It should make sense - even especially when it doesn't, if only to you who designed it and knows everything about it. Decoration and description are a big part of it, too: one of mine was lit with glowing blue fungi and decorated with anacronistic mosaics; another was covered in sometimes disturbing, sometimes amusing Mesoamerican-type carvings, by examining some of which a couple of party members gained a few ranks in Craft (prank).

Be bold, be creative, think outside the box, etc.

The two homemade dungeons (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8737530&postcount=3) I keep flogging (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8737342&postcount=2).

[JaronK]

Give the dungeons a plot, give the players a good reason to be there... that usually does a lot of it.

JaronK

[bassmasterginga]

i ran a fun trap. walk into the room filled with statues. doors seal shut behind them and 10 of the statues open their mouths and water shoots out. room will fill in 6 rounds, +1 per 2 destroyed (or so, depends on the party). the statues have so much HP and hardness and when they are sufficiently damaged it breaks the create water spell on that statue (if you have a rogue then allow them a level approprait dis. div. check to stop up the statue's mouth) . Oh, and of course the rest of the statues are gargoyles (or some other monsters that don't need to breath) and they attack the party. after 3 min the doors open and the water drains out.

[erikun]

My group which I normally complained about since I am the dm and they sucked one major guy particularly, we even stopped playing , now the other day we got a new player he was a bit more experienced and I am a new dm still. so the first dungeon I did was run a bit easy and stupid, he creamed it and even commented that it wasn't interesting.
What do they mean by interesting, though? Challanging? Expansive? Detailed? Unusual?

When a friend came to me to help with designing a dungeon, I recommended that he imagine himself as one of the party members and try to describe the dungeon as he saw it. That first room in the old, crumbling dungeon? It became a vine-strangled entryway, with the ceiling collapsed into rubble and doors sitting askew in their frames.

Next was to make the rooms actually interesting. Every room he had set up was "there is a monster hiding in the room, and it jumps out when the party enters". That doesn't make much sense, and it gets boring every time. The first room had wolves, so instead of just having a pack of wolves sitting around, I added an offshoot room (a guardhouse/closet or something) that the wolves were using as a den. The party might encounter them in the first room, or they might encounter them in the forest on the way over. Perhaps they'll follow their trail to the dungeon, or perhaps they'll attempt to indimidate the wolves to back off into their "den" and block them inside.

The room with a snake? It has an altar with some shiny treasure on it. It also has a snake nest behind it; if they characters spot the nest, they can choose to just leave the snake alone and continue onward. The room with a giant spider was filled with webs, both that one and the next, and observant characters might try to spot the spider and attack it from a safe distance rather than just wandering inside.

I don't think the overall dungeon was that challanging (it had something like 5 encounters) but it apparently turned out rather well for the players.

[graeylin]

I don't think you need TRAPS to make a dungeon interesting, but if you do... glyphs of warding... always fun for a doorway, or approaching a bookshelf. A couple of those tossed out there will make everyone think a bit.

flood the lower level to knee deep with water. Nothing slows down a team and adds mystery like wading through knee deep water... drop a torch, and it's lights out. Slimy things, floating bits, all the doors are swollen, and much harder to open. Great place for stepping on a nail, reminders about diseases, and if there IS a pit, stairs, drop, etc., you are less likely to see it.

Add some spiders, rats, crickets.. not monsters, just plenty of noises, skittering shadows, things being knocked off shelves in the next room as they open a door and they all scurry away. Small holes in walls near the floor... do they stick their hands in there?

Torches are smokey... flickering. Play that up. They cast shadows. Honestly, exploring a dark area with a burning stick over your head isn't easy...

Make this more mysterious, more realistic. Remember that searching a room takes a bit of time, if it is does carefully. Use that "time" to have weird noises, creaks, and other sounds. Make parts of the dungeon dangerous simply by being old... A lintel piece falls when the door is opened. It's not a trap, it's just... old. Dust falls down when someone explores the chimney. There's mold in the kitchen.. is it black mold? or just mold?

And remember, you may not be the first people in the dungeon... so why not have them come across an open pit trap.. with a skeleton at the bottom. Or a room half narrowed, where the walls closed in, and crushed the other group of treasure seekers.. with no one to reset the trap, it's just hung there.

[Gotterdammerung]

I don't think you need TRAPS to make a dungeon interesting, but if you do... glyphs of warding... always fun for a doorway, or approaching a bookshelf. A couple of those tossed out there will make everyone think a bit.

flood the lower level to knee deep with water. Nothing slows down a team and adds mystery like wading through knee deep water... drop a torch, and it's lights out. Slimy things, floating bits, all the doors are swollen, and much harder to open. Great place for stepping on a nail, reminders about diseases, and if there IS a pit, stairs, drop, etc., you are less likely to see it.

Add some spiders, rats, crickets.. not monsters, just plenty of noises, skittering shadows, things being knocked off shelves in the next room as they open a door and they all scurry away. Small holes in walls near the floor... do they stick their hands in there?

Torches are smokey... flickering. Play that up. They cast shadows. Honestly, exploring a dark area with a burning stick over your head isn't easy...

Make this more mysterious, more realistic. Remember that searching a room takes a bit of time, if it is does carefully. Use that "time" to have weird noises, creaks, and other sounds. Make parts of the dungeon dangerous simply by being old... A lintel piece falls when the door is opened. It's not a trap, it's just... old. Dust falls down when someone explores the chimney. There's mold in the kitchen.. is it black mold? or just mold?

And remember, you may not be the first people in the dungeon... so why not have them come across an open pit trap.. with a skeleton at the bottom. Or a room half narrowed, where the walls closed in, and crushed the other group of treasure seekers.. with no one to reset the trap, it's just hung there.

:smallfrown: I wish you were my GM :smallfrown: