What in your copy of "The Kobold's Guide to Trapping Adventurers"?

[mgshamster]

Kobold's are renowned for spending countless hours scheming up new ways to trap adventurers. Some of them even try to design traps for specific races, careers, social economic status, and more!

Trapping adventurers is so popular amongst Kobolds that it even accounts for a solid 30% of the GDP for any given Kobold tribe.

So what's in your copy?

Let's list some traps that Kobold's have designed

[Belac93]

I like the decoy treasure chest with alchemists fire in the hinges and acid in the lock. becomes pretty much impossible to pick it.

Also, collapsing everythings. Walls, ceilings, floors, chests, chairs, you name it, it collapses.

Make it so that there is one small (carry-able) adamantine treasure chest. The DC for opening it is way too big for characters of their level, and it is immune to the knock spell. When it is finally opened, it contains the kobolds poetry and love letters for its sweetheart.

[RickAllison]

How about a door that actually opens on the side opposite the knob. When they twist the knob, it drops a beehive on the intruder and locks them in the room.

[Tanarii]

Mostly mine use use concealment and cover. Outdoors they like simple jungle-style traps. Pit traps, punji stakes, snares & trip wires. The latter can just be to trip, or trigger rope nets, or occasionally the classic swinging spiked log. In tunnels they favor high ledges with cover, similar to a stereotypical castle wall, with concealed pits protecting the obvious approaches up from the killing zone.

[Fwiffo86]

No mage button

Kobolds attack. One sits next to wall ready to hit "no Mage" button when magic is being used. Button fires 35 darts into the room in completely random directions, but effectively hitting everything in the room at least once (sometimes more than once). Hit button again if magic is not stopped.

[KorvinStarmast]

The oldest trap in the book: the honey trap.

[krugaan]

The oldest trap in the book: the honey trap.

Inflatable doll filled with knockout gas!

Or the old wig / lipstick / dress disguise, although honestly that hasn't been working as well, lately. PC's are getting smarter and asking the magical "are you a kobold" question.

on a more serious note, I'm a fan of the "dungeon timeshare" trap.

[krugaan]

No mage button

Kobolds attack. One sits next to wall ready to hit "no Mage" button when magic is being used. Button fires 35 darts into the room in completely random directions, but effectively hitting everything in the room at least once (sometimes more than once). Hit button again if magic is not stopped.

Lol, too bad the "no kobold button" (coughfireballcough) is usually more effective.

[Waffle_Iron]

Chapter one: care and keeping of native venomous snakes
Pg 1- how to catch snakes
Pg 2- how to treat snake bites
Pg 5- how to catch snakes without being bitten
Pg 7- what to feed snakes
Pg 10- what to feed snakes to keep them alive
Pg 15- how to catch more snakes
Pg 20- how to place snakes in clay pots strung over a hallway, attached to a tripwire.

Chapter two: So, you want to empty your latrine pit...

[Xetheral]

I once had an entire village as a kobold trap. Something's very wrong, and the locals refuse to talk about it, but they're definitely hiding something. The evidence points to a nearby kobold warren, and it's easy to infer that the kobolds are terrorizing and extorting the villagers. The local smith has some amazing magical gear he's happy to sell at steep prices, while implying he'll give them a huge retroactive discount if they can cut down on his overhead.... Careful observation will even let the PCs follow a furtive shipment of money right to the Kobold's door.

Unfortunately for the PCs, the secret the villagers are hiding isn't that they're being extorted by the local tribe, but that they're in league with them, luring a steady stream of adventurers to a fake warren that's nothing but traps and ambushes by kobolds. The tribe and the townsfolk sell off the looted gear, splitting the profits. The townsfolk also purchase supplies from merchants on the kobolds' behalf, giving the tribe access to significantly higher-quality trap-building supplies than the norm. Alas, unless the PCs have reason to suspect a double-bluff, a higher insight score only makes it more likely to notice the bait and fall for the trap.

To give the PCs a chance at avoiding walking into their doom, make sure one of the magic items the smith has for sale is something iconic that the PCs recognize as (until recently) belonging to a fellow adventurer, preferably one the party has met in person. Investigation into the town's finances and/or where the smith got his magic items can force the locals into having to outright lie, which might give away the game. Of course, at that point the PCs still have to decide what to do with both the locals and the tribe....

[pwykersotz]

I once had an entire village as a kobold trap. Something's very wrong, and the locals refuse to talk about it, but they're definitely hiding something. The evidence points to a nearby kobold warren, and it's easy to infer that the kobolds are terrorizing and extorting the villagers. The local smith has some amazing magical gear he's happy to sell at steep prices, while implying he'll give them a huge retroactive discount if they can cut down on his overhead.... Careful observation will even let the PCs follow a furtive shipment of money right to the Kobold's door.

Unfortunately for the PCs, the secret the villagers are hiding isn't that they're being extorted by the local tribe, but that they're in league with them, luring a steady stream of adventurers to a fake warren that's nothing but traps and ambushes by kobolds. The tribe and the townsfolk sell off the looted gear, splitting the profits. The townsfolk also purchase supplies from merchants on the kobolds' behalf, giving the tribe access to significantly higher-quality trap-building supplies than the norm. Alas, unless the PCs have reason to suspect a double-bluff, a higher insight score only makes it more likely to notice the bait and fall for the trap.

To give the PCs a chance at avoiding walking into their doom, make sure one of the magic items the smith has for sale is something iconic that the PCs recognize as (until recently) belonging to a fellow adventurer, preferably one the party has met in person. Investigation into the town's finances and/or where the smith got his magic items can force the locals into having to outright lie, which might give away the game. Of course, at that point the PCs still have to decide what to do with both the locals and the tribe....

Frankly, this is awesome.

[Xetheral]

Frankly, this is awesome.

Thank you!

[Tanarii]

Or the old wig / lipstick / dress disguise, although honestly that hasn't been working as well, lately. PC's are getting smarter and asking the magical "are you a kobold" question.
Kobolds are getting smarter and using better looking Kobolds.
http://pre15.deviantart.net/9618/th/pre/f/2015/017/1/5/pooit_kobold__2_0_by_chochi-d8e8isu.jpg

[FlourescentKing]

Haha, I had some ideas for something like this once.

I'm very fond of the locked chest containing a mimic. Also, I had an idea for a super obviously trapped set of Water Breathing potions - when the PCs ignore the potions, the room fills with water :smallbiggrin:.

A friend of mine made a dungeon covered entirely with a thin layer of harmless ooze, which cleverly concealed the various pitfall traps leading to more deadly varieties. Similarly, you could have the kobolds lob jars of deadly oozes at the PCs.

[krugaan]

Kobolds are getting smarter and using better looking Kobolds.
http://pre15.deviantart.net/9618/th/pre/f/2015/017/1/5/pooit_kobold__2_0_by_chochi-d8e8isu.jpg

Oh snap, dem hips.

Arguably better looking than Dwarf women.

[mgshamster]

How about: Kobolds "kidnap" the mayors daughter in small-town, luring adventurers in to rescue her. Then they kill the adventurers, keep the loot, and free the girl. She goes back home to be "kidnapped" again at a later date.

Meanwhile, while she's been kidnapped, they keep her company, teach her how to hunt and track, make traps, and more. So for her, it's a mini summer camp every few months.

[krugaan]

How about: Kobolds "kidnap" the mayors daughter in small-town, luring adventurers in to rescue her. Then they kill the adventurers, keep the loot, and free the girl. She goes back home to be "kidnapped" again at a later date.

Meanwhile, while she's been kidnapped, they keep her company, teach her how to hunt and track, make traps, and more. So for her, it's a mini summer camp every few months.

Hah, that would be a neat idea, but she would have to be kept out of the loop. Or, you know ... be thoroughly evil.

A less evil version might be:

- Princess befriends local kobold clan after nursing a wounded one back to health.
- King remarries to a wicked stepmother(tm)
- stepmother gets pregnant, tries to have princess killed, but she is saved by kobolds and "kidnapped"
- king is clueless and hires PCs to rescue princess
- wicked stepmother hires assassins to shadow PCs

edit: oh yeah, this isn't really a trap.

[Waffle_Iron]

Hah, that would be a neat idea, but she would have to be kept out of the loop. Or, you know ... be thoroughly evil.

A less evil version might be:

- Princess befriends local kobold clan after nursing a wounded one back to health.
- King remarries to a wicked stepmother(tm)
- stepmother gets pregnant, tries to have princess killed, but she is saved by kobolds and "kidnapped"
- king is clueless and hires PCs to rescue princess
- wicked stepmother hires assassins to shadow PCs

edit: oh yeah, this isn't really a trap.

It is however, very nicely done.

[krugaan]

It is however, very nicely done.

Then, after the ruse is uncovered, kobolds are grudgingly accepted by the locals. "Kiddie Kobold Kamp" is popular with the local children. Everything seems alright, but after decades of coexistence, the princess dies, and slowly the locals begin to persecute the kobolds again. KKK enrollment begins to die out. The kobolds begin to look for alternate sources of income, so they "kidnap" the new princess...

[indemnity]

How about a door that actually opens on the side opposite the knob. When they twist the knob, it drops a beehive on the intruder and locks them in the room.

Or the dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark, they shoot bees at you? /Homer

[Jera]

How about: Kobolds "kidnap" the mayors daughter in small-town, luring adventurers in to rescue her. Then they kill the adventurers, keep the loot, and free the girl. She goes back home to be "kidnapped" again at a later date.

Meanwhile, while she's been kidnapped, they keep her company, teach her how to hunt and track, make traps, and more. So for her, it's a mini summer camp every few months.


This is it basically the set up for one of the main characters in the book "NPCs" by Drew Hayes.

If you haven't read it yet it's an great book about a group of NPCs in a game where the PCs die in their village. The PCs were on the way to meet the crazy king of that nation and the NPCs are afraid if the 'adventurers' don't show up the king will destroy their entire village, so they go off on an adventure pretending to be PCs in order to save their town.

[mgshamster]

This is it basically the set up for one of the main characters in the book "NPCs" by Drew Hayes.

If you haven't read it yet it's an great book about a group of NPCs in a game where the PCs die in their village. The PCs were on the way to meet the crazy king of that nation and the NPCs are afraid if the 'adventurers' don't show up the king will destroy their entire village, so they go off on an adventure pretending to be PCs in order to save their town.

I've been shamelessly stealing plot points from that book. You're the first to notice. :)