3.5 trap help.

[Belzyk]

Hello all. It's been a while since I posted but I need help with a trap. So my goup has found themselves in a 30x30 room with a chest in it. I want the trap to be sprung when they open the chest. The trap is them being locked in a time loop that resets every 10 rounds. The way to not activate the trap is removing the chest from the room before opening. Now how would I go about dropping hints to the group that they in a time loop?

[Flickerdart]

How exactly are they supposed to escape this time loop, anyway?

[Belzyk]

How exactly are they supposed to escape this time loop, anyway?

By eventually taking the chest outside the room to open it. The actual trap is the chest being opened in the room. It resets them back to before the chest is opened in the room after 10 rounds. So every time they open the chest in the room it happenes. And they need the item from the chest. My problem is idk how to give sudle hints that they keep resetting

[Deophaun]

I don't think you really need to be subtle about it: they open the chest, you record where everyone is in the room. They take what they want, move away, and ten rounds later they're right back to where they were, with a closed chest and the item gone. It's best if there's a good reason not to put the item away so they know it's gone missing.

For other things to signify that something isn't quite right, you can have something around the lip of the chest clearly break and fall away, as if it as sealed with wax. Obviously, that wax would be back, perfectly intact, when the time loop begins again. Perhaps the hinge of the lid gives out a high-pitched squeak, which disturbs the colony of bats living in the ceiling, causing them to fly away. Again, the bats will magically be back when the time loop begins, read to fly away for a second, third, or fourth time. ('Course, the party might see the bats and decide to fireball 'em, just to be safe)

[GilesTheCleric]

It doesn't make logical sense to me for the solution to be removing the box from the room. From what you say, it sounds like the box is the magical bit, so I would have no reason to believe that moving it would change the outcome. Maybe I'm just not a very creative player.

[Belzyk]

It doesn't make logical sense to me for the solution to be removing the box from the room. From what you say, it sounds like the box is the magical bit, so I would have no reason to believe that moving it would change the outcome. Maybe I'm just not a very creative player.

It's the item in the box that if it's in the room it causes the loop. Ever seen Magi? They basically in a labrynth from that anime. The item needs to be released from the box outside the room.

[GilesTheCleric]

It's the item in the box that if it's in the room it causes the loop. Ever seen Magi? They basically in a labrynth from that anime. The item needs to be released from the box outside the room.

Sure, but I don't see any way for a player to leap to the conclusion that the solution is based on the room, not the box itself. I'll admit that your group could be far smarter than I am, but I don't think I would be able to solve this puzzle if I ran into it.

No, I haven't seen Magi.

[Doctor Despair]

There could be a pressure plate under the chest linked with a spring in the hinges that trigger the spell when both activate, causing the spell to trigger on the room. Maybe high spot checks or a less high search could reveal these clues as a prerequisite to attempting a spell raft check

[Deophaun]

Sure, but I don't see any way for a player to leap to the conclusion that the solution is based on the room, not the box itself. I'll admit that your group could be far smarter than I am, but I don't think I would be able to solve this puzzle if I ran into it.
I wouldn't leap to the conclusion that it's based off the room, but what I would consider is that whatever is in the box, I have only ten rounds to use it after the box is opened. With that in mind, I'd take the box, thus solving the puzzle.

There could be a pressure plate under the chest linked with a spring in the hinges that trigger the spell when both activate, causing the spell to trigger on the room. Maybe high spot checks or a less high search could reveal these clues as a prerequisite to attempting a spell raft check
The problem with that would be the low Disable Device check that such mundane means would warrant to bypass the trap entirely. The trap's non-lethal, so an unusually high DC isn't unreasonable (though a character built to be Trap Monkey McGee should have a shot at it).

[Doctor Despair]

Is that necessarily a bad thing?

[Deophaun]

As a puzzle that you're putting effort into, yeah, it probably is, as plan A is always "Disarm the Trap." That's not something you want here unless the character has built for it. Then this is a place to make him feel that all the character resources he spent to be awesome at his job has paid off.

[Doctor Awkward]

Hm. :smallamused:


Rather than try to keep the trap to a strict 10-second time table, I would run it as follows.

Have a text description prepared that describes a few specific things about the room, something like this:

As you turn the knob, the door gently swings open into the room. A brief rush of air flushes a stale odor into your nostrils. As the light from your torches floods into the pitch black room, a tiny brown spider skitters across the floor and disappears into a hole in the far wall. The room is approximately thirty feet square, plain stone walls, and entirely featureless other than a single chest with golden bands sitting in the center of it.

When the party approaches the door to the room, read that text aloud to them. Or even better if you can do it from memory. Naturally they will suspect a trap, especially if a trapfinding rogue, or anyone capable of casting detect magic is present. A rogue may ask to roll to Disable the trap, and unless he rolls poorly you'll have to fudge something (EDIT: Or not, and the trap is bypassed). Without a rogue, I'd wager most parties would simply attempt to destroy the chest from a distance, which is fine because that can trigger the trap as well.

In any case, they will have to enter the room to retrieve the contents of the chest. Once they enter the room have the door automatically shut behind them. (But keep it unlocked if they try the door).

However, the moment they go to leave, read exactly the prepared text to them again. Read it as though they had just entered the room for the first time. When they open the chest, describe the contents exactly as before. And if they ask, note that the contents they previously looted have vanished from their possession. When they go to leave, read the text again.

You may have to adjust as necessary when the start to panic and try different things to escape. For instance, if they hold the door open, or break it down, or leave party members in the hall, simply have the same door be at the very first corner they turn. If they look behind them upon opening the door after a reset, tell them the hallway is behind them. If they attempt to abandon the chest without "disarming" the trap (taking it out of the room and opening it), then they keep running into the same door, which leads to the same text.

If you really want to mess with their adventuring mojo (and they aren't the type of players who get angry about tricky puzzles). Greatly expand your description of the room. In addition to a little spider, add a single piece of furniture, a subtle rustling of wind, or a secret door. They will assign value to literally anything you include as part of your description, assuming it could be related to the trap somehow. Even something as simple as the fact that the door always opens into the room, no matter which way they

Also consider having multiple "outs" if too much time passes and the party is getting too frustrated. You are presumably all friends.

[Belzyk]

Hm. :smallamused:


Rather than try to keep the trap to a strict 10-second time table, I would run it as follows.

Have a text description prepared that describes a few specific things about the room, something like this:

As you turn the knob, the door gently swings open into the room. A brief rush of air flushes a stale odor into your nostrils. As the light from your torches floods into the pitch black room, a tiny brown spider skitters across the floor and disappears into a hole in the far wall. The room is approximately thirty feet square, plain stone walls, and entirely featureless other than a single chest with golden bands sitting in the center of it.

When the party approaches the door to the room, read that text aloud to them. Or even better if you can do it from memory. Naturally they will suspect a trap, especially if a trapfinding rogue, or anyone capable of casting detect magic is present. A rogue may ask to roll to Disable the trap, and unless he rolls poorly you'll have to fudge something (EDIT: Or not, and the trap is bypassed). Without a rogue, I'd wager most parties would simply attempt to destroy the chest from a distance, which is fine because that can trigger the trap as well.

In any case, they will have to enter the room to retrieve the contents of the chest. Once they enter the room have the door automatically shut behind them. (But keep it unlocked if they try the door).

However, the moment they go to leave, read exactly the prepared text to them again. Read it as though they had just entered the room for the first time. When they open the chest, describe the contents exactly as before. And if they ask, note that the contents they previously looted have vanished from their possession. When they go to leave, read the text again.

You may have to adjust as necessary when the start to panic and try different things to escape. For instance, if they hold the door open, or break it down, or leave party members in the hall, simply have the same door be at the very first corner they turn. If they look behind them upon opening the door after a reset, tell them the hallway is behind them. If they attempt to abandon the chest without "disarming" the trap (taking it out of the room and opening it), then they keep running into the same door, which leads to the same text.

If you really want to mess with their adventuring mojo (and they aren't the type of players who get angry about tricky puzzles). Greatly expand your description of the room. In addition to a little spider, add a single piece of furniture, a subtle rustling of wind, or a secret door. They will assign value to literally anything you include as part of your description, assuming it could be related to the trap somehow. Even something as simple as the fact that the door always opens into the room, no matter which way they

Also consider having multiple "outs" if too much time passes and the party is getting too frustrated. You are presumably all friends.

Yes we are all friends. Also I was under the assumption that a time loop completly wiped memory and they were not aware that they were in the time loop. But hour idea is amazing thank you. And it's a 10 round loop. Not 10 seconds lol 1 minute

[Particle_Man]

Maybe some visual cues? Have the walls of the room look kinda like the outside of the chest, and vice-versa (even have the chest match the dimensions of the room in minature (so either the room has a bit of dome to it, or the chest has a flat lid)? Maybe have a painting or diagram of a cube-like thing inside a cube-like thing, next to an hourglass?

Or if you want to be cute, a stuffed groundhog in the room? ;)

[Deophaun]

Also I was under the assumption that a time loop completly wiped memory and they were not aware that they were in the time loop.
There's really no way to do that, though, is there? Your players are going to have the knowledge of having done it before, and without you telling them that they've no idea they've ever been here before, they aren't going to know to not to have their characters act on that knowledge. If if you do tell them, that ruins the trap and tells them what's going on almost immediately; further, it puts them into a situation where they would have to rely on that metagame knowledge in order to escape it, otherwise there's no reason for their characters to do anything different and the loop continues infinitely.

So, an awareness of past loops has to be allowed as a practical matter.

[Mordaedil]

Fill the room with grandfather clocks.

[Particle_Man]

If you want to be ominous about it, every iteration of the loop add a number of skulls in the corner equal to the number of PCs.