Would the Traps & Treachery 3e module work for an original D&D system?

[Epicbob]

Basically, I'm trying to make a game with the original D&D system (sluinky as it is) but without the Thief class, meaning no skill system, meaning manually solving problems.

I remember seeing on a blog somewhere that the Traps & Treachery 3e module was a good guide for building traps with, thanks to its highly detailed descriptions. Does anyone familiar with the module have advice to provide in that regard?

[thirdkingdom]

Basically, I'm trying to make a game with the original D&D system (sluinky as it is) but without the Thief class, meaning no skill system, meaning manually solving problems.

I remember seeing on a blog somewhere that the Traps & Treachery 3e module was a good guide for building traps with, thanks to its highly detailed descriptions. Does anyone familiar with the module have advice to provide in that regard?

Can you clarify what you mean? Thieves were not part of three original little brown boxes, but were introduced in the Greyhawk supplement. Is that what you're suggesting? Otherwise, thieves have always had abilities that aren't "skills" per se (at least not as we would currently understand skills).

[Epicbob]

Can you clarify what you mean? Thieves were not part of three original little brown boxes, but were introduced in the Greyhawk supplement. Is that what you're suggesting? Otherwise, thieves have always had abilities that aren't "skills" per se (at least not as we would currently understand skills).

The Thief could randomly remove traps with a percentile roll. Without the Thief, there are no tangible mechanics (that I know of) to deal with traps.

Which is where the book I was talking about comes in.

[Lord Torath]

Right. With no thieves, the PCs need to describe how they're detecting and disarming/avoiding traps, and the DM needs to adjudicate those actions. It means the DM needs to be very clear when describing the environment so the players will know what they can interact with.

Disclaimer: I have no familiarity with Traps & Treachery, other than what I've read on this thread.

[Epicbob]

Like I said, the Traps & Treachery splatbook has a section with a wide variety of traps. It tells the reader exactly how the traps work and exactly how they can be disarmed.

For example, you have a suspended net trap. It's held in place by ropes which are connected under a pressure plate. Stepping on the pressure plate spills acid onto the rope, which burns through and allows the net to fall onto the victims.

So if you can spot and disable the pressure plate somehow, the trap will never spring.

[thirdkingdom]

So, a couple of things about using the original system (note that I'm most familiar with B/X, and will be using references to Old School Essentials):

*1st, there's a standard chance to search an area. Most characters have a 1 in 6 chance to find traps or hidden doors (note that elves and dwarves have a higher chance to find specific things).
*Traps don't automatically trigger. According to the rules, there's a 1-2 in 6 chance a trap is triggered each time a character does something that could trigger it.

Otherwise, a lot of old school play revolves around player skill, not character skills, so if a player describes a cromulent way to search for traps, or disarm a found trap, I'd certainly allow it.