Help me fill a town with Traps!

[BRC]

So, One of the places in the current scenario is a town that's been taken over by a mad trapsmith (Trapper Johan), who has turned it into his personal playground (He's one one side of a war that's going on, and he has a lot of fun watching monsters from the other side get torn apart by his traps.

He may have some magic item (Lyre of Building or something similar) that he's used to rebuild the town into a mad playground of death.

He's holed up in a clocktower that was formerly a workshop for the Sturmhearst College of Engineering (The setting's resident Mad Science School), watching over the town.

Here's the map I made using Dungeon Alchemist:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/982301566801432626/982302082096824371/Traptown.jpg


Aindorf is a small, but prosperous town nestled in the wooded foothills near some rich Gemstone mines. The town's population of artisans, jewelers, gem cutters, silver-and-goldsmiths has grown quite wealthy.

The Sturmhearst College of Engineering keeps an annex in the town, known as "The Toybox", a place for the Sturmhearst artificers to experiment and work on impractical, frivolous projects directly commissioned by the wealthy artisans and merchants of Aindorf without having to deal with the normal bureaucracy and funding disputes at Sturmhearst Proper, where money brought in by the College of Engineering goes straight to the Burser's office, where it can be distributed amongst all four colleges (Medicine, Science, Engineering, and Ethics).




What I need is ideas for specific traps to put in different places in the town, such that a running battle through the town against the Trapsmith's minions (Maybe animated constructs?) is a gauntlet of devious devices and horrid traps.

The PC's wills start on the bottom of the map, and their goal is to reach the Clocktower.

Edit: Game is D&D 5e, tech level is generally the generic "Vaguely medieval/reneissance", but with enough magitech and mad science going on that you don't need to really limit yourself to anything in particular.

[Psyren]

"Specific traps" would rely on knowing what system you're playing. It appears to be a version of D&D or Pathfinder since you referred to Lyre of Building, but beyond that it's not clear what game/edition.

[BRC]

"Specific traps" would rely on knowing what system you're playing. It appears to be a version of D&D or Pathfinder since you referred to Lyre of Building, but beyond that it's not clear what game/edition.

Oh yeah, right, meant to include that, sorry.

This game is D&D 5e, but don't worry about specific statblocks for the traps. I just need general ideas.

[Quixotic1]

https://theangrygm.com/traps-suck/

--there are a number of pretty well-informed GMs/DMs out there who all feel similarly, but this article was by far the best one I've read (if you can get past his obnoxious I-Was-Clearly-Bullied-A-Lot-So-Now-I-Treat-Everyone-As-A-Potential-Threat tone, or whatever it is. He's annoying and probably a real-life jerk, but hey. A good idea is a good idea!).

The key is to consistently telegraph what's going on and where, so you can reward observant, engaged players by offering them a meaningful choice, which traps as they currently are in D&D just don't do.

Since this trapper is turning a large area into a crazy obstacle course of doom, maybe the traps are all in areas where there are signs of recent construction? Piles of soil and rubble near pit traps, engineered collapses in dilapidated buildings, some kind of potion-bomb near alchemical equipment, etc.

Pick a small handful of traps and telegraph each kind the same way throughout the area. Maybe there are some notes with trap blueprints in them or something.

[BRC]

https://theangrygm.com/traps-suck/

--there are a number of pretty well-informed GMs/DMs out there who all feel similarly, but this article was by far the best one I've read (if you can get past his obnoxious I-Was-Clearly-Bullied-A-Lot-So-Now-I-Treat-Everyone-As-A-Potential-Threat tone, or whatever it is. He's annoying and probably a real-life jerk, but hey. A good idea is a good idea!).

The key is to consistently telegraph what's going on and where, so you can reward observant, engaged players by offering them a meaningful choice, which traps as they currently are in D&D just don't do.

Since this trapper is turning a large area into a crazy obstacle course of doom, maybe the traps are all in areas where there are signs of recent construction? Piles of soil and rubble near pit traps, engineered collapses in dilapidated buildings, some kind of potion-bomb near alchemical equipment, etc.

Pick a small handful of traps and telegraph each kind the same way throughout the area. Maybe there are some notes with trap blueprints in them or something.

Signposting with recent cosntruction is probably a good idea. The town doesn't look like an unassuming town (despite my map up above), it should look clearly Wrong. The Trapper is less interested in hiding his devices, most of his targets have been animalistic monsters, so making things look "Normal" and hidden isn't a priority. He might hide a trap in a crate, but he's not going to go through the effort of making the crate look like it's not out-of-place.

The goal is to have this be a running battle, not a cycle of "investigate/disable device every five feet", so making it clear at least WHERE the big traps are, if not what exactly they are, or how to disable them. Ideally the PC's don't have time to be careful here, and while they COULD spend one or more actions trying to disable a given trap, I'm more interested in them either rolling with the punches, finding new routes, or using the traps against their enemies. In fact, I might establish that the Trapper is watching and can manually trigger certain traps, so "Try to avoid setting them off" isn't even an option, and disabling a trap has to happen on tactical speed, and can't just be "Make a skill Check to disable the mechanism". It's more like a dynamic piece of terrain than "Traps" in the dungeon-crawl sense.

For example, if there's a bunch of pipes sticking out of a wall that will spew acid, I want the solution to be some clever way to clog the pipes or block the acid (Say, use Create Water and an Ice spell to freeze and break the pipes) rather than just "Oh, make a Thieve's Tools check to disable the pressure plate"

[LibraryOgre]

(Trapper Johan)

Is he also a medical doctor? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapper_John,_M.D.) :smallbiggrin:

However, I'd start with some simple things, and might go a bit in a weird reverse... the traps near his home are going to be relatively simple, his early works, while the stuff farther out is weird and powerful.

Popular ones:
Leg nooses that lift you up.
Falling nets, especially if their main job is to hold you in place for trap 2, or some kind of monster
Falling doorways. Rig the crossbeam on a doorway to fall on someone.

Some specifics:
Bakery: Fuel-air bomb. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermobaric_weapon) Trap causes flour to fill the air, and then lights a spark.
Brewery: Rig the barrels to open... but at least 1 of them is filled with oil, which floats on top of the beer, and burns really pretty.
Artisan: Potter: Classic "jar on top of the door"... but jar contains some sort of acid, or slime monster.
Alchemist: Classic shotgun trap, but instead of a shotgun, just a mass of alchemical nastiness slung at the door.
Tailor: Device that flings a spray of needles, and a couple large shears.
Bank: Auto-locking vault. You can get in, but you can't get out
Tavern: Poisoned beer

[Pauly]

Is he also a medical doctor? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapper_John,_M.D.) :smallbiggrin:

However, I'd start with some simple things, and might go a bit in a weird reverse... the traps near his home are going to be relatively simple, his early works, while the stuff farther out is weird and powerful.

Popular ones:
Leg nooses that lift you up.
Falling nets, especially if their main job is to hold you in place for trap 2, or some kind of monster
Falling doorways. Rig the crossbeam on a doorway to fall on someone.

Some specifics:
Bakery: Fuel-air bomb. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermobaric_weapon) Trap causes flour to fill the air, and then lights a spark.
Brewery: Rig the barrels to open... but at least 1 of them is filled with oil, which floats on top of the beer, and burns really pretty.
Artisan: Potter: Classic "jar on top of the door"... but jar contains some sort of acid, or slime monster.
Alchemist: Classic shotgun trap, but instead of a shotgun, just a mass of alchemical nastiness slung at the door.
Tailor: Device that flings a spray of needles, and a couple large shears.
Bank: Auto-locking vault. You can get in, but you can't get out
Tavern: Poisoned beer

To build on this, which has some suggestions I was going to make.

Forge Shrine.
A pit and pendulum trap. Avoiding one part of the trap puts you in the danger zone of the other part,
Part 1) Pool of molten metal covered by a layer of floating slag. Looks like a regular dirty floor to a casual observer.
Part 2) A swing pendulum trap with axe or hammer heads.

Cartwright - Cartwheels rigged to roll down a ramp. Depending on how mean you want to be is how lethal you make what’s attached to the wheels.

Bookstore. Inspired by the library scene from the movie “Bloodbath at the House of Death” A series of books with which trigger traps according to the title of the book. “The Spear of the South” triggers a spear trap, “Death from Above” triggers a a falling block trap and so on. But to incentivize the players to pull the books off the shelves the trap maker has also hidden some magic items such as potions or scrolls inside other books. For example “The spear of the North” might contain a scroll of ice lance. The titles should be cryptic enough that the players won’t know for sure if a book is good or bad. Of course there must be a book titled “The Silent Fart” linked to a choking gas trap.

[TemporalTravels]

Haversack containing potion bottles filled with water, cushioned by a folded portable hole, located in a room with a dimensional anchor. Presents as described, but once outside the anchor range, it's a portal to the Astral Plane.

[King of Nowhere]

The trapper is not a spellcaster, still a magical trap based on malfunctioning items is possible. Maybe there is a broken burning hands wand, it now activates randomly to make a gout of fire every few rounds. And the party has to go through the area...

The obvious mechanical traps are pits, falling walls, collapsing ceilings, darts. Very few of those will work against flying opponents, though.


Regarding the management, trap are not bad. The gotcha game "haha! You said you'd check the door but you didn't say you'd check the handle", that is bad. My approach to traps is, you keep moving regularly, if you step on a trap you roll some kind of perception, on success you spot the trap and avoid walking on it, on failure you trigger the trap.
"But i explicitly said i'd be super careful and watch every surface", yes you did, hence the perception roll. If time is an issue, let the player trade movement speed for a bonus.
This way, traps don't slow the game

[VonKaiserstein]

A large, crudely scrawled sign saying 'this is a trap' above a closed wooden crate. Inside the crate is a piece of paper, which, when read, triggers Runes of Eyeball Implosion.

For a simple, easily repeatable trap, you can have caltrops line a dimly lit alleyway. Walking slowly you take no damage, walking regularly you take d4, running 2d4 and dex check to avoid falling onto the spikes. Detectable as many shiny glints on the floor, if anyone bothers to look. Bait with an illusion, or have a safe route that a fugitive can run down.

A flock of friendly sheep, dirty and smelly. If they are allowed to approach, an archer launches a fire arrow, igniting their fleece, which has been doused in oil.

Any door can be left slightly ajar with a bucket propped over it. Fill with something flaming, slippery, or whatever. To get exotic, fill a glass bucket with a slime or mold.

Pit traps that are painfully obvious to see, and can be disarmed with 10 minutes work. Every 3 or 4 of these identical traps, fill one with a gelatinous cube.

And of course, the classic barrel with a skull and crossbones on it. Inside, an angry skeleton with a rusty knife. If you would like, you can make it a magical Rusty Knife of Barrelmaking. It is +3, despite it's decrepit appearance, and imparts a compulsion to sleep in confined places- specifically barrels, if available. Upon death the user is resurrected as a skeleton and moves to the nearest barrel, constructing one out of available materials if no ready made ones are available.

[Stonehead]

If the town has a blacksmith, a simple flap on the forge could release all the flaming coals when the tripwire is tripped.

In fact, while we're on blacksmiths, most weapons could make a pretty dangerous trap if placed precariously on a high enough shelf.

Entire buildings could be rigged to collapse if the wrong pressure plate or trip wire is stepped on.

Flour is really flammable. A simple spark in the wrong the wrong bakery could make an effective fireball trap.


Regarding the management, trap are not bad. The gotcha game "haha! You said you'd check the door but you didn't say you'd check the handle", that is bad. My approach to traps is, you keep moving regularly, if you step on a trap you roll some kind of perception, on success you spot the trap and avoid walking on it, on failure you trigger the trap.
"But i explicitly said i'd be super careful and watch every surface", yes you did, hence the perception roll. If time is an issue, let the player trade movement speed for a bonus.
This way, traps don't slow the game

I'll jump in with the "traps aren't inherently the worst thing in the world" crowd. I've never played in a game in which they were an issue. We handled it pretty similar to how @King of Nowhere described.

[Pauly]

Just to takk a little about the nature of traps and their features. Traps can be looked at in certain different ways, and while traps may have multiple features there are certain broad categories that can help in deciding what trap to use and where to place it.

Lethality.
1) Kill traps.
2) Capture traps.
3) damage/disable traps. i.e. traps designed to injure, disable, disorientate, or otherwise incapacitate the victim. This is either to make them more vulnerable for the next part of the trap or simply to get them to deplete resources.
4) Alarms.
5) Behavioral traps. Traps designed to induce a particular behavior. An example is an electric fence. In the OP scenario the the aim is to set up later traps, eg in the hallway red flagstones are safe until a certain point and after that point they become dangerous.

How they get the victim to enter the trap.
1) Baited traps. For intelligent targets like rats you need to give a lot of bait first and get them used to enjoying the bait before springing the trap. For less intelligent targets you don’t need to give away free bait.
2) Blunder traps. You place the trap where you think the target will walk and hope they walk into it.
3) Behavioral traps. You design the trap around how the target behaves. For mice maze type traps take advantage of the fact that mice like to move in covered areas and avoid open spaces.

Area control.
1) Area denial. A highly visible trap that discourages the enemy from going into that area.
2) Funnel traps. Traps designed to force the enemy to a kill zone. The difference between area denial and funnels is the difference between “don’t come here” and “go there”.

Trigger.
1) Sensitivity. How much force is required to set off the trap. A highly sensitive trigger might go off too early or something smaller than the intended target, a less sensitive trigger might go off too late.
2) Trigger speed. The amount of time it takes from the trigger being activated to the trap going off. Generally speaking the smaller area of effect the faster you want the trigger speed. A falling block trap should have a fast speed, but a falling ceiling trap (i.e. the entire ceiling of the room falls) can have a slower speed.
3) Counters. A ratchet or other mechanism that will count the number of times a trigger is pressed and will set off the teap after n presses.
4) counter weights. For collapsing floor type traps. The floor will appear solid and safe until the party is deep in the danger zone. When the floor does tip, the party are too far forward to jump back to safety. When combined with a magnet or leaf spring t will speed up the trigger speed and ensure the target is further into the kill zone.

Some ideas for traps designed with adventurers as the target.
Baits:
magic items such as scrolls and potions.
A trap that triggers a construct or undead with a magical weapon. The magical weapon is actually a trigger for another trap which will go off if the adventurers take the weapon into that trap’s area.
Gold. The party finds dead goblins killed by an obvious trap. The goblin’s purses containing gold are the real trigger for the trap and attempts to loot the bodies will trigger the real trap for this area.

Kill zones.
A dead end hallway that has the end painted to look like a T junction. By the time the party are close enough to see it is false it’s too late.

[JackPhoenix]

Question is, what's the party's motivation for getting in there? You said they need to reach the clock tower, but why? If it's to kill the Trapsmith, they may just Fireball it from a distance.
And, looking at the map, it looks like the characters can just ignore the trapped town and go around and reach and climb the tower from the north (?) side. Also, what the party has available may matter... if they can cast Fly, they can bypass many problems.

[BRC]

Question is, what's the party's motivation for getting in there? You said they need to reach the clock tower, but why?
And, looking at the map, it looks like the characters can just ignore the trapped town and go around and reach and climb the tower from the north (?) side. Also, what the party has available may matter... if they can cast Fly, they can bypass many problems.

Ah, very good questions!

1) In the situation where the PC's go into the town, it's probably to take out the Trapper to save the town/remove a leader in the local Big Bad's organization.

The town is presumably, equally trapped from all directions, I just made this South-> North map for my own convenience, and intend to just declare "South" on the map as being whatever side of town they come in from. If they really want to try a different, equally trapped direction, I guess I need to scramble my ideas and make a new map.

The party does have the ability to approach the town from the Air, I've got vague ideas about anti-air defenses in place if they do that approach, in which case the encounter is one of dodging those defenses instead of dealing with traps.