Creative traps for the whole party

[memnarch]

I vaguely remember reading something about unconventional traps such as the Legend of Zelda kind. You know, the light a couple torches and the doors unlock or give you a treasure chest.

I am wanting to put together a dungeon that's built around this sort of puzzle-solving thing.

Example, while the party strong guy holds a large door/rock/pillar off the ground, someone pulls a lever behind it (which will spring back up if released), and another person jams a branch or wrench into the now exposed mechanism, shutting off the deathtrap which is keeping them from proceeding in the dungeon.

Or the same setup, but instead of destroying something, an inaccessible treasure chest has its protections turned off.


Anyone have any ideas to use?

[chiasaur11]

I vaguely remember reading something about unconventional traps such as the Legend of Zelda kind. You know, the light a couple torches and the doors unlock or give you a treasure chest.

I am wanting to put together a dungeon that's built around this sort of puzzle-solving thing.

Example, while the party strong guy holds a large door/rock/pillar off the ground, someone pulls a lever behind it (which will spring back up if released), and another person jams a branch or wrench into the now exposed mechanism, shutting off the deathtrap which is keeping them from proceeding in the dungeon.

Or the same setup, but instead of destroying something, an inaccessible treasure chest has its protections turned off.


Anyone have any ideas to use?

Play Cursor * 10. Some clever little bits, and some of them can be adapted to multi member parties rather than one person time looped.

[jcsw]

Dungeonscape has encounter traps, not exactly what you want, but worth taking a look at.

[Knaight]

I have one, but its pretty bad.

Basically one one end of a large room, you have a lever. On the other you have two portculli. See diagram below, with lever as L, and A and B are portculli. If L is held down A opens, but B is shut, normally B is open, but A is shut. To get through, one person pulls a lever, letting the others in the A----B space. On the other side of the portculli is a staircase, which leads to a small room above it. The portculli are on a roped pulley system, and another lever pulls the entire thing up, letting the guy who pulled the first lever pull. Of course, there is also dimension door, just lifting the portculli(very difficult) chopping them down, etc. Or pulling the lever to half, and having people crawl through, get to the interior, put up some supports, then having the lever puller slip under the rest of the way.

L--------A----B

Of course, you need a lot of material, this covers a single room. Another thing that could work is a large chain pulley system on either side of a portcullis, a lever for the portcullis, and a metal ring at the end of each pulley system. One person pulls the portcullis lever up to let someone through, two decent climbers ascend to the top, each of which set up the pulley system so that the rings are level with the portcullis. The pulleys are hard to move except for at one point, a large wheel near the top, and the chain continues down through a hole in the ground. Once the pulleys are in position so as the rings are level with the portcullis a fourth person rams a long, heavy rod through both rings, and the portcullis, which holds up the portcullis. Both people with the pulleys hold to the wheel, preventing the massive portcullis from falling, while the lever guy and rod guy rush down, and tie the chains to a ring in the wall or something, since they are being held, leaving the end result as an open portcullis, that everybody can go through. Of course, in both situations they are being attacked throughout. Maybe have a few more portculli systems. Then something big attacks, and proves impervious or nearly so to everything the PCs throw at it. Somebody will get the idea of dropping portculli on it. In the case of the first one, somebody gets into the top room, which has a door way too small for the big monster, while it chases somebody else. When it goes through the portcullis, they cut the dual portcullis rope, and two portculli fall on the beast, which should be too big to fit between them easily. At this point people are probably going to start taking pot shots, as the thing is big, and while not quite helpless, prone, and taking a major penalty from the portculli. Power attack for the win. Eventually it manages to break the portculli, and goes into room two.

Everybody flees, the person from the last room going through the broken portculli. Somebody manages to lose the critter, and climb up to the top of the pulley system. Somebody else manages to do the same on the other side, while everybody else has the beast chasing them in circles. The people still being chased run through the portculli, and the chain is cut over the beast. Portculli falls, beast is pinned again, after a while it breaks free. One more room. Of course, there are other methods, and having something go wrong makes it more entertaining. Maybe only one knot is cut, and the portculli falls really slowly, and somebody else has to dash back through and set it up again. One level of the dungeon could be entirely portcullis related, ending with the boss fight, dropping portculli on it. It could prove a memorable session, particularly when the players come up with creative ways to solve things (such as the dual portcullis lifting, although probably high enough to hold the entire thing up. The monster just hits the poles, dropping the portcullis on itself. Creative problem solving before, making things easy now. Players love that.)

[memnarch]

Ooo, sounds pretty good. Doesn't matter that it is a little long.

Any other ideas?