The Wizard’s Tomb

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• Non-telegraphed traps do not suck. They give rise to a certain style of gameplay, possibly one you don't enjoy. I'm thinking of the giant, lethal dungeon, where the players view every dungeon feature with deep suspicion and paranoia because they don't know if it'll launch an arrow through their eye or grant them magic powers or do nothing at all, and there are furiously animated arguments before toying with anything even slightly out of the ordinary, and the players mark all the deadly traps they find on their maps so they can avoid them when they come through next session with their replacement characters. This is also what's fun about the Tomb of Horrors style adventures that you hate, though I think it works much better in a "proper" dungeon.
  I do like traps to be associated with some feature, though. Putting a trap in an indistinguishable hallway is just a "gotcha". If it's associated with some identifiable bit of dungeon architecture, it produces the sort of enjoyable player hysteria I mean, and contributes long-term by making them worry about every OTHER bit of architecture they encounter.

• Indeed, and it's this last issue that I'm trying to focus on and thinking of. Putting it, at random, on a doorway or hallway section means that we now have to sit through 30 minutes, real-time, while they check every door and hallway section for traps. That's not fun. Giant lazer beam eyes on gorilla statues, though, or a fireball rolling about on the ceiling? Tahat's fun!

  • I just ran a trap maze bit last session - it included. A) Mosaic floor that shot magic beams (successfully navigated with 10' pole - later used on enemies) B) Crushing ceiling trap with donation fountain (successfully disarmed once activated by making proper donation) C) Heavily decorated fake tomb door into sucking void - luckily avoided due to saves. D) Pool that kills reflections [and causes aging/stat loss] (made one PC old and the rest flee the chamber).
    I think all of these are fair - they don't announce themselves with huge "here's a trap" signs but mosaic floor was not absolutely lethal and it's damn suspicious. That first trap acts as a sort of "traps beyond this point sign" as well. Later traps are either avoidable once trigger (crushing ceiling), or marked (engraved door), or non lethal and avoidable (pool of aging).
    Traps should kill the greedy, the incautious and the overly brave PC - but shouldn't demand that players are constantly on guard with elaborate procedures and stating every action with hyper-vigilance. Likewise players should be aware that traps are likely, may be deadly and require some caution. It's a trade off and while sign posts, nods towards traps, foreshadowing and obvious puzzle traps with tempting rewards (the trigger to the crushing room was a silver lined fountain bowl with gold coins on the bottom - welded there actually) not an arms race between GMs (or dungeon designers) and players. Games get dull when every adventure involves stampeding pigs through the dungeon halls to trigger all the darts and pits, but are equally awful if every trap can be instantly detected or disarmed by a thief's passive observe roll and even worse if when they trigger they don't actually do much.

• Concur said better than i.

• So what your saying is, you wouldn't touch a hallway or door in a tomb like this without a ten foot pole....

  • Touché!