The Problem With DnD Traps and How to Fix Them 

I am a new DM that does an online game, I like traps, but know that they can add to tension as much as they can take away. I also want to add another catagory of trap that I use, in terms of advance warning traps. I had a tripwire that had a bell go off in a room they were yet to go in that enemies were. Had they stepped over it and not triggered I would have rewarded them with knowledge of whats going to happen (because enemies wouldnt be quiet) and given them a surprise round. But they set it off so the enemies were warned someone was coming and had time to prepare. No damage was taken by them, and they didnt know what the trap did till much later after the battle had concluded

I tend to use traps as a barrier for progression. I don't use "random" traps. If I place a trap it's relavent for something. I use traps as you mentioned, to change the situation, be it damage/destroy treasure, block a passage etc. I have also used traps as ways to give effects to players. For example a trap I've used before involved some special cursed boots, a false heel with a razorblade pointing up in the boot hidden by a soft wax bottom of the boot. Someone decides to put the boots on, the blade cuts their foot and cuts their movement in half, and the boots are cursed so aren't easily removed. The result is the players progress is slowed way down, and if it's a caster who put the boots on, their ability to use magic is impaired.

I GM OSE with my group. Last Session the Monk went throu a kobold crawlspace and got his head chopped of at the end when he triggered the Guillotine trap at the end. He had a save but failed. Was fun. Good traps are traps, they are supposed to be unfair.

I've never really liked traps that are "disarm, avoid, or die." I think the types and severity of traps needs to be tailored to what the trap was put there to do. However, simple HP soak traps can be used as signposts to let the players know, yes, you need to be looking for traps! However, even those can be made more interesting. Recent ones I've used are as follows: A hallway has a fairly obvious secret door in it (some water trickles out from under the door and along the cracks of the secret door). A better hidden secret door is on the opposite wall. Opening the more obvious door also opens the harder to see door, also setting off the trap: a blast of magical fire shoots out of the harder to find door, lasting for three rounds. At the same time, fire-immune mechanical constructs come out of the fire and attack the party. This trap turns into an encounter and imposes a timer on the party to get out of the fire damage (and as my session turned out, to try and rescue the one character who when unconscious in the fire). In this case, the trap was used to protect some magic weapons. Another hallway had a set of spike traps that came out of the walls on alternating sides. However, the traps are very old and some of them are partially sprung, their trigger mechanisms obvious to the party. "Ah, ha!" they say. "This hall is trapped." And observing how the triggers are placed in relation to the spikes, they figure out a pattern to avoid the traps ... only the very last wall spikes break the pattern, and they trigger it. But my group in this case not only avoided most of them because they figured out the supposed pattern, but were also extremely cautious and decided to crawl up the corridor, which meant they avoided even the last non-conforming trap. This trap was used to tell the party to be on the lookout for traps. The inhabitants of the dungeon would know how to walk down the corridor without setting off the traps. An elaborate trap which, when you solved it, opened a portcullis that led farther into the dungeon. The trap itself isn't important here. What was interesting about it was that it was obviously a trap ... there's a marble room with all kinds of statues and magical lamps/lanterns, and prominently on the far wall is a big switch that's just screaming "PULL ME! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?" So the party becomes very suspicious and it turns into a big puzzle. This trap was designed to keep intruders out of the rest of the dungeon unless they knew how to bypass the trap. Also, there was a disarming feature once you're past the portcullis, so those guarding the dungeon could turn the trap on/off. More deadly traps are only appropriate when they are there to protect REALLY important stuff. Risk/Reward is the rule a GM must consider.

Wonderful advice! 1-too hidden, undetectable. not fun. No context or clues. no choice. no agency. It's not about fairness. Give more context/clues. you can even stop hiding the traps altogether. have traps out in the open. 2-disabling traps is boring (skill check or dispell magic...) : how is the trap triggered? make them talk/interact. how does it work? how are you gonna disable or avoid the trap? just give it to them, no roll. objective: have them engaged. 3-avoid the hitpoint tax, minimal change to game environment. bad gotcha moment. fail a roll - get some damage. make traps that change things! restriction of movement (trap shutes, teleportation traps, passage way collapses, slide under their feet), destruction of Information (destroy wall inscriptions or stored text scrolls?) Destruction of tools (destroy dungeon or treasure keys), destruction of treasure (destroy or teleport goods so intruders can't access them). Traps are like an Encounter. An excuse to interact, to feel clever and to have fun.

If the party is rushing in and not paying attention then traps are invisible without a check. If they are cautious and taking their time then most traps are visible without any rolls. I always make the Rogue disarm with a description and a roll. The better the description the more bonuses I'll apply to the roll in the Rogues favor. No matter what though, a critical failure still springs the trap because everyone has a bad day once in a while.

Your second last point touches on it for me - why is the trap there?? If the party is exploring a ruin where folks once lived, why on earth is there a pit trap in the middle of a hallway where people used to walk? There needs to be a purpose to the trap. The spiked log or bear trap make more sense in the right surroundings than the crossbow bolt from a demon mouth. Monarch’s Factory did a great video on trap rationale a while back that is worth a watch for DM’s who want to use traps. Shout out to the commenter who mentioned Grimtooth. I still have their first book and it’s brutal!

Great advice, taking a little extra time and thought can make the game so much more fun for everyone.

These are all really great ideas, thank you so much for this! Gives me great inspiration for future encounters.

Your content is incredible, keep it up

I say what you do is you put a sign on a stick that just says 'traps'.... But there's nothing down that corridor 🙂.

Just found your channel and very much appreciate your content. Thank you for doing what you do!

I don't add a trap unless it has or had a purpose for whoever put in the time and energy to place it there. Whether a trap is easy or not to spot means much less than whether a trap feels like it was there because otherwise the corridor was too long and boring. >< Traps, just like rooms in a dungeon should tell a story and build your world. This pit trap was really hard to design and create within this otherwise granite stone construction ancient temple. And yet it still works. Why? Who made this? It wasn't goblins, that's for sure. What was so valuable that several people spent several days using super heavy flagstones to build this thing and then terribly smart engineering to make it hard to spot and work forever? On approach to the goblin den, however, pit traps are dug in earth and hidden by thin mesh mats and fallen leaves. Damn near impossible to spot. Deep enough that a big 'un can't just climb out but not so deadly it kills them right away. After all, they might be worth ransoming or if not, fresh meat is better than carrion anyways. Also sometimes you get a deer or a hog in one of those things. Very useful. But in that case you do have to have eyeballs on them every or every other day. First example comes with a myriad clues off a secret treasure somewhere beyond. Second trap tells the party who or at least what is nearby (goblins, bandits, tribal community etc) and that if they want to know more all they have to do is reset the trap and stake it out, someone is going to be coming by to check it. Also remember, some things just aren't possible. Some perception DCs might as well be 50, you don't get to spot everything ahead of time because that is boring too. Finally a single trap, if your players are smart, does the heavy lifting of 10. All you need is to put them in the mindset that there are traps ahead. I often let them come upon a trap near the entrance, where other grave robbers - excuse me, adventurers - might have made it past, disabled the trap and left it disabled. Now your party knows there are traps in the area. Indiana Jones coming upon that poor sod's remains in the first movie was hella effective. ... uhh sorry, had many thoughts apparently

Those are all great ideas and I'm certainly going to implement most of them as suggested (in particular the clues and the consequences that go beyond hit points). A chance I would make is to require 2 or 3 rolls instead of a single one and tell players that they shouldn't roll the same check (be it a skill or a tool) twice. Additionally, I would rule that Thieves Tools (or, in OSR, the Thieve's percentile) is always a valid roll. That way, if the party has someone specialized they still get to shine, as their roll is always useful, but it is not sufficient to circumvent the trap. With multiple checks it also allows for a few characters to get involved.

One function of traps is to make the environment more immersive and believable. Even if the trap is minor and easily defeated, it makes sense for goblins to have a defense set up at the entrance to their living space. The presence of the trap can be mean much more than game mechanics and/or an attrition tool.

Very good points! I totally agree. I like that you actually listed some ideas for traps. I kind of created an obstacle for myself deterring me from creating traps and I've mostly been running pre-made adventures the last couple of years. But I've listened and read similar good advice as well as popped a few traps in the adventures on my players. I'm coming back around to enjoying them. Part of it is just leaning into it as well and not over thinking. Heck! I think it might be over 20 years since I last created traps for my own dungeons.

Or you can take the Grimtooth Traps approach from the '80s and make traps absurdly lethal.

Allowing the players to disarm the trap without a roll might upset the Rogue character, as that is "their thing". "if my class skill doesn't make a difference, then why bother being a rogue?" But your "lower the DC" option makes sense. It could be taken from the perspective - "yes that's a perfectly plausible plan for disarming the trap... lets see if you can implement the plan without screwing up" People harm themselves working on machinery or with tools every day... machinery that isn't designed to be a trap. So, it could be reasonable to suggest that trying to manipulate the trap is dangerous.

Trap idea for first-time D&D players: The players sneak up on a couple Orcs guarding the dungeon entrance. A third Orc emerges from the dungeon and commands the others (in Orcish) "Left, left, right, left, right!" Repeating several times. This will not make much sense to the players at this point. However... if the players defeat the Orc guards & enter the dungeon, they encounter a section of corridor with black and white tiles on the floor, arranged 2 tiles wide and 5 tiles long. Now (I'm hoping) the translated Orc commands make more sense! Is this too easy though?

Traps that art meant to be harmful should, in my view, be outright lethal, otherwise it's a waste of effort for the dungeon engineer to put in place within the fiction. However, gacha-you-are-dead traps are not very fun for most modern players. That's why I agree with telegraphing and say those kinds of traps are best presented as, effectively, puzzles. The party is aware of the trap and is aware that if they don't figure out how to get around or past it, someone will die. That creates an interesting obstacle that also makes sense for it to be there in the fiction. Good video.

Love the vid, Glad I found your channel!

I'm definitely part of the new wave of ttrpg players, but I've been running games for about 6 years now. And all that time I don't think I used a single trap haha. The only time I've ever used a trap rules at all, were to give teeth DND 4e-style skill challenges. Basically, when they failed the skill checks for the skill challenge, if it was meant to be a dangerous situation, they then were subjected to a trap. But other than that, never used traps. So interesting to hear about how other people are using them and how many consider them core to the DND experience.

I let my players detect something is "off" with Perception, but they need to use Investigation to find it to disarm it. I love traps and making my players paranoid, but I hate it when they 5' craw through a dungeon looking for traps. So I use them sparingly.

I don't play 5e d&d, I played AD&D. But traps are the same in any system. Their main purpose is to wear down the party. Make them think and use items and skills to avoid them. It keeps players on their toes and makes them think before they act. Searching for them takes time and time could be an issue. It also encourages them to hire Men at Arms to help absorb some of the damage that traps can cause. If you make traps obvious, then what's the point of even having them? They are hidden for a reason. Thieves gain experience points by finding and disarming traps. Clerics have a spell just for detecting traps. And not all traps can be found by normal means and you will need a Mage to detect magic to find them. Now failure to disarm a trap could mean one of two things. You can't disarm it so maybe you can avoid it. Or you set off the trap and suffer some consequences. Now there could be clues as to what the trap does, as you said, scorched walls, etc...and precautions can be taken such as a Resist Fire spell. And traps could be just a simple alarm or a deadly pit trap that is easily disarmed because the passage is used daily. Or the entire dungeon could be filled with traps such as in a tomb to keep would be grave robbers out. And what an adventure that could be with every character memorizing spells for just that situation! Detection spells of all sorts could save the party. Spells like Neutralize Poison or Slow Poison to keep them alive. Feather Fall for that pit trap. But those all come at the cost of not memorizing combat spells. So you will have to rely on items for things like that. So please, please, don't make it easy on those adventurers. Make them suffer from those traps if they don't prepare themselves for what they know might be ahead. If they die because they were careless then that is their own fault and hopefully they have learned their lesson! If they lose an arm to a trap, then the cost of a regeneration spell is the price they pay for their lack of vigilance!

I like Earthmote videos.

2:48 quick! roll saving versus death. oh you were stepped on by Godzilla, roll a new character 🙂.

But isn’t the initial survivable “bad trap” the context itself? Doesn’t it serve to warn the players that they need to start being more careful?

Dont coddle your players. They cant solve and survive everything. If they are in a Goblin cave, they had better be expecting traps . In addition, there are way too many healing potions, healing spells, ect. in the game. It cheapens the risk. If you can heal every wound or injury immediately, then it removes the drama and the risk of loss. There are way too many magic items, potions, and spells in the game.

Great ideas, I'll be sure to destroy information and such going forwards!

Learning about the OSR approach to traps is what made me start using traps for the first time in my D&D games. I know think they are indispensable. They add really interesting wrinkles to the game and they get the players thinking out of the box better than most encounters do. The same for secret doors too! The OSR approach has got me using them all the time and they add so much to the game!