The consequence of a trap in DnD usually ends with players taking damage. Players come to fear if their next step will cause them to get spiked, fire-balled, pummeled, or worse. This can lead to paranoia that can hurt game play; you may find your players saying “I check for traps” every 5 minutes. If …
Traps that play on the obvious vs unexpected trope can be fun if used correctly and brutally punishing if used incorrectly. Let’s take a look at how a trap can subvert players’ expectations. Let’s dive straight into the trap. The Obvious vs Unexpected Boulder Trap When the players enter the room, they see a long …
Players often try to get the jump on their enemies, which can lead to obvious and predictable game play. If you want to switch things up and make your players consider their tactics more carefully, an exploding statues trap is a great addition to your dungeon. Utilizing Exploding Statues This trap has a two-part set …
Magnets are super fun in both real life and in DnD. For this trap example, we use magnets in a creative way to get your players to look for obvious traps when the signals are present. The Magnets Trap This trap starts when the players enter a room with a sloped floor that angles down …
Sometimes a trap doesn’t need to deal damage to hurt your players. Sometimes what really hurts is taking your players’ gold. This trap is simple, effective, and easy to place and use. The Ruse Jewels are easily one of the players most exciting finds, as they are valuable and very rarely have any downsides. That …
When working on designing traps, there are a lot of instances when the mechanism that activates the trap is pretending to be something it isn’t. Today we’re going to look at some examples of ways to spring traps that would be overlooked, but definitely trigger them in most situations. Hiding Switches A switch or lever …
What’s better than one trap? Two traps! Today’s examples will be looking at running traps in parallel to make them more dangerous. Doubling Up on One Trap The concept we’re looking at is simple, but highly effective. Let’s start directly with an example: You have a pit trap, and just after it is another pit …
Raw damage from traps is fine and all, but poison and disease traps can be so much more interesting! When filling a tomb, crypt, or other old creepy place, it’s never a bad idea to place some poison and disease traps. In today’s DnD Trap Tuesday, we’ll be looking at how to use poison and …
DnD Trap Ideas, Every Tuesday! Welcome to DnD Trap Tuesdays. Each Tuesday we’ll be releasing a new article focusing on a trap that you can easily implement in your DnD games. These articles are going to cover all sorts of traps, their types, their uses, and why you would use them for your game. Not …
