What this means is that the trap effect is the punishment for doing something wrong, while a puzzle forces them to learn the puzzle’s mechanics and restricts them from brute forcing the solution. Puzzles on their own are only about testing logic and understanding of a mechanic, whereas traps routinely get involved as a training mechanism. Solve the puzzle, receive a prize! This might be opening a chest or a door, clearing a path, or even making new information accessible. In almost every case puzzles represent Intelligence locks in DnD. While it’s true they can be combined into one larger creation, a trap consists of the three core components discussed earlier where a puzzle is a mental challenge that must be overcome. This happens simply by virtue of them often being used in conjunction. Traps and puzzles are often conflated in dungeons and dragons. What’s The Difference Between Traps and Puzzles? In this way traps serve a lot of meta game purposes and might help your players better imagine and experience the descriptions you’ve given. If players are aware of traps or the possibility pf them, they may spend more time discussing, observing, or asking questions about their surroundings. When used skillfully, they can break up a session and help control pacing. While combat and role play scenarios are highly demanding of a dungeon master, traps require very little of the DM. Each scenario can easily change the course of the session and no group of adventures will come out of a dungeon with the same story.īeyond their flexibility, traps are often used to create narrative space in a game. As a DM you might see players skillfully avoid your traps or blindly fumble their way through them. When a DM places a trap in a dungeon they’re making something for the players to overcome with different solutions and outcomes.īest of all, every player approaches and interacts with traps differently. As we discussed earlier, a trap has three core parts and each of those parts gives players different opportunities to interact with the game world. The main reason a dungeon master might want to use traps is their flexibility. Traps have many uses in game and are a critical tool in the game master’s toolkit. While that can be the case for some trap designs or traps that are used improperly, this generalization shouldn’t be applied to all traps. They might think they’re unfair or not fun. Make sure players get these opportunities. Because they have a chance to escape each time the trap feels fair and the player gets to have a sense of control over their character’s destiny. If they’re not observant or skillful enough they can always fall back to a saving throw. If they have the skills necessary to overcome a trap’s trigger they might be able to get away. If a player perceives something is up in the first part of a trap they are able to circumvent it altogether. Without these it’s not a trap, but instead an unavoidable, unfortunate event. We’ll be looking at perception, skill checks, or saving throws, each offering players a route of escape. This is what makes a trap both fun and interactive. It’s also important to note that each step of a trap gives players a chance to overcome the particular trap in a different way. Traps can be simple or complex, but at their core they all have the same basic ideas running them. It doesn’t matter if it’s magical, mechanical, or just a pit full of crocodiles. They might not be fooled by the misdirection, a player might disable a trap’s trigger, or a player may deftly dodge out of the way.Īs long as you’ve gathered these core elements, you have a trap. Each step has a chance for the players to escape. In almost every case in DnD a trap will follow those three steps: misdirection, trigger, effect. Once triggered, the trap is sprung to either success or failure. You follow this with a trigger that leads to the trap’s effect. You start with misdirection: adding a surprise where players expect things to be normal. While it’s a bit silly, it illustrates the core elements of a trap. You can see a fantastic and truly classic trap in use here. Sometimes it’s better to give an example rather than an explanation. This article is designed to help you over that hurdle and lay out a mental framework that you can use when designing or implementing traps in your game. With all their variety and a near endless amount of ideas you also get an near endless amount of effects, damage tables, and rules to know. These examples help highlight one of the best things about DnD traps: they have a huge amount of variety! If you want to add some flavor to your dungeon, traps can provide a unique bit of spice. We’re all familiar with spike pits, rolling boulders, or swinging blades. Traps are a classic cornerstone of Dungeons and Dragons. A Complete Guide to Traps for Dungeons and Dragons 5e
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