Traps and Puzzles

Traps are easy to create and operate. Just present an interesting mechanism and decide a difficulty. The creativity on this is up to you.

Here are a few basic ideas:

  • Swing blade
  • Acid gas
  • Shooting spears
  • Suffocation
  • Pit trap
  • Poison needle
  • Explosion
  • Spiked log
  • Tripwire
  • Teleportation
  • Quicksand
  • Ceiling collapse
  • Magic effect
  • Alarm bells
  • Carnivorous bugs

To find a trap when actively looking for one requires a Mind 6+ roll. Disabling a known trap takes Skill 9+. The majority of traps should be Average difficulty, causing 6 points of damage to 1 or 2 heroes if not adequately dealt with or bypassed. Very deadly traps should allow an ability check to diminish or avoid the effects.

Puzzles take more thought and pre-planning. Be very careful with puzzles, as it is quite easy to underestimate their difficulty. You don’t want the whole game momentum to suddenly stall as the heroes get stuck on a puzzle. Also, at most there should only be 1 puzzle in a game session. Many games do perfectly fine without any puzzles.