Trap Collection

If I am honest with myself, I must admit that I restarted this blog partially to have set responses to common FB DnD group questions.  This particular post deals with traps.  It is tempting to use this post to catalog puzzle and riddle resources, but for now, it is just traps.  Rules for these traps span rule sets and systems, but a decent DM (or GM, if you prefer) can convert most traps quite easily.

Granted, I've addressed traps before in my unfinished Megadungeon project, which I have not given up on, merely set aside, but here I hope to capture all the resources I can.  There are many.

Jim Holloway - one of my favorite DnD artists

First off are the hardcopy books out there, (and pdf form, as well):

Grimtooth's Traps (Traps, Too, Tree, Fore, Ate, Traps Bazaar, and Dungeon of Doom) - Flying Buffalo's classic trap books of yesteryear.  Fun to read, but I don't know how much fun they actually are to use in play.  Still, worth checking out, if only to get the references to Grimtooth.  The link runs to a collection of them all. Note that Goodman Games has collected them and polished them up for a rerelease. 

Traps and Treachery I and II - while the books from Fantasy Flight Games Legends & Lairs line are out of print, the links run to pdfs on Drivethrurpg.  I own both the hardbacks, and they are best described as monster manuals, but with traps.  

Treacherous Traps - from Nord Games.  Title link runs to pdf, THIS leads to the Nord Games shop where hardbacks (and many other cool things) are available.

Dungeon Magazine - Tallow's Deep (#18) and The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb (#37) are both devious examples of a trap dungeon that isn't automatic death.  There is a conversion to 5e of the latter floating about the net.  I'll leave it to my discerning readers to find pdfs of those two issues of Dungeon.

Pure pdfs (at least to my knowledge):

All Hazards Great and Small - this title is for 3.x and is really a compilation of various monsters-as-traps, the slimes, bugs, and such of a dungeon.  So, naturally occurring traps.

Castle Oldskull's Book of Dungeon Traps - intended for OSRish rulesets, the information on triggers, locations, types of traps, and the like is still worthwhile.  Art is of the freely available type, but fitting.

Lethal Legacies: Traps of the World Before - a d20 ruleset monster manual of traps, to include how they trigger and how to disarm them.  Decent illustrations.

EDIT 3: Courtney Campbell of Hack & Slash has Trick, Empty Rooms, and Basic Trap Design, which is a limited part of his Artifices, Deceptions, and Dilemmas book. EDIT 4: I now own AD&D in hardback - a sweet POD (along with his other two titles - ODD and BECMI).

The cover alone is worth the purchase price.

A new title (part of a highly recommended series) is The Gamemaster's Book of Traps, Puzzles, and Dungeons. I have seen it and its companion pieces on Amazon, but have yet to buy them.

Lastly, some short tables to enhance your trapsmithing ways: d4 Caltrops' A Hundred Clues and Tales for the Tersely Detailed Trap and Dungeon Colour's Traps and Tricks.

Links to blogs and other places focused on traps and trap detection:

Mentats of Gaming Present: Trap-a-Day! - just traps, organized by ruleset and CR.  A fun site worth exploring.

Hack & Slash - this is a lovely blog, being the home of the Quantum Ogre.  The link runs to the part dealing with traps. That said, the author's work is worth picking up in pdf form.

The Alexandrian - These posts are always worth reading, particularly the Gamemastery 101 stuff.  The link runs to an excellent discussion on traps in play.

Goblin Punch - I cannot not mention Goblin Punch.  The link runs to a discussion of how to make traps work well.  Here and here are examples of Goblin traps.  Shitty Goblin traps.  Also from Goblin Punch is this Comprehensive Guide to Secret Doors.  Yes, its technically about doors, but much of the same logic applies to traps.

Psionic Blast from the Past - a fine discussion on how to communicate traps without telling players "It's a trap!" or having them roll passive perception and letting the PC notice it. 

EDIT: Kassoon's random trap generator is kinda neat.

EDIT 2: I found this site recently, and this portion covers Traps and Puzzles, but this is the tip of the iceberg.  

EDIT 3: some links.  First is to the CLICK! house rule regarding traps.  I've not yet used it in play, but it looks like lots of fun.  The second is to a video discussing 5e's darkvision and its impact on traps, passive perception, and gameplay.

EDIT 4: Wally DM has several informative videos, with this one on traps being pertinent to this post.  Give it a watch.  For ease of watching, here are links to titles he addresses: Trap Compendium, Traps, Trammels, and Triggers, Book of Challenges, and Wally DM's own Puzzle Encounters - not exactly traps, but can certainly turn into them.  Some titles he discusses are linked further up post.

EDIT 5: a pair of posts from Ars Ludi about the Bad Trap Syndrome and its cure.

EDIT 6: Archons March On has a d100 list of tricky traps.

EDIT 7: Questing Beast has a solid video, as does Bandit's Keep.  Then there is this collection all about traps.

EDIT 8: Goodman Games is rereleasing Grimtooth's Traps - link up above under Grimtooth. I found several older blog posts addressing traps: Monster Manual Sewn from Pants and False Machine, at least.

This list is far from all-inclusive.  If you need ideas on how to make traps entertaining, watch the first twenty-thirty minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark (actually, watch the whole movie).  If you want a wider variety of traps, watch all of these Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated cartoons (it'll inspire other things, as well, particularly planar gates near the end). 

Edits made 10/31/21 - Happy Halloween!, 7/7/22, 8/5/22, 10/2/22, 12/31/22, 12/16/23