More on Traps

I'll be going back to add these videos to my Traps Collection post, but I do want to highlight what both discuss.

Overall, the fun in traps is not the math of reducing hit points, but how the PCs/players engage with the trap itself, be that disarming, repurposing, or something else entirely.

In addition, don't just use traps as hit point taxes.  Bandit's Keep discusses other non-hit point results of a damaging trap before launching into a discussion of riddles.  

In addition to Bandit's Keep, Questing Beast tells us flat out to stop hiding traps.  He breaks it down using 5e rules, but its applicable across rulesets. Then he, too, talks about traps that aren't just hit point taxes.

Both videos are worth watching, especially if you are planning a trap-filled dungeon area or participating in the #Dungeon23 event and looking for something more substantial than 'pit trap, 1d6 damage.'

My big takeaway is from Questing Beast, when he plugs Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland and their shared principle of 'the more dangerous something is, the more obvious it should be.'  Which reminds me that maybe 2023 is the year I buy the hardbacks of both those titles.

Of course, creating tells for traps can be difficult, so here are some from d4 Caltrops - A Hundred Clues and Tells for the Tersely Detailed Trap.