How might we reform the pit trap trope?
What is the pit trap trope, OP?
I don't understand the issue. It's a pit. You fall in, and sometimes there are spikes.
>>47412297
Why do we need to? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
>reverse gravity spell
>pit trap is in the CEILING, not the floor
They'll never see it coming.
>>47412349
Cast an Illusion over the pit
>They'll never see it coming.
>>47412536
Cast invisibility on the spikes.
They'll never see it coming.
>>47412297
Pull a Goonies and have the pit trap also the way forward
>>47412343
>I don't understand the issue. It's a pit. You fall in, and sometimes there are spikes.
You continue to perpetuate the standard pit trap out of a misplaced deference to tradition. That makes you a conservative. History continue to march own; tag along lest you be abandoned, or trampled.
>>47412558
Blind them first
They'll never see it coming
>>47412536
>put a horizontal portal at the bottom of the pit, linked to a gloryhole somewhere in town
They'll never see it coming.
>>47412589
>I'm progressive because I change things, regardless if they're for any benefit
>>47412297
But why? Pit traps are boss!
>>47412297
Replace the spikes with landmines.
>>47412297
I guess this is about how can you do multiple pit traps.
One idea is to have a somewhat poorly disguised pit trap, with a very well disguised pit trap afterwards. The party will see the mediocre pit trap and assume the traps are dealt with before plunging into the better one. If they don't see the first one anyway, well there you go.
>>47412590
... why not just make it a single 80-foot pit?
My DM once tried something like this. Only instead of a lazy pit, he but bullion in it. We saw it, and we sent our rogue down there to get it. She nearly turned into a red stain on the floor. What we didn't know was that there was a gravity trap as well. After that close call, we put a pole across the trap and formed a winch, which we used to lower the rogue down again. This time, she managed to get the bullion and get back up safely.
My GM can be a bastard.
>>47412664
Or even one with a skeleton impaled on spikes, the first tomb raider who attempted to enter "catacombs of treasure"
>>47412668
where's the fun in that?
>>47412668
I assume the point is to teach a lesson with the first pit, then penalize them for continuing to not be cautious.
>>47412611
Change, as such, tends towards better ends.
>>47412297
Turn them into a PC race. Imagine the stealth.
>>47412723
>"Silly players, don't you know to watch the floor for pit traps?! Best you watch out as you continue forward, these passages can be dangerous!"
>"AHAHAHA! Little did you know, there was a SECOND pit trap inside THAT PIT TRAP! Unfortunately as newbies with fresh characters, you die! I did TELL you to watch yourselves, after all!"
Personally, this would make me leave a DM's group.
>>47412668
a) because it gives them a brief moment of hope that it won't actually be so bad before promptly crushing it again
b) because depending on edition two falls might do more damage than single fall of twice the height
>>47412664
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MGBEbo1gmA
>>47412790
Nobody ever said it was a good thing, anon.
>>47412790
>i wnat 2 win pls dum the gaem down 4 me *pout*
>>47412297
I recall reading about native Americans (maybe?) using a much simpler to construct ankle trap. Roughly a foot deep, these holes would receive three or so spikes in the sides of the walls at angles such that they would dig into a victim's leg when they tried to pull it out. Think Chinese finger trap of death for your foot.
>>47412813
Fair point, I was just extrapolating from your line of thought.
>>47412830
Hmm, interesting.
>>47412790
So that's a no on making a third pit right after the first two?
>>47412297
inverse gravity well. no way to adhere yourself to the space containing a cleverly hidden gravity well? enjoy flailing through the stratosphere.
Large circular blades that jut out from the walls of the pit. The momentum of falling forces them through progressively closer blades, pizza cutter-ing them into ribbons (or whatever their skeletons allow).
>>47412830
>traumatizing your players into believing they need to take 20 searching every single hallway, room, floorboard, staircase, basement, bar stool, bath tub, cabinet, pair of underpants for pit traps
Good luck making it out of the first dungeon in under 5 years of campaign time I guess.
>>47412939
>"Sorry guys, I didn't think it would take you this long to realize that it's actually a Titan's staircase to the basement level"
Replace spikes with dildos.
There is a book/audiobook that I've taking a liking to called 'NPCs'. In it, the minions who build the dungeons for the bigger folk tend to make secret passages through the pit traps and the like so they can move more easily around the dungeon as they do their work.
So, like any good DM, I promptly stole the idea and use it in my games occasionally.
>>47413027
>You failed your spot and dexterity rolls?
>Please roll again, I need to consult my anal circumference houserule tables...
>>47412297
I prefer my traps to be natural, organic traps. It forestalls questions like 'who in their right minds would build such an incredibly labour intensive structure just to render it inaccessible with a multitude of pointy things'. Plus it's environmentally friendly.
>>47412536
>>47412558
>>47412594
Cast invisibility on the bard.
They'll never see him coming.
>falls into pit trap
>they hit the ground and die
>floor collapse soon after
>B2 floor is scavenging monsters that eats their corpse
destroy the evidence
>>47412297
No real need to I reckon. It's just all about spicing up your usage of it.
>DMing for some friends
>level 4 exploring a sandy desert tomb, shit if full of traps yo
>one player, the group's Fighter, trips a pit trap and drops himself and the party Sorcerer into it
>"Anons, both of you are skewered on two foot long spiked with large barbs at the end, what do you do?"
>Fighter "I'll just pull myself off it, easy."
>"But it has a large barb at the end, perhaps you could figure another way out?"
>F "I'mma just muscle through it"
>Fighter proceeds to tear the barb through his leg, dealing double the amount of damage he took on falling onto it, dropping him (including the other damage he'd taken from tripping EVERY TRAP IN THE TOMB) to just below half health
>Sorcerer devises a surprisingly good solution around heating the metal at the base with Firebolt, and then freezing it with Ray of Frost, two of his cantrips.
>I allow it because hot damn what fucking great roleplaying
>Sorcerer is free within five game minutes with no extra damage and is helped out by party as Cleric heals the Fighter
>Fighter ends up dying and party lives because he kept running into situations like that. Good RPing if nothing else
![6598be5c05071dcb10fffe5dc73c604e[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/OKPUTTi.jpg "6598be5c05071dcb10fffe5dc73c604e[1].jpg")
>>47413333
>How can we reform the wheel trope?
You mean a sleigh/sled?
>>47413167
Fuck
>>47413333
A track. That is mobius strip.
>>47412297
It's a linked portal to somewhere else in the dungeon
>DMs advocate that pit traps are an actual thing, like something people really fucking build in a dungeon
>rather than just having the whole place be crumbling apart, so some floors collapse when you put too much weight on them
Ankle-high fog covering the whole floor of the dungeon is the best drinking buddy of the pit trap.
>>47412297
Fill pit trap with adventurers own abandoned children. Make them fear for their wallets.
>>47412751
Hell no it doesn't. Just look at the state of the world.
>>47412845
Viet Kong also did that. Pretty common one I think.
>>47412590
>do it twice
>>47412751
You say that but in england they just made it illegal to use a whistle to signify the end of lunch in school because it is too aggressive. Now you have to hold up your hand and hope children are watching.
>>47413582
You weren't even alive at any time where the world was changine LESS rapidly than now. Civilization has been racing blindly into black water in a storm at night since the industrial revolution.
Classic Pit Traps are an ingredient; one that doesn't really need reformation on its own, provided it's used in a good way. A good pit trap (and by extension, most traps) should do most or all of the things below:
>Test Player's observation skills in a more meaningful way beyond "we check every section of floor, wall, and ceiling before proceeding"
> Be lethal enough to matter
> Present interesting options in other situations, like having a fight around the pit
That's more fundamental stuff. Ideas for making pit traps more weird:
> Mirror on floor; people who fall through mirror get ganged up on by all mirror duplicates
> Pit is full of screaming faces; screaming faces are actually an ooze monster that rapidly melt people who fall in
>How do we fix something that isn't broken?
Or
>How do we adapt something to a different system?
Which is it OP?
>>47413603
Gooks also smeared the sticks with shit to improve odds of infection.
>>47413603
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToOFVdQutzg
think smaller.
>>47412297
add a slide shute into it
Bring back the quicksand trope.
>>47412297
cast an illusion to make it appear there is a pit trap instead perfectly safe flooring
>>47412297
Isn't the point of a pit trap that it is simple and easy to make? If you want to build a fancy trap, why make it a pit trap at all?
>>47413005
Best laugh I had all day.
>>47413624
I keep having to wonder who feeds retards like you such bullshit. Because I want to join in, it sounds like fun.
>>47412297
add cartridge
>>47413318
The fighter could have RP'd all he wanted, but being IC doesn't suddenly make liquid nitrogen and a industrial blowtorch appear when his only options were to literally do what he did.
>>47413333
Quads of fucking truth
>>47415689
It's one school that did it. But it is true.
>>47415708
Oh god, does anyone have that list of various booby traps? shit's hillarious
>>47412297
filled to the brim with gelatinous cube.
>>47413582
The world that's more peaceful and prosperous than it ever has been? I don't agree that change is always good, but this argument isn't doing you any favors.
>>47416444
This one?
>>47413079
Fuuck so much flavor. I enjoy the little psychological trick the old man uses to avoid PTSD
>>47418338
totally stealing this idea
>>47412589
I prefer to use a pit with a shallow layer of acid in the bottom. It makes it slippery and therefore difficult to get out of, while continuing to damage my enemies.
>>47413079
Goes great with this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDcxFm02bPE
>>47412297
Make it a Rope Trap Pit?
>>47418797
Are your pit traps made out of glass?
Actually, that might not be such a bad idea. Cracking, splintering glass spikes and acid.
Here's the real shit.
Punji stakes were also usually smeared with waste to cause infection.
I like 4e's encounter traps though, there's nothing fun or interesting about a regular trap. It's basically "hey, by the way, roll this die and if you don't get it high enough take 2d6 damage"
Traps aren't made for the damage they do, they're made because they're scary and they fuck with you so you slow down and make mistakes.
>>47420535
Punji stakes work as an obstacle too.
>>47412611
>He doesn't want an avant-garde pit trap.
>>47412790
"And lo, the Lord did look upon him and said...Bitch"
>>47414494
So has almost any desperate army, when using piercing/slashing weapons instead of bullets. The former don't fragment, so they really aren't as lethal as pop culture makes out.
>>47412751
no, change just changes things, it doesn't mean it will absolutely be for the better
The players walk into a room. The door locks behind them.
Then from out of the darkness, the lead actor of World War Z appears, wearing lipstick and a dress.
I meant to post >>47420682 with >>47420535
oops
That's some fucked up shit.
The other good one was the grenade in tin can one. Pull the pin, hold the lever down, stick it in a can, tie a string to the handle. Fuse ticks down, trip the wire, grenade explodes.
Or get one of the three-prong Russian grenades and drop a backpack on it. When they pick the pack up it goes off.
>>47421087
Grenade in a glass balanced on top of a door
door opens, glass falls
glass break, 'nade goes boom
>>47413027
This.
Poison-tipped ones.
>>47420598
They're not supposed to be lethal. The point (hah) was too maim and demoralize your enemy. An injured soldier is also a logistic burden and slows down the rest of the company.
>>47412751
Trolling or idiocy?
>>47412668
Because once they're already in a trap, they probably won't look for a trap you put in the trap.
>>47416117
So your BullShit about making it illegal was exactly that?
>>47421258
bern victim most likely
>>47421332
It's not my bullshit. I live in the UK and have all my life. This shit is endemic everywhere. It's one example, but I can guarantee you I can point to a hundred other examples. I'm trying to move to the US as soon as I can because the state of this country is causing me physical pain due to despair and stress.
>>47412536
>>47412558
>>47413167
>>47412594
>>47412602
>not even a (You)
>>47421814
I didn't see it coming.
>>47421310
>you Dawg
>we heard you like traps
>so we put a trap in your trap, so you can fall while you fall
Cast an illusion of a pit over a regular old floor.
>they'll never see it coming
>>47412660
And have the cover of the pit be a spring loaded door with spikes on the underside
>you open a door and see a dark room and hear a faint clicking sound coming from inside
>roll search/perception/tellmemoreDM
>you see nothing out of the ordinary inside the room
>throw a rock from the previous room into the dark spooky room
>the clicking gets faster
>consult with party on how to proceed
>the roof above us gives out and we are crushed to death.
That's some Sierra level dungeon design.
>>47413333
Wheel? Deal!
Pit trap innovations, courtesy of the Wile E. Coyote school of trapbuilding.
>no pit, just a spring-loaded board that launches you up into a ceiling with spikes on it
>a hole painted on the ground which becomes real; place liberally but only at the last second
>a pit in the wall, which players think is a silly trap, only to realize it is a train tunnel seconds later as they are obliterated
>a pit trap with a painting of a pool propped up in front of it. Your players will run and jump in trying to cannonball without checking behind the very believable painting first
>an open pit which is very obvious. If they fail their spot checks they will walk across it in midair without incident; if they succeed their checks, they will realize halfway across that they are no longer on solid ground, and will comically shoot at terminal velocity into the canyo-- sorry, the pit below
>players think it's a disguised pit, but actually it's just a disguised foxhole with a goblin pointing a massively oversized rocket at them from underneath the covering
>>47421234
Yeah, a guy in horrific pain in a spike pit but still alive ties up the whole section or platoon as they try to get him out.
If they are not actively removing the fallen soldier then they are thinking of him and cohesion, moral and operations all go to shit.
>>47412297
Put snakes in it.
>>47421576
Examples of what? Some people being ninnies? You probably could but that doesn't prove anything except that some people are ninnies.
>>47421576
Anon's point was that you are wildly exaggerating your evidence and therefore cannot be considered reliable. While it may be 'endemic everywhere ' (a phrase that's retarded for a whole separate set of reasons considering 'endemic' means literally phenomena contained to, or originating in, one particular area, that has low incidence and influence, the word you were thinking of was epidemic), the difference between one school changing policy and the whole country making something illegal, is significant enough to make you look like a fucking whiny, uninformed prat. Regardless of where you live or grew up. Kindly do not bring your ignorance and general fuckery to my shores so you can continue to perpetuate the ignorant American stereotype.
>>47423074
>this temple hasn't been visited in over a hundred years. Also, you fell into a pit of snakes.
>how can snakes still be alive, let alone at the bottom of a pit?
>I never said they were alive. You're now thrashing about in a bunch of dead snakes. A few have decayed to bone, most are just all leathery and gross.
>oh...
>It's totally spoopy. Roll a spoopy check. Hah. You're totally spooped.
>>47423480
>>this temple hasn't been visited in over a hundred years. Also, you fell into a pit of snakes.
>>how can snakes still be alive, let alone at the bottom of a pit?
1) It's not technically a 'snake pit', it's just a sudden drop into a large hole
2) The snakes can enter and leave freely, either because there's a way out onto the lower floor, or there's cracks in the walls
I liked your post though.
It's a girly-boy who hides in a pit with a trapdoor above them. When they feel someone walk nearby, they jump out and drag the poor soul into their pit.
>>47415708
>vietnamese jungle
>spread d4s and legos across the jungle floor
Put the pit trap in the ceiling, and then have the spot below it be affected by reverse gravity, or something. Or a giant spring plate, I guess.
>>47412751
Tzeentch pls go
>>47424005
That's actually a surprisingly good idea.
>>47412751
Shoot yourself in the face. It's change, therefore good.
>>47413531
>rather than just having the whole place be crumbling apart, so some floors collapse when you put too much weight on them
You may be on to something here
>>47424005
Better yet, set up an illusion of a massive pit trap in the floor, then illusion the ceiling so that it looks clear. Add a trigger to the reverse gravity field. They'll think they're supposed to active the gravity field to walk on the ceiling and bypass the pit trap, but they can really just walk across the illusion and reversing gravity sends them into the ceiling trap.
Spike on roof
Trampoline in pit
???
Profit
>walk into small room
>ceiling collapses
>2 people fall on top of you
>you are the pit trap
>>47422040
>>47423316
>>47412297
Reformed pit traps serve as wells and sewage pits nowadays.
>>47426880
Wrong one.
>>47412336
There is none, OP is making shit up like the faggot he is.
>>47426880
>>47426897
Sauce?
>>47412297
Fill it with dirt to the brim.
fuck instant death traps they don't add anything to a game outside of taking a player out of the game for an hour while he makes another character and the others just sit there pretending to bury the blind sod.
>>47412590
Where does this page come from?
>>47412751
The Enlightenment era ended with WWI, dude. You're out of place by more than a century.
>>47421576
>My place is shit
>Better gonna move to States
>>47429050
>You're out of place by more than a century
Oh the irony
>>47412297
Make it so you are getting fucked by bunch of dickgirls, that obviously have its effect on your personality by making you another dickgirl waiting for a new guy to fall in to a trap.
When you fuck enough people fallen into a trap you turn into minotaur girl and just spend in the trap rest of your minotaur life getring fucked by rest of dickgirls or furiously fisted till your inside burn with fire.
At some point you evolve into a dude and your choices are:
>Fall into a trap again
>turn into cyclop dick girl and fall into the same trap again and fuck your revenge out of everyone.
>Pic unrelated for the lack on minotaur pics
>>47428991
Grimtooth's Traps
>>47412297
Get this. The spikes? Actually mimics. The pit? Also a mimic. The false floor covering the pit? Mimic. The hallway containing the pit trap? Mimic. The doors that open into this hall? Mimics. The other rooms in the dungeon? Also mimics. The mountain this dungeon is situated in? One big mimic. The entire planet? The biggest mimic.
>>47423593
You monster!
>>47420682
Christ
>>47429986
no, they did him through the wrists
>>47430047
haaa
>>47427564
Lion Man, one rather deranged yet entertaining webcomic.
See http://desustorage.org/co/thread/82578599/ for a storytime.
>>47429428
Everyone, this is a lesson. Don't write horny. What is this guy even doing
>>47432581
don't criticise. At least he's thinking outside the box.
the box in this case being a sort of mirror-universe pandora's box, containing all that is good and wholesome. But still.
>>47412751
Then how come the British Empire was forced to be dismantled?
>>47412751
Obama go home. You're drunk.
>>47413079
I am using this.
>>47412297
Here we have an OP so terrible that not even TV Tropes is willing to accept him.
>>47412590
>disable device
>secondary trigger
how the fuck do you disable a paper floor
i never understood why pretty much all the traps in this book had a disable considering what they were
or why certain disables wouldn't be insanely easy
there was a bee trap iirc, you dont need to "disable" the trigger, you just would need to plug up the hole the bees came from
>>47436343
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PitTrap
If only you were right.
>>47436426
It's just DnD's poor formatting striking again - the "trigger" is what causes the trap to activate - the trap in this case being a hole. To be a trap for DnD purposes it needs a trigger and a disable otherwise the ruleslawyers and skill monkey rogues will complain.
>>47436426
You clearly mark it and inform the other characters what it is. L2 abstraction.
>>47413624
Literally on my lunch break at an English primary school. There's this thing called a bell.
>>47412297
the pit trap is now
atrap's pitThe formerly male giant lies semi buried, with the only opening exposed that of it botched sex change. waiting for an unwary traveller to fall in to their unspeakable demise
>>47420682
>>47421087
Same with this one
>>47422040
>>an open pit which is very obvious. If they fail their spot checks they will walk across it in midair without incident; if they succeed their checks, they will realize halfway across that they are no longer on solid ground, and will comically shoot at terminal velocity into the canyo-- sorry, the pit below
That'd be great, but extra hard would be to have it be that they will fall if they have knowlege of it at all, so a blindfold after seeing would not work.
Make it safe not to faith, but ignorance
>>47412751
That is the exact opposite of the way reality works. Entropy is a thing you must fight every moment just to maintain status quo.
>>47412297
There's no spikes, instead, there are two small openings at the bottom where two doppelgangers live. One captures the fallen party member and the other replaces him.
When the party goes to lift them from the pit, the doppelganger gets lifted instead, unless of course someone manages to hear the captured member's muffled screams.
I always liked using gelatinous cubes for traps.
I've had an entire corridor that where the floor was just a thin layer of wooden tiles (Mildly enchanted so they don't dissolve) floating gently on a trench full of cubes, which basically meant don't touch the floor at all.
But you can also put them at the bottom of pit traps for self cleaning pits.
>>47412297
leave one of these in the middle of the passage with a sack of cherry pits on it.
it will slow down your players while they try to work out what it is, and will leave them mildly annoyed.then when they try to get around it the floor drops out from beneath them. They can't say you didn't warn them.
