OK, I have my next Labyrinth Lord session on 5/13 and the PCs will be investigating a kobold lair.
I need some ideas for traps, lots of traps, a few deadly while most should just be annoying (especially for the unwary). I'm asking the forum because I don't want my players to get used to how I think and conceive things for games.
If you have some fast flowing water in the kobold lair you can use the harpoon trap.
The harpoon is triggered while the player characters are wading through the water, either by a pressure plate, trip wire, or something shiny the player characters try to pick up. The harpoon impales the unfortunate character in the leg, and deploys a drogue chute attached to wire. Catching the strong current the drogue drags its victim into the current. Removing the harpoon causes more damage than it did on the initial strike due to a large barb. Drowning damage would also be appropriate. Where the player character gets dragged to can be another trap. A water fall, a flooded cave full of stalactites, or the lair of some creature know as the Fisherman.
I must say I am partial to Oglaf (the web comic strip) trap of the word "OVERTHINKING" painted on a wall in bold captial letters. A joke trap, but actually a good one... and will likely work, too!
My easiest recommendations are less elaborate traps, often involving basic tension, gravity, small holes, or swarm insects.
So a crawl space tunnel that has a sharp stick embedded in an angle wih tension, held back by another embedded stick. As long as the creature is Small they have a better chance to avoid. If they are Medium+ however they'll disturb the trap and now can't crawlback out without likely getting hurt.
Or have the kobolds sniff out the layout of an ant nest and its multiple rooms as they dig tunnels. Once they find an ant room, they reseal it, and dig around it so that it becomes a natural insect trap. So a wall, ceiling, or floor space could have a known ant room that can be a trap, or disturb it as necessary.
Murderholes to stab spears or fishing rod scorpions on a line through are prosaic at this point. (Love that Monster Manual kobold image with the scorpion tied upon a fishing line!)
I used smoked bee nests wrapped in thin mud as a form of temporary grenade. I'm sure ground wasp colonies could be used similar as a 'pressure plate' trap. A little smoke, maybe even soapy water to kill the worst offenders, and then resettle the wasp colony near an entrance.
Half-starved badgers in drop cages connected over snared ceiling holes could work.
Slick river stones atop an underground rivulet and downward tunnel grade works marvelously. Even some clay or mud would work well in such a passage. Double points if the tunnel has nasty drop offs. Unless you wear the right footwear, or have strong digging talons, you can slip onto your death.
Powdered minerals that can cause sickness, or if agitated enough explosions. Mineral oil slicks, or splashed into a breathing face, can kill.
Then there's the old stand by, rock falls, everyone dies...
Lots of stuff. Location would help more.
For a change of pace, I like some variation of "Obvious trap, not much threat, distracting from less obvious trap." This seems like the kind of thing the kobold mind would go to.
For example, have an open pit in a dark passage way. It's not all the far across, and even a little light gives a good chance to spot it. Leaping across it is something all but the weakest characters can do. On the other side is a steep flight of stairs going down in a spiral. The outer 2/3 or 3/4 of the stair spiral is coated in grease, as is the landing in front of it. The inner part of the spiral is clear. If you go carefully across the pit, not much trouble to notice that, either. If you leap across, easy to end up in the grease, and then slide down the stairs, banging into the stone wall and steps as you go.
Quote from: Opaopajr;1035198Lots of stuff. Location would help more.
It began as a dwarven mine, then abandoned when the copper veins ran out. I'm thinking that the kobolds prefer copper, tin, brass, and bronze for their metal tools - so reopening an abandoned copper mine makes sense to me.
A skeleton or person in a cell, either with something shiny or asking to be set free. When the door to the cell opens (easy lock to pick) an iron grate swings down fom the ceiling, sealing them in the tunnel.
A bridge or stair made of tumbled bolders. One of the ones near the top is tipy, anything over 100lbs shifts it, it moves 30% dex save to avoid falling, either way it makes a noise of two rocks banging together, then again when it shifts back.
A couple of 1-way doors at key points. They weren't designed to be 1-way doors, but since they aren't maintained by dwarves anymore, easy to open one way but naturally close and stick the other. Could be as simple as some slightly angled doors (like an old fashioned storm cellar but not as extreme), made of stone, and with the "up" side handles missing. If you can't get purchase on them, it's hard to get anything in to pry them open. Even more fun, make the handles decorative, and something the party can find in the kobold treasure.
Edit: Oh, and thanks for the topic. I may use some of these in my game Saturday. :)
Quote from: jeff37923;1035206It began as a dwarven mine, then abandoned when the copper veins ran out. I'm thinking that the kobolds prefer copper, tin, brass, and bronze for their metal tools - so reopening an abandoned copper mine makes sense to me.
Ohhh. An abandoned dwarven workshop in the mine would give them lots of tools and bits to work with. And there's got to be something nasty they could do with mine carts.
I would base a lot of traps on chase scenes and the size and weight of the player characters.
Unintended Trap: Rotten planks spanning a series of vertical shafts. The planks may be rotten but they easily hold the weight of a kobold in a loincloth, not an over armoured, heavily encumbered PC.
Unintended Trap: Pressure shafts. These smooth, water worn shafts have a gentle curve and gradually become narrower. Once used by the dwarfs to pressurise water, they are now a convenient escape route for the kobolds allowing them to reach the lower levels by hurling themselves into them. Unfortunately for the player characters the shafts narrow to a point that only a kobold or similar can fit through.
Intended Trap: Rope swings. The floor is unstable, and has partially collapsed into the level below. The kobolds use a series of hanging ropes to traverse the chamber. Anyone significantly heavier than a kobold swinging on the ropes causes a blade to bite into them (roll damage for each swing). The idea is that while the first PC is across the second or third PC finally causes enough damage to the rope for it to snap. Then they have an unstable floor to deal with (if they are lucky)
Intended Trap: Mine Cart. The kobolds flee down a gently sloping shaft and as the PCs follow them they realise there is a mine cart and a set of rails. Should the PCs use the cart, they quickly discover the rails have been sabotaged. perhaps they are bent outwards causing the dart to derail and flip, or are bent upward causing the cart to smash into the roof.
Intended Trap: Forge Room. This room has the remains of the old Dwarven forges, large channels in the roof marking the ventilation shafts. Many of the shafts are concealed and hidden in them are anvils attached to lengths of chain. Standing on the wrong spot results in being hit by a falling anvil. Alternatively the anvils could come swinging out of the walls sideways.
Untended Trap: Forge Room. Stepping on something that a normal kobold can walk over causes something heavy to fall on the old bellows, which are still in surprisingly good order. In front of the bellows is a growth of mushrooms know for their poisonous spoors. The resulting blast of spoors fills the room.
Although not a harmful trap, I liked the flooding tunnels from the goblin caves in Lost Mines of Phandelver. The goblins release a small dam, flushes the players out of the tunnel. This give the goblins a chance to prepare against the players.
Do you grid things out?
Put pennies down on the grid, "decorations." The one penny out of place is trapped.
Next hall, put pennies down, all over the place. The whole region zaps anyone not wearing metal armor (dwarven mine, have the players find a pile of cast iron jockstraps earlier).
Next hall, put pennies down, some heads up some heads down. Heads down is trapped.
Next hall, put pennies down, in rows. Every five rounds, everyone not on the pennies gets zapped. The other five rounds, the folks on the pennies get zapped.
I did something like this in a dwarven fortress...players still freak out when I put down coins (I use fantasy coins, but pennies would work just as well), just as decorations.
-Sentient banana peel
-Pile of rubble, only way forward/out(?), that collapses if you dig
-A rope swing across a spike pit that has been partically cut and won't support weight
-good, old fashioned tripwire, not even to a trap just there as part of an ambush
-A dark room, with a lantern in the corner. The lantern is highly combustible (or a bomb meant to resemble a lantern) and explodes when lit.
-Wineflasks, barrels that are poisoned or contain oozes
-a "magic mirror" whose that becomes stuck to you if you touch it
Edit: (another ideas): A magical, talking mask that follows you around and doesn't shut the fuck up like ever
I tend to like the classic traps. Weird super-intricate traps always strike me as kind of implausible. Today, we very nearly had an almost-TPK with a classic sliding-wall trap.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1035597I tend to like the classic traps. Weird super-intricate traps always strike me as kind of implausible. Today, we very nearly had an almost-TPK with a classic sliding-wall trap.
One of the traps I've decided to use is a knotted rope suspended from the ceiling. If any of the adventurers pull on the rope, it yanks out the keystone and collapses the ceiling.
Quote from: jeff37923;1035603One of the traps I've decided to use is a knotted rope suspended from the ceiling. If any of the adventurers pull on the rope, it yanks out the keystone and collapses the ceiling.
That's a good sensible trap, especially if it includes some kind of bait for tempting the PCs to pull the rope.
A long open pit filled with sharp stakes. There is a rope in the ceiling (with a weight at the end) the kobolds use to swing over the pit. The rope is coated in green slime (made from flour and colorant). The kobolds trust that they can use the rope for strategic movement and that adventurers dare not follow.
An ajar door has a pail of rocks resting on it. The kobolds can squeeze through the opening without causing the bucket to fall. The rocks deal 1d4 damage, half if you wear a helmet.
A long puddle with biolumencesnt sludge. Its dark if undisturbed if the players walk through it gets agitated starts glowing and leaves glowing foot prints.
A good old pit trap!
...with a locking grate that falls across the middle of the shaft on a slight delay after the floor drops away.
...and arrow slits or kobold sally ports at the bottom of the pit, as well as murder holes or arrow slits at the top where the rest of the party is.
A heavy portcullis that drops across a narrow passage, splitting the party. Probably manually triggered by the kobolds, rather than relying on a trap trigger, to get the timing right. Flaming oil out of murder holes to encourage the party to split up rather than hang around there and lift/break the portcullis.
Scything blade traps set just above head height for a kobold. Even better in a room where the kobolds make a stand in melee.
A drowning chamber, of Dwarf Fortress fame. A long passage, lower than the rest of the complex, locked at both ends by grates or portcullises when an enemy reaches the middle, flooded with water from a cistern/chamber somewhere above. Very long reload time for water to be pumped back up, only used once per dungeon invasion.
Not a trap, but de rigueur for lairs where kobolds have had time to work: secondary passages added by the kobolds, only large enough for a kobold to move through at a crouch or crawl. Anyone else is going to have to belly-crawl, and possibly remove armor. Ideally their hold-out lair will only be accessible via these, though they may have repurposed a larger room they've blocked off somehow rather than mining it out of solid rock. Entrances crudely disguised by paper mache "boulders".
Not a trap: some kind of venomous animals, such as scorpions or giant centipedes, tied to the ends of long poles and thrust at enemies to sting them. Even if it only works as intended half the time, save or die, or even save or to sick to fight, makes it worth it against heroic enemies.
We also had a room with a dirt floor, which was full of deadly giant worms that were sensitive to anyone walking on the floor.
Hmm you might find this helpful: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/240834/Traps-Toolkit
How magical and/or steampunk are your kobolds? That informs much of their trap making. AKA, are they great trap engineers capable of feats of physics or are they somehow primally in touch with the Underworld?
Also, if the kobolds live there, they must be able to traverse the area safely, thus making traps based on non-kobold attributes such as height, weight, lack of darkvision, etc.
As kobolds are nasty bastards, but low HD and thus usually lacking great treasure, what is your motivation for the PCs? I've gone with the kobolds accidentally stole a bauble of far greater value than the owners knew, or of course, they stole some babies.
Quote from: jeff37923;1035603One of the traps I've decided to use is a knotted rope suspended from the ceiling. If any of the adventurers pull on the rope, it yanks out the keystone and collapses the ceiling.
It's a classic and works like a charm.
I've even required them to make a STR check. Just touching or tugging the rope won't do. You gotta put some effort into getting this trap to fall on your head!
Quote from: Spinachcat;1037186How magical and/or steampunk are your kobolds? That informs much of their trap making. AKA, are they great trap engineers capable of feats of physics or are they somehow primally in touch with the Underworld?
Also, if the kobolds live there, they must be able to traverse the area safely, thus making traps based on non-kobold attributes such as height, weight, lack of darkvision, etc.
Mainly set up to take advantage of character's typical weight. My pit traps are covered with thatch and dirt strong enough to hold a kobold or a halfling running over them, but not anything else. So, a kobold or two sees the party and is seen by the party, which then runs like Hell right over the pit trap, thus leading the PCs to their doom.
My kobolds are only partially steampunk. No lightning guns, but they can divert the smoke pipe from their smelter into a giant killer bee nest to smoke them out towards the PCs. I want to go for simple, but clever.
Quote from: Spinachcat;1037186As kobolds are nasty bastards, but low HD and thus usually lacking great treasure, what is your motivation for the PCs? I've gone with the kobolds accidentally stole a bauble of far greater value than the owners knew, or of course, they stole some babies.
The PCs will be searching for three stolen magic items which their patron wizard needs for a secret project. Clues will lead the PCs to the kobold tribe lair.
Kobolds stealing babies will be later, when I want the PCs to meet Tucker's kobolds.
"Simple, but clever" offers lots of room for creativity.
I like the kobolds having pets. Spiders are good choice since they won't set off traps. They also give reasons for kobolds having poisoned darts. I'd even allow the Druid or Ranger to identify the poison ichor as giant spider venom. Maybe even a phase spider pet for the kobold king. I'd even fudge and allow the kobold king to ride his phase spider and phase along with his mount.
Personally, the most vexing traps I find are stuff like the somethings that isolate one or more party members from the rest. I'm brutal as a DM. I let my players know that if you go into a lair of evil beings with the intent to slay them, they're gonna go medieval on your ass. It's not me. It's the vile nasties being vile and nasty.
I will drop a wall on the party, catching the least dextrous on the wrong side while sliding open the secret door for a nasty monster. Then PCs are fighting to help their friend who is getting butchered. Sometimes, they make it in time. Sometimes, they do not. Often, I will have foes show up for the other side of the wall as well. In general, I like the walls to allow at least sound to be heard. Portcullis are a fave. Cheap, strong, you might shoot some arrows through, feels possible to break through, feels "more fair" than a solid wall to some players, but gets the job done all the same.
[video]https://i.imgur.com/PSRtKp5.mp4[/youtube]
Depending on how far you want to go, the Grimtooth's Traps book series has a lot of ideas from the inconvenient to the ridiculously deadly.
Quote from: jeff37923;1037195My kobolds are only partially steampunk. No lightning guns, but they can divert the smoke pipe from their smelter into a giant killer bee nest to smoke them out towards the PCs. I want to go for simple, but clever.
Smoke causes bees to become passive and to huddle in their nest, smoking them out doesn't work.
One of my favorites is a pit trap that drops the characters onto poison spikes. A second trap door in the ceiling above opens to drop a Gelatinous Cube on the group.
Pits full of snakes are always good.
Couple ideas in here. I guess one question is whether you want to keep 10' corridors, or go small. I normally like keeping it easy and going with convention, but if there's any monster that's going to take advantage of small tunnels it's kobolds.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2482[/ATTACH]
Quote from: Dave R;1038588Couple ideas in here. I guess one question is whether you want to keep 10' corridors, or go small. I normally like keeping it easy and going with convention, but if there's any monster that's going to take advantage of small tunnels it's kobolds.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2482[/ATTACH]
I've seen this before. I have to wonder how much of this is really accurate, or if it was like, one-time things that someone saw, or just rampant speculation. Or maybe propaganda.