Traps, dammit!!! I want more.

I have always liked the idea of adding 1 foot to the radius for every 10 points of damage of a trap.

**Exclude weapon traps and drop ceiling traps.

an exploding or flame trap thats does a lot of damage is limited to 5 foot radius... even in a fantasy setting its a bit underwhealming.

Just my 2 cents,

O
*edited due to mispelling.. LOL*
 
I would have serious problems with seeing either of the last two at a game. They're far too easily mistaken for a real explosive, and the last thing we want is to have to explain things to the local bomb squad when a hiker stumbles upon a trap without someone around to reassure them.
 
Although I'd be all for a powder marking system, and many can be created that don't look anything like modern day explosives, convincing the general Alliance populace to allow baby powder to be flung at them would be hard. "Damage" to costuming and makeup plus the safety concern of getting it into the eyes or asthma issues would halt it.

IIRC, WAY back in the day, the spell packets were made of tissue paper and corn starch so that a mark would be left behind, allowing proof verification of a hit. Of course rain turned these compacted projectiles into something that even I wouldn't want to be hit by.

I also found out with these that if you flung your cauliflower handful of packets into a campfire, a small but dangerous explosion happened. Ah being young and naive...
 
Well, I just built a trapped chest with a buzzer, 9v battery and a magnetic switch. I will be adding in a "push switch" so it can be disarmed by depressing it then removing the 9v rabbit ear. Roughly $25 for the trap. I need to source out cheaper magnetic switches though.
 
I'd be interested in seeing how that turns out and some more details on your construction...I would really like something like this for my own IG storage.

-Luke
 
I've debated using my airsoft claymore loaded with foam balls coated in corn starch as a trap, but have refrained because I can't decide if it looks better as a medieval fantasy larp rep than a block of wood with a mousetrap on it. Also, launching nerf balls is unnecessary, given our trap rules.
 
@Luke. Works pretty well. We found little 5x3x3 "chests" at the dollar store. So the contact is on the base and the lid. I will be mucking around with stronger magnets in order to allow the lid to be opened a tad bit further than it currently can be. The leads from the switch run to a 9v battery.

Currently I am thinking 2 things: 1. Increase the magnets to open the lid further or 2. Add a push switch that a PC can depress with something longer, allowing then to kill the power until they can take the leads off the 9v.

@JP: I was loooking into this one as well. I was thinking Bird seed. The claymore does not shoot "up" just "out" so birdseed would be easier to load and then the wildlife can clean it up for us rather than us having to do it at the end of the event.
 
I used a dollar store Door Alarm (painting it a metallic copper color instead of the blaring white it came in, for a more in-game appearance) when building my trap rep. I took a small, in-game looking box, and anchored the door alarm inside. Then, I attached a magnet to the inside of the box's lid so that it lines up with the door alarm when the box is closed. When the lid is lifted, and once the magnet no longer lines up with the door alarm (once the box is roughly 3/4" open), the alarm goes off, nice and loud. The box has a handle on the top which I can tie tripwires to (anything that would pull the wire would easily flip open the box, setting off the alarm), and the box can be opened wide enough to turn off the alarm switch by someone who is careful (and face it, folks disarming a trap ought to be careful).

It's disarmable, looks pretty good in-game, super cheap to make, easy to tell when it has been triggered, and is easily attachable to a "volatile substance" container to be used for Explosive/Acid/Gas/Flame traps as well. It has yet to be used at game, but I'm thinking of making a couple more to donate to NPC camp so more trap stuff can happen.
 
omg do it.

And Alexander, if you can send some pictures to the plot email that would help us even more be ready to use something awesome like this!! ^_^
 
Wraith said:
Yeah, that right there is the problem. It is far too easy for PCs to bypass traps via just having someone strip down and walk in, then get picked up with cure light wounds. If I was out to solve this problem, I'd do it by making it much, much more cost effective to create and deploy traps with effects other than just damage and/or making -really big- explosive/acid traps death effects.

Cure light wounds putting someone back together from a fine red mist stretches the imagination.

Long as we want to have people recover instantly from wounds, the CLW yo-yo will be an eternal entertaining trap-removal system.

*click* BOOM *thud* CLW *click* BOOM *thud* CLW *click* SLICE *thud* CLW.....

Personally, I'd be fine with traps that fired Nerf arrows or the like and simply only did "base damage"- and larger damage traps of that type fired more at once.

A 2-point trap might be a simple foam javelin, while a 30-point trap would be a hail of arrows spraying the target. That way, you don't have to call a hold when a trap goes off- simply take the number of hits into account and roll with it. We really do rely a lot on calls, so even a trap has to have one at this point.

Ironically, this just gave me an idea. You know those Hallmark cards that let you record your own message? Hello, trap triggers? Edit: Hivemind with someone on same page...
 
we are working on nerf dart traps as well. We found these fantasic single shot ones that actually fire quiet far. Now for a proper trigger. :twisted:
 
The problem with traps as they are now is, even if they fire a thousand darts and every one of them hits somebody, the person who set off the trigger is the only one that takes any damage. See the "Refrigerator across camp" argument.
 
As a alchemist/trapper build, i have a few ideas on this subject. First i have a trap build that seems to work very well for my own IG reps. It is a gator clip anchoring one side of a trip-line, inside the rep, with a momentary switch between the anchor and the exit hole for the line. When the line is taught the switch is down and the relay is open, the line goes slack for any reason and the trap goes off, with a 80-90Db buzzer. As for a hold free system, red cord. Have a trap fitted with a x foot red cord and when it is set off, pull the cord, use that to measure and be done, there is also an element of the honor system when working with traps, i play airsoft and AOEs are almost never measured. It is just accepted that if you could reasonably be in the AOE, it is taken. even better would be to have the cord shot out in some manner for quick reference. As for the usefulness, i had the idea of adding a "formal-ish" system to trap. where a trap master could "invent" a ward like system or mimic other useful effects, at the cost of gold. Also in our chapter, and i am really enjoying this when it happens, traps are taking on the role of breaching and destruction, allowing the players to alter the landscape using that skill.

my 2 copper

Michael H./Gabriel Di Greoni
 
Just a reminder to keep General Discussion to the game as it currently stands. Any discussion of changes to the trap system or rules should be in Rules Theory.
 
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