Pit of Darkness with Borin's Armor

[Bareheaded Warrior]

The Pits of Darkness text suggests this is treated as a normal pit trap with the noted exceptions except the third exception, isn’t an exception it is the standard rule.

The normal pit trap rules allow for them to be searched for and disarmed, so whilst it is clear that an exception has been made here, it isn’t clear why a shallow pit trap can be found and disarmed but a deeper pit trap cannot.

Also the normal pit trap rules around getting out without a movement penalty, being able to attack those outside of the pit from within and vice versa, and a figure in a pit trap continuing to block line of sight presumably still apply here (as no exceptions are noted) but these rules don’t really make sense in the context of a 30ft deep pit as opposed to the relatively shallow original one.

Finally, the mechanism around damage being related to armour worn, whilst I can see the desire in later expansions to increase the damage to counter better equipped heroes, the standard traps ignore armour, so the actual effect here is that this trap is likely to cause less damage to an unarmoured character than a standard pit trap and the same for most armour types, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. From a practical point of view having a list of specific armour types is restrictive in terms of future expansions.

My own recommendation here would be instead to treat Pits of Darkness exactly the same as a Standard Pit Trap, which I have adjusted at my table to use two combat dice for damage, except you roll three combat dice for damage.

In terms of not allowing them to be disarmed, you could do any of the following;
1) Ignore this rule
2) Treat every disarm attempt as a failure irrespective to the roll
3) Rule that they are not found by a search (so cannot be disarmed)
4) You could rationalise (3) by ruling that they are hidden by magic "shrouded in darkness", in which case they could only be found by a search that is carried out by a spell caster. If found they could be disarmed as usual.

[Wolfheim]

Last Friday my gaming group started the campaign "Against the Ogre Hordes".
After much deliberation, I set the following rules for my gaming group regarding the pits of darkness:

"Any figure that falls into a pit of darkness receives damage equal to 2 body points.
This damage can be reduced by rolling white shields.
Figures without body armor roll 1 combat die,
figures with chain mail or Borin's armor (or comparable body armor) roll 2 combat dice,
figures with plate mail (or comparable body armor ) roll 3 combat dice to protect against injuries."

So I follow the German interpretation of the original British rules text, simply because it seems more logical to me:
Body armor protects, in combat and when you fall.

The fact that body armor is taken into account for the pits of darkness, but not for normal pit traps, is perfectly fine with me.
With the pits of darkness you have just a little bit more drama, and even though they're deeper than normal pit traps, it's still possible for the character to not take damage if fate decides so.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Under those rules, a hero wearing plate mail, has a 25% chance of suffering no damage from a deeper pit as opposed to the same hero with the same armour falling into a standard pit trap, which doesn't make sense to me.

And if armour protects, in combat and when you fall, then why would your helmet not protect you, at least your head, from fall damage?

And why would your armour not protect you from a standard Pit trap or a Spear trap?

I still prefer the simplicity of Pit trap roll 2 combat dice, lose a BP for each skull rolled and Spiked Pit trap roll 3 combat dice, lose a BP for each skull rolled (and Pit of Darkness = Spiked Pit Trap) but each to their own.

[Wolfheim]

All right,but with your rule it's also possible that the guy, who stumbles into a pit trap, gets more damage than that lucky bastard, who falls into a pit of darkness and rolls no skulls.
Fate is a bitch sometimes.

"And helmets are great against the perils from above like falling blocks. But when you fall into a very deep hole, nothing protects your backs as well as some goode old body armour."
Mentor*s last advice before the heroes left to the ancient ruined temple to find the legendary Spirit Blade.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Of course that is a possible outcome, but that is the nature of using dice rolls, a monster with 5AD has a more powerful attack than a monster with 1AD, but it is still possible for the 1AD monster to do more damage, it is all about the min, max and the averages. My point is that I don't understand why a more powerful version of a trap has a lower minimum damage. I also don't like the inconsistencies not just in your version but in the official one, between traps that ignore armour and traps that take armour into account (as though defending against a standard attack).

Logically, either approach makes sense, armour works as standard OR traps ignore armour, but if you go with the second option it makes more sense in game as it means traps can still cause minor amounts of damage to heavily armoured heroes, later in their advancement, otherwise a tank with 6DD would be able to stroll through most traps without a scratch. So for consistency and game play I would opt for "traps ignoring armour" as a standard approach.