Disarming pit trap?

[torilen]

I love the idea - and I would have to say that if either is not disarmed, both trigger and the hero is buried in the pit.
Harsh, yes, but in higher "level" quests, that is kind of the point. The heroes should be able to handle stuff like that
by that point. Perhaps you have rules to allow for better disarming, or magical items or something.

On a side note, this got me thinking about some other traps. Hero finds trap A, and goes to disarm it - whether he
does so or not, trap B is triggered, shooting an arrow from behind the hero/party, hitting an entirely different hero.
This would be great, since many times the wizard is kept in the back of the group to keep him safe.

(evil laugh here)

[TMU]

But there is a trap in front of the monster!
No search for you my friend!

Just remove the monster. Or be an ass and let that one hero die as it attacks the monster

I love the idea - and I would have to say that if either is not disarmed, both trigger and the hero is buried in the pit.
Harsh, yes, but in higher "level" quests, that is kind of the point. The heroes should be able to handle stuff like that
by that point. Perhaps you have rules to allow for better disarming, or magical items or something.

On a side note, this got me thinking about some other traps. Hero finds trap A, and goes to disarm it - whether he
does so or not, trap B is triggered, shooting an arrow from behind the hero/party, hitting an entirely different hero.
This would be great, since many times the wizard is kept in the back of the group to keep him safe.

(evil laugh here)

Good points I would say I also like the idea of your trap

"Oh look, a pressure plate. I disarmit. There we go."
*ZOING*
"WTF???"

[Malcadon]

Has anyone made traps that trigger Chaos Spells, or spell-like effects? Like a chest that triggers a Firestorm or Cloud of Chaos within the room it is placed. I square that teleports a Hero into another square (a basic tweeking of Escape). A trap that causes undead to rise out of the ground like Summon the Undead spell. A basic, non-magical alarm that Summons Orcs. And so on.

[The Road Warrior]

A variation on the pit/falling rock trap suggested earlier.....



A When the last Hero passes the square marked 'A', a giant stone boulder will fall from the ceiling. Place the round boulder tile on the square marker 'A'. On your next turn and subsequent turns, roll 2d6 to see how far down the corridor the boulder rolls (to the left left towards the Heroes). Each Hero hit by the Boulder must roll 5 Combat Dice. For each skull rolled the Hero loses 1 Body Point (No Defend Dice are rolled.
If the pit trap has not been disarmed when the boulder reaches it the floor collapses and the boulder falls into the pit, filling it forever. Any Hero inside the pit when this happens dies instantly.
If the pit trap has been disarmed the boulder keeps rolling and will eventually crash into the wall at the end of the passage. The passage will then be blocked for the rest of the quest.
The boulder trap cannot be searched for or disarmed.

Think quick Heroes. How are you going to get out of this one?

[torilen]

Road warrior - that's nasty...I like it.

As to the question of making traps with spell-effects. I've done a bit of that...not sure if it is any that I have
posted, or simply works-in-progress. But yes, I've done that. I usually use either a letter or number mark, or the
"blast" trap icon in heroscribe to indicate those traps, and then explain the effects in the quest notes.

A new one that I have used, though not posted yet:
A hero passes a certain square or door or such - there are runes on it, perhaps, or maybe not.
Skeletons, or suits of armor, some other animated creature, comes to life beyond the square...I had them posted in the hallway
around the middle room of the board.
There is another mark(s) further on that will make the animation magic leave the creatures. As long as any hero is in between
the two marked squares, the animated creatures are "alive" and will attack.

This would work great for doors entering/leave a room, with simple piles of bones or armor seen from the outside of the room.

Could be used for anything - fire erupts from the floor as long as a hero is in between the marked squares. It is almost like a
deadly cloud effect, in design.

[Daedalus]

...By the way. If a Pit Trap and Falling Rocks Trap have been placed on the same square (by a rotten bastard of an EWP) and are triggered at the same time, would it leave a hole, would it block the way, or would the rocks bury the Hero alive while fulling-up the hole for other Heroes to safely walkover? Better yet, could a Hero disarm both traps with one action - seeing how the Hero has to be in that square to disarm them - and even if you can disarm both, do you make a roll for both traps, or do you have to make two separate rolls?

Triggering the trap:

Goblin-King's ideas work well as long as the notes specify the order of effect. I think there's yet another route where the effects hash out equally in time. When a Hero moves onto the square containing both traps, the ceiling collapses and the floor drops away simultaneously. Pit and ceiling damage are both applied. Falling into the pit ends the Hero's turn. The decision to move ahead or back to an empty space is no longer possible as that requires crawling out of the pit on the next turn (but see the option below).

As the rules don't specifically cover what happens from there, Quest notes again could offer options for the Hero's fate. I think the most obvious result is the square is now a permanent block, the Hero is buried, and nobody can pass the square. If you don't want an insta-death, a Pass Through Rock spell or secret door in the pit could offer a chance for survival. Another option is that the square could instead be blocked while allowing the Hero to climb free of the collapse on the next turn. I prefer the third, less lethal option. This limits the damage to what was originally presented by the two traps (1to 4 BPs is pretty bad) while preserving the choice of pushing forward or retreating back behind the block.

Disarming the trap:

As I think both traps should simultaneously take effect, I see the square as a single trap with two effects. It has a single location for disarming, so only one announce, move, and roll is needed for this. The rule for taking a single action isn't contradicted this way, and the rule for rolling one combat die when disarming a trap also is preserved. Quest notes could call for other methods, but I think this simple interpretation works well as a default.

[chaoticprime]

Narrow Hallway Pit trap + Fireburst + Wandering Monster. I call it, the "Pop Tart."