Disarming Traps as a free action

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I have a dream of some day writing the two rulesets into one, taking the best from both. This could be a community project.

As a HQ player since 1989 I was never 100% happy with this whole topic of searching for and disarming traps, action, non-action, free action, finding traps behind other traps and all the rest of the challenges in the original version, so many years later when I discovered the 1990 remake (NA edition) I hoped to find a smoother mechanism but sadly some issues were fixed, some remained and some new ones had been thrown in for good measure!

So I houseruled for a smoother flavour

#7 Search for Traps and Secret Doors
The “Search for Traps and Secret Doors” action is scrapped.
The EWP will declare when a hero moves onto a square adjacent to a secret door and places an open-door piece and anything else that is revealed beyond the door.
The EWP will declare when a hero moves onto a trapped square, attempts to open a trapped door or chest and the hero will immediately roll to detect & disarm (see #3 Action Dice Mechanism) either activating or disarming the trap.

#8 Search Action
A hero may conduct a “search” action in a room (not in a corridor) that contains no monsters. The EWP will place the figure on the nearest trap, if one exists, and the hero must carry out a detect and disarm roll. If no traps exist, the EWP will place the hero on the square adjacent to the nearest secret door and follow the rules above. If no traps or secret doors exist, then the hero player may draw a treasure card as usual (unless the EWP declares a special treasure from the Quest Notes). At this point, the room is marked off (any face down marker will do) as searched and cannot be searched again.

#9 Handling Chests
Chests are handled in the same way as Doors. A hero on a square adjacent to a chest may open the chest and loot the contents as part of their turn, this does not count as an action. As with doors the EWP will declare if they are trapped, and the hero must make a disarm roll.

#3 Action Dice Mechanism
All actions outside of combat, damage and movement are resolved using the new Action Dice Mechanism outlined below.
Roll the number of combat dice shown and succeed if you roll at least one
• Jump Pit - 4 dice [Potion of Dexterity gives an extra die; Rabbit Boots give an extra die]
• Disarm Trap - 3 dice [Toolkit gives an extra die; Dwarf gets 2 extra dice]
• Open Jammed / Stone Door - 2 dice [Barbarian gets an extra die; Potion of Strength gives 2 extra dice]
• Open Lock - 2 dice [Toolkit gives an extra die; Dwarf gets extra die]
• Break Spell - use dice equal to Mind value (see #6 Mind Dice)
• Pass through Warded Portal – as Break Spell [Dwarf gets extra 2 dice]

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Consider the extreme case of eight traps placed consecutively in a single corridor, as in The Eastern Passage, Quest 7 of the NA version of Keller's Keep. With a decent move roll and some good luck, it is possible for the Dwarf to disarm all of the traps before the false door in a single turn. For me, this shouldn't be possible due to thematic sensibilities. I'm more comfortable with a one-disarm-a-turn limit. You could amend your houserule to match the EU limit easily enough, if that's what you want out of it.

Incidentally under my system the odds of Dwarf successfully disarming a trap is (rolls 5 combat dice and must score at least 1 blackshield) = 0.59812 to do this successfully 8 times in a row (0.59812)^8 = 0.01637972466

So about twice in every 100 games (and that is assuming that he also rolls sufficient movement to cover the full stretch. As this particular situation only occurs in this single quest then that quest would have to be played 50 times, on average, for this to occur so I would consider that an edge case and not throw away an otherwise satifactory houserule because of it.