Traps

Traps are mechanical or magical devices designed to damage, debilitate, or confine creatures that wander into their midst. They are used to protect valuables, debilitate foes, or present a trial that only the worthy may pass. Traps can provide unique and interesting obstacles for PCs to overcome, or simply serve as a way to penalize careless or reckless adventurers. Traps may be either mechanical or magical in nature (and sometimes both).

The first step in bypassing a trap is to find it. Each trap hast three Skill DCs associated with identifying it: an Awareness DC, a Spot DC, and an Investigate DC. If the PC's Awareness score meets or exceeds the Awareness DC of the trap (remember a suspicious PC gains a +5 bonus to its Awareness), they will immediately notice something amiss upon approaching the trapped area or object. This could be a scraping on the floor where the wall moves, a tiny hole next to the lock where a needle springs, or a change in the way the sound reverberates in the corridor ahead. Alternatively, if the PCs chooses to take a look around, they may notice the same information with a successful Spot check.

If a PC notices something amiss, or is simply being overly cautious, they may make an Investigate check to attempt to locate the trap itself. If they succeed, they are able to determine what is likely to happen if the trap is sprung and what the likely trigger is. With this information they can attempt to Disarm the trap, using the Trapsmith or Thievery skill. Depending on the trap and triggering mechanism, the PCs may alternatively bypass the trap all together. If the PCs attempt to disarm a trap and fail, the trap may be sprung anyway (see Running Traps for more details).

Traps don't usually grant Experience individually and are instead incorporated into Story Awards, but if the Trap is particularly challenging to bypass consider granting a small amount of xp for the Trap itself (50-200xp per player depending on the difficulty). If a Trap is used to provide extra challenge in a combat situation (and that Trap affects the PCs unilaterally), consider increasing the Experience granted by the encounter to each player (25-100xp depending on the difficulty).

Traps come in many styles and variations. Below are some examples of different traps.