Trap Tables Collection

Overview

Three sources on trap design, from different angles: McDowall's Bastionland list emphasizes meaningful choice under pressure; Arnold K.'s Goblin Punch traps tend toward weird, memorable, and escalating; the Geeknative list focuses on low-fantasy believability and environmental integration.

Design Principles (Cross-Source)

From McDowall (Bastionland): - Good traps telegraph themselves without giving the solution away (rusted floor, strange smell, scratch marks) - The most memorable traps create a decision: take the risk and gain the reward, or route around it - Traps that kill silently or randomly are not fun; traps that kill because players walked in blind are not fun either - Best traps: those where smart players avoid them, and players who spring them understand exactly what happened and why

From Arnold K. (Goblin Punch): - Traps can be ongoing encounters rather than instant resolutions - Escalating traps (each round or each failure makes things worse) create drama without being binary (safe/dead) - Traps that respond to player actions dynamically are more interesting than static "save or take damage" - Weird traps with unexpected vectors (psychological, social, economic) are memorable

Common thread: A trap should be discoverable in retrospect by players who pay attention, survivable with player ingenuity even when triggered, and consequential rather than decorative.

Trap Categories (Cross-Source Taxonomy)

Source Summaries

34 Good Traps (Chris McDowall, Bastionland)

McDowall's list leans toward elegantly mechanical traps with player-visible cause-and-effect. Notable features: - Many traps use the dungeon environment against the party (floors, doors, furniture) - Emphasis on choice — players who interact with a dangerous object understand the stakes - Some traps recur in different forms as variants (multiple pit types, multiple projectile rigs)

Representative examples (reconstructed from the design philosophy): - The door whose handle is a trigger — only openable if you accept the trap - The room that floods slowly — choice of swimming back up vs. finding the drain plug - The bridge with a false central section, only detectable by weight distribution

Some Traps (Arnold K., Goblin Punch)

Arnold K.'s traps tend to be elaborately weird, with multi-stage consequences and unexpected vectors.

Representative examples (from the design approach): - Traps tied to specific creature behavior (the goblin who resets it if you don't catch them) - Traps with moral implications (triggering it helps a caged prisoner... or doesn't) - Traps that technically are not traps at all, but read as one

24 Trap Ideas for Low Fantasy Dungeons (Geeknative)

The low-fantasy list focuses on environmental plausibility — traps that make sense in a world with medieval construction technology and practical dungeon-builders.

Representative examples (from the design approach): - Tripwires tied to existing dungeon architecture - Mechanical latches on hidden doors - Poison applied to surfaces in ways that degrade over time (fresh vs. old dungeon) - Weighted counterbalances and log-fall rigs

Quick Trap Generator (d6 × d6)

Roll twice: first die = Mechanism, second die = Trigger

Mechanism: 1. Pit / floor section collapses 2. Projectile (arrow, dart) 3. Blade (scythe, pendulum) 4. Net / restraint 5. Flood / falling object 6. Poison / gas release

Trigger: 1. Pressure plate 2. Tripwire (ankle height) 3. Door handle 4. Item removal (chest, idol) 5. Threshold crossing (doorway beam) 6. Weight change (counterbalance)

See Also

• ../concepts/dungeon-checklist.md
• ../concepts/dungeon-map-flow-and-topology.md
• ../concepts/classic-exploration-procedure-and-turn-structure.md

Sources

• https://www.bastionland.com/2018/08/34-good-traps.html
• https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2018/08/some-traps.html
• https://www.geeknative.com/61039/24-trap-ideas-low-fantasy-dungeons-adventures/