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Monday, January 12, 2009

Old School Dungeon Traps

A list of simple tricks and traps for an old school dungeon. I dug this list out of some really old notebooks I have sitting on my shelves. It probably dates from the late 70s, so very old school.
  1. Pits: hidden, visible, or spiked filled with alligators, fire, acid, lava or water
  2. Doors with swinging blades, crossbow traps, trip wires, ear seekers, poison needles, magical seals, exploding locks, contact poison, intelligent locks, dropping portcullises, acid jets
  3. Rooms or corridors that fill with water, sand, or various gasses (poison, laughing, sleeping)
  4. Stairs or floors that move, slide, or collapse
  5. Projectile traps featuring crossbow bolts, poison darts, magic missiles, spikes, spears, or boulders
  6. Teleportation panels
  7. Life trapping mirrors
  8. Moving panels and walls that seal corridors
  9. Sliding and turning rooms
  10. Trip cords and strangle wires
  11. Poisonous food and drink
  12. Dead end tunnels
  13. Slides to creature dens
  14. Reverse gravity areas
  15. Crushing walls
  16. Magic reversing fields
  17. Blinding lights and impenetrable darkness
  18. Geas rooms
  19. Living furniture and fixtures
  20. Slippery floors and stairs
  21. Hypnotic rooms
  22. Illusionary walls, floors, stairs or corridors
  23. Pivoting walls that lock in place
  24. Intelligent doors or chests that cast spells, ask riddles or seek bribes
  25. Doors that randomly lead to different locations
  26. Areas of blinding light, complete darkness, fog, terrible smells, or strange noises
  27. Collapsing ceilings
  28. Fake doors
  29. Magical traps spraying webs, grease, poison or glue
  30. Alarm traps drawing foes
  31. Hidden or secret doors well above ground level
  32. Magic negation areas
  33. Triggered constructs
  34. Tiny tunnels and passages with tiny inhabitants

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