Day 12 – What is your favourite trap or puzzle?
My players seem to struggle with doors. Basic, common, garden-variety doors. For some reason, these cause the greatest amount of debate on how to proceed. They know there’s something waiting for them on the other side and we go round and round until inevitably someone suggests the ‘knock and run’ approach. Knock on the door and then step back and shoot whatever opens it.
I’m quite partial to trapped treasure chests. A needle coated with some toxin or a glass vial containing a noxious gas that shatters when the player unwittingly opens the lid. Naturally, there is a way to disarm these traps, but they are lessons for the unwary or greedy.
I recall an occasion when I was playing as a gnome illusionist/thief. The party was working its way through the catacombs beneath a castle when I spied a statue in a pool of odd-looking purple liquid. I snuck off (I think during a combat encounter) to investigate the statue and climbed up to its shoulders. Attempting to pry the gems from its eyes (how D&D!). I slipped and fell into the liquid below. Thankfully there was no toxic effect from the liquid, but my skin and clothing was permanently dyed purple. It was hilarious! I repainted my miniature figure to match.