May 102011
 

By Alton, from 20ft Radius.

Traps have always intrigued me.  From Indiana Jones to Gilligan’s Island, and from SAW to Star Wars, traps have always been sources of conflict to entertain the audience.  What better way to create suspense than to place the characters from a book, movie, or even television into a situation, and to watch how they manage to get themselves out of it?

Through all the editions of Dungeons & Dragons, traps have always had a role of either hampering or just plain decimating characters.

The trap that always comes to mind when I think about them is the Snake Trap in Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Since it is ‘Snake Week’ here at Stuffer Shack, I have chosen to create this trap to reflect the theme. It can also be modified and inserted into any campaign, and to be used in probably any situation with little to no modifications.

Click to make bigger!

Imagine walking down a corridor in search of the answer to the plague that is decimating your home town.  You have traced the plague’s origin to the Temple of Zehir in the valley of the Forgotten Fang, a string of mountains that look like snake’s fangs  – also known for harbouring the temple’s cultists.  The party is exploring passageways, and ends up in a room with a large burning brazier sitting in the middle of the room.  An altar on the other side depicts scenes of snakes being killed and placed in a container, partisans being swallowed whole by some large anaconda, and priests of some good deity being crushed by giant constrictors.

________________

Chris has been inviting me to write for the site, but I guess you can say I am a little keyboard shy. Fortunately for him, he rolled a critical diplomacy check and managed to twist my virtual arm and has challenged me to put on paper what I have been putting off for years.  I am testing my mettle today and will see if his confidence is warranted.  Enjoy the read!

Marc Talbot (Alton)

Living in Elliot Lake, Canada has taught me many valuable lessons. The first is making sure my garbage cans have tight lids, because BEARS do love to come into my yard (especially on garbage day). Secondly, teaching happens to be the best profession in the world, and lastly, I can still be part of the gaming community without being physically present. I've been an RPGer for over 25 years, teacher for 6, blogger for 1, and married to a wonderful woman, I couldn’t ask for anything else in life – except for…Profile Page / Article Portfolio

  4 Responses to “Minion Madness – Steal this Snake Trap”

  1. I’ve always like the snake theme from indiana jones, and always wanted to see it played out in a game. This is close, and I like it!

  2. A very cool idea. Improves the idea of traps by one step. But I’d rather put the solution to the puzzle right on the puzzle card itself. Thus having the monster card just for the monster itself. And I’d award XP for the puzzle itself. Maybe as much as a minor quest of the puzzles level (which equals one monster of the level).

    Concerning the texts on the cards maybe they should be a little more clearly written, but it’s okay. The riddle text will be the key to the solution, so I guess it heavily depends on the groups whether it works that way or not.

    Really looking forward to having more of such puzzles.

  3. @ Nancy

    Yeah, I thought the same thing when I heard ‘Snake Week’. When asked to write the article, I had this in the back of my head the whole time. Glad you enjoyed it!

    @ The Clone

    The trap was supposed to be one long panel, but I had to cut it in two because of the length of the written article. The XP can be fixed if you like, it is just one of the ways the trap could be modified. It is still in its testing phase, so I thought I would throw it out there and see what feedback we could get. It is all appreciated.

    You are also right. Different groups deal with things differently and maybe a trap like this one would not jive well with certain groups. I personally find skill challenges a drag in most of the modules that we play as a group, but my group seems to like them and so we do them.

    Thanks for the feedback!

  4. Just to avoid misunderstanding: I wasn’t meaning to make the whole trap fixed XP. I think it’s quite fine to count the XP for the monsters, but the trap itself also presents a threat and that should give a (small) additional XP value.

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