Random Trap Button

Because sometimes you just need a large hole in the ground filled with sharp pointy metal and a healthy dose of tetanus.

1. A column of light. When a being enters they are frozen, and an evil duplicate of them is conjured. The victim is only freed when the duplicate is killed.
2. A dripping wet door. Opening it oods the room with ancient, rancid water and three zombie sharks.
3. A fishing rod propped up and cast into a lake. The rod is covered in fast-acting glue and tension on the line triggers a springboard beneath the victim, casting them into the lake.
4. A metal room filled with crushed remains, visible moving parts to door, and a sealed door leading forward. Two buttons. One opens the door, the other seals all doors and commences the crushing process.
5. A peephole blocked up with glass fragments. Breaking the fragments releases a toxic gas.
6. Access via Magic God Scales. Needs only 30 hearts from freshly (right now) sacrificed honey badgers to activate (i.e. ‘The Anubis’).
7. Archway. Anyone who passes through it is transposed with a ghoul in a nearby room.
8. Bear trap.
9. Before you can run through them, you need to observe the swinging pendulums to determine their pattern. Anyone observing the pendulums is hypnotized by them, staggers safely through them, and begins to self-mutilate by dancing in the middle of all of them (1d3 damage per turn).
10. Big metal skull with a gem in its open, toothy mouth. Obviously it bites anything put inside.
11. Big tall complex place. Dimensional exit door carried about by swarms of climbing skeletons with added spider bone limbs. They fear all life and climb up and away from anything living.
12. Bird trap – room of big stuffed birds. One has switch to secret door in its beak. The rest are not stuffed, but violent resentful waiting undead.
13. Blood Stream: this section of corridor is partially flooded via a fast owing stream, very clear and fairly quick. Algae or some other slime has coated the submerged. The real danger is the concealed glass blades, spikes and caltrops that are hidden here. Brushing past them will cut you, falling on them will impale you and trying to knock them out of the way will break them into smaller, but still sharp pieces. Any resulting cuts or injuries have a high chance of infection because its down stream from a midden. (If this trap is being used as defence rather than a fun house fuck you type deal , this will be a defence that scouts or sentry’s will escape or fall back past, using stilts or a simple raft to get across)
14. Can only be opened with the finger bone of a very recent and entirely willing suicide.
15. Candle Snakes: an altar with unlit candles. The candles repeal undead when lit but have a snake skeleton inside. As the wax drips away the snake becomes noticeable. If it is burned much longer that snake bursts free and starts savaging the face of the holder. These candles were made to allow junior archivist to access the archives, crypts, and mausoleums but with strict time allowances."
16. Carry a baby out of the dungeon. No, carry ten babies.
17. Climb a frictionless wall (have fun collecting large furniture – shitty tables are treasure now.)
18. Climb up giants chimney to get thing. Goblin tends fire at the bottom that falls it with wondrously noxious and choking soot and gas, but keeps it free of Stirges who swoop through whenever fire is out.
19. Clusters of bright orange fungus growing on one or more corpses. Any disturbance triggers a deadly spore explosion.
20. Code to pass tattooed on a Succubus.
21. Concealed pit into piranha-filled water.
22. Creepy Wizard made the door. Someone has to fuck the lock to get in (or handle – REPRESENTATION), (‘The Raggi’).
23. Crossing an underwater lagoon. Hope you brought a canoe. Of course something attacks during the crossing. A fast boat can escape it, a oating table is easily capsized.
24. Crush hallway. Find a way to survive the crush, or at least move really, really quickly.
25. Cyclopean Door, one mile high. Latch, handle and keyhole half way up sheer dense wood, key in lock but is the size of a house. Gogmagogic sign reads ‘Door Opens Quick’. Howling gale from under crack prevents door level access. Door swings open in a quarter mile arc destroying everything (possible local settlement and ‘Cathedral of the Door’).
26. Damp, underwater tunnel with glowing treasure at a visible dead end. A pressure plate halfway through triggers flooding of the tunnel. A normal human could get back to the tunnel exit with breath to spare, but not if they try to grab the treasure first.
27. Disguised springboard, launching the victim straight up into the air. There is a hanging bar they can grab to avoid the fall, but weight on the bar triggers the release of giant spiders onto it, and rained down onto anyone below.
28. Door is Gingerbread but transforms those who pass into Fondant Men. Hungry Monsters beyond.
29. Door is glass terrarium full of poisoned ants. They run out and over the handle and about the room. One sting painful, many debilitating. Lock keeps active by the living ants, if they die, portal permanently shut.
30. Door is the shadow of a billowing ag, but there are many ags, no light, no wind and they are all highly flammable.
31. Door is under a rug but the whole door is rugs and a nice old man says the one rule is that you can’t move the rugs - he breaks down and goes mad if you do (i.e. ‘The DFD’). Possibly add infinite depth of rugs for interest.
32. Door rotting but barred with the bones of a saint. Damaging them a serious sin.
33. Door simply massive boulder, guarded by Giant strong enough to lift or roll it but cursed so that for all who pass that live, he loses one year of life, and for all of the dead who are denied, he also loses a year. The Giant is blind (i.e. ‘The Odyssey’).
34. Door very small, magic fountain shrinks you. Area between fountain and door has foxes, mink and hawks.
35. Door/Area utterly evil and cursed. Evil kept at bay by twenty sacred statues of Devas/Saints – they have jewel eyes that help them see the evil with. Half of the jewels are missing. PC’s can replace them to make area passable, or steal the rest. Other Adventure Party is here and disagrees with whatever the PC’s want.
36. Dungeon has toughish monsters at the start, but they get easier, but they all avoid you mostly. Treasure is poisoned and touching it level drains and nerfs you slowly. Sunlight cures this but now the cowardly goblins at the start are gonna be a major problem, and you just brought them the treasure.
37. Earthquake trap – portal guarded by Earth God. Opening splits building or dungeon apart with giant chasm. Whole other half of place now other side of infinite sheer sided hole. Chasm may expand to entire nation. Add written warning to increase gamability.
38. Everything appears distorted in the mirror. Humans appear to be orcs, swords appear to be hammers, etc. The trick is to notice that the pen appears to be a key, and the mouse skull appears to be lock. Inserting one into the other will cause the door to open.
39. Fated Doppelgangers – dark room full of tactical cover. Familiar voices warn you not to approach, turn back. Guards are your own cursed older selves, wounded from adventure. At end of dungeon you must become them and re-fight the fight, hoping to win this time and (presumably) kill alternate younger selves? Or fake your way out of the paradox somehow.
40. First through door sent 100 years back into the past. Few monsters or treasure and traps and problems being built, they can nd ways to leave signs and info for their friends in the future to help them past stuff.
41. Floor paved with ripe babies and spikes.
42. Free Fall: something is wrong with space here, there’s no door or ceiling , and they effectively loop. So something that falls through the fall comes out the ceiling, soon reaching terminal velocity. A number of large rocks are doing this currently.
43. Functional teleport brings organic material to one place, and inorganic material to another. Allow teleported people to communicate this (possibly by shouting, roll for random encounter) so they can make a more informed decision. An incipient threat hastens plans.
44. Giant cauldron filled with treasure. Any weight added to the cauldron causes the lid to slam shut and a fire to spark to life underneath it.
45. Giant chomping blade that must be passed through to progress. Visible pressure plate on either side. Blades are triggered when a pressure plate is released, unless the other plate is also depressed. Going slow poses no risk.
46. Giant spider lair, huge boulders suspended in the highest webs. Too much disturbance might release a boulder, fire will definitely release them all.
47. Glass vials of green slime hung from a ceiling, a guard with a crossbow watching from behind a barricade.
48. Glossy, friction-less door and spiked walls.
49. Goblin barricade staffed by several bow-wielding goblins.
50. Green Devil Face with gaping mouth. Anything going into the mouth is annihilated.
51. Haunted pots, audible screaming within, placed on wobbly plinths on an uneven door. Any sort of weight on the door is sure to release at least one angry wraith.
52. Hidden jet spraying you with disgusting smelling liquid. Not harmful in itself, but might attract scent-based creatures or warn inhabitants that you’ve been poking around where you shouldn’t have.
53. Hourglass trap – key blocks the sand, door opens inwards.
54. Huge wooden bowl, lined with thin, insoluble gold foil. Filled with horrible, fuming acid.
55. In a hallway climb a diagonal shaft, rotating.
56. Infinite Distance trap – only 20 feet but end of passage is always double the distance you have already gone.
57. Insanely hot hallway (or room where you have to perform some activity). Anyone trying to sprint through it unprotected is probably going to burn their feet and die. Things that reduce damage: being soaking wet, air circulation, walking/standing on soggy leather.
58. Key can only be carried by foot as a slow, even pace. Any alternate or faster movement and it teleports back to the other end of the Dungeon. There are fast monsters (or, dangerous but slow monsters, easy to avoid, if you don’t have the key).
59. Key to thing is the golden spear of a noble hero. Hero and spear are the only thing suppressing sea of shadows from slowly consuming building or dungeon from the outside in.
60. Lake of acid. Get to the island.
61. Lock that can only be opened at a certain minute each day. Adjacent, a lock that can only be opened at a certain minute each week. Adjacent, a lock that can only be opened at a certain minute each year.
62. Locked door, key visible in a stinky fountain. The liquid is fast-acting acid, the key made from a special resistant ceramic.
63. Lots of treasure but its invisible and hidden ‘between life and death’. Guarded by a Wyvern who drips their poison into a crystal cup every day. Allows those who drink free access, but they always die (i.e. ‘The Potter’).
64. Love Lock – door/chest has ‘spin the bottle’ combination lock, clearly labelled as so. Two present randomly fall in love. Specific actions, gifts, dates, anniversaries, are required and heavy penalties if not met.
65. Metal sword audibly humming, hooked up to electric charge.
66. Obvious pit trap. The correct path is hidden at the bottom of the pit.
67. Obvious trigger: taking the sword off the pedestal. Two copper spears shoot out of the wall, impaling an incautious explorer. A round later, lightning begins to arc between the spears. A round later, the room begins to fill with water.
68. Only those wearing the crown of a King may pass. All others will be transformed into Tapiers. All local kings hate each other, want the treasure behind the portal, don’t want the other kings to have it, and have large collections of Tapiers.
69. Open pit onto deadly spikes. Both sides of the pit are sloped into it and greased up.
70. Path is broken tube through Demon Space - can only be held open by occupying life-devouring superchair (i.e. ‘The Warhammer’).
71. Poisonous gas seeps from a crack in the wall.
72. Pool of lava, a metal idol partially submerged in the centre. It’s glowing hot, but valuable.
73. Portcullis that slams shut to split the party. You can reunite 1-2 rooms away (don’t split the party for too long).
74. Pressure plate triggers part of the door to move down, slowly transporting the victim into the now-visible lair of a horrible monster.
75. Quicksand, just like in cartoons.
76. Rain Gods Treasure – if touched, doors lock and treasure turns to cold wind and rain that gradually fills room and drowns everything. ‘Key’ to get in and out is a single candle ame.
77. Room dusted with a deadly white powder. Any rapid movement disturbs the powder, sending it into the air and then the lungs of anybody breathing nearby. Hidden pressure plate in the centre of the room triggers a loud siren, alerting any nearby threats.
78. Rope bridge primed to split in the middle when the majority of the crossing weight has passed the mid-point. The characters can grab their half of the bridge and climb back up easily enough.
79. Sealed door with two identical handles on the adjacent wall. One releases snakes from above, the other opens the door.
80. Shimmering, thick air that slows all movement down to a quarter of normal. Guards with missile weapons waiting around the corner.
81. Sign says “teleporter” but it’s really just a big blender.
82. Sloped walkway in a freezing cold room. Pressure plate halfway up releases a flood of water down the slope, freezing near instantly.
83. Song trap – key to something is a song. Giant sleeping Supermonster chained nearby.
84. Statue Gallery: a looong winding tunnel filled up with statues in various poses, you have to occasionally squeeze or clamber over them if you want to get through. Some statues appear crude and unfinished (or abandoned), others executed well. Mostly sandstone but some harder materials. Creator has a good eye for movement and emotion, especially anger and sorrow. Air is a bit stuffy though.
85. Stuck door with a gold snake-head handle. The handle will bite and poison anybody putting their hand near, unless they slip a coin into its mouth, allowing safe passage through the door.
86. Subtle pressure plate. The trap triggers when weight is taken off the plate, except there are several pressure plates in a row.
87. Subtle pressure plate. The trap triggers when weight is taken off the plate.
88. The Classic: it’s 10 by 10 metre square pit, smooth-sided, and deep enough that it would injure you to fall in it and it’s hard to see the bottom with the lighting, about thirty metres. It’s not disguised, it’s plainly there in the middle of the room. There is nothing in the bottom of it. The odds are really good that your players will manage to spend a hour on this trap and resulting in at least one character badly injured.
89. The door can only be opened in your dreams. If you open it in your dreams, you can pass through it in real life. While your body sleeps on the altar, it is inhabited by the spirit of an ancient wizard.
90. The door of this room is laminated with symbols of disintegration. If a symbol is touched, all non- stone material in the room will take 3d6 Con damage each turn. In the room, an (unsupported) pedestal with a stone McGu n on top. In the ceiling: spiders and spiderwebs.
91. The dragon is sleeping! Steal things quietly (common sense: it’s quieter to carry a chest away than it is to open it, a sack of coins is guaranteed to clink, etc).
92. The dragon is sleeping! Steal things quietly, except some goblins just showed up. They want to kill you quietly, but if the dragon wakes up, you’re all probably going to die.
93. The magic stein can only be carried by someone who is colossally, totally drunk. They have to carry themselves – no one else can help them.
94. Treasure is a Witches Shoes. Super valuable but can’t be moved without being worn and will always lead anyone who isn’t the Witch ‘towards danger’.
95. Treasure room a mess of gold and blood. Main prize is a hurricane gem that activates if touched or if its ‘friends’ (the other treasures) are taken from it.
96. Trouble Giant – room full of big squashy giant asleep and having a nightmare. If made happy will shrink down so room can be navigated but has been told not to let anyone through or there will be trouble and he grows bigger when scared. He doesn’t want Trouble.
97. Two doors in sequence. First sprays anybody passing through with highly flammable liquid. Second spits out a flash of flame, harmless on its own but enough to ignite the liquid.
98. Two panes of glass blocking passage, filled with deadly bugs.
99. Upper Crust: a boiling mud pool has a natural bridge of a thicker layer leading to an Obsidian Elephant Skull. It’s heavy enough that if you try and carry it you will fall through the crust and into the mud.
100. Upside-down spiked pit on the ceiling. Gravity is reversed under the pit.
101. Vantablack Cathedral with blind black-robed archers in the belfries. They shoot anything they hear with importune skill (i.e. ‘The Samurai Jack’).
102. Wall of fire in hallway.
103. Walls dotted with arrow-slots. Any movement in front of them fires the arrow, but each hole only has one arrow.
104. When the lid of the sarcophagus is placed back on top, the bottom of the sarcophagus opens.
105. World of teeth? Teeth that make a snake and pull other teeth? Ok I’m waaaay out of ideas.
106. Zone of unconsciousness in hallway.