Idea for making DF Traps more challenging

[b-dog]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Nothing says that a GM who loves house rules couldn't say that the thief and trap "attack" and "defend" with the Traps skill, with the thief's attacks inflicting points of disarming on the trap's Trap Points score but the trap's attacks inflicting actual injury on the thief.

That might be more fun for the thief too. His time to shine isn’t just a roll it would be similar to combat where there are ebbs and flows. The thief would “attack” the trap with his trap skill and then try to reduce the trap to 0 Hot Points without triggering the trap or getting damaged in the process of disarming it. Why not make disarming traps as fun as combat? The thief doesn’t really get to be the star in combat so why not give him a trap that is exciting to disarm? Why not have disarming the trap go second by second just like combat?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by (E)

"The mechanism for this trap seems to rely on a rhythm based trigger, roll against Dance to get through without triggering anything"

:bursts into a song and dance routine: "Walk without rhythm / and you won't attract the worm / walk without rhythm / and you'll never learn"

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Kromm

The trend at gaming tables is to roll less often, not more often. Rolling 20 times would . . . well, everybody who isn't doing the rolling would be tapping their toes. For the most part, "You need N successes" is better handled by "You need one success at -X." You can normalize this to the plain-vanilla human thief built using the template, who has Traps-14. (People who raise IQ or Traps, play gnomes, splurge on good tools, etc. will obviously do better.)

Very roughly:

2 rolls = 1 roll at -1
3-4 rolls = 1 roll at -2
5-6 rolls = 1 roll at -3
7-8 rolls = 1 roll at -4
9-11 rolls =1 roll at -5
12-15 rolls = 1 roll at -6
16-20 rolls = 1 roll at -7

This won't scale perfectly with skill, but it's probably safe enough to use despite that.

Mixing penalties and number of successes is kind of doing the same thing two different ways.

This...is useful. I've saved it for later.

Originally Posted by Kromm

Nothing says that a GM who loves house rules couldn't say that the thief and trap "attack" and "defend" with the Traps skill, with the thief's attacks inflicting points of disarming on the trap's Trap Points score but the trap's attacks inflicting actual injury on the thief.

It's GURPS-y, but I got two words: Control. Points.

Originally Posted by (E)

One option would be to apply other skills to traps. What are the skills on a the character's sheets that see little use?
"The mechanism for this trap seems to rely on a rhythm based trigger, roll against Dance to get through without triggering anything"

Originally Posted by Bruno

:bursts into a song and dance routine: "Walk without rhythm / and you won't attract the worm / walk without rhythm / and you'll never learn"

Bwhahahahahha. *makes notes for later*

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

It's GURPS-y, but I got two words: Control. Points.

I thought about that as well... but the trap isn't building CP.

What you're looking at is more "building MoS" until hitting a breakpoint.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

I thought about that as well... but the trap isn't building CP.

What you're looking at is more "building MoS" until hitting a breakpoint.

A regular contest could be interesting too.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

A regular contest could be interesting too.

Sure. Whichever side builds CP/MoS and hits the 'trigger point' first 'wins' (the PC disables the trap, the trap get's to spring).

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Bwhahahahahha. *makes notes for later*

Thankyew thankyew, I'm here all year. Try the DFRPG!

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Very roughly:

2 rolls = 1 roll at -1
3-4 rolls = 1 roll at -2
5-6 rolls = 1 roll at -3
7-8 rolls = 1 roll at -4
9-11 rolls =1 roll at -5
12-15 rolls = 1 roll at -6
16-20 rolls = 1 roll at -7

This won't scale perfectly with skill, but it's probably safe enough to use despite that.

If the answer isn't the Size and Speed/Range table, you're asking the wrong question. :-)

Look up number of rolls on SSR using the Range table, subtract 1 (to arrive at 2 rolls is -1), move on.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

If the answer isn't the Size and Speed/Range table, you're asking the wrong question. :-)

Look up number of rolls on SSR using the Range table, subtract 1 (to arrive at 2 rolls is -1), move on.

Well, well, well, well . . . isn't that interesting.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

If the answer isn't the Size and Speed/Range table, you're asking the wrong question. :-)

<autobot persona=DouglasCole>

1. Speed/Range Table
2. Control Points

</autobot>