Traps Skill Penalties

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by Ellie the Technomancer (who is quoting Kromm)

Traps:
Disarming Mechanical Traps. This includes bear traps, crossbow/shotgun traps, grenade traps, snares, tiger pits, etc., as well as elaborate fantasy traps (moving walls, poisoned needles in locks, etc.).
...
Setting Mechanical Traps. Setting up any of the kinds of traps under Disarming Mechanical Traps.
...

* Electronics Operation (Security) is a "broad, shallow" skill that involves knowledge of many specific devices and being up to date with current tech. It provides no theoretical understanding (that requires Engineer). Thus, it suffers from almost routine application of the -2 for unfamiliarity with devices you don't personally use on the job, plus the -1 to -10 for being away from your job for more than a short time; see p. B189. Lockpicking and Traps are "narrow, deep" skills that subsume an ability to adapt to new threats on the fly. They already assume that you're walking into terra incognita, and generally don't suffer the above penalties (which, as you'll note, aren't listed for either skill).

Originally Posted by B223: Survival Skill

Finally, you can use [Survival] skill to trap wild animals. (A city-bred thief could use Traps skill, but he's used to different game ... so the roll would be at a -5.)

The "-5" seems incongruous with "Traps ... "narrow, deep" skills that subsume an ability to adapt to new threats on the fly."

Is the assumption that Traps skill is specifically for human(oid)s, and that when applying that skill to animals or species with different morphology, a -5 penalty should be applied? Or, is there an assumed specialty–city or country–when taking this skill? Or, was the "-5" merely an example of an application of niche protection; which a GM might choose to impose, but which should not be considered the standard penalty when using Traps skill to trap wild animals?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

The "-5" seems incongruous with "Traps ... "narrow, deep" skills that subsume an ability to adapt to new threats on the fly."

I think it reflects the fact they are rather different kinds of traps. A thief could use his Traps skill at no penalty to set up a crossbow trap to take down deer, if he happened to have the necessary equipment and a few weeks to build a wall to install it in. If he wants to improvise a rabbit snare from a sapling and a piece of string though....

So yeah, if you are building a complicated trap to kill something fairly large, something that will take at least hours to set it up, I wouldn't apply the penalty. You take it when you are trying to rig something to catch dinner.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

Is the assumption that Traps skill is specifically for human(oid)s, and that when applying that skill to animals or species with different morphology, a -5 penalty should be applied?

This looks to be the likely answer. The "city-bred thief" would be more accustomed to dealing with (relatively) high-IQ, low-Per victims. Maybe letting it be bought off with time, like a familiarity penalty, wouldn't be out of line.

[Hedonismbot]

It seems to me that this might be a better job for the familiarity rules than a special-case rule in Survival. That way the "city-bred Thief" could suffer from Familiarity penalties to his Traps skill based on types of intended targets, rather than this -5 in all cases of non-humanoids, and if he spends some time laying traps in a space dungeon for the rabbit-people of Betelgeuse 7 the thief can work off the penalty.

[sir_pudding]

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