Another shortish post is in your immediate future giving you some brief thoughts from my mangled mind.

Here is today’s hashtag entry.

So far in my limited time as a DM I’ve used a couple of traps. The first was in the Matt Colville “one shot” for beginning DM’s The Delian Tomb. The other was in the pirate liar that my party of adventurers stumbled into at the start of our campaign.

I try and use things like traps and puzzles/riddles sparingly. I don’t want to be reliant on “gimmicks” or be formulaic when it comes to sessions and what happens in them. I want things to feel natural and authentic when players come across them. So when the party comes across a trap I want them to think “oh this makes sense to be here” and not that it’s something I’ve put there because I can, and to give them something to do.

My preference for trap design is to follow the additional advice given in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything over that in the DMG. I like the advice better, especially the layout and information given for designing your own. Most probably simple traps are the only ones I’ll use.

If I need to create a trap on the fly the Lazy DM Workbook has 5 tables to roll against to generate one. Plus it can also be used to inspire/create one during session prep.

If my players are reading this. There may or may not be a trap or two in your future (once we return to the table).

Wrapping up this post with some sage words from the man himself Matt Colville and Dael Kingsmill on the subject.