The hidden pit, the swinging blade, the falling block, the gush of flame or the odd poisoned dart... standard traps installed by tomb-owners of many worlds to keep the rif-raf (or at least, marauding adventurers) from disturbing their eternal rest. Here, however, are an assortment of fiendish devices to make your tombs - or wherever else you choose to situate them, a bit more interesting and exciting for your unwelcome visitors.

The traps are neatly grouped together in four separate tombs, as well as a few stand-alone ones of note, some 55 traps in total. Full details are given in a listing by CR level, to enable you to pick the most suitable ones for your needs. What is really interesting is that the tomb write-ups come complete with background history, and within them the traps are arranged in such a way that multiple traps combine to make interesting and challenging encounters. Use them as is (or with the back story altered to fit in with your campaign world or plot requirements) or treat them as inspiration when designing your own tombs and other trapped locations.

Each trap is described in detail, including game mechanics and what the characters can see or detect, many with diagrams and associated information. For example, rolling ball traps are popular - perhaps forcing characters to flee into other traps that they might have noticed had they not been running for their lives. If you want the ball to 'reset' for the next bunch of hapless adventurers, add a spot of reverse gravity to send it back to its starting point - this is all laid out diagrammatically so that if you, like me, want your traps to actually 'work' you know how it operates. This approach also allows the more mechanically-minded characters a chance to figure out a trap and attempt to disarm it by role-play rather than merely rolling dice. Some might even want to design traps of their own, to defend a lair or the vault in which they store their loot!

There's a lot crammed into these pages, well worth a look whether you are looking for a few traps or enjoy the sort of 'dungeon' exploration where there are masses of traps to challenge adventurers.

Return to 30 Traps for Tombs page.

Reviewed: 14 September 2012