On Reader Mail, Bodies and Traps

05.00 Unknown 0 Comments

Nadav Ben Dov writes

"I am wondering something about traps and tricks, following the Thursday Trick posts I really liked from your blog.

The posts, usually if not always, featured how to describe the traps' effect area as something visible the GM could describe as part of more and less cursory inspections.

But this begs the following from me: if the trap was good enough, it would leave corpses. If it wasn't there is a chance the corpses are found further inside or otherwise the place was cleaned already.

So I'm wondering: assuming such traps, is the appropriate conclusion that among the loot within are corpses of previous adventurers, if there is still loot to find?"

Short answer: Yes, usually.

Long answer: I am against the idea of rationality in dungeons.

People often misinterpret this statement to mean that 'funhouse' design is the only design. That is incorrect. What it really means is that for the purposes of actual gameplay, dungeons should make thematic sense, not literal sense.

There's this idea that every corner of every adventure should be exhaustively unearthed from 3.5. If that's the case, then you end up with this 'fridge logic' moment where you're like, "Wait, what the hell do the Owlbears drink, and how do the ogres ever make it past the Sphinx?"

But that's not what a dungeon is, see? A dungeon is what's past our realm of static steadfast sanity. It's on the other side, made of dreams, nightmares and horrors. You cross a threshold to enter and beyond, nothing remains the same.

But that doesn't mean it can't have resonance. Things can still have reasons for existing. They can still follow logic, twisted and dreamlike as though it may be. But the logic and the dungeon never ends. It can't be explored, fixed or finished.

So, really, worry less about it. Logically, there are many reasons for bodies to be gone. Monsters may come by to grab what the trap catches. Smarter monsters may loot them. The trap itself may dispose of the corpses to feed the giant entity that spawned them.

I ask myself, would a pile of bodies in this trap make it more interesting? Will it tempt the players to risk death to recover them? Will it provide some enhanced feeling of trepidation or terror?


Reader mail is a series supported by reader questions. If you think I'm full of crap, don't understand something I'm talking about, are simply curious about how I might handle a situation, or if you have any questions of your own you'd like answered, message me on Google Plus, or give me an e-mail at campbell at oook dot cz