TRAPS

Hmmm... I think I know the answer, but how do you put a pit trap on a tile?

I concur, no need to get too fancy or deep in design. The simpler and easier to may the better.

I haven't started on work yet, but I've been kicking around some ideas like ^that.. DYING to see Scotty's traps before I get to work tho

Ah!

Simply because I love Kobolds (Or anything really that seems to be an easy challenge but is maddeningly difficult when certain situations are right), I designed a dungeon that was essentially one big trap. A few ideas Follow(I'll post this on the thread I've created too just so people can find it sorted among the madness of all my brainchildren...):

1) Craft: Basketweaving. Wicker crafted floors make for EXCELLENT pit traps, especially if the entire floor is riddled with hidden pits underneath the wicker. Obviously, paint the floor to look like a wicker woven mat from wall to wall (like some oriental buildings have), and when the PC's hit a section with a pit underneath, place a pit marker. Garaunteed to make your PC's nervous about walking on wicker floors ever again ^_^

2) Greased ropes. Easy to craft, not easy to spot. Simply get a bit of twine and have it anchored from a wire armiture or something similar. Have something nasty underneath the rope (a bottomless pit for instance. Or a pit filled with otyughs. Crocodiles are yesterday...)

3) Swinging Axe/Sword trap: Using a simple mouse-trap style spring (Read: Not from an actual mouse trap! Try clothes pins instead at the very least), you can almost certainly set up an actual trap that functions. However, even simple representations can work. I'm sure inspiration can be wrought from DM Scotty's video about a spear trap here.

4) Scree! As in loose, sharp edged rock. On a slope. Again, easy to represent. Not so obvious as a trap...especially if there is a barricade of spears at the bottom of a steep incline underground, where visibility is near zero.

5) Never underestimate the fear inspired by a room that is magically darkened. Especially if the PC's can't dispell it (A light spell of a higher level must be cast to overcome the darkness...). A Darkmantle somehow managed to intimidate PC's well beyond the limit's of it's CR rating simply because they didn't know how many enemies were in the room, what other nasty surprises I had, etc. And all you have to do is paint the tile Matte Black.

6) Falling blocks/rolling boulders. Easy answer: Wooden blocks/balls found at your hobby store. Have fun.

With traps, keep in mind that sometimes a very simple idea can make for a very good trap. It also inspires interesting solutions. For the wicker trap, My PC's decided after spending hours agonizing over distributing their weight along the wicker by crawling (made the dungeon crawl quite literal) to burn the wicker. Which caused another hazard: Smoke. They overcame it in the end, but it was an interesting problem for them.

Also note that some traps don't need to be portrayed visually. Poisoned doorknobs would be hard to portray with paint on such a small model, so don't bother.

I think this is a hard line to walk. I have found myself guilty of telegraphing to the players without realizing I am. Soemtimes ti is the way I ask a question. Sometimes it is the way I discribe things. I think it would be hard to not give some clues without yoru meaning to do so.

I am looking forward to hearing various ideas others have. This shoudl be interesting.