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5E D&D Traps — Nord Games is Making Them Treacherous

Our friends over at Nord Games asked us to help get out the word about their latest D&D Kickstarter — Treacherous Traps for 5th Edition! This is a sponsored article by Nord Games if you care about such things. For me the Holy Trinity of third party publishers is Kobold Press, Nord Games, and Frog God games. I feel you can generally drop any of the D&D content these folks are making right in your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons game with no problem.

The most recent D&D Kickstarter for Nord Games is completely dedicated to 5E D&D traps with a puzzles stretch goal. I know many gamers who are extremely excited about this particular goal.

Brian Stillman from Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons and Dragons Documentary

The cool thing about Nord’s Game Master’s Toolbox collection is they do decks of cards to go with them. If you a kind of a by-the-seat-of-your-pants improv Dungeon Master these are great accessories to have handy. Well their D&D traps addition to the Game Master’s Toolbox line is now different.

Treacherous Traps for 5th Edition!

The ultimate resource for creating and using traps in your 5th Edition games! 250+ pre-built traps plus a random trap generator!

This is what the book is looking like so far.

Treacherous Traps currently consists of 11 chapters:

• 1. The Philosophy of Traps — An introduction to traps and their use in fantasy RPGs: why you should use them, when you should use them, and how to keep them exciting!
• 2. How To Use Traps — A detailed look at how to best use traps in your adventures as well as instructions on how the pre-built traps in chapters 3-7 are structured.
• 3. Level 1-4 Traps — Traps appropriate for parties with characters level 1-4. 50 traps in total, a mixture of mundane, mechanical and magical. These range in 5 levels of severity from simple ‘setbacks’, to ‘moderate’, ‘dangerous’, ‘life-threatening’ and ‘deadly’!
• 4. Level 5-8 Traps — Traps appropriate for parties with characters level 5-8. 50 traps in total, a mixture of mundane, mechanical and magical. These range in 5 levels of severity, as detailed above. Some may be upgraded version of traps found in the previous chapters.
• 5. Level 9-12 Traps — Traps appropriate for parties with characters level 9-12. 50 traps in total, a mixture of mundane, mechanical and magical. These range in 5 levels of severity, as detailed above. Some may be upgraded version of traps found in the previous chapters.
• 6. Level 13-16 Traps — Traps appropriate for parties with characters level 13-16. 50 traps in total, a mixture of mundane, mechanical and magical. These range in 5 levels of severity, as detailed above. Some may be upgraded version of traps found in the previous chapters.
• 7. Level 17-20 Traps — Traps appropriate for parties with characters level 17-20. 50 traps in total, a mixture of mundane, mechanical and magical. These range in 5 levels of severity, as detailed above. Some may be upgraded version of traps found in the previous chapters.
• 8. Complex Traps — This chapter consists of up to 25 complex traps which have multiple triggers, effects, or both. Many complex traps also reset after activation, so unless they are disabled or destroyed, they will continue to be dangerous.
• 9. Random Trap Generator — This chapter consists of 50 triggers and 50 effects. When combined, they create a random trap which is both interesting and challenging. With 2500 different combinations, and the partial brain-child of the legendary Steve Winter, this is truly an incredible resource for any Game Master!
• 10. Designing Your Own Traps — This chapter goes into detail on how to create your own traps using our unique methods.
• 11. Trap-centric Dungeons — This chapter is focused on how to place your traps in the best possible locations within your dungeons for maximum results. It includes a random dungeon generator tool, as well as detailed diagrams on where best to place your traps.
• 12. Perplexing Puzzles — This chapter is all about puzzles. They can be big or small, simple or complex, but they are all challenging in their own way. They can even be paired with traps or trap effects to turn them from barriers into potentially deadly encounters.

As of writing this article they are more than half way to that ridiculous riddles stretch goal. I certainly believe they could pull it off. Coming up with interesting D&D traps can be tough, and puzzles are even worse, but riddles are the toughest of them all. I’m definitely looking forward to that goal being unlocked.

When I chatted with Christopher Haskins of Nord Games he informed me they’d be using the same or similar structure from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything for their trap layouts. If you liked that, you’ll love this book. If you want more traps in your game then go check out Nord’s latest D&D Kickstarter.

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