Trap-Making
Contents
Overview
Trap-making is as much a craft as it is a skill. One's skill in trap-making dictates not only how well their traps will work, but how well they may be placed, timed, and executed. From environmental warfare, to field-trapping of a hunter, to the dungeon traps of a maniacal dungeon keeper, there are a great number of applications and uses for trap-making, that are exponentially varied when one considers the number of different forms of triggers, forms, and execution methods of each trap, and the way those might be combined together.
Mechanisms
Mechanisms that make up a trap are many and varied in utility, intent, and sophistication. They are broken into three separate categorized methodologies here: Triggers, Form, and Execution.
Triggers
The function of a trigger is often dependent on the intention of the trap designer. Whether they wish for it to fire based on a specific set of circumstances, or to keep it dormant until manually triggered. The following are examples of types of triggers, and sub-types that exist, but that's not to say that other forms of triggers couldn't also be devised. Trap-making is as much a skill as it is a craft and science, rife with possibilities for invention and innovation.
Manual
Triggers which require an end-user to activate in order to fire correctly.
Levers/Buttons/Plates/Switches/portable traps (Caltrops and banana peels).
Automatic
A form of trigger which is designed to fire when certain conditions or sub-triggers are activated.
Prescriptive/Proscriptive: A conditional mechanism that is implemented in order to activate a trigger, depending on various factors/stimuli. Prescriptive being meant to exclude certain stimulation, and Proscriptive meant to include certain forms of stimulation. Such as with heat/cold triggers, or pressure/weight triggers that only fire once a weight has been removed, as opposed to when the weight has been applied.
Pressure/Weight Sensor: A conditional mechanism that typically fires its trigger after a certain amount of weight pushes down on a lever, pressure plate, or another surface activator.
Rhythmic Sensor: A conditional mechanism that fires a trigger when it detects a certain pattern of movement over its mechanism. Such as a pressure plate that needs to be stepped on at certain intervals before it will fire.
Heat Sensor: A mechanism that fires conditional upon exposure to a heat source. This can be inverted as well to read to cold. Bear in mind this involves medieval technology, barring any highly skilled engineering trappers. So a hot/cold sensor could involve a cube of ice that slowly melts and thus releases a mechanism once it's melted to a certain point. Or alternatively, a heat sensor could be a metal bowl of water that when it evaporates, releases its mechanism.
And much, much more that are just waiting for the innovative trap-maker to invent/discover.
Form
There are many form designs of traps, and not all of them are detailed here. Bear in mind, that designs can be combined one with the other. For instance, baited traps often have concealed elements, so that the danger of it isn't made obvious.
Baited: A trap design that is meant to lure it's victims with the promise of a meal, treasure, or anything else it might need or desire.
Concealed: A trap design that is typically set in a particular spot and hidden from view, in order to catch the unwary by surprise when it fires.
Threatening: A trap design that is meant to deter, distract, or else scare victims toward a general direction (usually away from the trap).
Sprung Traps: Traps that are activated by slight pressure applied to activate a spring-based execution. The execution styles for this form of trap include but are not limited to cages, snares, and mouse traps.
Alarms: Traps that are meant to cause alarm or alert allies to intrusion.
Execution
Snares: There are a few different kinds of snares in terms of mechanisms, triggers, bait styles, and each tends to be geared toward a specific type of victim. The result of these snares is that the victim ends up tied in place. Depending on the tension in the trigger, the size of the victim, and the type of snare, it may prove more or less deadly to its victim.
Cages: A trap that is designed to keep the victim alive and intact, in an enclosed space, at least until it can be retrieved by the trapper for whatever purpose.
Armed: A trap that is designed to cause direct injury it's victim, with the intent to kill or maim them. This runs the gamut from conventional blades, spears, and axes and clubs, to fire or poison spewing jets and dart guns.
Pits: A trap that can be deadly depending on the depth of the fall and the fragility of the victim that falls into it. It is useful to trappers that wish to keep their victim in one piece, but not necessarily to spare their life.
Sticky: A relatively simplistic trap that is available with the use of various grades of adhesive. More often used to trap rodents and other pests, it often consists of a strip or flat surface that is covered with both bait and adhesive material.
Crushing: From simple woodland rocks propped up by a small stick and a trigger, to pressure plate-activated blocks that fall to crush hapless adventurers, this form of execution is varied in its applications.
Trap-Making and Metaphysics
Sintra's Domain (The Greatest Trap Ever) - The Immortal of Entrapment and Arachnids herself, SIntra, devised the Eight-Fold Labyrinth. Her Immortal Realm is no less than the greatest trap known to Mortals or Immortals. A multilayered domain of constructs all intended to ensnare and lure the unwary wanderer of Emea, or else intentional interlopers, in order that their bodies might feed the honored fallen among Sintra's ascended marked.
There are other examples of metaphysical and magical traps that could be devised, and the way magic supplements trapping is really open to the mage's creative use of either skill or ability.
Trap Defense and Disassembly/Disarmament
While Trap-making isn't necessarily required for the disarming of traps, it can certainly help one to identify them. As such, greater skill in trap-making is a highly sought after skill for those who expect to roam dangerous areas, where traps are plentiful. Whether it be in an eccentric survivalist's territory in the wilderness or a dungeon master's lair.
Related Skills
- Construction - Setting up traps in a way that doesn't compromise the function of various structures and environments.
- Design - Improved forms and details, as well as vastly improved lures/bait.
- Engineering - Useful for all manner of mechanical traps. Almost vital to enhancing the effectiveness and sensitivity of triggers and the interplay between triggers and execution methods.
- Tactics - Setting up traps in a place where they'll be the most useful.
- Crafting skills - Skills that allow the trapper to work with the materials and components that go into the creation of a trap. Anything from Smithing, to Basketweaving, to Woodworking, Poisons, Alchemy, and even Jewelcrafting (for the purposes of bait/lures).
- Hunting - Knowing an animal's behavior patterns in the wild, so as to make the trapping of beasts easier, and also what kind of traps might be useful in dispatching it.
- Fishing - The know-how to build crab traps, lobster traps, and other forms of aquatic hazards for the purposes of catching fish and other marine animals.
Defensive Skills
- Detection - Knowing the signs of nearby traps for purposes of disarmament, disassembly, repair, or removal.
- Acrobatics - Having the reflexes and agility to evade an activated trap.
- Tactics - Knowing the signs of traps, and where they're most likely to be placed.
- Stealth - Having light feet and being silent can help one to evade certain forms of triggers, and evade a trapper that is using manual activators.
- Strength - Being strong enough to break the more flimsy traps.
- Endurance - Surviving a trap meant to hold a victim for lengths of time, such as cage/pits/etc..
- Navigation - A more obscure defense against traps and the detections as such, but familiarizing oneself with landmarks, and other permanent features can help one to suss out differences in their surroundings.
Skill Ranks
Novice (0-25)
The Novice of trap-making is just beginning to grow their success and knowledge of simple traps with a singular trigger and execution method. Often they will begin learning trap-making by practicing on animals in the wild, and less wiley prey. From these experiences, they can begin to design more complex traps meant to trick more wiley victims. Tripwires, pit traps, and simple concealment methods are well within the capabilities of the novice and only become more effective as they grow in experience. However, traps with more complex mechanisms, chained triggers, and more sophisticated sensors are often beyond their skill. When attempted, they are met with mixed success at the more complex traps.
Competent (26-75)
One who has grown to competence in trap-making will have begun to specialize in the specific methodology of triggers and execution. Animal trappers will have all the necessary skills to reliably trap animals in the wild, with their more primitive snares rarely failing against medium-sized animals and other primitive creatures. It's around this level that the trap-maker more or less figures out what kind of traps they wish to specialize in. Whether it be field-trapping, improvised traps, structural/dungeon traps, or various lures and such. Competent trappers will be able to start setting up trigger chains, where a trap may have more than one condition set before it will activate. More advanced forms of 'programming' a trap will still elude them, yet they'll have begun to delve into traps that may have delayed or expedited triggers.
Expert (76-150)
The expert trapper will have such a grasp over one area of trapping, that they can apply their expertise to all other forms of trapping with almost certain success. They'll be able to make do with less ideal materials, and their traps will hold even the most dangerous of victims. They will have methods of trapping all manner of mundane beasts, with a reliable success rate. At this point, they may have set themselves apart from lesser trappers by inventing new trigger types, sensors, and other mechanisms. They'll benefit greatly from ancillary skills that enhance their traps, whether it be weapon-crafting, construction, fieldcraft, or even forms of alchemy and arcana. An expert can chain more than several triggers into one trap, and even binding multiple execution methods into the same trigger. They'll still struggle when it comes to traps of greater and greater complexity, yet as they move towards mastery, their limitations begin to melt away, before they can truly unlock their potential.
Master (151-250)
It is rare for a trap to not go as expected for a master trapper. At this level, the trapper is capable of containing and springing a trap on almost any unsuspecting quarry whatsoever, with a reliable degree of success. There is no number of chained triggers or execution methods that are beyond his ability to wind into a singular trap. They'll be able to execute traps with impeccable timing and they always go off as intended by the master trap designer. Their cages will prove inescapable, their pits bottomless or deadly, and their execution methods will prove difficult to avoid. When it comes to traps made by a master trapper, sometimes the only thing that can save a potential victim or quarry is the avoidance of their territory entirely, or else defensive skills approaching their level of skill.
Credit: Woe