Yeah, I’m thinking in particular of the way traps and other hazards are handled in Pathfinder 2e. In that, there are two kinds of hazard: Simple and Complex. Simple hazards are the “Oops, take 2d6” variety. Complex hazards basically function like a monster, except they don’t necessarily occupy a space. They roll for initiative and on their turn they follow a “routine”. Often they end up having some particular trick you need to do in order to circumvent them, so it ends up being about figuring out how to neutralize the hazard before its next turn in initiative rolls around. And the hazard system is also used for things like natural hazards like a thunderstorm, as well as supernatural “haunts” like a library where all the books fly off the shelves to attack you.
That sounds interesting, and an approach I have not seen before. But the increased potential for interaction and reaction here sounds quite interesting - although I am not sure if initiative would slow it down too much for my tastes.
Did you apply these way of approaching traps and hazards in play yourself? What was your experience?
I have at least once. I just started running PF2e fairly recently but there is a complex hazard in the beginner box adventure. It’s like a room with a statue that activates when players step on a pressure pad in the room. The statue does a random thing on each of its turns, either attacking a single random creature in the room, attacking all of the creatures on one side of the room (left or right), or attacking every creature in the room. The statue can be disabled by disarming clockwork mechanisms at its base (or by smashing it), and the damage it can do is about 2/3 of a PC’s HP in that adventure (note that PF2e kinda assumes PCs go into every encounter fresh; there’s lots of out-of-combat healing).
When I ran this encounter recently, the PCs played it in a very interesting way, and it felt a lot more like a combat. They tried different approaches, and eventually figured out how the statue worked enough to circumvent it. But during those first couple rounds where they didn’t know what was going on, they had to frantically try things while the statue threatened to kill one of them every time its turn rolled around. They knew they could leave the room at any time, but they also knew that if they could survive one extra turn then it would mean a little bit more time to disarm the statue. It made for a very tense and exciting encounter.
Thanks for the thorough report, sounds like it was quite successful in making an interesting trap.
Now I am interested to check how this hazard is described in the beginner box. I believe I got it in a Humble Bundle once, but I did not take the time to read it.
Yeah, I’m thinking in particular of the way traps and other hazards are handled in Pathfinder 2e. In that, there are two kinds of hazard: Simple and Complex. Simple hazards are the “Oops, take 2d6” variety. Complex hazards basically function like a monster, except they don’t necessarily occupy a space. They roll for initiative and on their turn they follow a “routine”. Often they end up having some particular trick you need to do in order to circumvent them, so it ends up being about figuring out how to neutralize the hazard before its next turn in initiative rolls around. And the hazard system is also used for things like natural hazards like a thunderstorm, as well as supernatural “haunts” like a library where all the books fly off the shelves to attack you.
That sounds interesting, and an approach I have not seen before. But the increased potential for interaction and reaction here sounds quite interesting - although I am not sure if initiative would slow it down too much for my tastes.
Did you apply these way of approaching traps and hazards in play yourself? What was your experience?
I have at least once. I just started running PF2e fairly recently but there is a complex hazard in the beginner box adventure. It’s like a room with a statue that activates when players step on a pressure pad in the room. The statue does a random thing on each of its turns, either attacking a single random creature in the room, attacking all of the creatures on one side of the room (left or right), or attacking every creature in the room. The statue can be disabled by disarming clockwork mechanisms at its base (or by smashing it), and the damage it can do is about 2/3 of a PC’s HP in that adventure (note that PF2e kinda assumes PCs go into every encounter fresh; there’s lots of out-of-combat healing).
When I ran this encounter recently, the PCs played it in a very interesting way, and it felt a lot more like a combat. They tried different approaches, and eventually figured out how the statue worked enough to circumvent it. But during those first couple rounds where they didn’t know what was going on, they had to frantically try things while the statue threatened to kill one of them every time its turn rolled around. They knew they could leave the room at any time, but they also knew that if they could survive one extra turn then it would mean a little bit more time to disarm the statue. It made for a very tense and exciting encounter.
Thanks for the thorough report, sounds like it was quite successful in making an interesting trap.
Now I am interested to check how this hazard is described in the beginner box. I believe I got it in a Humble Bundle once, but I did not take the time to read it.
No problem! You can also check out this video which goes over the hazard system