Author: Your identity as you want this trap to be attributed to you, and one or two links to places on the internet you consider "yours," so you get traffic when people like your trap and want to see what else you do. You may go anonymous if you prefer and links are optional.
Title: All Traps are numbered, but you may name your trap as well if you want to.
Description: Here you describe the basics of the trap as characters will encounter it. What is the trigger(s), what happens when the trap goes off and what are the mechanics associated with how the trap works? Try to keep mechanics system neutral, describing chances of events occurring as die rolls instead of particular jargon associated with a specific system.
Re-set: How is the trap re-set? This may be incredibly straightforward and short or may be more complex and reveal much more about how the trap works than the basics described in the Description section.
Detection: It is up to referees whether they use rolls such as Detect Trap in their games, and references to these sorts of rolls are acceptable in this section. In addition to such references, however, all trap submissions must be able to be detected by roleplaying alone. How could characters discover this trap before they set it off? Oftentimes careful observation will reveal the trigger, the harmful mechanism or signs of the trap triggering in the past.
Disarming: Traps must also be able to be disarmed through roleplaying alone (though references to Disarm Trap rolls, etc. are also allowed). How could characters make this trap safe? Oftentimes, especially with more complex traps, characters have a choice between breaking the trap so that it is inoperable and using a safety toggle of some sort that can turn the trap "off" – if they can find it.
Designer: Who designed this trap, in-game, and why? Trap designers can range in intellectual capacity from more intelligent animals (perhaps giant spiders?) to super-human, genius intellects. This entry provides the purpose for traps and guides the referee using the trap in figuring out the style and flavor associated with the trap and its surroundings. Designers are also tagged so that referees looking for traps to be used by certain antagonists can find suitable traps quickly.
Variation: This entry is optional but encouraged. How can this trap be tweaked or modified to be used in a different way than presented in the above entries? This is very open-ended.
Inspiration: What tables, articles, artwork or other sources of ideas influenced you as you created this trap? This serves to provide links to tools and sources of inspiration to both aspiring and veteran trap creators and allows us all to see what ideas and documents are influencing us as we create traps.
Permission: Do you want to attach a particular kind of copyright, such as one of the Creative Commons licenses, to this trap, or perhaps release it into the public domain? I'm currently planning on releasing PDF and print-on-demand compilations every year; the PDF will be free and the POD book will be at-cost, so I won't get any profits. Do I have your permission to include this trap in those compilations? To be clear:
- I consider submitting a trap to be permission to post that trap on this blog.
- I don't consider any of the above (except releasing a trap into the public domain) to end your ownership of your trap.
- If I ever want to do anything not described above (such as publish a for-profit version) I will contact you again to get your permission and to communicate about any profits you get.
- I'm not a lawyer and I don't know the legalese to best describe everything above. I'm running this blog in good faith and am not trying to rip you off.
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