Taking a break from the Nutshell combat rules for the moment, I've been mulling over some of the exploration stuff. In particular, I've been thinking about traps, which have long been a source of some contention in the game. Indeed, 4e all-but-eliminated traps, by giving characters a "Passive Perception" that would auto-detect most traps most of the time, and also be the simple expedient of just not including them in adventures.
But then, it's no surprise lots of people don't like traps - most of the time they just suck.
I'm now going to split traps into five entirely arbitrary, overlapping, and not-at-all exhaustive categories. Just because...
Gotchas!
This is probably the sort of trap that you first think of when you think about D&D traps - there's a poison needle in the lock; there's a tripwire that causes a pit to fall open; if the password isn't said, a fireball explodes. And, in all cases, the damage done is fairly moderate - it's highly unlikely to kill any character.
Proper Use: There's a simple answer to this one: don't. Gotchas! suck. They slow the game down, because now the Rogue needs to constantly be searching for them. When they do exist, they are dealt with in two dice rolls (fun!). And on the rare occasion when one actually gets triggered, the damage is an easily-healed irritant.
Almost every trap in published 2nd edition and 3e adventures is a Gotcha! That would be why 4e removed traps almost entirely.
Gotcha Deathtraps
These are the big brother of Gotchas! The key difference is that in a Deathtrap, there's a real threat that the trap will kill even a tough character outright.
So, a first-level Deathtrap does 3d8 damage - enough to kill even a Barbarian outright on a lucky roll. Or, as in "Tomb of Horrors" (the original), traps are save-or-die (or even no-save/just-die!). Miss the trap and it's game over, man, game over.
Proper Use: Gotcha Deathtraps are better than simple Gotchas! for one simple reason: in going for the kill, rather than the hurt, they at least generate some tension. However, they should still be used sparingly - use too many and again you'll have the Rogue painstakingly searching every square, the party being absurdly paranoid in their investigations, and the game slowing down.
Additionally, Deathtraps should be considered as puzzles. By which I mean that it should be possible for the players to determine the presence and location of a deathtrap, and thus defeat it. And so, the Three Clue Rule applies - for every Deathtrap there should be three clues pointing to its existence and location, so that with good play the players can defeat the trap. (This is in addition to the Rogue's normal 70% chance to find a level-appropriate trap.)
Finally, Deathtraps can be a huge amount of fun in one-off games, especially if the players are using pre-gen characters (and don't care over-much). In such a game, you can go wild with such traps, and have fun describing all those lovely death scenes in their gruesomeness.
Movement Traps
These used to be quite common in BD&D and 1st Edition days, but disappeared almost completely thereafter. A movement trap is exactly that - it moves some or all of the party from one area to another, typically to an area of much higher danger and one cut-off from the outside world and safety.
Proper Use: Go for it! Any time you were thinking of using a Gotcha!, use a Movement Trap instead. And then watch in glee as your players proceed to freak out, when they realise that their precious characters are now in genuine peril! Suddenly, they can't rely on just retreating and resting after the prescribed 4 encounters of the day. Neither can they assume that the "15-minute Adventuring Day" can be used, since they are now in unfamiliar territory and so may not be able to rest safely.
Yes, it's cruel. Evil even. Do it!
Encounter Traps
These are also familiar, although from the movies rather than the game. The Trash Compactor in "Star Wars", the crushing spike-room in "Temple of Doom"... this is a trap that forms an entire encounter for the PCs - they need to find a way to disable the trap before it kills them.
Proper Use: Treat the trap as a monster, the encounter as a combat, and ratchet up the tension as much as you can. Don't allow the Rogue to simply roll a die and disarm the trap - this one is going to take the efforts of the whole party. (Indeed, in both the example traps I gave, the solution relied on contacting someone outside the trap to have them disarm it.)
(In 4e terms, the trap should be a Solo monster. In effect, it needs to be harming multiple PCs, it should have lots of 'hit points', and there should be multiple ways to 'damage' it. And, yeah, the trap should be doing ongoing damage (of some sort) as the encounter goes on - "disarm this in three rounds or die" is just a more complex Gotcha! Better to have "disarm this; every round you lose a healing surge", or something like that.)
Terrain Traps
Another movie example: In "Flash Gordon", Gordon and Barin are fighting on a platform for the amusement of the Hawkmen. Vultan has a remote control, which tilts the platform, raises or lowers spikes in the floor, and so on.
Basically, a terrain trap is a feature of the battlefield on which a combat rages.
Proper Use: This is the best type of trap, not least because it allows for some very clever play - the players can find ways to make use of the trap for their own ends, turning the tables on their enemies.
Typically, terrain traps should be fairly simple - if a character steps here, the trap attacks for X damage. It is quite unlikely that the Rogue will disarm such a trap - he has better things to do, and anyway there are likely many such traps. Still, it's not impossible.
And, of course, there's no reason that the PCs themselves can't set up terrain traps, "Predator" style. Always a fun way to kill off those Quickling assassins...
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