A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement 20 New Traps – World Builder Blog Presents

20 New Traps – World Builder Blog Presents by James Introcaso is a role playing supplement published by Wizards of the Coast through the Dungeon Masters Guild Community Content Programme for use with Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition.

This is an eight-page PDF that is available from DMs Guild as a Pay What You Want supplement. One page is the front cover and a brief introduction.

There are, as stated, 20 traps, some new, some fifth edition versions of older traps. These are simply listed alphabetically, and come in different types.

Abyssal Gate: Used on a door, non-fiends are briefly transported to the Abyss and take psychic damage.

Acidic Fall: A pressure plate dumps stone and acid on those beneath.

Crushing Room: A simple stone wall trap.

Electrified Floor: Causes electrical damage unless wearing insulated footwear. The trap can be overloaded, which can also be dangerous.

Explosive Object: A tempting object trapped to explode.

Flame Jet: A simple set of nozzles that project flames.

Grasping Arms: Carved stone arms grasp at passing creatures.

Hungry Insects: Dumps swarms of insects from the ceiling in a now-locked room.

Log Slammer: Two hidden logs that swing together.

Malicious Harpsichord: Plays music that causes people to violently dance.

Mists of Madness: May cause long term madness.

Object of Deception: A tempting object that causes creatures allies as hostile enemies and vice versa.

Pendulum Scythe: A simple swinging blade.

Poison Mister: Sprays poison gas into the area.

Room Filling with Water: A drowning trap.

Spectral Tendrils: Tendrils of necrotic energy that feed on the living.

Spinning Saw Blade: One or more circular blades that move along tracks.

Widening Pit: A floor that opens at the centre.

Withering Tapestry: A tapestry that causes creatures to stare at it fixedly for at least a day.

Zealous Altar: Blinds and deafens those not displaying a holy symbol of the appropriate god.

20 New Traps – World Builder Blog Presents in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and there are enough traps that, despite the supplement’s length, they would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text follows a two column two colour format and appeared to be free of error. There are a number of illustrations, which would mostly appear to be generally-appropriate public domain images from old books. Presentation is okay.

The collection has a nice variety of traps. Some are pretty standard; water filling rooms and crushing rooms are hardly innovative – these were presumably updating classic traps for fifth edition. Some are more interesting, such as the Abyssal Gate. Each trap has a decent write up for the description, damage and how to avoid or disarm it. 20 New Traps – World Builder Blog Presents is a nice collection of ways to hurt characters and it can be checked out for free by clicking here.