Death Trap by Jospeh Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with OSRIC. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a 47 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter and three the Open Game License.
The opening paragraphs explain that this supplement contains the keys to the GM’s revenge on players who have destroyed nemeses in seconds and plundered campaigns.
For the Game Master explains that this isn’t really what the supplement is about; instead, it’s similar to Tomb of Horrors in that it is a dangerous but survivable adventure. The decisions players make have consequences, and the right ones lead to riches and magical treasures. The adventure is aimed at 10th level and greater characters, who are assumed to have made enemies, some of whom will have survived. Three such are included who can be used. They have built a dungeon and spread rumours about it to attract the characters, and there are clues within that will let the characters work out who is behind it.
The Hook has a way of attracting the characters to a newly discovered ruined castle, said to be home to an ancient artefact.
Observing the Castle describes the outside.
The Instruments of their Own Destruction explains that the adventure contains many levers, buttons, knobs and similar which have no immediate effect in most cases but make the dungeon more dangerous.
Castle Knevynton gives a brief description.
Dark Areas in the Dungeon explains these and gives a random encounter table.
The Cursed Sphere of Annihilation explains how this danger works.
Random Encounters in the Ruins has these, including another adventuring party.
Random Encounters in the Dungeon (All Levels) has these, which vary depending on the characters’ actions.
Key to the Castle Ruins describes these and the chance of collapses.
Key to the Dungeon Levels covers these, of which there are two levels and a sub-level. These are full of monsters, tricks, traps and treasure.
Important Non Player Characters in this Adventure covers these.
New Magical Items has these.
The final two pages of content have maps.
Death Trap in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column format and some minor errors were noticed. Bar the maps and covers, there are no illustrations. Presentation is adequate.
As might be guessed from the name, and the Tomb of Horrors being mentioned as an inspiration, this is a very dangerous dungeon. It’s not an impossible one, but players are likely to make choices that make it more and more dangerous. It could still be survived, if good choices are made, but the chances of character death are pretty high, and there are a fair few items with negative effects. This should be taken into consideration before running it; players may not be happy about their characters heading into a dungeon this deadly without realising it. Death Trap can be found by clicking here.
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