A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Riyal’s Research: Traps

Riyal’s Research: Traps by Dale C McCoy Jr is a role playing game supplement published by Jon Brazer Enterprises for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.

This is a seven-page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $2 but was purchased at a greatly reduced price as part of a special bundle. One page is the front cover and one the front matter and Open Game License.

The first page is some introductory fluff from Riyal on traps, covering matters such as the designers of traps and bypass mechanisms for them.

Next are the traps themselves, twenty-four in total, from CR1 to CR19, with a few gaps in the challenge ratings. These cover a variety of different traps, many of which are old standards, but a few stick out, such as the frost bomb trap and the cold fire trap.

Riyal’s Research: Traps in Review

The PDF is bookmarked, with the different CRs and individual traps linked; however, all the CRs and traps from CR15 and above are missing from the bookmarks. Navigation is good, but flawed. The text maintains a two-column black and white format and appeared to be nearly free of errors. There is a single piece of black and white stock art. Presentation is adequate.

The in-character introductory text is interesting, and could be used as a player handout. Although there are a substantial number of traps in the supplement, most of them are old standards rather than being interesting or original. Poison dart traps, fireball traps, magic missile traps, rolling boulder traps; a substantial number of the included traps are easily recognisable from RPGs and media. Which is a bit of a disappointment. There are a handful of more interesting ones, but most of the traps are simply old standards that have been statted up – and many of which could probably be found in one form or another in other supplements. Riyal’s Research: Traps has a lot of traps for very little money, many of which are usable but standard, and it can be found by clicking here.