Trap Thoughts

[Netbrian]

I think there's a general consensus that dealing with traps should probably be made less trivial.

However, I think that this requires some thought as to what we want to accomplish by making scarier traps. If we assume that detecting them will be harder for some classes, then we need to balance the game around the assumption that people will be stumbling into the traps at fairly regular intervals. I don't think having people actively search for traps every step of the way is a particularly enjoyable game mechanic, nor do I think having your character or stuff regularly wrecked because you failed a trap detection roll is all that compelling.

One option that I find intriguing would be traps that work within a specific radius (I think NPPAngband does something like this?) The idea would be that if you set off the trap by getting too close, it activates an effect to make your life difficult until you can disarm it or get outside the trap's area of effect. Possible effects would be summoning monsters, shortening the duration of positive effects, healing monsters, aggravating them, etc. The idea is that the player has a chance to take an informed risk about how they want to handle the trap, and it changes gameplay in potentially interesting ways (for instance, you might have to deal with a trap that regularly spits fire at you while raiding a vault.)

The better a player's perception/dexterity, the greater their chances would be at noticing the trap from a distance, not setting it off, and disarming it quickly.

What does everyone else think? Would it it into Vanilla Angband well?