So many of these traps seem like they would be more dangerous to the owner of a chest filled with valuables than to anyone trying to break into it. This is something that has bothered me to. So, I don't know if there was any precedents in fantasy literature, but I suspect that most of the traps in D&D were specifically developed for D&D, and thus would get frequent reuse. Traps before that point were largely associated with hunting animals, and while the concept of a "mantrap" existed, these were almost always variations on hunting trap devices, mostly repurposed to theoretically deter burglars and poachers. The term originallly referred to schoolboy pranks and didn't take on its more sinister/lethal connotations until WW1. Spring-barb locks for chests in and of themselves are found as far back as the 1st century, and though no one knows the origin, they were popularized along asian and middle eastern trade routes for protecting valuables.īu the concept of "booby traps" in general is actually mostly a product of the 20th century. It's not really based on anything in reality, as a poison trap would be incredibly impractical - the poison would dry up or evaporate most likely long before use and would be more expensive and risky to constantly maintain than whatever it was theoretically guarding. Does anyone know the origin of the locked chest with poison needle trap thing? Can anyone explain its popularity? Why? Where did this idea come from? Is it based on anything in reality? Who would trap their own hidden chest with a lethal poison? And what kind of poison stays dangerous indefinitely? Why both lock the chest and put in a trap that only activates if someone fiddles with the lock rather than say breaking the thing open with a crowbar or smashing it with an axe? It just baffles me, more so than the "pit trap in a well-travelled corridor" thing even. So I've been reading some old TSR and some newer OSR adventures recently (in preparation for trying to get a new Lamentations of the Flame Princess game off the ground when restrictions are lifted sometime in the hazy future, but more on the campaign idea in a different thread), and apart from treacherous NPCs making the most sensible decision PCs can make being to set fire to every inn they find, refuse all offers of aid and always sleep in tents in the woods with double guards, I've noticed a super abundance of fairly average people (townspeople, thugs, assassins, merchants etc) having stored their valuables in chests with poison needle traps.
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