Pit traps in front of treasure chests

[The Admiral]

This is very occasionally encountered, and is usually easily dealt with by disarming the trap, but what if a Hero triggers the pit. Do you allow the chest to be opened from down in the pit, allow the chest to be opened from the side or rear, or allow the chest to be pushed to one side for access?

And do like ?.....

I'd get out more if I was allowed to!

[Stoner81]

I would rule it that a chest can't be opened from in the pit since it would be to deep to reach the chest. It also removes the argument that if the chest is trapped then does the hero take damage since they are technically in a pit.



Stoner81.

[Jafazo]

Heroes never need "access" to the chest. Once they are in the room and they search for treasure the contents of the chest are revealed. It just needs to be within the same room. If anything the real question is, "Do you let them search the main room for treasure from within the pit trap?" The rules say a hero can search a pit trap for treasure as if it were a separate room, but nothing more. It doesn't explain the relationship between the pit trap as a room and the main room it's found within.

I say let the hero within the pit trap search the main room for treasure effectively discovering the treasure chest. The hero can also search the pit trap for treasure. I wouldn't start introducing the requirement that heroes need to be adjacent to the chest to open it. If they do, they can effectively search every room for treasure, then open the chest afterward for more rewards. Searching for treasure means, looking around, opening and closing things.

If you treat the pit trap as a separate room be ready to deal with issues like a chaos wizard casting firesotrm in the room but the player in the pit trap insisting he takes no damage because he's in another room. For all intents and purposes that hero would "not be in the room" and that could be a big problem.

[lestodante]

For me the treasure chests are pieces of furniture. With the only exception they usually cointain something inside and a Hero has to stand adjacent to the chest to open it. But they can still perform a room search. So in a room with a chest they can pick up a treasure card from the deck PLUS open the chest.
If the chest is in front of pit and the trap has been discovered already, they can stand on the border of the pit (with spreaded legs) and open it. It is supposed a Hero comes out of the pit after the turn he is fallen into. In such turn he con open it.

[The Admiral]

For me the treasure chests are pieces of furniture. With the only exception they usually cointain something inside and a Hero has to stand adjacent to the chest to open it. But they can still perform a room search. So in a room with a chest they can pick up a treasure card from the deck PLUS open the chest.
If the chest is in front of pit and the trap has been discovered already, they can stand on the border of the pit (with spreaded legs) and open it. It is supposed a Hero comes out of the pit after the turn he is fallen into. In such turn he con open it.

Yeah, this is how I play it. Opening a door or chest is part of movement so that can be easily done as the Hero climbs out. If the chest is empty then there is no problem, but if the chest has something in it then the our Heroes must expend an action to remove it and that is difficult if there is nowhere to stand. But I like your idea of teetering on the edge as the Hero attempts to empty the chest. But I feel there should be some risk involved. I am going to house rules that after the Hero has collected the contents he must roll 1 combat die. On a skull he falls back in the pit and loses another BP. On a shield he is ok and is placed in an adjacent space.

[wallydubbs]

I also have to side with Admiral and Lesto, the chest can only be searched by an adjacent hero.
I would allow the hero to still check the chest even if he is in the pit.
Unless it's a Pit of Darkness there's no specification on how deep the pit is. Agreed, the hero would still need to "climb" out, but there could be a bit of a ledge between the pit and the chest that the hero could leverage himself onto before checking the chest and moving.

[Gold Bearer]

In the UK rules there's no rule for chests at all, it's just an indication that they should search for treasure. I think it's the same in the US rules. I vaguely remember being surprised to find that pits can be searched, that's US only right?

Anyway, I house rule that chests are separate from treasure searches and they need to be standing directly adjacent to one to open it or search it for traps. I think I'd be nasty and rule that they can't get to the chest if the only square they can reach it from is a pit and just make sure there's nothing important in it if this could potentially happen.

You could stick a pit trap on the square that's the shortest route to the chest and make it accessible from the side if you wanted the pit but not the possibility of being unable to open the chest.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I am of the camp that you must be adjacent to a chest to open it and also that pit traps don't count as separate rooms and cannot be searched (as separate rooms creates a whole host of problems).

Falling into a pit trap would end your turn but on your next turn I would allow a Hero to open the chest as his action prior to movement (out of the trap) as I assume that pit traps are not particularly deep, after all you can fight with someone who is in one (and they with you) and you can climb out of one without using your action for the turn and without any movement penalty (you don't for example lose one die of movement for climbing out of a pit trap).

Of course, being a shallow pit doesn't prevent them from being lined with hardened spikes or broken pottery or similar nasties.

[Kurgan]

Weird as they might be I go by the NA rules, where you don't have to be adjacent to a chest. Searching for treasure is the same as automatically opening it (meaning you spring any trap but also discover its contents). Being in a pit means you're in a separate room, so you are getting a Treasure card if you search for treasure while sitting on that square.

I believe some of the BQP (maybe EQP too) forget about this and have actual rooms where there are a row of trap tiles surrounding a treasure chest (and no clarification in the quest notes) meaning you could search for treasure and not trigger them... only if you actually landing on any of the squares.

When you search for traps and disarm a furniture trap, that doesn't automatically give you what's inside, you still need to search for treasure to find whatever was in there. If there are multiple furniture traps you'd need to spring or disarm them all before you could safely get the treasure (unless you've got the treasure without doom artifact card... though I'd have to check if it covers multiple).

It can get complicated if you're trying to keep all the versions straight but disarming a trap puts you right on the tile to be disarmed, so no movement necessary to reach it with that action, in NA rules as stated. Of course you do your house rules as you see fit.