Search markers / disarm markers

[mitchiemasha]

We employ the skull markers from Battle Masters for that purpose. When a Hero searches for traps, all found traps are marked with such a marker on the corresponding tile. We house-rule as well that one-off traps like Spear Traps aren't disarmed on a search (unlike the official rules state), only found.

Well there's the issue. Spear traps aren't really disarmed as such, you search, you find it, it goes off, you weren't stood in the way. That's why the UK version disarmed them, it makes sense considering a search would also place the pittraps on the board, the search activates the traps. However, introducing the "this looks dodgy mechanic" (US version), deliberately setting off 1 and not the other doesn't make any sense at all. So... there's a dodgy square, you either try to jump it, have a tool kit to inspect and disarm what ever foul play might be at hand or stand on it, to see what it is.

[Maurice76]

The automatic disarming means the search reveals the total and complete nature of the trap. You not only see the tripwire or the loose flagstone, but also the arrow or spear ... or do you? You might just see the tripwire, or the weirdness of the flagstone, but not where the spear or arrow is actually shooting from. Triggering it then willingly means you're taking a risk.

It's a bit of a grey area, really. We house-ruled that you see the triggering mechanism, but not the arrow, spear or similar itself.

[mitchiemasha]

The automatic disarming means the search reveals the total and complete nature of the trap.

I always presumed "automatic disarm" (Uk ed wording "Rendering it harmless") was for simplicity of writing rules. Where as the the logic in creation wasn't the hero disarming anything, they simply set it off, why it requires no skill. The other traps are set off by a search too, "placed on the board". However, a big hole in the ground remains a problem, unlike a spear that just jabbed out of the wall, ceiling or floor, where nobody was stood... and, they're not repeaters, which would make as a good addition to some unique Quests, in the Quest notes.

The spear being rendered harmless in the UK ed makes sense. It's a 1 shot, it's been activated via the search, it's done and gone.

In the US edition "point to the hazardous square" the search doesn't activate anything, the spear trap should remain a threat, there's no logic to it becoming harmless, it doesn't make sense. I agree with the mod, that's how it should be by default.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Does anyone have a link to what they use to mark who has searched and what has been disarmed? I think this could help when a quest has so many and may help with discrepancies.

Searching for Treasure

Under NA edition rules, you cannot search a corridor for treasure, but you can search a room once per hero, so if you wanted to use some sort of marker then presumably you would need a different one for each hero and about 10 of each, so at least 40 markers in all, which doesn't seem practical. If you follow this rule then you would probably need to print off a copy of the Quest map and add notes, which wasn't so practical back in the day but these days is ok, but still involves more "book-keeping than I would like, but fortunately I don't play that rule so it isn't a concern for me!

Under SE rules, you can search both passageways and rooms for treasure, but only once (in fact that rule is never explicitly stated, but it is my assumption as the alternative is seriously flawed), this makes marking off a searched for treasure area much easier, any tile will do (or make your own), place it face down in the searched area, job done.

Searching for Secret Doors and Traps

Under NA edition rules these are separate searches and can happen in rooms and corridors, so again you would need 2 distinct types of marker, one for secret door search and one for trap search, but I don't think it really matters if the area is searched a second time, so personally I wouldn't bother marking these, worse case a hero wastes an action, but then they should have been paying more attention!

Under SE rules these are a combined search that can happen in rooms or passageways, so you would only need one marker (although a different one then for treasure searches) but as per my comment above I wouldn't record these, so no marker needed.

Disarm Marker

Pit traps and falling block traps are placed onto the board when found. Spear traps are rendered harmless when found, so there are no tokens for spear traps.

If a player searches for traps in a room that contains a trapped treasure chest the trap is found and rendered harmless.

Under SE rules pit and falling block traps are automatically sprung when found, other traps, spear trap, chest trap (and although it isn't mentioned you would assume that traps placed on doors, which happens in a quite a few quests are handled in the same way as chest traps as both doors and chest have the same 'opening' mechanism) are rendered harmless when found, so there isn't really any 'disarm' activity at all and no markers are needed. Disarming under SE rules is more about removing pit and blocked square tiles and this is represented by the tiles being removed so again no disarm markers required.

Under NA edition rules things are a little more complicated.

Pit, Falling Block and Spear traps are revealed by the odd mechanism of the Evil Wizard Player pointing to the suspect square and mumbling something that indicates the trap type, other traps from expansions are revealing via pointing but no words to mumble indicating trap type are provided, chest traps are indicated by pointing and mumbled words indicating that the chest looks suspicious (but nothing to indicate the type of trap), door traps are not mentioned in the NA search for traps rules despite them appearing in Quests, the mechanism for opening doors and chests in that edition are not the same so I guess you have to make it up, to keep things consistent I would suggest pointing and mumbling words appears to be the order of the day.

So no markers needed as per the rules but I would suggest an improvement where searching for traps results in a new "Trapped!" tile being placed either on the square in question, under the chest for chests and on the square adjacent to the doors for trapped doors. This would remove any need for pointing and mumbling and any confusion caused by the location of the pointed to square being mis-remembered or confused.

All that said no "disarm" markers required as the Trapped! tiles would either be set off and tiles are provided where needed in this instance or would be disarmed and therefore don't need to be marked as squares containing traps that have been disarmed are treated as normal squares (same for chests and doors)

So to answer the OP directly:

• To indicate rooms or passageway searched for treasure under SE, any tile placed face-down (but you can make/provide your own), under NA for rooms (good luck!)
• To indicate a disarmed trap under any edition - none required
• Under SE and NA to indicate a trapped square - none required, although I would suggest that a new "Trapped!" tile would enhance NA (and SE but that is another story*) if you were willing to make/source some

[Bareheaded Warrior]

*In fact on the subject of "another story" there are some issues around disarming within SE that I think could be relatively easily resolved by porting some of the NA edition mechanisms but, as these also come with a few fresh challenges of their own, tweaking them a little also in ways that a few people have suggested on this thread.

For example, the Search – The Binding Topic thread lists the following disarm related problems within SE:

#20E "Disarming" Traps removes the trap tile from the board

#20F Removing the Blocked Square Tile from the board

#20G Removing Pit Tiles from the board

#20H Dwarf's Disarm Rule

#20I Specifically around tool kit rules

All of these issues above would be resolved if we made the "disarm" mechanism in SE an actual "disarm" mechanism (an attempt to make unsprung traps safe) rather than a mechanism to remove dungeon features.

Search

So, when you search an area (whether that is a room or passageway/corridor and whether secret doors are included or not) the Evil Wizard player places a Trapped! tile on any squares that are trapped, and/or under any chests or doors that are trapped. Here endeth the trap search.

Disarm

Then "Disarm" - as an action you move onto the "Trapped!" tile (or adjacent to the trapped chest / door) and "disarm" it - attempt to make it safe. You roll and either you succeed and make it safe, removing the Trapped! tile, or you fail and spring the trap.

In terms of the dice roll, traditionally a combat die is used, but for me personally I prefer to keep Combat Dice for combat and damage rolls and use Red Dice for other activities like Movement, Jumping and in this case Disarming, but each to their own and the rules below will work the same whatever dice you use.

Mind the Gap

This leaves us with a gap, that the NA Designers also spotted, what happens if you are not the Dwarf and do not have a Tool Kit but are facing a trap that you cannot avoid (technically chest traps are always avoidable, but I can't see heroes or players being happy with the prospect of leaving treasure behind) whether that is a trapped square, door (or chest).

The NA Designers went with the option to plug this gap by extending the "Jump" mechanism so instead of jumping being something that under SE you only do to get over a hole (pit, chasm or similar), under NA you can jump holes in the ground AND unsprung traps.

Personally I'm not a fan of this approach, avoiding trapped squares by jumping them is ok for trapped squares (although you do have to assume that the trap trigger is something that can be jumped over - a thigh level trip wire might present a challenge...) but very much falls down when you try jumping a trapped chest and face plant the wall. Equally jumping at a trapped door will just result in a bloody nose and the door will still be trapped as you observe it through your blurred vision.

Under NA to get around these challenges in their intended implementation, the designers came up with a cunning plan. You handle searching for traps, square or chest, in one section of the rulebook, then refer to a different section for the disarm rules (on page 21) where you just neglect to mention chest traps at all (an even simpler approach is taken with door traps in the rules, you just leave them out of the rule book entirely)

Rather than starting with the existing Jump mechanism, expanding that to fit, and then ignoring the bits that don't, my approach is simpler, you start with the "Disarm" mechanism and extend that to fit.

The Disarm Action

"Disarm" as an action takes place on the trapped square or adjacent to the trapped door/chest. A hero rolls a Red Die, if he scores 5 or more the trap has been disarmed and the tile is removed, otherwise he has sprung the trap.

• The Dwarf being a "Trap Master" will be successful on a roll of 3 or more
• Anyone (including the Dwarf) equipped with the Tool Kit gets a +1 on their roll.

If you prefer to use Combat Dice for activities that are not related to combat then

• Hero disarms on
• Hero with Tool Kit disarms on or
• Dwarf disarms on anything but a
• Dwarf with Tool Kit disarms on anything but a