Traps

Including traps in a scenario promotes a tense, high-tech, dungeoncrawl atmosphere. TITAN nanoswarms and fractals are infamous for fabricating elaborate traps against otherwise well-armed and wary transhumans. Not to be outdone, sinister exhumans are known to litter their lairs with lures and fiendish contraptions, hoping to capture intruders for their experimentations. And of course, the Factors evolved as trap-setting predators and still prefer ambushes and trickery to direct confrontation.

Spotting Traps

PCs actively looking out for traps as they go may make a Perceive Test. For a group of characters, simply roll once, using the highest Perceive skill. One PC in the group may apply Insight or Flex pool to the roll.

If the PCs are not actively searching, the GM rolls in secret for them, applying a −20 modifier for distraction (pools only apply if a point is spent for such tests in advance).

Most traps are hidden; apply the trap’s Concealment modifier to the test. Other conditional modifiers apply at the GM’s discretion. Note that some traps may simply be undetectable.

If successful, the PC detects something amiss; superior successes confer more details. Depending on the trap, they may not immediately understand what they have found; they may simply notice something unusual or off. A successful Hardware or Know Test appropriate to the type of trap can identify the trap, its mechanism, and likely effects.

Detailed Searches: A thorough, exhaustive search for traps using a combination of sensory gear is likely to find even the most wellhidden contraptions, but this is a time-consuming affair. Make a Perceive or Interface Test with a +30 modifier. Apply a timeframe appropriate to the area searched; we suggest 30 minutes per 100 cubic meters.

Disarming Traps

Once a trap is identified, it can potentially be disarmed using an appropriate skill. Each trap below has a Disarm entry that lists the appropriate skill, a difficulty modifier, and in some cases a task action timeframe. PCs lacking the appropriate tools may suffer additional modifiers or be incapable of defeating the device. Some traps may require access to special areas (usually beyond or behind the trap, and sometimes locked) to disable, while others may require cutting into walls or floors to access the electronics or mechanism. If disarming is not feasible, the same skills can potentially be used to set it off safely/remotely.

Trap Listings

The following devious devices should provide GMs with plenty of fuel for devising their own traps.

Adhesive Surface

Characters will stick to adhesive surfaces they touch, limiting their movement. GMs can call for REF Checks to determine how thoroughly; failure may mean they are mostly or completely immobilized. Breaking free requires leverage/support and a SOM Check. TITAN nanoswarms are known to combine adhesive surfaces with disassembler swarms, intense heat, or other caustic effects.

Blinder

These traps use lasers to blind. Anti-glare cyberware protects against blinding. Blinders are typically coupled with sentry weapons or other traps. Blinders will continue to target characters that remain in the area; those that do not block their vision (treat as blinded) will need to make a REF Check each action turn.

Electrified Surface

Pressure-sensitive contact pads create a circuit when stepped upon; other systems simply use conductive materials or coating attached to live current. Anyone making contact with the surface is zapped. Electrified barriers are typically used as a nonlethal area-denial system; more lethal versions will fry the target. Shocked characters may lock up when they contact the surface; a SOM Check may be required to break free (GM discretion).

Escape Velocity Pusher

This simple trap is deployed on the surface of asteroids, small moons, or habitats. A pressure sensor activates a spring-mounted platform, which launches the victim upward at a speed exceeding the escape velocity, pushing them into orbit. A REF Check is required to dodge the push. Some pusher traps are large enough to launch entire groups of people or even vehicles into space. At the GM’s discretion, nearby characters may make REF Check to grab someone being pushed into orbit, but a Free Fall Test at −30 is necessary or they will be carried with them into orbit (or if their combined mass is great enough, on a long parabolic jump).

Explosive Decompression

These traps are placed on the hull of a habitat or ship that is pressurized against vacuum on the other side. A small explosive charge is triggered (or an airlock is blown), creating an explosive decompression effect through the hole. Characters in the immediate vicinity must make a REF Check to grab onto a fixed object or they are sucked out into space, where they will float away, spinning and suffering the effects of vacuum. Characters take a small amount of damage from the sudden decompression and the storm of debris sucked past them. GMs should increase the difficulty of this test and the DV depending on the size of the hole (Blowing an Airlock) and the nearby clutter. The explosion creating the hole may also inflict damage like a grenade, depending on whether it is shaped or not.

Freezer

This trap floods an area with freezer foam. Characters that fail a REF Check to escape the immediate area are frozen in place, where they are then subjected to disassemblers, exsurgent nanoplagues, vacuum, fire, or worse. Characters trapped in a confined space may be denied the REF Check.

Laser Trap

Installed in corridors or doorways, this device uses lasers to create a grid of plasma channels that deliver a powerful electric current to anyone within the target area. This system has both lethal and nonlethal settings. Once triggered, the lasers remain active; bypassing them requires a Fray Test (or more than one if the protected area is large).

Mine

Mines are effectively grenades placed with a trigger/sensor mechanism. Thermobaric explosives are particularly deadly in the tight confines of small ships and habitats.

Monowire Lace

Near-monomolecular wire is very difficult to spot and can slice right through a victim moving into it at speed. Monowire laced across a doorway or tunnel will snap when it damages a victim, so some defenders will make sure to lace a passage with a maze of monowire to deny entry.

Tube Chipper

These devious traps are used in beehive habitat tunnels with micrograv and atmosphere. They are essentially industrial suction engines, designed to suck in anything down the length of the tunnel into the interior shredding mechanism. When the suction activates, characters must make a REF Check to grab something fixed or else they will be sucked down the tunnel and into the chipper; modify this test as appropriate for distance. Characters who grab something must still make a SOM Check each turn to hold on (modified for distance), until they fasten themselves down. A sufficiently large object may block the suction or jam the shredding mechanism.

Utility Fog Spike Cage

This trap is a common trick deployed by TITAN self-replicating nanoswarms. The swarm invisibly surrounds the target(s), then the nanobots rapidly coalesce, forming a perimeter cage in one full Action Turn that will prevent the victims from leaving. The bars of this cage have Armor 20/20, Durability 50, and self-repair 10 DV per turn. On its next action, the swarm’s nanobots will fabricate spikes that start at one side of the contained area and rapidly lengthen across it, piercing anything that gets in their way. The swarm creates (1d10 ÷ 2) + 2 spikes per turn, each targeted at a different victim. At first, these spikes are easy to dodge; apply a +10 modifier to Fray Tests. Characters who are impaled have restricted movement and suffer −30 on Fray Tests. Over time, the existing spikes will begin to fill up the space. At a point determined by the gamemaster (usually on the third turn), characters still trapped in the cage will suffer a cumulative −10 modifier to Fray Tests each turn as they run out of space.

Vacuum/Gas/Water Trap

These traps are variations on a theme. They all involve confining the victim in an air-tight space and then altering the atmosphere. Vacuum traps suck all of the air out of the room, asphyxiating biomorphs without their own air supply. Water traps flood the room, drowning biomorphs without air. Gas traps replace the atmosphere with non-breathable gases or chemicals (Dangerous Atmosphere).