Best of the Web - Fun Traps, Military Tips, and Snowflakes vs Compost

After writing my thoughts on bestiaries yesterday I came across a post by Anxiety Wizard called Half-Organized Thoughts About Monsters which really got me thinking about the content of the individual entries in a bestiary. The article is really good, I suspect I'll be reading it again and again to keep a few of the ideas front and center when I write bestiaries for my own Fantasy Heartbreaker.

Dungeon Fantastic has a short post called "Harmless" and "Fun" Traps. He says the post is partially in fun but I think the idea is brilliant. I've always felt puzzles were better than traps. Even traps I used tended to have at least one having been previously tripped so the characters would know a trap was near and how to spot it, they just needed to figure out how to disarm it (more of a puzzle than trap that way).

Empty the chamber pot, the vomitorium's tub, or the spittoon on anyone who sets off the trap. It doesn't kill, but it should induce rolls against HT to not get sick, yourself, and Will rolls to go on without cleaning up. The stink will attract the attention of hostile creatures, but may also in fact disguise you.

I love the chamber pot idea. Not only is there potentially noisy puking, but suddenly four days rations are inedible and the smell is gonna ensure everybody is aware of the parties movements.

The website roleplaying tips has a list of Military Tips that I find amazing. Especially the large scale battle section. I've had characters as part of a military but never part of a big battle and never used them as special forces types the way its mentioned in the tips. The post made me think immediately of the movie Troy with Achilles and Boagrius facing off with the armies watching. That's the sort of thing NPCS in the campaign would talk about for years.

Dreams in the Lich House has a post called Are Your PC's Snowflakes or Compost? in which he basically describes the divide between new games (not story mind you) and OSR games. It's a great post and it got me thinking about the DCC funnel (the ultimate compost) and the changing style of play as one progresses through the BECM rules. There is room for both Compost and Snowflakes in the same game (well not all of the Snowflakes stuff...) but not at low levels. I would think if one was a compost from 1-5 levels or so and then started to stand out as a hero among heroes it might make a nice distinction. ACKS has details on domain play but not many OSR games seem to care much about higher level play and how it might/should be different rather than just bigger monsters. If there is one please let me know.