Hi guys!

Just a quick question:

For one of my game ideas I want to implement traps.

I want the traps to work something like this:

Player A sets a trap for Player B in a room Player A thinks Player B goes into a lot. However, the trap is triggered by anyone who walks into it.

In my game idea these are not just physical traps but social traps too, i.e. being manipulated into entering an embarrassing situation and lowering the Player's reputation.

I'm slowly fleshing out this mechanic but this is my first ever game design doing anything like this. My question is: are there any board games or video games you can recommend that use prominent trap mechanics? Maybe a bit like I've described? Or maybe you have personal experience to share? I am looking for some inspiration and some opinions on how to best design this mechanic.

Thanks!

Spy vs Spy?

Ah cool, thanks! I'll definitely have to give that a play.

I'm not a YuGiOh fan, but I've always liked how they'd "lay this card face down!".

The idea that you know your opponent is doing something, but you don't know what, adds some interesting psychological play to the game.

Maybe the facedown card is merely a delay-acting self-buff. Maybe it's a delayed attack. Maybe it's a trap that's triggered when you take a specific action - but if so, what action?

Netrunner. It's a one on one card game where one player is a corporation, and the other is a hacker. The corporation plays cards face down, creating servers, and protecting those servers with "ICE" programs. The server may hold an Agenda that players need to win, or a trap that hurts the hacker that accesses it. The corporation puts agenda counters on these, which could be bringing the corporation closer to scoring points from the agenda, or might simply be increasing the damage that the trap will do if it's sprung. The ICE protecting the server could be weak and unable to do much to the hacker, or maybe it's very powerful, but too expensive for the corporation to use it yet.

The hacker on the other hand, keeps almost nothing secret. The cards in their hand are secret like most games, but everything they put on the board is exposed for the corporation to see.

Take a look at a game called Bonaza Bros.

It was a game about two burglars trying to steal things from buildings. It was less about traps and more about stealth, you could do things like open doors in the faces of security guards on the other side of the door. I was going to suggest Spy Vs Spy too, but as this is already taken, this one springs to my mind as somewhere you might be able to draw some inspiration from.

Good luck!

You will mostly look at board games for social traps.

I recommend The Resistance and Spy Fall.

I have played these with friends over long distances using Twitter and email, although with The Resistance it was before the new expansion was added, so I believe you could easily turn them into a multiplayer PC game.

Hey guys,

Thanks so much for these suggestions, I'm going to look them all up today and see what inspires me!

I'm not a YuGiOh fan, but I've always liked how they'd "lay this card face down!".

The idea that you know your opponent is doing something, but you don't know what, adds some interesting psychological play to the game.

Maybe the facedown card is merely a delay-acting self-buff. Maybe it's a delayed attack. Maybe it's a trap that's triggered when you take a specific action - but if so, what action?

That's the tension what I'm hoping to create when Players try to make specific actions. I want to create a state of comical tension and paranoia; you don't know when a player is going to be trying to screw you over with ridiculous traps etc!

I like the kind of trap where you can sacrifice a piece of treasure to be bait for the other player, with an invisible trap trigger that goes off if they pick up the treasure.