The Janitor must have either hate you or has given up on that room entirely

Alternatively it could be a deep hole that's filling up with lava

oh no, not the LOOT!

variant, make a extremely hard puzzle to solve in the room and if they solve it the puzzle explodes.

Oh I like this.

Half broken traps are the best traps

And then what? Youre stuck between two rocks lol. Would there be a cut-out path? Or does this rely on dimension door?

@@zioqqr4262 lol nope you're just stuck. Nah, most of these types of traps reset after a few minutes in fiction, so I was thinking just get into the groove and wait a minute.

I feel like it would be difficult to describe this without giving it away, or not giving enough info

Brilliant improv!

Thank you 😋

Congratulations, the sword sinks into the ceiling and it keeps moving.

@@recursiveslacker7730 Assuming the entire structure (floor and roof) is made out of stone. Thanks to the immense compressive strength of stone, if the sword applies enough pressure to split the stone to sink into it, the entire block the sword is touching would fail and shatter. The results would range from (instead of sinking in) cracking up and potentially shattering thanks to its poor tensile strength, to simply holding everything in place because the forces align well enough to transfer the compressive pressure from the roof to the floor through the sword. According to my understanding of how the engineering of crushing traps work, out of all the potential results from the interaction, the sword would absolutely not sink into the structure.

See also (and even more strongly): incorporeal creatures (like multiple forms of undead), things like shadows and swarms which can slip through small openings, things like displacer beasts which can hop off the material plane at the last moment, air/water elementals which are similiarly non-solid, things like bullettes and earth elementals which have a burrowing speed, a vampire who had the trap built in the first place knowing they could just turn to mist form and could step in and make sure the pcs couldn't deal with the problem themselves, or if you want to be super nasty: a lich who knows that he can reform so has a fallback point in a crushing room filled with freezing cold poisonous salt water, because why not?

@@dynamicworlds1 ooooo those are also very good options. I didn't even think about incorporeal creatures.

It doesn't have to be a crush trap, a vanishing/crumbling floor or rising water/lava levels can also eat away at the available spaces to stand. A crush trap combat isn't about getting crushed as much as about the tactical implications of steadily decreasing combat space + the stress if the time/turn limit. So you can reskin it as needed to fit the theme of an area, just keep in mind the reskining's implications, rusing water is a drowning trap not a crush trap, but it could be filled with some unpleasant critters. (Imagine a fish that can paralyze you, that would be a reason to avoid the water that doesn't necessarily deal direct damage)

@@jasonreed7522 very good point!

Its such a shame, too. They deserve some love.

This is genius, really! Dodge falling sections, try to find a way to climb up (not everyone has a grappling hook, not every thrown hook catches), and will tampering with the mechanism above the ceiling make it stop, or plummet down? This has a challenge for lots of PC types. Thanks!

On some of my traps (I play Savage Worlds), I tell the player "You are just about to step on a trip plate, you hear it start to click." Then they have the choice of using a Bennie to alter the story and roll to dodge, or let it trigger and save their Bennie for later. Players start each session with 3 Bennies, you can use them for rerolls and things like this, and earn more during play for good role playing and things. You could suggest a trap mechanic like this to your GM. It's still pretty tense, players don't like to spend Bennies they might need later.

Resilient sphere would work, but it only protects one PC. If the PCs have tiny hut, I'd probably make the trap such that would take too long to cast, or allow it but make the puzzle hard so that they have to take most of the duration to solve it, with the caster trapped in the hut the whole time so it stays up.

I think first: This needs punctuation to be easier to read. Second: Having a trap like this break and fail is perfectly fitting for such an ancient dungeon, as it makes sense for more complicated traps like this to break over time. It's still an effective trap, but instead of imminent terror and death, it's now a case of potentially slow death and needing to find a way to get out before something worse happens.

@@jessegd6306 thank you and so sorry for the punctuation. the English language is really difficult for me to understand

@@blackskull3276 Understandable. Still, punctuation not-withstanding, I can at least read through what you've typed and understand what you've said. Still a nicely thematic trap idea you've got.

@@jessegd6306 thank you :)

Some evil entities might prefer slow traumatic death (spikes do not add lethality but are more frightening). Scrying might give the evil entity some entertainment. For worthiness tests, crushing imposes a time limit and can change resources/options (hint text is covered, 'extra' components that make a puzzle easier to solve - or increase the size of the exit allowing faster exit and/or not having to take off armor or leave gear behind - become unreachable, hint text on descending ceiling becomes readable). A seeming crush trap might actually be an elevator that forces water pools at either side of a narrow pathway upward. The pathway leads to a wooden platform that rises with the rising water. A not entirely sane wizard might design such a mechanism. A fake crush trap could act as a chase trap that hurries the party toward an actual danger or could simply make an exit in the ceiling accessible - which might be combined with an obvious exit that leads to a bad experience or merely a time-wasting diversion to the servants' quarters. The converging walls might have pressure plates that activate traps or be covered with contact poison; authorized persons would know to wait for the walls to reach a certain point when an exit opens but intruders would likely touch/press against the walls. A crush trap might also be a partially broken instant-death trap activated at the middle of a chamber (to increase casualties) and the entry way portion might work as originally designed (blocking that exit instantly). If the movement is irregular and possibly triggered by intruder actions (such as tapping on the walls looking for secret doors) and its continuance is uncertain (they might have time to dig their way out - though digging could trigger movement - or think of how they could stop or delay the crushing to give time for escape. A broken death trap can also warn the party that traps are likely. A crush trap might be a containment trap where authorized persons know which of the five exits is appropriate; even if the entire party choose the correct exit, there might be a locked (or secret) door at the end of a very short passage that is fine for one person with plenty of air (especially if not using fire-based lighting) but cramped and suffocating for a larger group, capturing a scouting party can be better strategy than killing all intruders. A crush trap might not actually be intended as a crush trap but merely be extremely thick doors for a gateway. A portcullis drops instantly and the four meter thick (wide) wall/sliding door slowly moves into place to block the entrance. While this kind of design would not typically block escape from the direction the 'room' was entered, if the party is being pursued or searched for backtracking might not be a desired option. The best option might be to get one person past the portcullis, who can go to the gatehouse and stop the door closing and raise the portcullis. This might involve briefly raising the portcullis slightly, one party member turning into a rabbit or teleporting a short distance.

It could be that building a ceiling that can crush down and then raise back up requires a slow mechanism because of the gearing or something. Or the crush mechanic can be a room flooding with water, and it takes time. Maybe it's filling with sand or beetles... These things take time. :)