Booby Trap Ideas

kongisking

Active member
Indiana Jones and booby traps are like peanut butter and jelly: both are great on their own, but combined, they're divine. Recently, I've been working on my writing again, and I hate to say, I'm not really clever enough to think of good booby traps that aren't either cliche or too impossible to survive. I need to stockpile a list of cool booby trap ideas (preferably ones you'd find in a lost temple or tomb or whatnot), and I need help.

So, I'm making this thread for people to share ideas for booby traps in the Indiana Jones tradition. Buckets on top of doors in your house aren't what I'm looking for. If I utilize a concept from one of you, I'd give you proper credit, don't worry. Thanks, everyone! :hat:
 
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Mickiana

Well-known member
The booby traps are often contextualised by the story they appear in. In Raiders in the temple, he is faced with tarantulas, light operated spear gate, very deep pit, pneumatic darts, descending door and rolling boulder. They fit in beautifully with the setting and other than the light operated spear gate, all seem feasible.

In Campbell Black's novel, the deep pit was covered by web which was further covered by dust giving the illusion of the floor as normal. Satipo nearly falls through it giving it away. To someone on their own, great caution would have been the requirement for its detection. This idea had its mirror image in the visually disguised bridge of the Leap from the Lion's Head in LC. This one required the abandonment of caution and resorting to 'faith'. Paths that are not there and are there, that can't be seen.

It is a hard task thinking up booby traps without the surrounding story. Avoiding cliche is difficult as every type of trap has been considered and depicted in movies and as for being too impossible to survive (the fridge?) I think it helps if they seem feasible or are at least have an interesting mystery to them.

Do you want booby traps that prevent or slow down someone, ones that are deadly, all of the above? The booby traps are often testing the mystery that Dr Jones is trying to solve. They are a deliberate test and can be successfully navigated with enough wit, agility, intelligence and a bit of luck doesn't hurt. If you could give us some of the scenarios of your story, then maybe that could be a good starting point. Old booby trap ideas can be nuanced well into new settings perhaps?
 

Mickiana

Well-known member
Here, what about this one: Descending doors that only maim, to give one time to reflect on lost opportunity...
 

kongisking

Active member
Sorry, Mickiana. I've been meaning to reply, but I've been very distracted by my personal life, so I keep forgetting to. I do like that idea, but I'll answer your question about what the context is:

I pictured a scene where the characters have to get past some trap to reach a chamber containing a golden cobra idol that, if you look into its eyes while holding it, will grant you one wish and one wish only, anything you want. I wanted a sequence with a trap that is either meant to be fatal and kill whoever intrudes, or is some kind of puzzle that you have to solve, or else the trap will eventually kill you. So, something like a combo of a spike-chamber 'immediate threat' with a tricky puzzle like something from Harry Potter that you have to solve to stop the immediate threat. So, I need ideas for an immediate threat, and a cool puzzle that can reasonably be solved but has to be fairly inventive and seem impossible to figure out at first...
 

Montana Smith

Active member
The literal booby trap:

217.jpg


The lure of a siren or the lure of adventure.

Choices.

kongisking said:
Recently, I've been working on my writing again...

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2INEVQ4jvUs?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

kongisking

Active member
Montana Smith said:
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2INEVQ4jvUs?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Silly me, I should have known it was possible to completely focus on writing a full-length novel while dealing with such lovely distractions as: being disowned by my family, in crippling financial debt, losing the woman I loved, being constantly held back from meeting my basic needs, struggling with anxiety and depression, somehow pulling off having an online presence and trying to build a successful YouTube channel....all on top of the age-old problem of writer's block.

But hey, that's what I get for ignoring the wisdom of a Seth MacFarlane character.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
kongisking said:
Silly me, I should have known it was possible to completely focus on writing a full-length novel while dealing with such lovely distractions as: being disowned by my family, in crippling financial debt, losing the woman I loved, being constantly held back from meeting my basic needs, struggling with anxiety and depression, somehow pulling off having an online presence and trying to build a successful YouTube channel....all on top of the age-old problem of writer's block.

I had a feeling that sort of thing was the case. Brian suffered from similar circumstances. Stewie was the kick in the balls he needed.

kongisking said:
But hey, that's what I get for ignoring the wisdom of a Seth MacFarlane character.

Never ignore the wisdom of Seth!
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Montana Smith said:
The literal booby trap:

217.jpg

I think you stole my joke, but I'm too lazy to verify it. Stoo?

Anyway, it reminds me of a haiku I wrote some time ago

girl is a landmine
step on her and she goes off
mind those booby traps
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Pale Horse said:
I think you stole my joke, but I'm too lazy to verify it. Stoo?

You're probably right!

I checked and found your haiku.

And the evidence is beginning to look well stacked in your favour.

Unwitting as it was, I'll always owe a debt to the wise horse. ;)


EDIT: I Googled the image address with "Pale Horse", and trusty Google turned up one result - the 'Horrible Ideas' thread


http://raven.theraider.net/showpost.php?p=506341&postcount=61


And there's this short-lived thread on Booby Traps:

http://mail.raven.theraider.net/showthread.php?t=8829
 
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