About: Durable Deathtrap   Sponge Permalink

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Picture the following: Our adventure/fantasy heroes enter some ancient ruins in search of something important or valuable. Although the site may have laid undisturbed for centuries or even millennia, the place is filled with a variety of lethal, fully functional traps left behind by the previous occupants. Said traps are often Bamboo Technology considerably more complex than anything else the creators were capable of making. Even more remarkable is the fact that they have not decayed at all, even if the environment is one that should require extra maintenance, and are just as lethal as they ever were, let alone the fact that any poisons should have decayed centuries ago. Projectile traps might even be capable of reloading themselves an indefinite number of times.

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  • Durable Deathtrap
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  • Picture the following: Our adventure/fantasy heroes enter some ancient ruins in search of something important or valuable. Although the site may have laid undisturbed for centuries or even millennia, the place is filled with a variety of lethal, fully functional traps left behind by the previous occupants. Said traps are often Bamboo Technology considerably more complex than anything else the creators were capable of making. Even more remarkable is the fact that they have not decayed at all, even if the environment is one that should require extra maintenance, and are just as lethal as they ever were, let alone the fact that any poisons should have decayed centuries ago. Projectile traps might even be capable of reloading themselves an indefinite number of times.
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abstract
  • Picture the following: Our adventure/fantasy heroes enter some ancient ruins in search of something important or valuable. Although the site may have laid undisturbed for centuries or even millennia, the place is filled with a variety of lethal, fully functional traps left behind by the previous occupants. Said traps are often Bamboo Technology considerably more complex than anything else the creators were capable of making. Even more remarkable is the fact that they have not decayed at all, even if the environment is one that should require extra maintenance, and are just as lethal as they ever were, let alone the fact that any poisons should have decayed centuries ago. Projectile traps might even be capable of reloading themselves an indefinite number of times. If we consider how this would work in the real world, it is obvious that if a facility is in actual use, it is grossly impractical to install traps that must be disabled or circumvented every time. It is much easier and more efficient to post guards as needed. If it had to be abandoned for some reason, traps might be left behind, but it would probably be easier to remove the important stuff and/or collapse the roof. In any case, traps would decay and cease to function if no one maintained them. But in these kinds of stories, the most complex things are the ones that are least susceptible to decay. This will only ever be pointed out if the ancient civilization is, in fact, still around and doing regular maintenance. Note that in Speculative Fiction this can be hand waved as being caused by self-repairing technology, and in fantastic settings magic traps may be exempt from decaying or running out of ammo. Still, in most cases it is a grossly unrealistic way to introduce danger into the environment. This trope is a staple in fiction featuring Adventurer Archaeologists. See also Ragnarok Proofing. A subtrope of They Don't Make Them Like They Used To and Older Is Better. When the deathtrap is one-time-use-only, this can often be an example of Already Undone for You. Examples of Durable Deathtrap include:
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