You could go about it in a more subtle way too. Like a good while earlier having a traumatized NPC tell them about how X uses certain types of plants or something to disguise traps. Then when they get to the area just tell them about the flora there and see if they remembered it. If they forgot, then getting surprise trapped is not unfair imo.

Yo is that the Daedric prince of funny stuff, Herman Moira??

From one pro to another, I got you bro

With his magic stick, Wobbufet

I prefer to use the Worf Effect

I personally hate it based on how it’s done in media. All too often a show or game (looking at you, Halo: Infinite) where some nobody comes out of left field and beats down the badass protagonist off screen.

You don’t pull some random nobody from left field after all this investment the story puts into the protagonist. There needs to be some development for the new villain, or the “badassery” of them is unearned.

And that fight needs to be on screen. Otherwise it looks like the writer is just a hack that can’t actually imagine a plausible fight where the protagonist loses.

Foreshadowing is a pretty effective tool, yeah.

Ideally when the thing happens, whatever it is, the players go “oh that makes sense.”

I’ll paint a scenario and then you tell me what your action would be:

You come across a corridor, there’s a villain pulling a dead body off the wall; his face had been pushed into an indentation in the shape of a human face; the eyes of the indentation are holes allowing you to see into another room, although it is dark and what lays beyond isn’t immediately visible. In the hall before the face indentation are dead bodies; their eyes, along with the eyes of the body pulled from the wall, are smoking craters. When you near the indentation, you are struck by fear and it slows your movement.

What do you do?

::: spoiler spoiler My players were like “I stick my face in the indentation and look inside”; there was a bodak in the other room and the guards were using this place as an execution chamber. :::

And then there’s silksong

When the party enters the room and you describe what they see, just casually say “You don’t see any traps”.

That’s usually enough.

I once ran a Dread campaign where the players were a group of tourists on a tour through a stalactite cavern. When they reached the deepest point of the tour, they heard an explosion from the entrance and the lights went out. As soon as the lights were out, someone (a disgruntled former employee of the stalactite cavern tour company) killed the tour guide with a crossbow.

The players then had to make their way through the long-abandoned and partially flooded other exit of the cavern.

I gave the killer a heavy, wheezing cough, so any time they spent too long discussing things, I would just cough. That was enough to bring the tension way up again.

i’ll be honest, if your players get randomly killed because of a trap, the trap might just be too strong and should do less damage

with the groups ive played with, they’ll nose dive face first into a trap just to see what happens. and thats only because my turn wasnt first

It’s not just about fairness. It’s about narrative structure. Set-up and pay-off.

When I hear “Bioshock goon”, my brain defaults to set them on fire and shock the water when they jump in to put themselves out.

The Worf Effect is specifically when it’s established on screen

That looks suspiciously like Sheogorath

Craziest goon sesh I’ve ever heard of

I do this every Friday night. best goon session ever.

My brain jumps to Big Daddy using his drill if you catch my drift

Because it is