im going to try to make a mission in where my acolytes are completely seperated and must make due through various death traps, logic tests, and moral quandaries and i was wondering if anyone had any good ideas for a few survivable death traps with the 40k vibe we all love.

Get a copy of Lure of the Lich Lord from WFRP 2E. Its full of great traps!

any way you could copy some down onto here i really dont have any way to get ahold of it

Yes you can , since all the WFRP stuff is up as PDFs. They're fully available to everyone.

Plus, they generally frown on copying out big chunks of books on here.

it was more hinting towards my monetary situation but thank you nonethless anyone have any homebrewed death traps they are willing to part with?

I'm kinda in the same boat you are. I've been working on ideas for a Haarlock death trap for a while now and, thanks to some suggestions earlier on these forums, part of it is coming together, though i haven't put much thought in it yet (that part of the story is still a ways off and I have to work and get stories together for the immediate future, etc). I'll try to hammer it out in some kind of coherent detail shortly, but to seed some thoughts:

It involves a stasis filed which would activate if certain parameters are/are not met at Critical Trigger Point. The clue that things are not right is, of course, other hapless folks locked in stasis scattered about. The individual stasis fields, however, cycle down (and during this time those who trigger the Critical Trigger Point will not be placed in stasis) and a Nasty Beast comes along and feeds on those coming out of stasis (clue #2, the bones and leavings of Nasty Beast).

Like i said, not much has gone into it yet, but maybe that will give you a springboard for something of your own.

im more in the market for individual traps not something that big (it sounds like the entire group would have to deal with that Nasty Beast)

much of the tests and traps are set for the individual because my inquisitor is testing his acolytes (this will be their first mission) i have a few logic tests in mind to allow the players to get actively involved (word games and number puzzles to get barely loaded weapons or keys or even clues to why they are there)

and some of them will be individual death traps (mostly set for their backround)

if anyone has seen the Saw movies i am looking for SURVIVABLE (even though it annoys me that the players rarely survive) traps

they will all meet up in the traps and tests to help eachother out and at the end I (the inquisitor im not making a character until Ascencion is out and i can make an inquisitor from scratch) will introduce myself and basically say that they belong to him now and they are pretty much nonexistent in the system now.

ThenDoctor said:

A couple that spring to mind are :

1) A string of nodes with an on/off setting. A few will be 'ON' and a few will be 'OFF'. The PC(s) will have to switch all nodes to either on or off (depending on the context of what you've set up). Switching one node to 'ON' will switch all adjacent nodes 'OFF' and vice versa. Put something valuable in the prizebox or find some way to make sure that the only way the PCs are getting their prize is by completing it. KotOR used this as a lock combination to a prisoner; perhaps something similar can be used?

2) 2 (or more) containers with set volumes of different values (like 3 STC-units and 5-STC units, for example). The PCs will have to reach a particular set level on one of the containers to achieve their goal. The only options present are to fill a container entirely with 'stuff' (the nature of this 'stuff' varying depending on context), empty a container entirely, or transfer the volumes from one container to another, with any larger containers filling up a smaller one then remaining with any leftover 'stuff'.

That's just a pair off the top of my head. I know another GM is using a variation of the 'One of us is lying, one of us is telling the truth' puzzle, but with three servitors containing knowledge the party seeks.

ThenDoctor said:

Generaly, being a GM and having a 'personal character' is a not-so-wise idea and actually being frowned on by most roleplayers, since it evokes an air of unnecessary authority and GM favoritism. Also players don't normally like it to be bereft of any options at all. Traps are fine, but a situation confronting their characters with an endless array of them smells so ... 1979 D&D.

Anyways, if you're going down that route I suggest you simply run a search on google, yahoo or any other search engine - that'll provide you with some ideas and materials for traps and hooks. Most of them turn out to be for fantasy rpgs, but a bit of conversion and thought put into it will do the trick.

The Pit and the Flintstone Golem

While investigating insde of building complexe (a vault, a tome, a mansion) the pc find a door to stairs that lead to a lower area. After taken half the stairs, they start they will recognize a faint smell (extended checks for Perception/Awareness; Routin; 5 Success). On a successfull chem-use (or similiar lore) test they will identify the gas as something "nonlethal, but long term detrimental for health". Never the less, the gas is highly volotile/flamable (which makes guns a immidiate bad choise).

The lower complex (where they suppose to find something) is made of many corridors, much like a labyrinth but not that confusing. Anyway, it is completely filled with said gas. At some point, the pc will encounter combat servitors that them to be covered in a rough and rocklike material. Check for suiting professian and loreskils will immidiatley reveal this as a sort of flintstone. If the pc do not get the point, a Logic check might be in order...

If the pc try to fight the approaching flint-covered servitors, they better to do it without anything causing sparks...which in turn won´t be enough to damage the servitor.

What are the pc supposed to do:
Simply, they have to avoid the servitores. This isn´t that easy, since they aren´t that slow (perhaps wheel-mounted?). Teamwor (one "luring" the servitores away; while the other aproach the area further) is one option. Brave souls can try to dodge and zick-zack between the servitores. TUMBLING a servitor is an option as well (but they will lift themselves up after a while...but this will take a lot more combatturns the the normal "stand up").

P.S: If you have a psyker who will deal with them in short order, inscribe most of the area with foul runes so it has the same effect as "weaken the veil".

A big trap, I know...but I hope it is helpfull. Remeber, that the servitores know they "labyrinth" and might be linked to hidden sensors.

"The Tipping Point"

A corridor leads into a circular room 15 meters across and continues on the other side of the room. The floor is made of transparent plasteel and you can clearly see that right under the entrance is a metal support beam 5 meters long. The center of the floor is supported by thick steel beam with some kind of ball-joint attached to the floor. Beneath the floor is a huge leading to darkness.

How the trap operates:

The floor is actually a think plasteel disk balanced on the ball-joint in the middle. Its slightly heavier on the entrance side and rests on the beam, thus walking straight line to the middle of the room is safe. However, if you walk too far to the side or far end the disk will dip and you down to nothingness. For a normal sized person the disk will not dip easily, but requires the person to go pretty near the edges of the room... Maybe 5 meters away from the wall. For a heavier person the tipping-point will come sooner. The disk is slightly thicker on the entrance side, meaning that after tipping and dropping its load to darkness the disk will always slowly reset to starting position.

How to avoid it:

A really lightweight person without any heavy gear on him (say 120 pounds total) can walk to the middle of the room, lay down and slowly crawl across the disk without ever tipping it. However, this would require him to go extremely slowly and avoid making any sudden moves, possibly requiring a willpower test when he sees he's crawling with basically nothing to prevent him from falling headfirst into darkness if he fails.

Anyone can cross by walking over slowly and in straight line if you have enough counter-balance on the entrance side. If you crawl, the counter-balance needed is less. The easiest way to cross the trap with whole group is to leave about 100 pounds worth of equally balanced weight on the both sides of entrance and just walk over. You can leave less (maybe just 60 pounds or so) and crawl over. In a pinch you can leave the lightest member of the group to act as counter-balance and have him crawl over last. This however, pretty much "burns the bridge" making sure you can't return the same way you came.

The worst mistakes you can do:

Trying to run over is about as bad as you can do. You won't get much across the middle before the floor tilts and jumping from tilting floor without slipping is difficult. Even then you'd have to jump maybe 10 meters to clear the room completely or the disk will crush you against the wall when resetting.

Safety rope won't help much either, the rope is likely to be severed by the disk and the doorway on the entrance side and you still are in very real danger of being crushed by the resetting disk.

Leaving counterbalance weight by just piling stuff on a big pile will most likely lead to the pile tipping over to one side and dropping people into oblivion.

"The Haunted Painting"

There is a small painting hanging on the wall, set in golden frames. On closer inspection it is quite strange, since the painting itself seems to be more like a set of hexagrammic wards painted on some kind of thin leather. The leather is thin enough to let some light through and you can almost make out pictures on the other side, facing the wall. Underneat the painting there is a small metal signed nailed to the wall, saying "Do not touch".

How the trap operates:

The "trap" is actually piece of demon skin with the spirit of the demon bound to it with wards that are just powerfull enough to keep the demons power from extending beyond the painting itself. However, the demon has extremely highly evolved possession and illusion abilities. The longer you stare at the painting the more you start to make out of the picture/text on the other side and it always seems to be some information you'd really like to know. In reality its just an illusion the demon tries to use to lure you into touching it.

How to avoid it:

Really easy. Do not touch the painting. Do not stare at it. Do not investigate it. There is nothing you can learn from it. some things are just *not* meant for you to know. Seriously.

The worst mistakes you can do:

Touch the painting and the demon will instantly obliterate your soul, possess your body and go rampage on anyone and everyone in the vicinity. Its not like you weren't warned.

Destroy the painting and you'll open up a portal which allows the demon to enter Materium in its true form and go rampage on anyone and everyone in the vicinity.

Very nice!

I like Graver's idea of a stasis field: these are very rare devices that freeze time within their operation radius. The Imperium is gradually losing the ability to manufacture these fields (see the Calixis details for the forge world of Belacane) which may have disastrous implications for the Imperium, as the Golden Throne uses them in part for some of its functions.

How about the classic 40k idea of mixing high tech with low tech: the players accidentally trigger a stasis grenade as they enter a small room. This priceless relic from the Dark Age of Technology (which is worth millions of thrones) has been crudely attached to a tripwire. As they enter the room it goes off, trapping the players in a stasis bubble. This bubble covers a small physical space in a spherical pattern: within this bubble, time is frozen for as long as the small power cell in the grenade can sustain the field.

How long this is should be up to the GM, but there are opportunities to have some fun here. If the bubble catches a player in such a way that his head is outside the bubble, he will die within seconds, as his heart (frozen as it is in time) stops pumping blood to his brain. For the grenade to be deadly, it therefore need only have a small "blast radius" and last for a couple of minutes of so.

However, for real fun, make the bubble larger and freeze the players for 3-4 months. If any of the Acolytes' limbs are outside the bubble, they will not have any blood flow and will begin to rot immediately. Imagine the player's horror and confusion when the field cuts out and their limbs suddenly appear to have died and, rotted, bearing marks of having been gnawed by vermin.

Or make the stasis field operate for even longer: years or centuries. Not only will the players suddenly discover that an outstetched limb has turned to yellowed bone, but that they now have to cope with the whole "Rip Van Winkle" problem of pursuing a mission on behalf of a long dead Inquisitor, bearing Inquisitorial Rosettes that are waaay out of date.

You could foreshadow the trap by having the players notice a bizarre scene in the same room: a small party of people trapped in a glowing golden sphere of energy: the party consists of three people, two short women and a tall man. The man's head - which is outside the bubble - appears to be a skull. One of the women is pointing, and where her arm is outside the bubble, it is a skeletal stump, with fingerbones scattered across the floor below it.

For added spice, you could have the other party's stasis field collapse as the acolytes walk into the room, meaning they witness a scene of horror as the victims of the field panic about what has "just" happened to them (in fact they've been trapped for centuries) and they assume the players are responsible, and attack them!