What is Treacherous Traps?

Treacherous Traps is a 5e trap resource from Nord Games, originally funded on Kickstarter in 2019 with over $160,000 raised. It ships as a book and a boxed set of tarot-sized decks — five 50-card decks split by level band, plus a 100-card random trap generator of 50 triggers and 50 effects. A second Kickstarter, Treacherous Traps 2, has since followed.

Do I need to back a Kickstarter to get good D&D traps?

No. Crowdfunded boxed sets deliver months after the campaign closes and add shipping and customs on top of the pledge. A printable compendium downloads the moment you pay and prints on whatever paper you already own, which matters if you want traps for the session this week.

What makes a trap good in D&D 5e?

A trap is good when the players get to make a decision. A saving throw followed by damage is a tax, not an encounter. Good traps telegraph themselves before they trigger, give a beat where the party can react, and offer more than one way past that is not the same check twice.

How many traps do I actually need?

Fewer than you think, if each one scales. A hundred-plus traps split across level bands with an "at higher levels" line means a trap you liked at level 3 still works at level 12, which is worth more than a thousand single-use entries.

Are printable traps usable on a virtual tabletop?

Yes, if the product ships separate image files. Trap illustrations as transparent PNGs drop into Roll20, Foundry or Owlbear as handouts, and a d100 table PDF works fine shared on screen. A book that only exists as bound pages does not travel to a VTT as cleanly.

Should I buy a trap deck or a trap book?

A deck is better for improvisation — draw and run. A book is better for prep and for scaling, because it has room for the guidance a card cannot fit. Products that include both a compendium and a generator deck cover the two jobs without you buying twice.

Printable D&D traps vs Treacherous Traps: what to buy in 2026

TL;DR: Treacherous Traps is a well-made boxed product, but backing a Kickstarter means waiting months and paying shipping for cards you could print tonight. If what you want is traps for this Thursday, an instant-download compendium with a generator deck built in does the same job, at a fraction of the price, with files that also work on a VTT.

Traps have a reputation problem in 5e, and it is deserved. The standard trap is a perception check nobody announced, a saving throw, and some hit points. Nobody at the table made a decision. The corridor continues.

That is why dedicated trap products sell. Nord Games’ Treacherous Traps raised over $160,000 on Kickstarter against a $5,000 goal in 2019, shipped as a book plus a boxed set of five 50-card level-band decks and a 100-card random generator, and has since had a second campaign. There is clearly an appetite for someone else having solved this.

The question worth asking in 2026 is not whether trap products are useful. It is what form you should buy one in.

The crowdfunding maths

Backing a card-based trap set has real costs that the pledge figure hides.

Time. A Kickstarter delivers when it delivers. Historically that is months after the campaign closes, and TTRPG crowdfunding is not famous for hitting dates. If your dungeon crawl is starting in three weeks, the boxed set is not a solution to that problem.

Shipping. Physical card boxes are heavy, and international shipping on a boxed set is frequently a significant fraction of the pledge again. Outside the US, customs handling can add more.

Reprints. When you lose cards, spill on them, or want a second copy for a co-DM, you buy another box. A PDF prints again for the cost of paper.

Fixed format. A boxed set is the size, the card stock and the layout the publisher chose. You cannot print it small for a binder, print it ink-light, or send an image to a player on Discord.

None of that makes the product bad. It makes it a different purchase from the one most DMs actually need, which is “give me runnable traps before Thursday.”

What actually makes a trap worth running

Before comparing products, it is worth being clear about what you are buying, because trap count is a vanity metric. Five things separate a trap that produces a memorable scene from one that produces a damage roll:

A tell. Something the players can notice before it fires. Scorch marks. A worn groove in the floor. Dust that stops abruptly. The trap should always have been avoidable.

A beat between trigger and effect. The half-second where the mechanism engages and the damage has not landed yet. Read it aloud before rolling anything and the party gets to act. This one change turns a trap from a tax into an encounter.

More than one way past. And not the same check twice. Disable Device, then Athletics, then a spell, then a conversation with whatever built it.

Something to do with it. Can the party turn the trap on someone else? A trap the players can weaponise is a set piece; a trap they can only survive is furniture.

A complication that is not more damage. The corridor floods. The noise wakes something. The door behind you locks.

If a trap product does not do these things on every entry, its card count does not matter.

The instant-download alternative

Printable D&D 5e traps and puzzles compendium with 140 traps and a 135-card generator deck

From the shop

DnD Traps & Puzzles — 140 Printable 5e Traps

$47 $14.10

Browse on Etsy →

The MakeMythic Traps and Hazards Compendium is built around the five points above rather than around a card count. It is a 174-page A5 book with 140 traps, one per page, each with its own illustration, split across five level bands from 1-4 up to 17-20, and every page carries the tell, the beat, four ways past, a way to turn the trap on someone else, and a complication.

It also includes the generator format, so you are not choosing between a book and a deck:

135 generator cards — 40 triggers, 40 effects, 30 telegraphs and 25 complications. Draw one of each for a trap nobody has run before, with DCs and damage already worked out.
10 set-piece traps as two-page spreads, each on a three-stage clock the players drive, with four ways out.
25 puzzles, each a player handout plus a DM sheet with the answer, an alternative answer to accept, three hints, a skill-check fallback, the reward and the failure state.
150 illustrations as separate transparent PNGs for Roll20, Foundry, a tablet or a printed handout.
An “at higher levels” row on every trap, covering the other four bands, so a trap you liked at level 3 still works at level 15.
d100 tables of all 140 traps, in A4 and US Letter, colour and low ink, plus print sheets, binder pages, a tuck box and an importable deck file.

It downloads when you pay. There is no ship date, no customs, and reprinting costs paper.

How the two compare, honestly

Physical quality. The boxed set wins. Professionally printed tarot cards feel better than home-printed cardstock, and if the object matters to you, that is a real reason to buy one.

Speed. Not close. Download and print tonight versus wait for fulfilment.

Cost. Not close either, especially once shipping is included.

Scaling. A per-level-band deck locks a trap to its band. An “at higher levels” line on every page means the same 140 traps cover a whole campaign.

Virtual tables. Separate PNG illustrations and a shareable d100 PDF travel to a VTT. A physical card does not.

Puzzles. Trap decks typically do not include worked puzzles with answers, hints and fallbacks. If your dungeon needs both, that is otherwise a second purchase.

If you want a beautiful box on a shelf, back the Kickstarter. If you want traps in your dungeon this week, print them.

Putting them in a dungeon

Traps land best when the dungeon around them has a shape. Our random dungeon generator will lay out the rooms and corridors, puzzle ideas covers the non-mechanical half of the same problem, and the grid overlay tool gets a map onto the table once you know where the pressure plate goes.

Then use the one rule that fixes traps regardless of what you bought: say the tell out loud, pause after the click, and let the players do something.