Traps in woodland

[stormcrow]

Vines, or thin - whiplike - young branches can certainly be staked and tied to act as snares. I don't know what type of knot you'd use for a snare; a knot that runs to tighten, but locks or tightens further if the unfortunate victim struggles. Maybe similar to the knot used in a lassoo?

Spider-silk could be spun to make some sort of ultra-strong , lightweight fibre for similar purpose - or even nets; need a lot of/very large spders tho'!

 

[hopewrites]

fairy tail you say? so could someone maybe talk the vines into setting themselves into a trap? you characters wouldn't have the setting of it so you wouldn't need the machinations down, and the cost in time would be greatly reduced.
depending on what else was going on, I'd find it pretty plausible that vines would know how to tangle things up better than not-so-wood-savvy-people-who-happen-to-talk-to-plants. maybe one of them is a gardener.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Well, any kind of plant life is possible in a fantasy/fairytale setting, but you have to realize that realistically, most actual creeping vines are very, very tough and hard to work with-like ivy-and most vines that aren't won't stand up to a good hard yank from human hands, like running fruiting vines such as strawberry or tomato, which you probably wouldn't be using anyway.


If I were you, I would rather go along with small, springy flora, such as vine maple, or maybe even some types of willow. What you would actually use a real vine for, such as the ivy I had mentioned, would be some form of tripwire, if you weren't able to use animal sinew like in bows. If you wanted to go with a tripwire trap, though, then you would have to try to figure out what it would trigger, and how to go about connecting that to the wire, and how to built the actual trap itself, blah blah blah.


I sure wouldn't try a hidden pit trap like you see in cartoons though. I feel that's just corny as hell and really more trouble than it would be worth. Not only digging the pit and finding sufficient cover to it, but try getting anything out of a pit that can't escape on its own....yeah. Not a good scenario.

 

[MstrTal]

Actually the biggest problem with pit traps is hiding all the dirt. Not something characters on the run would be able to do in a hurry. OK the second biggest issue with pit traps is hiding the dirt, the first is the intense labor involved with digging one. Another issue with pit traps is up-keep. Sadly they are not "set and forget", this is due to the nature of the covering or camouflage. Unless you are using some sort of modern synthetic to cover the pit you will be scrounging from your local environment which means that more often than not that your pit cover is going to either rot or wither and need replaced.

Now slightly but not entirely off topic a fun little booby trap I have used in the past to good effect in real life is the flour bag. At some scenario paintball games I have taken plain white flour, actually rice flour due to possible allergy concerns, and measured it into brown paper bags. These bags where suspended from trees with twine and then shot with paintball guns when other players walked underneath thus coating them in flour. On a few random occasions the twine has been known to be used as a tripwire to swing the bag of flour into the trunk of a nearby tree in the hope of coating players though this doesn't work as well. In your written scenario you could of course just drop a bag of flour on your pursuers or anything else should you happen to have a roll of twine handy.

 

[Esfires]

A good solution to the pit trap's problems would be to have your characters come across an already-existing pit, like a small sinkhole. In very little time they could cover and camouflage the top and be on their way. And from Hex's scenario, the covering wouldn't exactly have to last very long.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Yes, I was thinking the same thing as Esfires. If your guy's a woodland sort and he knows the bush, he would likely also know the dangerous parts. He might also know how to lay a false trail, to make his pursuers think he went a particular way. So if it's boggy, he might know where some quicksand is, and lay a false trail leading to it, and perhaps through a few vines over the top to make it look more solid. Or he might know where there's a lot of hanging vines, maybe with sticky sap or barbs to hook people up. Or a pit covered by roots from a plant.

My thought is that building mantraps takes time. Leading someone to a natural hazard, not so much.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[ctg]

Hex is this mantrap meant to kill or capture alive? And is this based in the fantasy world or real one?

Sorry stupid question, you made a clarification. A skilled hunter could setup a trap for small animals in mere minutes, but for a larger ones, it'll take time. And as a man is a larger animal, it wouldn't be easy to set a snare trap in minutes. Also I'm highly suspicious that a simple trap would work. Even the Return of the Jedi style net-trap wouldn't work for a long time as a person would start finding away out from the trap when the swinging would stop. You see that same behaviour in animals. They won't stop whining and trying their everything to get out from the trap. Therefore, you hunter would have to be nearby to silence the opponent or make sure that the trap will cause some sort of paralysis or incapacitating effect.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

As the lovely Hex is still away in the back of beyond... as far as I'm aware it's to capture alive, and its in a fantasy world.

 

[ctg]

Magic comes in mind with the fantasy settings. Also adding fantasy plants in the play could prove to be effective way to capture a man.

 

[prizzley]

If you want to be really nasty, what about caltrops or gin traps? Are your characters the kind to carry such things, just in case?

 

[MstrTal]

Also do not underestimate the nasty effect of smoke. If any of the shrubbery in the area are naturally oily and your characters have a way of lighting them a small hole filled with oily leaves and green wood produces a lot of smoke. If for instances your characters are up wind of their assailants and can safely light a small but smokey fire that then pours down the trail with little chance of catching the surrounding flora ablaze this may also slow them down. Especially since breathing smoke is somewhat damaging to ones health, though not fatal if you take precautions.