Crushing Chambers
Crushing chambers are traps in which the walls or ceiling of a room or corridor close inwards, crushing helpless victims to death unless they find a way to escape, dodge aside, or to disarm the trap. Fictional crushing rooms are a frequent occurrence in game dungeons and adventure narratives where they may be triggered by a pressure plate and run by ancient automated systems. To increase the tension and threat of danger, often these moving walls will be decorated with spikes (usually already adorned with the skeletal remains of the last adventurers who visited). Crushing chambers are always a tight squeeze.
| Synonyms: slowly closing walls, crushing walls |
| Example Mythonyms: the chamber of hugs |
| Traps |
Designing Fictional Crushing Chambers
Foundations
Overview
Fictional crushing chambers may close at different speeds and designers may wish to use this rate to develop traps that feel different. A room in which the doors lock and the ceiling slowly begins to descend can help build tension. In this place the emphasis is placed on escape. A crushing trap where a heavy plate lifts and drops at a set rate, on the other hand, can be used as hazardous terrain, and the emphasis is shifted to avoiding the trap or timing one’s passage through the peril.
Fictional crushing chambers often have a means to disarm them or reset the walls to their original position. This may come in the form of hidden levers, buttons, and knobs. Unfortunately for any caught within the trap, these controls may be located outside of the trap room.
Ancient Traps
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