Post all the over the top, ridiculous, wacky, Rube Goldberg, traps & security setups you can think of here. These do not have to be cost efficient or energy efficient. Let's see what kind of crazy stuff people can come up with.

This one came up last night in our group when the question of if magical fire would actually burn without oxygen. (never resolved that issue because it was not very important to the game at that point and this derail was much more entertaining)

The Hyperbaric chamber flashover trap:
Equipment: 1 Hyperbaric or vacuum chamber with a viewing window, a pile of Oily rags, and a fireball spell.

How it works. The oily rags are piled in to the vacuum chamber, all the air is pumped out, and then a fireball spell is cast on the rags to cause them to reach ignition temperature. Then before the rig cools unsuspecting shadowrunners open the chamber door and Bam the reintroduction of oxygen cooks the sucker opening the door. A Highschool Chemistry (3) knowledge test will let the runner know opening the door is a really bad idea.

There's always the spiked or weighted drop ceiling. Though that one isn't always utterly impractical.

Drop floors are neat, though then you're getting even more practical.

~J

Mirrors + welding lasers and/or laser spells.
mirrors are just really fun in general. For example if a mage casts an area of effect light spell at the focus of a big ol' parabolic collector (satellite dish shape) I would rule that it becomes a focused directional beam of devilrat toasting light. They also let you see and target spells around corners. Mage + thermovis + corner reflective in the near infared = Where the heck did that spell come from!

Another potentially fun trap: tie somthing the runners are supposed to steal down with monowire. Then have its tension jacked way up. This way when it breaks it whips around in unpredictable directions causing mass chaos (idealy).

random top of the line keypad in the middle of the hallway. this key pad just speaks of secrete passages or store room since there is no doorways in sight. (just like the big red button)
Only one problem, once the correct code is put in it sets of a trap: poison darts, pit full of acid, whatever..

Just thought of another one:
A trap that sprays ordinary perfume on whomever sets it off. Unbeknownst to them of course, this is the scent that the security paracritters have been trained to attack without mercy.

The ability to flood hallways with lava.

~J

Build a giant water-tight room that is, in actuality, a huge flush-toilet. When intruders enter, the doors seal, a hole opens in the bottom, an dit flushes, forcing the intruders into the giant septic system. (Stolen from Flesh Gordon)

Alligator pits have always been a personal favorite of mine.

But for a true rube goldberg device.

A trip wire activates a switch that causes a mechanical handd to swing down. The mechanical hand is holding a 2 ton weight which drops onto a see-saw, which catapults a rubber ball upward, which strikes a switch on the ceiling, which unlocks the locking bolts holding a warded door closed behind which is a Force 12 Fire Elemental. The Fire Elemental advances into the center of the room where there is a metal bowl full of pre-mixed yeast and flour and uses his Flame Aura to bake the bread. When the bread cools a nearby electronic thermometer senses it, the thermometer is connected to a computer which is set to open the starving rat cages when it senses first a rise in temperature to baking levels for long enough to bake followed by a drop in temperature to reasonable levels. The starving rats go for the bread which rests on a pressure sensor. When enough rats get to the bread it releases a 10-ton spiked ceiling panel whuich pulverizes the rats. Their blood and pulp runs down a channel and drips into a beaker at a lower level which is also on a pressure sensor. When the beaker collects enough blood to trip the sensor it releases a mechanical foot which kicks the beaker over, the spilled blood splashes a blood glucose monitor. This, in turn, activates a silent alarm which calls a private security company who cannot get inside without forcing the door open. Forcing the door open then causes the room to seal shut, fill with water, and dump alligators inside. As alligators fall from the room above a sensor counts them. Once a certain number of alligators fall a small nuclear device is activated on a 30-second timer. The detonation of the nuclear device destroys the house and any intruder inside while the EMP deactivates a powered lock in a bomb-proof subbasement which holds the real trap in check.

combination of outlets for slipspray, hyper and pepper-punch . . especially on stairs you are being REALLY cruel *g*

For years and years I have championed the Greasy Frenchfry Trap, but no one has ever listened. It was actually featured on one episode of "Muppet Babies".

Basically, you have a pit in the floor. When people climb into the pit to examine it giant-sized hot greasy french fries fall from a ceiling port, trapping them in the pit. The french fries are the size of freaking pine trees, in the context of a giant's castle. But I suppose you could also use lots of regular french fries.

Victims take damage from hot grease, as the fries have just been cooked in beef tallow. Also, all kinds of carnivorous animals will attack anyone who manages to escape because they smell like beef tallow and salt. The oil is impossible to remove without soap and warm water.

The ventilation shafts of DOOM...

In normal mode, the big fans in the shafts move at a fairly normal clip, enough to keep the underground lab ventilated. When an intruder in the shaft breaks a tripwire beam, the fans go to "High" and start sucking the intruder into the blades. Did I mention that the shafts are polished and offer no handholds, and the edges of the fans are lined with monowire?

Cleanup's not fun, though. Bring blotters.

Another:
stairways, that through clever use of mechanics, turn into smooth ramps. Its an oldy but goody. I mean, how do you get up a smooth ramp thats at a 45 degree incline (or greater)?

oooh, oooh.
this could be fun:
Make an entire facility (excepting the outer wall) out of glass. ("At Shiawase, we're all family, and have no need to keep secrets from each other.") Have fun sneaking around in there.
And it gets better: have it be a magical research lab, so its crawling with mages. Most of whom have line of sight to the runners and several structural, high-armor-rating walls between them.
Have any non-awakened security use laser weapons for even more of a challenge.
Its not really a trap per say, but it can certainly make a team's life hell.

And the GM's. I'm all for not shying away from calculation, but the idea of calculating refraction (or the relevant TN mods for such) in that kind of environment makes my head hurt.

The mages wouldn't care, though…

~J

So don't. Just say that in 2070 they have a glass like material with the same index of refraction as air and the structural strength of (insert building material here).

EDIT:
it could also be really fun to make the glass in some places uber-transparent. Is there a wall there or not? Is there a floor there or not?

"Brought to you by the Grimtooth Corporation!*"




*A subsidiary of Saeder-Krupp.

That's why you use mass amounts of running water, cause if you can't shape shift into a salmon, you're not trying hard enough.

rat traps....invisible rat traps. every time the runners try to grab some chip or some such thing they hear a snap and feeel the pain and pressure of the rat trap close upon them.

Grimtooth's Traps

And the rest of the series

I think there are about a dozen of the books out by now.

more or less universal, it's easy to replace arrows with gun turrets, critters with other critters, toxic gas with toxic gas.

completely over the top for shadowrun, ridiculously complex.