Traps Gallery

Since 1989 my friend Jay and I have exchange trapped presents at Christmas. When I say trapped I mean it in the classic Circle of Death game style — if you open the present carelessly a buzzer will sound or explosive cap will trigger. It all started when we were designing traps for live-action role-playing games, but quickly became a challenge to one-up each other each year. These days we open all the other presents first and then settle down with our flashlights, dentist tools and wire clippers to work on opening each other's presents while the rest of the family eats pie and enjoy themselves making unhelpful comments.

Jay and I each have our own style of trap-making. Jay has become a master of secreting traps in places that you'd think he couldn't access. His high-point is probably the time he gave me a deck of gaming cards that he had somehow unsealed, hollowed out, rigged with an exploding cap trap, then resealed and re-shrinkwrapped such that it looked like new again. (That's rivaled by Christmas 2003, when he managed to plant an explosive inside a cut-then-resealed chocolate egg.) My style leans towards completely mechanical traps, but I'm always trying a new angle on things. My favorite is still the time I gave him a "special" version of Looking Glass' PC game System Shock, which included a specially-included candy-red button in the second room of the game that when pressed would berate him for not checking closely for traps as it dropped powerful monsters on his head. (It always helps to know the programmers...)

The older traps have been lost to history (though perhaps one day I'll try to recreate the especially impressive ones) but below are some of our more recent creations.

Trap	Type	Designer	Date
Pick-a-peg	Two-piece burr puzzle lock, stopper-lid box	Bug	July 2022
Julia	Hidden marble maze puzzle lock, hinged-lid box	Bug	Christmas 2020
Aperture	Two hidden move puzzle lock, sliding aperture opening	Bug	March 2019
13th Age Icon Box	Hidden button puzzle lock, hinged-lid box	Bug	June 2018
Whack box	Inertial puzzle lock, sliding-lid cigar box	Bug	Christmas 2017
Handcuffs Puzzle	Disentanglement puzzle lock, hinged-lid box	Bug	Christmas 2016
Magnetic lock box	Magnetic key lock, hinged-lid box	Bug	Christmas 2014
Candle trap	Explosive trap, scented candle	Bug	Christmas 2013
Contact-trigger trap	Audio trap, contact trigger, brass-embossed hinged-lid box	Bug	Christmas 2012
Diet Coke & Mentos, V.2	Chemical trap, chest	Bug	June 2008
Diet Coke & Mentos	Chemical trap, chest	Jay	Christmas 2007
Laser	Audio trap, chest	Jay	Christmas 2006
Under Glass	Explosive trap, small box	Bug	Christmas 2006
Multishot pellet-gun trap	Dart trap, hinged-lid box	Bug	Christmas 2005
Exploding drawer trap	Explosive trap, drawer	Bug	June 2005
Teddy bear trap	Audio trap, embedded	Jay	Christmas 2004

More to come...