Marrying mechanics to fiction with traps

Torchbearer An Adventurer's Essentials
1

Hi All, First post. Played my first game of TB the other night, really love the system, and how everything is sort of out in the open.

I have a question about dealing with players failing to discover traps. Let’s say there is a hallway with some loose flagstones. As GM, I know that there is a trap here. If a players describes sliding something under them, testing weight, and otherwise looking for a trap, I give him a Scout(ob 2) test. If he passes, great! He finds the trap and the group can figure out how to either disarm or bypass it.

But what if he fails? The Character does not find a trap, but the player pretty much knows that one exists here because a roll was called for. Do we just have a twist and say the trap goes off? Do we inflict a condition (you find a trap, it has a hair trigger, and you are afraid)? I just want to avoid a situation where the player knows something the character doesn’t, and starts strategizing around it.

Thanks!

2

Move right into the twist or the condition. For a trap, it goes off or something similarly dire happens. There’s never a “you fail; nothing happens” moment in Torchbearer.

3

Alternatively you could have ruled his approach a Good Idea and let him discover the trap without the Scout roll.

4

Thanks! All makes sense to me.