Iron Sky
Procedurally Generated
I saw a thread about interesting traps and thought it might be interesting to compile some traps that have actually been used in reality for those wanting to "keep it real" in their games. A bit of internet research turned up the following.
Some actual real-life uses of traps:
Ancient China
Qin Shi Huang, First Emperor of China, was famous for his army of terracotta soldiers. Some archaeologists say there is evidence he had crossbows placed here-and-there inside rigged to shoot when trip-wires were hit. Knowing the mechanisms would rot and decay over time, an early chroming process was done in an attempt to keep the weapons functioning as long as possible.
Victorian Era
Cemetery traps - Grave robbing was an issue, so some people rigged pistols, shotguns, and even explosives to their coffin, rigged to go off if it was reopened.
WWI
Barbwire - Barbwire strands aren't really a trap, but stumbling through them in the dark...
Picture traps - soldiers repeatedly would take and lose trenches. Command areas might have a slightly off-kilter picture set with a trip so when the enemy command crew settled in and straightened the picture, it would explode. This one was specifically designed to target the "gentlemen" officers as the "common" troops wouldn't give a rip that the picture was crooked. The Nazis supposedly repeated this one in WWII.
Body traps - The British would put explosives tied to the belts of dead troops they left behind, so when a cold German looted the corpse for a warm jacket, he'd pull the belt off and blow himself up.
Land mines - first wide-spread use of land and water mines. There are a huge variety of these - anti-vehicle, wooden/plastic(metal-detector defeating), bouncing betties (spring loaded to pop up to head-height before they explode), etc.
WWII
Nazi booby traps - When pulling back through an area Nazis would booby-trap doorways, discarded weapons and helmets, anything they thought the Allied soldiers might pick up to explode.
Rigged Buildings - Sometimes they'd even time-delay whole buildings to explode, say 100 hours when the Allies were relaxed and settling in. They would usually do this in the largest and/or least damaged building in town - the one the officers would want as an HQ.
Italian double-trap - An Italian house was discovered with an obvious wire running from the door knob of a slightly open door. The allies tied a rope to it to pull the door and hunkered down in a trench conveniently nearby, setting off the mines buried in said convenient trench.
Vietnam
Cobra trap - The Viet Cong used to place live cobras in their tunnel complexes, usually in places where American soldiers would check when searching the place. The snakes were tied to sticks so they couldn't escape and usually placed face-height.
Flag trap - They also would rig their flags with explosives so if they lost a base, the soldiers who went to pull the cord to bring the flag down would pull the pin on a grenade instead.
Zippo trap - zippo "grenades", emptied, filled with explosives, and left where American soldiers would find them. Flick it to light your cigarette, instead blow your hand and face off. T
Punji trap - the VC would dig shallow little pits (inches to feet deep) then line them with sharpened stakes, often smeared in feces to be sure the wounds would get infected. They'd cover them over with woven grass mats to make them harder to spot in the jungle.
Whip traps - a flexible bamboo whip with a sharpened bit of bamboo on the end, held back by a trip wire.
Tank traps - a rope would be set 10 feet off the ground (high enough that only tanks or other large vehicles would trigger it. About 10-15 further down the road, a bundle of grenades would be tied to a branch set to go off when the vehicle hit it. As the vehicle would be moving, the grenades would go off right above the top of the tank - brutal since people would often travel with the top of the tank open...
Sabotaged rounds - The US would air-drop or have Special Forces lace enemy ammo depots with AK-47 and mortar rounds of the same type the VCs used into enemy territory, knowing the weapon-hungry VC would snatch them up. They were both rigged to explode when used, taking out the face of the unfortunate VC rifleman or blowing the mortar round apart in its tube.
Trapped grenades - The US soldiers sometimes replaced the time-delayed frag grenade fuses with the instant-burning smoke grenade fuses, then left them for the VC to find and try to use.
Gulf War/Afghanistan
IEDs - Homemade explosives triggered remotely via cell phone or rigged like a land mine.
Compound trap - The Taliban rigged an entire compound with explosives, then an informant gave US Command a story that some highly-wanted Taliban leaders were going to be meeting there. When 80+ US troops rushed the compound at the appointed time, they found it strangely empty and noticed wires running into freshly poured concrete. Fortunately, it didn't go off or it could have been one of the worst single losses of the war.
Modern Era
Gas line/oven bomb - You unscrew the gas valve and put something in the oven/microwave, setting it to run for hours. Eventually, the thing in the oven will catch fire, setting off the gas.
Hunting
Snares - set it on an animal path, as they go through it tightens around their neck.
Bear/beaver traps - everyone knows about these
Racoon traps - put four nails through a box with a hole in it and something tasty/shiny at the bottom. The nails almost meet. The racoon can reach in, but reaching out catches its hand on the nails. Even if it doesn't get stabbed, racoons will apparently refuse to let go of the shiny/tasty bit.
Decoys - imitation animals that draw others of their kind
Plant (anti-insect)
Flypaper plants - insects stick to them, devouring when they can't get free.
Pitcher plants - shaped like a bowl, they are too slippery to climb out of and slowly digest/drown whatever falls into them.
Spine plants - Some plants have inward pointing spines that can be pushed past easily going forward towards their nectar, but kill if you try to push back out.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/ind...e_(Drosera_Capensis)_"eating"_a_Fruit_Fly.ogv
Insect
Spider webs - these come in a huge variety. Funnels, "garden-variety", fishing (dangle off into space in the hopes something runs into it).
Fly genocide - A specific pesticide is placed on the underside of a female fly in an area it won't harm her, then the fly is released. Dozens to hundreds or even thousands of male flies will attempt to mate with her, but when they make contact, the pesticide kills them.
If you know of more traps that were actually used, post them and I'll add them to the list!
Some actual real-life uses of traps:
Ancient China
Qin Shi Huang, First Emperor of China, was famous for his army of terracotta soldiers. Some archaeologists say there is evidence he had crossbows placed here-and-there inside rigged to shoot when trip-wires were hit. Knowing the mechanisms would rot and decay over time, an early chroming process was done in an attempt to keep the weapons functioning as long as possible.
Victorian Era
Cemetery traps - Grave robbing was an issue, so some people rigged pistols, shotguns, and even explosives to their coffin, rigged to go off if it was reopened.
WWI
Barbwire - Barbwire strands aren't really a trap, but stumbling through them in the dark...
Picture traps - soldiers repeatedly would take and lose trenches. Command areas might have a slightly off-kilter picture set with a trip so when the enemy command crew settled in and straightened the picture, it would explode. This one was specifically designed to target the "gentlemen" officers as the "common" troops wouldn't give a rip that the picture was crooked. The Nazis supposedly repeated this one in WWII.
Body traps - The British would put explosives tied to the belts of dead troops they left behind, so when a cold German looted the corpse for a warm jacket, he'd pull the belt off and blow himself up.
Land mines - first wide-spread use of land and water mines. There are a huge variety of these - anti-vehicle, wooden/plastic(metal-detector defeating), bouncing betties (spring loaded to pop up to head-height before they explode), etc.
WWII
Nazi booby traps - When pulling back through an area Nazis would booby-trap doorways, discarded weapons and helmets, anything they thought the Allied soldiers might pick up to explode.
Rigged Buildings - Sometimes they'd even time-delay whole buildings to explode, say 100 hours when the Allies were relaxed and settling in. They would usually do this in the largest and/or least damaged building in town - the one the officers would want as an HQ.
Italian double-trap - An Italian house was discovered with an obvious wire running from the door knob of a slightly open door. The allies tied a rope to it to pull the door and hunkered down in a trench conveniently nearby, setting off the mines buried in said convenient trench.
Vietnam
Cobra trap - The Viet Cong used to place live cobras in their tunnel complexes, usually in places where American soldiers would check when searching the place. The snakes were tied to sticks so they couldn't escape and usually placed face-height.
Flag trap - They also would rig their flags with explosives so if they lost a base, the soldiers who went to pull the cord to bring the flag down would pull the pin on a grenade instead.
Zippo trap - zippo "grenades", emptied, filled with explosives, and left where American soldiers would find them. Flick it to light your cigarette, instead blow your hand and face off. T
Punji trap - the VC would dig shallow little pits (inches to feet deep) then line them with sharpened stakes, often smeared in feces to be sure the wounds would get infected. They'd cover them over with woven grass mats to make them harder to spot in the jungle.
Whip traps - a flexible bamboo whip with a sharpened bit of bamboo on the end, held back by a trip wire.
Tank traps - a rope would be set 10 feet off the ground (high enough that only tanks or other large vehicles would trigger it. About 10-15 further down the road, a bundle of grenades would be tied to a branch set to go off when the vehicle hit it. As the vehicle would be moving, the grenades would go off right above the top of the tank - brutal since people would often travel with the top of the tank open...
Sabotaged rounds - The US would air-drop or have Special Forces lace enemy ammo depots with AK-47 and mortar rounds of the same type the VCs used into enemy territory, knowing the weapon-hungry VC would snatch them up. They were both rigged to explode when used, taking out the face of the unfortunate VC rifleman or blowing the mortar round apart in its tube.
Trapped grenades - The US soldiers sometimes replaced the time-delayed frag grenade fuses with the instant-burning smoke grenade fuses, then left them for the VC to find and try to use.
Gulf War/Afghanistan
IEDs - Homemade explosives triggered remotely via cell phone or rigged like a land mine.
Compound trap - The Taliban rigged an entire compound with explosives, then an informant gave US Command a story that some highly-wanted Taliban leaders were going to be meeting there. When 80+ US troops rushed the compound at the appointed time, they found it strangely empty and noticed wires running into freshly poured concrete. Fortunately, it didn't go off or it could have been one of the worst single losses of the war.
Modern Era
Gas line/oven bomb - You unscrew the gas valve and put something in the oven/microwave, setting it to run for hours. Eventually, the thing in the oven will catch fire, setting off the gas.
Hunting
Snares - set it on an animal path, as they go through it tightens around their neck.
Bear/beaver traps - everyone knows about these
Racoon traps - put four nails through a box with a hole in it and something tasty/shiny at the bottom. The nails almost meet. The racoon can reach in, but reaching out catches its hand on the nails. Even if it doesn't get stabbed, racoons will apparently refuse to let go of the shiny/tasty bit.
Decoys - imitation animals that draw others of their kind
Plant (anti-insect)
Flypaper plants - insects stick to them, devouring when they can't get free.
Pitcher plants - shaped like a bowl, they are too slippery to climb out of and slowly digest/drown whatever falls into them.
Spine plants - Some plants have inward pointing spines that can be pushed past easily going forward towards their nectar, but kill if you try to push back out.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/ind...e_(Drosera_Capensis)_"eating"_a_Fruit_Fly.ogv
Insect
Spider webs - these come in a huge variety. Funnels, "garden-variety", fishing (dangle off into space in the hopes something runs into it).
Fly genocide - A specific pesticide is placed on the underside of a female fly in an area it won't harm her, then the fly is released. Dozens to hundreds or even thousands of male flies will attempt to mate with her, but when they make contact, the pesticide kills them.
If you know of more traps that were actually used, post them and I'll add them to the list!
