Goodman Games

Ok, I have a mild problem.

My players have developed a healthy paranoia for traps. However, they usually carry around a corpse, a chicken or something like that, throwing it through every door, corridor and stairs before them. It grew kind of repetitive and sets off the mood of the trap hunt.

How can I manage this issue?

First off, mistreating a body is going to offend the dead, so a ghost is, at the very least, appropriate.

Even better is a "Clinging Corpse" that refuses to let go (DC 20 Strength check to get rid of the thing), and only attacks (treat otherwise as a zombie) if it is attacked or someone tries to pull it off. Carry that thing into a town or tavern and see how people react. Soon enough, carrying a corpse isn't going to seem so attractive.

Likewise, if animals behave like animals - chickens are hard to catch, make noise, etc. - you will have fewer problems. I, personally, would have that giant chameleon take a chicken with its tongue from around the corner once in a while. Other monsters are attracted by the noise of the birds. NPCs mention how the PC has chicken sh*t all over him.

It's a dead chicken, right?

• 1) An adult hen or rooster is maybe 10 pounds? Traps designed to catch people might not be triggered by such a low weight
  2) That sucker is going to start smelling pretty quick. Wandering monsters much?
  3) As the players smack the dead bird into doors and walls, it may start to "leak" a bit, leaving a trail of blood and feathers for baddies to follow.

EDIT: Re-reading the OP, I see he may mean a corpse OR a chicken (possibly live). A full grown human(oid) corpse is an unwieldy thing to lug around and, while it may avoid the first point from above, it certainly doesn't avoid the other two (except the part about feathers).

I'm with Daniel on this one - carrying around a PC corpse is bad mojo - Luck scores would almost certainly be affected in my game, as would the patrons of the formerly-deceased.

There's a book (title is escaping me ATM) about a group of Dwarves who are professional dungeon cleaners. They use several methods to check halls and rooms for traps that feel very DCC (chickens being one of them, barrels being another).

The protagonist is a human who is mistaken for someone else and gets assigned as a specialist to help them with their current job. Hilarity ensues.

Ha! found it. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/259 ... ungeoneers if you need a good laugh or a few ways to outsmart Grimtooth, it's worth a read.