u/Hoshiko55

So basically I am a new player. My group has been playing for a couple of months now. I mentioned I might be interested in DMing at some point and my DM said that's fine, I could do a one shot for them.

So my idea is that our party is walking through some woods where other adventurers have gone missing. I want to kidnap them and throw them in a dungeon they have to escape- essentially an escape room. I need ideas for riddles/traps etc. where can i look for these ideas? What has or hasn't worked for you in the past? What sort of things might I need to be aware of while DMing? We do have a wild card chaotic wizard so I'm sure she'll keep me on my toes. (She's new as well) We also have a rogue and a seasoned paladin. Idk what the DM will be playing as.

I have some vague ideas -like making them start without their equipment, they'll have to unlock something to get it back- but i just don't know what works well with the game mechanics.

So my friends and I played last night and we have a disagreement (after the fact when the traitor had won). So when Spooky McMasters attacks it says: if you win, you may steal the book from them (if they have it) instead of dealing damage.

I had unsuccessfully stolen the book because they have six might. So then they attacked back and since they still had the book they dealt damage because the way it's worded sounds like they can choose to damage instead of steal the book back.

But does the instead mean they can only steal the book and not do damage or does it mean they can choose which to do? Because the second way seems rather unfair especially considering they have other ways to hurt us- horrors and such. It seems very overpowered if they can also hurt us with a normal attack as we can only get stronger in the library.