I had this whole thing planned where I was going to post this as sort of a veiled hypothetical where I asked a question about people's tolerance for "gameish" systems in tabletop RPGs, but decided to just ask specifically.

I am working on finishing up my game Raven of the Scythe and have been toying with a system to allow players to make traps that they can set.

In the game, traps currently reside in the back of the book in sort of a GM's space where I present some guidelines about putting traps in dungeons and lay out a sort of point system to build traps with so game masters can put points into things like "How much damage does the trap do", "How hard is it to detect", "How hard is it to avoid", "How hard is it to disable".  Stuff like that.  I admit in the book that this is not really meant to reflect reality in any great deal and remind potential GMs that they are under no obligation to stick to these guidelines at all and should feel free to build what ever types of traps they want, and that I was just trying to offer some helpful suggestions on the topic.

I was thinking of including an ability, probably in the form of a favor or something, that would allow players to make a skill check of some sort to get access to some of these "Trap building points" to construct traps of their own.  This would probably involve the expendature of some sort of resource or item (A "trap building kit" perhaps) to try and prevent players from just covering the world in traps, but I haven't worked that out yet.  I am not even sure if any/many players would want to explore this option for a character, but the idea of it sounds rather neat in my head.

My issue is that, even if this method might work, I am not sure it feels right.  Something about it seems a bit too artificial.  Am I overthinking this?  would a unified system of trap building be a welcomed and refreshing addition to a fantasy RPG? Would the inclusion of player built traps complicate and derail otherwise fun encounters for the groups unlucky enough to include a trap builder in them?

I really don't know and am open to suggestion.

As long as it is an easy mechanic and can be used with how you describe traps, I can't see a problem with it.

Some Adventuring parties might want to set temporary traps around camp, so that skill would be useful. Others might want to booby-trap their possessions, to stop people dipping their hands in.

It might be useful for a Grimtooth's Traps kind of thing, depending on how complex your trap-making rules are.