I forgot or never noticed this passage from page 5 of Underworld & Wilderness Adventures:
Falling into the pit would typically cause damage if a 1 or a 2 were rolled. Otherwise, it would only mean about one turn of time to clamber out, providing the character had spikes or associates to pull him out, and providing the pit wasn't one with a snap-shut door and the victim was alone.
Of course, there's also a fair chance a wandering monster will show up to investigate the commotion while you're trying to haul your buddy out of that pit trap.
Holmes kept that same rule in Basic rulebook, (though reworded):
ReplyDelete"Falling into a relatively shallow pit would do damage only on a roll of 5 or 6 (1-6 hit points at most) but will delay the party while they get the trapped character out" (pg 39, 1st prnt)