Another thing about Shadowgate - I'm quite happy with obvious deaths in adventures, where you're given a fair warning (preferably) or the environment just looks dodgy enough to warrant saving and being a bit careful, but absolutely everything kills you in that game. The mirror that somehow explodes into you for no reason and the book on the pedestal from your list, and similarly the bag of gold that disintegrates the balcony when you touch it. But there are things in it that aren't even remotely dangerous that lead to your demise.

The one that actually inspired me to post this is a ladder near the start of the game (I think it's where you use the sceptre, in one of the identical-looking holes in the wall where you have to place sticks, rods, and various other synonyms at random). It's a hole in the floor with a ladder clearly sticking out of it, so you move to it only to be told "Actually, the ladder was broken two rungs down. You slipped, fell to the cold hard stone floor below, broke all your legs and died instantly. You stupid git."

I should have put this in videogame_tales, really, I had no idea it would lead on to this amount of discussion!