Favorite Puzzles [3.P]

[Tanuki Tales]

So, I'm building a puzzle dungeon for my group to start off their next campaign and I'd like to hear what everyone's favorite puzzles they've encountered are (either as a DM/GM or as a player), so that I can get some ideas, some inspiration or some humdingers to use. :smalltongue:

Any kind of puzzle is valid for the purpose of this thread, be it a mental challenge, a physical challenge, a puzzle monster or what have you. The party is going to be level 7 and they'll have something of a safety net in the form of "multiple lives", seeing as the dungeon itself is both sapient and incredibly twisted (it's a relic from an earlier era that was mistaken for an extradimensional treasure container, that a research team for one of the setting's monopolies (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=332970) foolhardily tinkered with).

Much thanks in advance.

[Tevesh]

Take a look at Dungeonscape's Trap Encounters for some ideas.

It's more than "Okay Rogue, you roll dice while we wait here." They're designed for the whole party.

DMG2's Spell Turrets if used creatively could be great.

Flat out steal from the Portal Video Games.

[Palanan]

My first 3.5 group had a non-great experience with a DM who leaned much too heavily on riddles and puzzles. One of his puzzles was a direct adaptation of the little triangular peg-jumping board that highway restaurants used to have. Please, please don't use one of those.

Before that DM, however, we had a much better one who borrowed a great deal from the Book of Challenges, to generally very good effect. Our most memorable encounter was the inward-spiralling corridors with all the traps conveniently sprung in advance, leading to a small chamber at the center of the spiral where the real trap began.

Needless to say, we walked right into it. Good times. :smallbiggrin:



Also, your dungeon sounds a lot like Castle Heterodyne. Twisted relic that's been tinkered with by foolish mortals? Yup, fits to a T.

[Tevesh]

Actually, I've got to +1 Palanan there. Book of Challenges is superb if you just want to throw a pre-built puzzle at the PCs.

I think my favourite were Beholder Dome, Illusory Walls with Ropers, using Illusions on similar easy monsters to make PCs blow their loads/use wrong spells, and "Ghoul Chess".

There's about 22 encounters or so from various levels. Use Dungeonscape Trap Encounters for examples on scaling these Encounters up or down and they work great.

[gr8artist]

Consider making the characters judges in a trial. Performing tasks unlocks evidence, and the result of the trial is based on their verdict.
I borrowed one from ffviii that was a lot of fun. The room is filled with paintings and clocks. One of the clocks isn't running. The roman numerals for the time on that clock tell the players which paintings they'll need. For example, 5:20 would be V, then IV. One painting's name would have only a V, with no I's or X's. Another would need an I and a V, in that order. They flip switches behind those paintings to proceed.

[BasketOfPuppies]

One "puzzle" I had was this:

There's a statue in the middle of the room. In his outstretched hand is a clock with a "3" on it. When you close the door, it bars from the other side and the clock slowly goes down. There is also a button on the statue. When you push the button it resets the clock to 3. To get out you need to let the clock reach 0.

It plays well on their paranoia.

[Tanuki Tales]

I'll be looking into the Book of Challenges (never even heard of that book before) and I already have Dungeonscape and DMG II, so thanks for those suggestions!




Consider making the characters judges in a trial. Performing tasks unlocks evidence, and the result of the trial is based on their verdict.

How is that a puzzle though, instead of just an event?


I borrowed one from ffviii that was a lot of fun. The room is filled with paintings and clocks. One of the clocks isn't running. The roman numerals for the time on that clock tell the players which paintings they'll need. For example, 5:20 would be V, then IV. One painting's name would have only a V, with no I's or X's. Another would need an I and a V, in that order. They flip switches behind those paintings to proceed.

And have bad stuff happen for incorrectly pulled switches. I like that. :smallbiggrin:


One "puzzle" I had was this:

There's a statue in the middle of the room. In his outstretched hand is a clock with a "3" on it. When you close the door, it bars from the other side and the clock slowly goes down. There is also a button on the statue. When you push the button it resets the clock to 3. To get out you need to let the clock reach 0.

It plays well on their paranoia.

Ah, yes, that old chestnut. I prefer when there are spiked walls that slowly approach them and get reset when the button is pushed.

[hemming]

A circular room - in the center of the room is large immovable staff topped with an orb.

A cage is suspended on the ceiling by a chain directly above the staff - the cage itself is also connected to a locked door by a loose chain

On the wall is a visible switch - hit the switch and the staff lights up like a tesla coil, doing area lightning damage until the switch is turned off or the cage is lowered

The cage can be lowered by a winch hidden behind some crates in the room (easy search DC)

When the Tesla coil switch is active and the cage is lowered, the door opens

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a classic - four statues in a room, each holding a different object (a club, a sword, a spear and a book). The statues come to life when someone enters the room and attack - the only way to defeat the statues is by hitting them with appropriate damage type (blunt, slashing, piercing, magic). Hitting with the wrong damage type has no effect on the statues. If you want to be really nasty give the three martial statues a magic mirror type effect for spells and make any melee attackers take shock damage if hit with wrong weapon type

[Jormengand]

Look up tesseract dungeons when you have the chance. They're hilarious when the rogue realises he's walking on the roof... or is he?

[Afgncaap5]

I used a tesseract dungeon once. The time spent making the map for myself was well worth it (though the players appreciated the fact that the tesseract could be "turned off" so that it could collapse into a more manageable room.)

One simple puzzle I used once was taking a simple Hitori puzzle and making a sort of "keypad" with it. The players didn't have experience with Hitori puzzles before and weren't sure how to use it at first, but once they figured out that they were supposed to push buttons to "eliminate" the numbers so that there wouldn't be any repetitions on rows or columns they were able to figure it out. If I had to do it again, I'd put a fight scene that they wanted to get away from so that there was some tension while the players tried to figure it out.

[Tanuki Tales]

A circular room - in the center of the room is large immovable staff topped with an orb.

A cage is suspended on the ceiling by a chain directly above the staff - the cage itself is also connected to a locked door by a loose chain

On the wall is a visible switch - hit the switch and the staff lights up like a tesla coil, doing area lightning damage until the switch is turned off or the cage is lowered

The cage can be lowered by a winch hidden behind some crates in the room (easy search DC)

When the Tesla coil switch is active and the cage is lowered, the door opens

Simple, but punishing if you don't do more than the obvious solution; I like it.



Here is a classic - four statues in a room, each holding a different object (a club, a sword, a spear and a book). The statues come to life when someone enters the room and attack - the only way to defeat the statues is by hitting them with appropriate damage type (blunt, slashing, piercing, magic). Hitting with the wrong damage type has no effect on the statues. If you want to be really nasty give the three martial statues a magic mirror type effect for spells and make any melee attackers take shock damage if hit with wrong weapon type

Another great puzzle!


Look up tesseract dungeons when you have the chance. They're hilarious when the rogue realises he's walking on the roof... or is he?

So..they need to save against nausea or...? This just seems like something that's hard to translate to players who aren't actually dealing with the spatial chaos.



One simple puzzle I used once was taking a simple Hitori puzzle and making a sort of "keypad" with it. The players didn't have experience with Hitori puzzles before and weren't sure how to use it at first, but once they figured out that they were supposed to push buttons to "eliminate" the numbers so that there wouldn't be any repetitions on rows or columns they were able to figure it out. If I had to do it again, I'd put a fight scene that they wanted to get away from so that there was some tension while the players tried to figure it out.

To be honest, I'm still trying to figure out how you do a Hitori puzzle. And if I'm having a hard time grasping it, my players are just going to fumble, probably fail and definitely be annoyed with it. Thank you for the suggestion though.

[Bugworlds]

I love making puzzles although haven't put together too many.

The most recent I put some players through was a simple one consisting of a pile of pipes which fit together to make keys, and a few locked doors. There were three long pipes with a hole on the side in the middle and another (in line with the first one) near the end. There were also two short pipes and three medium pipes which would connect to these holes (and that was the only way they would connect). When the pieces were connected they made keys in the shape of an 'F.' If there were pieces too long, when they were tested, the key wouldn't turn. If there were only pieces too short the key would turn all the way around with no result. One of the three keys only needed one piece, hence the lack of a third short pipe. Once the players figured out they were making keys they all found it interesting, and as long as there aren't many stages they won't get bored with the 'try this, fail, try this, fail, try this...' technique which could be used.

A similar puzzle I've made was focused around a portal, and activating it. The room had three side rooms to it, with toggles which would go up, neutral, or down. When the toggle was used the room was sealed, adding a little difficulty to the idea of an order-permeation puzzle.

For added fun with any 'door' puzzle, have the door reset once the first person goes through it and see if the players can do the puzzle with one less player. For added fun to any lever or toggle puzzle, add 1 shock damage when something is put in the wrong position. That really gets people wanting to think through it and not learn via failure.

Some mean puzzles I've made have spread through an entire dungeon or system of rooms; when the party (or part of the party, but I dislike breaking apart groups) is able to progress if they almost complete the puzzle but they must realize they need to do something additional, etc. to progress. A high difficulty puzzle I've made involved a room which fills with water (a great feature to add to anything. Seriously, even if it has no actual threat of damage, death, or anything scary your players will have a bit more feeling of dread) and a couple levels to the room. If something wasn't set up to float up to the next level, from the floor to the second, the players got locked in the second level.

Some puzzles I haven't tested at all but would like to involve poisoning food and having the players eat it, then need to learn something from their symptoms. Perhaps who at the feast did it. The Calling from Drow of the Underdark would be fun....

The Calling: This lumpy black paste is magically infused
with spider eggs and can be hidden in a dish of food, in which
it is detectable only with a successful DC 20 Profession (cook)
check. If it is consumed, and if the victim fails the initial save, a
swarm of spiders hatches within the victim’s stomach, dealing
the initial damage. The swarm is then digested and destroyed
without further harm, unless the second save is failed. In that
case, it bursts forth from the victim’s nose and mouth, dealing
the secondary damage and coalescing as a spider swarm
(MM 239), attacking everyone in the area. This poison can
be created with a DC 28 Craft (poisonmaking) check and a
summon swarm spell.
Poison Type Damage Damage Price
The calling Ingested 2d6 Con 2d6 Con 2,000 gp
DC 20

[Telonius]

One that my players will encounter very soon:

A sphinx riddle. They're trapped in a dungeon, with the only exit leading directly into a dangerous level of the underdark, two sphinxes guarding the exit. At one point in the dungeon, there's an animated table and animated place settings. Around the edges of the dungeon, there are "statues" at various points. At the four corners are four pressure plates with no obvious function. The riddle: "A table for four, set at the corners. The plates are the key. To open the way, you must do that which is most perilous."

Solution: Split the party. :smallamused: and have one person stand on each plate. This will cause a stairway to rise up out of the dungeon, but (naturally) several of the "statues" will turn out to be gargoyles, and be released from stasis when this happens.

[Windstorm]

One that my players will encounter very soon:

A sphinx riddle. They're trapped in a dungeon, with the only exit leading directly into a dangerous level of the underdark, two sphinxes guarding the exit. At one point in the dungeon, there's an animated table and animated place settings. Around the edges of the dungeon, there are "statues" at various points. At the four corners are four pressure plates with no obvious function. The riddle: "A table for four, set at the corners. The plates are the key. To open the way, you must do that which is most perilous."

Solution: Split the party. :smallamused: and have one person stand on each plate. This will cause a stairway to rise up out of the dungeon, but (naturally) several of the "statues" will turn out to be gargoyles, and be released from stasis when this happens.

That's evil, I love it.

I think my favorite one I've used to date was an enchanted forest where the paths were maze-like and it moved around at night. Combined with a set of rune circles at the center that were causing both the forest effect, and scrambling teleports and divinations. I managed to get a good ten levels out of it before the PCs managed to solve the puzzle and disarm the rune circles.

[dantiesilva]

My DM I have been playing with for two years now made a maze of sorts built inside a tree so that you could not fly up and see where you were going. Their were I think 5 different color roses, Red was a glittedust effect, green was haste, Black was Dispel magic, White was FH, so sorry 4. And the object was to get this key of a creature known as the Rose bearer (Battlebriar). To get too him you had to defeat his three guardians (three minotaurs with the greenbound template and items). Their were a few mooks who fell to the maze's power and also became greenbound creatures (if you die in the maze you become part of it, though it is slowly, thus giving your players a chance to be greenbound for a short time if they died). Their was also needlefolk and a monk (with the greenbound and blightspawn) templates on him, I think he was a halfgiant. Suffice to say there was the riddle of finding out which flower did which, navigating the maze without getting lost. Espically when you had the flowers that could only hold 2 people at a time and shot you out at another random place the 3 minotaurs choose. It was not until the last minotaur fell that the gate to the Rose bearer was opened for us to get to him. Then when we thought it was all over and we had defeated him. The garden comes to life and starts trying to pull us into the ground to make us the new rose bearer, putting a time line now on how long you have to get out. We survived thanks to mass fire shield holding the vines back. Was a great arc all in all. If you have questions I am sure he would be more then happy to help. His name is AlanBruce on these forms.

[Brookshw]

I still recall a particularly obnoxious one from an old dungeon. You're playing chess against a ghost and can only make one move. The only way to win was to cheat and jump a few pieces with the rook for a checkmate. Took forever to figure that one out.

[hemming]

I had a really goofy game in which the PCs found a treasure map sealed up in a sunken ship - at the end of their search for treasure, a pirate ghost appeared and engaged the PCs is a series of statements to complete:

-"Its unheard of for pirate to enter a debate. In fact, pirates don't debate they..." - players answer "Arrrgue"

-"There is geometry and trigonometry, but you'll never meet a pirate mathematician. Pirates don't do math, only..." - "Arrrithmetic"

-the final bit is an old stand-up joke that is too dirty to tell here - PCs answer "the arrristocrats!"

Not so much an actual puzzle, but super fun

[IIzak]

A second the timer that counts down one. Also, adding an actual timer to the puzzle makes it much more stressful for the players to try and get the puzzle done. Knowing they only have one physical minute to solve whatever this puzzle is or something bad is going to happen adds a huge level of danger to the puzzle.

One of my favorites is something I call the reverse trap. Essentially its an extremely well designed trap. If the players roll X on a search check, then they find the trap. if they roll X+Y on it, then they realize that an attempt to disarm the trap is actually the trigger for said trap.

Honestly what I like to do is provide several different room challenges and tailor them so that each PC gets to be the hero. Have a character that speaks a language that no one else does? Wow, the clues to this riddle are in that language and some sort of magic has them tongue tied so they have to solve it on their own (Or even better, the answer can only be given in that certain language). Give the PC's challenges that let them use underutilized skills to solve them.

[Tanuki Tales]

Some pretty good puzzles so far; keep them coming!

[Story]

Whatever you do, don't use an existing riddle or puzzle. One of the players will have seen it before and know the answer instantly. I've had this happen twice in published adventures that used stock puzzles.

[hemming]

A large temple with a single open room. Intricate Greek style reliefs band the upper molding of the room

There are three statues in the temple: on one side is an ogre, on the opposite is an ettin and between the two is a chimera

The ogre and the ettin are both have one arm extended and appear to be pointing just over the opposite statue - the chimeras three heads have a fixed stare at a single point about 2/3 up the wall of the room

A search check indicates that there are movable parts in the carved reliefs of the molding that correspond to the point each statue is fixated on

The number of heads of each statue indicates the sequence in which each part must be moved

If moved in the wrong sequence, the parts automatically reset

If moved in the correct sequence, the Chimera statue slides back revealing a staircase hidden in the floor

----------------------

My players actually had a little bit of a tough time with this one - I think I should have included some negative repercussions for going out of sequence rather than just having the automatic reset. They needed some kind of "your doing it wrong" signal from me

[Tanuki Tales]

Whatever you do, don't use an existing riddle or puzzle. One of the players will have seen it before and know the answer instantly. I've had this happen twice in published adventures that used stock puzzles.

My group is actually good at not metagaming and they don't play outside of my group, so I think I'm safe there. Sound advice regardless.


A large temple with a single open room. Intricate Greek style reliefs band the upper molding of the room

There are three statues in the temple: on one side is an ogre, on the opposite is an ettin and between the two is a chimera

The ogre and the ettin are both have one arm extended and appear to be pointing just over the opposite statue - the chimeras three heads have a fixed stare at a single point about 2/3 up the wall of the room

A search check indicates that there are movable parts in the carved reliefs of the molding that correspond to the point each statue is fixated on

The number of heads of each statue indicates the sequence in which each part must be moved

If moved in the wrong sequence, the parts automatically reset

If moved in the correct sequence, the Chimera statue slides back revealing a staircase hidden in the floor

----------------------

My players actually had a little bit of a tough time with this one - I think I should have included some negative repercussions for going out of sequence rather than just having the automatic reset. They needed some kind of "your doing it wrong" signal from me

Could you explain the sequence bit of this, please?

[hemming]

Could you explain the sequence bit of this, please?

Sure! The movable parts need to be activated in a certain order (1, 2 then 3) - the number of heads on each statue is supposed to be the clue that tells the players what order to go in

But my players didn't get it for a while - they tried a few different methods (using teamwork to attempt to activate all three at once; holding two in place and then activating the third) before figuring it out

At first they searched the room and found that parts of the molding relief could be moved - they didn't initially make a connection to the statues and just started fiddling with the moving parts

Edit: this was also game I was guest DMing in - I tend to use a lot of statues in puzzles, so my regular players always inspect the statues (I do throw in just regular old non-puzzle statues as well, just so that every group of statues in a setting is not always part of a puzzle)

[PsyBomb]

Had a DM pull a particularly evil one on the party. One point had a forced party split (working together but in adjacent hallways, separated by a Wall of Force). The dungeon was based on the Four Horsemen, this section was Pestilence (the split involved deliberately infecting ourselves with a custom disease, and curing it sent the healed one back to the beginning).

At the end of this hallway there was a button on each side, big and red, labeled "Push to kill the other side". Brief inspection showed that the way would open if one of these buttons was pushed. Actually pushing the button would immediately infect the other side with Mummy Rot.

The solution is critically simple, the last five feet of the hallway doesn't actually have a Wall of Force separating it, the guiding "groove" goes all the way to the wall, though. Players are held back only by the assumption that the invisible wall goes all the way.

---

One "Puzzle Boss" that I wrote for one group had a large room (a square 50ft on a side) with an Elemental in each corner. Once freed, each elemental moved by preset rules (20ft towards the nearest PC, then attack according to element). The elementals themselves were nearly invincible. As they move, they leave a trail. You could only hurt them reliably by tricking them into walking through the trails or crashing into a different elemental (double if it was the opposing one). Last one standing would lose the invulnerability and start all-out attacking.

[Story]

My group is actually good at not metagaming and they don't play outside of my group, so I think I'm safe there. Sound advice regardless.


Metagaming? Puzzles like this are entirely based around player knowledge. You aren't just having the Wizard roll an int check to solve everything, are you?

And it's not even a matter of playing in other groups. A lot of stock puzzles and riddles are just things you'll see in various places, especially if you're into puzzles. Hands up everyone who hasn't seen the 4 unit water puzzle in a dozen places before.

[hemming]

Metagaming? Puzzles like this are entirely based around player knowledge. You aren't just having the Wizard roll an int check to solve everything, are you?

And it's not even a matter of playing in other groups. A lot of stock puzzles and riddles are just things you'll see in various places, especially if you're into puzzles. Hands up everyone who hasn't seen the 4 unit water puzzle in a dozen places before.

Post us some good ones then that I can steal!

I think your original post made it sound like the players had used the published module/adventure before, and were already familiar with the puzzle (what I thought you meant) - not that it was a common type of puzzle that pops up repeatedly in real life and people are familiar with (which I now understand was the actual point)

[Gwaednerth]

I ran an adventure like this a while ago called The Labyrinth of Chaos. Here's some of the stuff I used.

My group loves to map out dungeons on graph paper as they go so I promptly designed a dungeon where the lines of the map formed an escher-style impossible figure then I put the four keys to the exit door in different places around the dungeon. I admit I took sadistic pleasure in watching them try to use the map they were drawing because it kept tripping out their heads.

Another one I did was square layout of a bunch of 20' square rooms in a grid, each one identical with four statues, four doorways, and a portal except for the rooms on the end of a row which had one fewer door. each portal teleported them the next prime number of rooms forward if activated. Additionally there were only so many doors that actually existed. Every time you went through a door it vanished and was replaced by a stone wall with an illusory door on it. The door was promptly teleported to another door spot via some algorithm (I can't remember ho it worked exactly)

The last one was a room with a logic puzzle, a hangman game, a lever sequence puzzle, a cypher puzzle, and a sudoku puzzle. Each solved puzzle gave a hint for the next one and the last one (as I recall it was the levers) teleported them out of the dungeon.

[rasconza]

Here is one of my favorites.

You enter a small room with a locked door.
Above the door is an inscription of a closed eye and some text:
Speak friend and enter.
Very simple you say? There is only one problem, the entire room is under the effect of a silence spell.
The solution is to open the eye (to your discretion how) and mouth the words.

Was a lot of fun to see them struggle over a puzzle to which the party said
"Oh this is going to be easy" :)

[Tanuki Tales]

I think your original post made it sound like the players had used the published module/adventure before, and were already familiar with the puzzle (what I thought you meant) - not that it was a common type of puzzle that pops up repeatedly in real life and people are familiar with (which I now understand was the actual point)

This.

Also, I don't think the tone of your post Story wasn't entirely necessary. While yes, puzzles exist mostly for the players to figure out, there is still a divide between character knowledge and player knowledge. Unless, of course, the puzzle would be something completely unknowable to any of the characters (such as a puzzle that relies on modern concepts that don't exist in the setting).

Would you let the party fighter who has an Int of 6 and no ranks in any of the knowledge skills solve a puzzle that relies on somewhat obscure mystical lore just because their player knows it?

[Rijan_Sai]

I like these ideas! Many are deliciously evil!


Whatever you do, don't use an existing riddle or puzzle. One of the players will have seen it before and know the answer instantly. I've had this happen twice in published adventures that used stock puzzles.

While this is true, (and has been touched upon a few time before,) don't discount the Riddle entirely.

A few good examlples (solutions in white text):

A classic standby:
A box without hinge, key or lid. Yet golden treasur inside is hid.
Solution: An egg

An obscure, "WTF" style one:
You're trapped in a room with no doors or windows. The only object in the room is a mirror. How do you escape?
Solution: (Remember pronunciation and wordplay) Sit around and wait till you're bored, then look in the mirror to see what you saw. Use the saw to cut the board in half. Two halves make a whole. Jump into the hole and scream till you're hoarse. Jump on your horse and ride away.

And one that's completely evil:
Riddler: What is it that walks on four legs, then two legs, and finally three
legs?

Dr. Young: A human being. As a baby it crawls on four legs, as an adult it walks
around on two and in later years it uses a cane.

Riddler: (laughs) Good try, but the answer to all three is a baby. True, it
crawls on all fours, but cut off its legs and it can only wiggle on two limbs.
Give it a crutch, it can hobble around on three. You see?

Dr. Young: That's horrible. How can you even joke about that?

Riddler: Easily, Doctor. It’s not my baby.


Flavor to taste...

[hemming]

Riddles eh?

How about this one: A boy is sent to the market and needs to buy something to eat, something to drink, something to plant in the soil and something to feed the pigs - but he only has enough for one item. What does he buy?

A watermelon - eat the fruit, drink the juice, plant the seeds and feed the pigs the rinds

What do a needle and a measure with a solitary vote have in common?

They both have one eye(aye)

[Brookshw]

What do a needle and a measure with a solitary vote have in common?

They both have one eye(aye)

I was going to guess there's always one *****. Thank you :smallbiggrin:

[hemming]

I was going to guess there's always one *****. Thank you :smallbiggrin:

I laughed so hard at as this answer!

I'm drifting off topic here but:

How many PCs does it take to turn a winch?

Just one to hold the winch while the rest of the world revolves around him

---------------------

Now a real one, its not too hard but I love it:

Gave the PCs a combination lock - the mechanism had three rotating wheels that could be locked into place.

The first and third wheel featured the letters of the alphabet in common - each entry on the middle wheel had an arrow pointing in a different direction.

The PCs killed some dumb henchman near the location of the lock who had a note in his pocket that read: "Remember the combination right between the eyes"

So the answer to the lock is: i --> i

Edit: I actually got this idea from a vanity license plate that read IRITEI

[Story]

Would you let the party fighter who has an Int of 6 and no ranks in any of the knowledge skills solve a puzzle that relies on somewhat obscure mystical lore just because their player knows it?

Of course!

Because if I'm using puzzles like that, it means that the players want something they can solve themselves rather than using in-character abilities to progress and it would be silly to deny that. Otherwise I'd just tell them to roll a knowledge check.



A classic standby:
A box without hinge, key or lid. Yet golden treasur inside is hid.


And anyone who's read/watched the Hobbit will answer immediately.



An obscure, "WTF" style one:
You're trapped in a room with no doors or windows. The only object in the room is a mirror. How do you escape?


I don't know where that's from but I've seen (a simplified version of) that before. The problem is that many of these puzzles seem to rely more on pre-existing knowledge than being able to come up with the answer.



How about this one: A boy is sent to the market and needs to buy something to eat, something to drink, something to plant in the soil and something to feed the pigs - but he only has enough for one item. What does he buy?


Ooh, I haven't seen that one before. My answer was a slave, since a slave can eat, drink, plant things in the soil, and feed the pigs.

[Tanuki Tales]

Of course!


Then why are you bothering to play a tabletop game instead of a riddle game, if the player's knowledge is more important than the limitations they are supposed to be representing with the characters they built and are working in the shoes of?

[hemming]

Ooh, I haven't seen that one before. My answer was a slave, since a slave can eat, drink, plant things in the soil, and feed the pigs.

In the original version I think the boys mother actually asks him to buy "something for us to eat" - "something we can plant in the soil to grow"

This was from a book I had as a kid - wish I could remember the title bc it had some good riddles

[Rijan_Sai]

And anyone who's read/watched the Hobbit will answer immediately.



I don't know where that's from but I've seen (a simplified version of) that before. The problem is that many of these puzzles seem to rely more on pre-existing knowledge than being able to come up with the answer.

1) That was kind of the point...an occasionly easy riddle that's relatively common knowledge...or something so obscure, you would have had to have heard it before IRL, or roll a knowledge check for your character to know it.

2) No worries! These were just examples. No need to use the exact wording in a game!

Ooo!! Another clasic standby:
(I don't know the "real" name of this puzzle, BTW...)
The "5 rings, 3 poles" puzzle!
You know, the one where you have 5 rings stacked on the left pole, (each smaller then the one below it,) and have to transfer all five to the right pole. Smaller rings can be stacked on any larger ring, but larger rings cannot be stacked on smaller rings.
For added fun, do it like SW:KOTOR and add some consequence of doing it wrong. (I never lost that one (used guides...sue me!) but I believe that the game states that they will explode if done in the incorrect order (ie: attempting to stack larger rings on smaller ones.)) It doesn't have to be an explosion, but perhaps increasing shock (or similar) damage for each incorrect "move."
...or have a time limit with dire consequences if they don't solve it in time.

It's a simple puzzle, and can be done with any number of rings greater then 1, but it can get complicated quickly at numbers past 5.

[Zweisteine]

My personal favorite, a rather simple trap of my own design, is this:

A round room (possibly with a large compass engraved on the floor), with four doors. One is the entrance, and there is one across from it and one halfway around the room to either side.
There is an inscription above the center door, reading "Choose the incorrect door." Depending on DM leniency, more details as to the workings of the room may be provided elsewhere.
When a door is chosen, which is done by pressing a panel in the center of the door (or by some other mechanism), that door opens, and the other two doors, as well as the entrance (unless the DM is kind) seal. They may be sealed magically or nonmagically. At low levels, the doors may simply cease to function. At high levels, each door is actually a portal, and the other two deactivate, to prevent the doors from being broken.
Through one door is a safe path through wherever the room is (be it a wing of a dungeon, a path to some treasure, or the next room of a puzzle maze). Through the other two doors are corridors filled with dastardly traps (perhaps even to rival those of the Tomb of Horrors*). They may lead to the same destination, or they may lead elsewhere.

The "incorrect" door must be opposite the "correct" door, which is also the "right" door, so the safest door to path through is the door to the left. The door on the center is the deadliest, to punish adventurers who realize the hidden meaning of the riddle, but instead of going left, realize that the riddle is paradox (if the left door is the safe one, it can't be the incorrect door), and choose the middle door because it is outside the paradox.

Variations have inscriptions of varying complexity, and there was even a fully poetic version, though I don't have that one on hand.

*Which is a great place to find a few puzzles, I think.

[lumberingmenace]

Two examples.
1. 4 statues are in a room with a gate the eyes glow 4 different colors. Each asks a riddle related to an element. If the answer is wrong nothing appears to happen but the eyes stop glowing. If they answer right a clinking noise made by the door. For every wrong answer they must fight a cr appropriate elemental. For every right answer one of the 4 locks on the door comes unlocked without danger.

2. Put a maze in the dungeon that locks behind the party once they have all entered it. In this dungeon they locate countless dead ends and a door that is magically sealed so the rogue cant unlock it. Then. In three of the dead ends place chests with one small statue in each of them. For every chest they unlock have a stand rise from the floor near the door. If the statues are placed on the right stands in order the door unlocks. I used three dwarf statues that depicted a dwarven miner, a dwarven smith, and a dwarven warrior. They were to be placed in that order. First you mine the metal, then you make the axe, and then you kill your foe. That was the gist of how to determine the order

[Story]

Then why are you bothering to play a tabletop game instead of a riddle game, if the player's knowledge is more important than the limitations they are supposed to be representing with the characters they built and are working in the shoes of?

You might as well ask why this thread exists in the first place. Evidently some people do like playing riddle games.

If it was really a matter of solving the puzzles in character, I'd most likely just disregard the instructions and brute force my way through since there's no particular reason to believe that the creator of the dungeon was being honest.

[hemming]

2. Put a maze in the dungeon that locks behind the party once they have all entered it. In this dungeon they locate countless dead ends and a door that is magically sealed so the rogue cant unlock it. Then. In three of the dead ends place chests with one small statue in each of them. For every chest they unlock have a stand rise from the floor near the door. If the statues are placed on the right stands in order the door unlocks. I used three dwarf statues that depicted a dwarven miner, a dwarven smith, and a dwarven warrior. They were to be placed in that order. First you mine the metal, then you make the axe, and then you kill your foe. That was the gist of how to determine the order

I'm going to use some version of this one, I like it

[Tanuki Tales]

You might as well ask why this thread exists in the first place. Evidently some people do like playing riddle games.


Don't be glib. I already pointed out that you can do puzzles while keeping in mind the strengths and limitations of the characters being played.

Edit:

@Zweisteine: I really like that one. Definitely taking it. :smallbiggrin:

[Lightlawbliss]

one of my favorites was a large and very tall empty room with a door on the far side of the room, upside down, and locked. the room is actually filled with reverse gravity like effects and you have to navigate an invisible maze to get to the door and unlock it. the catch: some of the effects change directions when somebody is in certain locations.

[Tanuki Tales]

one of my favorites was a large and very tall empty room with a door on the far side of the room, upside down, and locked. the room is actually filled with reverse gravity like effects and you have to navigate an invisible maze to get to the door and unlock it. the catch: some of the effects change directions when somebody is in certain locations.

So, if they're not careful, they can make party mates fall to their dooms?

[Story]

Don't be glib. I already pointed out that you can do puzzles while keeping in mind the strengths and limitations of the characters being played.

I guess that's where we disagree. As I alluded to before, I don't think any of these puzzles would work in the absence of metagaming. They certainly wouldn't work if I was one of the players and told to solve it in character.

[hemming]

I guess that's where we disagree. As I alluded to before, I don't think any of these puzzles would work in the absence of metagaming. They certainly wouldn't work if I was one of the players and told to solve it in character.

I think I do a little of column A - a little of column B

It is possible to make puzzles that only use IC knowledge, but most of the time I don't require the players to only use IC knowledge

I do however allow the PCs to benefit or apply IC knowledge (even if they are also metagaming in terms of character WIS or INT overall)

I don't penalize PCs with low intelligence scores when they are trying to solve a puzzle - but I've made plenty of situations where detecting magic can help solve a puzzle or knowledge of planes/religion/languages/local history can provide additional hints

Edit: For example, your illiterate Barbarian is going to have to wait for someone to read a plaque/etc. to him - but I would let you as a player participate in figuring out how to solve the puzzle (kind of puzzle nerfing!)

Unless the PC is super RP dedicated (which is cool too), I don't personally enforce it

[Tanuki Tales]

I guess that's where we disagree. As I alluded to before, I don't think any of these puzzles would work in the absence of metagaming. They certainly wouldn't work if I was one of the players and told to solve it in character.

I don't believe any of the puzzles suggested relied on concepts that would be alien to characters in your average setting or required outside context, so unless the character is dumber than the player, then there's little difference between player knowledge and character knowledge in that regard. It's only dealing with someone playing a less intelligent character or a character who's way above human intelligence that this would be an issue.