Aotrs Commander
2017-11-20, 06:18 PM
I am looking for a bit of brainstorming/ ideas for a puzzle for a door.
Here's the situation. System: Rolemaster.
I'm not even goign to bother with the full party/situation backstory (because it would take FORVER), suffice it to say this is part two of a four-part arc that will wrap up over the next couple of years, a scifi/fantasy party we have had running for about 22 years or real time.
In the immediate situation in question, the PCs are faced with a room which they must cross (which is teleport warded) so they can proceed to the next bit of the adventure. The room is filled with a sort of Bad Time Memory Fog which is going to start incarnating (some of!) The Monsters And NPCS They've Fought And Killed Over The Last Twenty Years. The stream of monsters will be steady (not event-triggered, rather than timed), and the PCs should be getting very worried, as some of the things they fought, they did so with help or only escaped due to happenstance. This won't stop until they are out the door the other side.
Anyway, the door is sealed, by mechanism and by magic. The PCs, while fighting off Imperial Stormtroopers, Ninja Monks, Spear Demons and spider-like robot archmages and hoping that the really high level bad guys they peeved off once don't show up to slaughter them, need to get the doors open.
They can do this by
a) Shooting the door down with the guns (while take a while)
b) The Jedi does really well with his telekinesis roll.
c) They solve the door puzzle.
It is the last one that I am looking for ideas on. I had this great idea of rather than just some dull skill check, to have a puzzle the players could try to solve in real time (wherein they basically get an attempt for ten seconds only on their character's go.) My first idea one those lines was a simple "trace the shape without taking your finger off the paper" using Tyme's holy symbol.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u172/AotrsCommander/Quest22%20Tymesymbol02_zpsn4t4j9o0.png
That seemed ideal - the sort of thing that having to do it in ten seconds and if you make a mistake, that's the end of your (character's) attempt this round... That wouldn't take too many rounds to do. (And of course, if they do it right the frist time, they have to do it in reverse next round!)
Just one problem.
I realised I have used that EXACT SAME puzzle in another adventure that one of the players will be playing (I hadn't realised until that moment I spotted it in my CAD files that I had used the same symbol but just rotated 90º believe it or not the reason I'd arrived at that specific shape were independant! (That puzzle was low-balled a bit as the player and their group are much younger than the group in question, but said common player isn't daft enough not to remember a repeated puzzle...!)
So, I need to either change tack or, since I haven't run the aforemention younger adventure, change that to a simple puzzle to something similar.
In the former case, I need something that will take the PCs (or more correctly, the players) a couple of attempts on a ten-second timer to be able to solve (I want the time pressure because it's a) unusual and b) will heighten their concern that one of those foes beyond them might show up next...!) Something that is not just a "roll skill" since I've done that before and it'd be nice to do something different. It needs to be not too easy, but not too hard, since (with this being Rolemaster!) I don't want the combat to drag on and on for many rounds, but nor do I want them to get out of it without three or fours round's worth.
Edit: As per the first post suggestions made me realised: Language-based puzzles are out (unless they are amazingly good), since the creators of the door (et al) would be using a forgotten ten thousand year old runic script (barely - if any - more than heiroglyphs) that no-one could possibly know how to prounounce.
The puzzle also needs to be something that makes sense in-universe: the idea is to create a puzzle that has a solution that requires more player involvement than "I roll dice" but still would make sense to have been put on the door.
Any suggestions will be welcome (if, as is often the case, all they do is rigidly define my areas of doubt and uncertainty).
Here's the situation. System: Rolemaster.
I'm not even goign to bother with the full party/situation backstory (because it would take FORVER), suffice it to say this is part two of a four-part arc that will wrap up over the next couple of years, a scifi/fantasy party we have had running for about 22 years or real time.
In the immediate situation in question, the PCs are faced with a room which they must cross (which is teleport warded) so they can proceed to the next bit of the adventure. The room is filled with a sort of Bad Time Memory Fog which is going to start incarnating (some of!) The Monsters And NPCS They've Fought And Killed Over The Last Twenty Years. The stream of monsters will be steady (not event-triggered, rather than timed), and the PCs should be getting very worried, as some of the things they fought, they did so with help or only escaped due to happenstance. This won't stop until they are out the door the other side.
Anyway, the door is sealed, by mechanism and by magic. The PCs, while fighting off Imperial Stormtroopers, Ninja Monks, Spear Demons and spider-like robot archmages and hoping that the really high level bad guys they peeved off once don't show up to slaughter them, need to get the doors open.
They can do this by
a) Shooting the door down with the guns (while take a while)
b) The Jedi does really well with his telekinesis roll.
c) They solve the door puzzle.
It is the last one that I am looking for ideas on. I had this great idea of rather than just some dull skill check, to have a puzzle the players could try to solve in real time (wherein they basically get an attempt for ten seconds only on their character's go.) My first idea one those lines was a simple "trace the shape without taking your finger off the paper" using Tyme's holy symbol.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u172/AotrsCommander/Quest22%20Tymesymbol02_zpsn4t4j9o0.png
That seemed ideal - the sort of thing that having to do it in ten seconds and if you make a mistake, that's the end of your (character's) attempt this round... That wouldn't take too many rounds to do. (And of course, if they do it right the frist time, they have to do it in reverse next round!)
Just one problem.
I realised I have used that EXACT SAME puzzle in another adventure that one of the players will be playing (I hadn't realised until that moment I spotted it in my CAD files that I had used the same symbol but just rotated 90º believe it or not the reason I'd arrived at that specific shape were independant! (That puzzle was low-balled a bit as the player and their group are much younger than the group in question, but said common player isn't daft enough not to remember a repeated puzzle...!)
So, I need to either change tack or, since I haven't run the aforemention younger adventure, change that to a simple puzzle to something similar.
In the former case, I need something that will take the PCs (or more correctly, the players) a couple of attempts on a ten-second timer to be able to solve (I want the time pressure because it's a) unusual and b) will heighten their concern that one of those foes beyond them might show up next...!) Something that is not just a "roll skill" since I've done that before and it'd be nice to do something different. It needs to be not too easy, but not too hard, since (with this being Rolemaster!) I don't want the combat to drag on and on for many rounds, but nor do I want them to get out of it without three or fours round's worth.
Edit: As per the first post suggestions made me realised: Language-based puzzles are out (unless they are amazingly good), since the creators of the door (et al) would be using a forgotten ten thousand year old runic script (barely - if any - more than heiroglyphs) that no-one could possibly know how to prounounce.
The puzzle also needs to be something that makes sense in-universe: the idea is to create a puzzle that has a solution that requires more player involvement than "I roll dice" but still would make sense to have been put on the door.
Any suggestions will be welcome (if, as is often the case, all they do is rigidly define my areas of doubt and uncertainty).