Cookiemobsta
2008-07-07, 09:43 AM
Hi guys,
So I'm a big fan of getting my players away from their dice and their character sheets. I'm always happiest when I can put them up against an obstacle that forces them to imagine and to experiment, rather than figure out what ability they need to use and what DC they need to beat to get past. Sure, it's good to give them a chance to shine at the things that their characters are good at, but it's even better when it's not their character but them that figures out the solution to a tricky problem.
So with that in mind, here are a half dozen puzzles that will force your PCs to put down their character sheets and really imagine what's going on around them. With a few exceptions, there aren't really any dice rolls that need to be made, and there's not a significant amount of danger in making a wrong guess--to encourage experimentation.
(Some of these puzzles were inspired by various games or movies; in that case I credit the source in case you know your players have seen/played it).
Let me know if you have any questions about these, or if you use any of them . I've used all of them with success in the last campaign I ran. You'll probably need to adapt them some to your own situation, but hopefully the original kernel of an idea is a useful one.
1. The cursed rhyming book
While exploring a wizard's library or some such location, the party finds a table with books strewn on it. One of the books happens to be open, and someone in the party will likely read it.
When they do, hand the person who read it a sheet of paper and tell them that on the paper is what they read in the book. The sheet should say something to the effect of "This book is a cursed rhyming book. Anybody who reads it can only speak in rhyme until the curse is lifted. To lift the curse, someone who is not under the curse must say (while rhyming) that you are cursed to rhyme. You can give them hints that you are cursed to rhyme and that they can lift the curse through their actions, but you cannot directly tell them anything (so they could say "I do not want to speak like this/that you would help me is my wish" but they can't say "tell me my rhyming is a curse/and do it in verse"). The puzzle will be solved when one of the non-cursed party members says something like "Your strange speech is very tragic/I believe you are under the influence of dark magic."
Those who have once been cursed by the book are thereafter immune to the book's powers, but the party can freely take the book with them and use it against other people in future encounters. If used correctly, this book can be very powerful; imagine sneaking into the orc warlord's quarters and leaving the book there, so the next morning when he tries to rally his generals he causes a riot by speaking only in verse, or replacing a lich's powerful spellbook with the rhyming book right before he's going to start a ritual (which would have the added bonus of making all of his somatic spells useless).
2. The very unhelpful toad (inspired by the Tenth Kingdom miniseries)
At the end of a dank tunnel, the party finds that the path branches in two directions. In the middle of the fork, sitting on a pedestal and illuminated by a flickering torch, is a toad. When the party approaches, the toad tells them "Beware! One path leads to what you seek, but the other brings fiery doom to the first living thing that sets foot upon it!" When the party questions the toad, he will admit to knowing which path is which, but won't offer any hints, insisting that nothing the party could offer him would match his satisfaction at seeing them sizzle.
The correct solution to this puzzle, of course, is to chuck the toad into one of the tunnels and see what happens. For dramatic effect this tunnel should always be the fiery doom one. They would also be successful if they successfully intimidate the toad, if they use a bag of tricks to throw in another animal, or if they go hunting for a mouse or something. But honestly, they should really chuck the toad. If they decide to enter the wrong tunnel, they'll take fire damage that will on average knock out about half their health (so if they have 60hp, you should roll 6d10), or, if you're cruel, instant-kill them (but this will likely frustrate them).
3. Spelling bee
The party reaches a door that has "Think backwards" chiseled in the stone above it, and the alphabet inscribed on the door itself. The door is a heavy metal door, has no apparent knob or key, and the DC to break it down is Don't Bother. To pass, the party needs to spell the word "kniht", which is "think" backwards When the party touches a letter, that letter glows briefly and one of two things happen. If it's the next letter in "kniht", it continues glowing and changes color. If it's not, the character receives an electric shock or something moderately nasty. When they spell "kniht", the door opens.
4. Test of purity (taken from Exile series by Spiderweb software)
In an ancient temple, the party enters a room marked "Test of purity" The room is a long hallway, with the door to the next section at the end. The middle section of the hallway is made up of golden tiles, and near the entrance is a sunken stone basin, full of a goopy whitish liquid (somewhat similar to shampoo or a milkshake.) The liquid smells faintly of perfume; if tasted, it tastes like sour milk mixed with soap, and if touched, it has a slimy, greasy texture. If the party steps on the golden tiles, a voice says "Unclean" and they are (depending on how merciful you want to be), either shocked for a small amount of damage or pushed back off the tiles. If a party member touches the liquid before crossing, nothing will happen and they can cross safely. The idea is that worshippers who used the ancient temple would use the liquid to do a purification ritual, and so the tiles check to see if the faithful were faithful enough.
5.Test of perception (taken from an old King Arthur PC game for DOS)
This one is pretty straightforward. A suit of armor, wearing a pendant with a dull red pendant on it, stands near a doorway. When the party approaches, the pendant flashes and the suit of armor comes to life, standing in front of the doorway and attacking anybody who comes near. When the armor is killed, it slumps to the ground, then the pendant flashes and it rises again and fights again, this time stronger. The party needs to cut off the pendant or shatter it or something to win this fight.
If they merely cut the pendant off and one of the members decides to keep it (there is a gem on it, after all), the pendant will continuously tempt them to put it on (a la the ring in Lord of the Rings, although it's probably best to do this through in-character temptation rather than will saves or something like that). If they do, they gain the same immortality but they will mindlessly attack the nearest living thing until the pendant is destroyed. Once the pendant is taken off, if they have taken a lethal amount of damage while it was on then they die.
They could theoretically use this to their advantage; when fleeing impossible odds one heroic member stays behind and puts the pendant on when the enemy hordes come near.
6. Test of the brother
This one is also fairly straightforward. The party has reached the innermost sanctum of the dungeon, with only one door between them and whatever they seek. But this door doesn't have a knob or lock; instead there is a handprint in the center of the door. If the party puts their hands in, nothing happens. There are two possibile solutions you could make for this
-If this is a modern dungeon (ie, a drow fortress), then they need to find a corpse of whatever critters run the dungeon and use the hand from that.
-If this is an abandoned dungeon (where the creators have long since left), you will have needed to put in a skeleton earlier in the dungeon of whatever species created the dungeon. This could have been in an overt place, as in a crypt, or this could have been a skeleton strewn about in front of a dangerous area. The party should have seen it on their path coming in, so they just need to remember it and go get it.
Alternatively, if the dungeon was made by members of a species that is in the party (ie, a dwarf temple or something) then it's just a matter of that member putting their hand in.
6.
So I'm a big fan of getting my players away from their dice and their character sheets. I'm always happiest when I can put them up against an obstacle that forces them to imagine and to experiment, rather than figure out what ability they need to use and what DC they need to beat to get past. Sure, it's good to give them a chance to shine at the things that their characters are good at, but it's even better when it's not their character but them that figures out the solution to a tricky problem.
So with that in mind, here are a half dozen puzzles that will force your PCs to put down their character sheets and really imagine what's going on around them. With a few exceptions, there aren't really any dice rolls that need to be made, and there's not a significant amount of danger in making a wrong guess--to encourage experimentation.
(Some of these puzzles were inspired by various games or movies; in that case I credit the source in case you know your players have seen/played it).
Let me know if you have any questions about these, or if you use any of them . I've used all of them with success in the last campaign I ran. You'll probably need to adapt them some to your own situation, but hopefully the original kernel of an idea is a useful one.
1. The cursed rhyming book
While exploring a wizard's library or some such location, the party finds a table with books strewn on it. One of the books happens to be open, and someone in the party will likely read it.
When they do, hand the person who read it a sheet of paper and tell them that on the paper is what they read in the book. The sheet should say something to the effect of "This book is a cursed rhyming book. Anybody who reads it can only speak in rhyme until the curse is lifted. To lift the curse, someone who is not under the curse must say (while rhyming) that you are cursed to rhyme. You can give them hints that you are cursed to rhyme and that they can lift the curse through their actions, but you cannot directly tell them anything (so they could say "I do not want to speak like this/that you would help me is my wish" but they can't say "tell me my rhyming is a curse/and do it in verse"). The puzzle will be solved when one of the non-cursed party members says something like "Your strange speech is very tragic/I believe you are under the influence of dark magic."
Those who have once been cursed by the book are thereafter immune to the book's powers, but the party can freely take the book with them and use it against other people in future encounters. If used correctly, this book can be very powerful; imagine sneaking into the orc warlord's quarters and leaving the book there, so the next morning when he tries to rally his generals he causes a riot by speaking only in verse, or replacing a lich's powerful spellbook with the rhyming book right before he's going to start a ritual (which would have the added bonus of making all of his somatic spells useless).
2. The very unhelpful toad (inspired by the Tenth Kingdom miniseries)
At the end of a dank tunnel, the party finds that the path branches in two directions. In the middle of the fork, sitting on a pedestal and illuminated by a flickering torch, is a toad. When the party approaches, the toad tells them "Beware! One path leads to what you seek, but the other brings fiery doom to the first living thing that sets foot upon it!" When the party questions the toad, he will admit to knowing which path is which, but won't offer any hints, insisting that nothing the party could offer him would match his satisfaction at seeing them sizzle.
The correct solution to this puzzle, of course, is to chuck the toad into one of the tunnels and see what happens. For dramatic effect this tunnel should always be the fiery doom one. They would also be successful if they successfully intimidate the toad, if they use a bag of tricks to throw in another animal, or if they go hunting for a mouse or something. But honestly, they should really chuck the toad. If they decide to enter the wrong tunnel, they'll take fire damage that will on average knock out about half their health (so if they have 60hp, you should roll 6d10), or, if you're cruel, instant-kill them (but this will likely frustrate them).
3. Spelling bee
The party reaches a door that has "Think backwards" chiseled in the stone above it, and the alphabet inscribed on the door itself. The door is a heavy metal door, has no apparent knob or key, and the DC to break it down is Don't Bother. To pass, the party needs to spell the word "kniht", which is "think" backwards When the party touches a letter, that letter glows briefly and one of two things happen. If it's the next letter in "kniht", it continues glowing and changes color. If it's not, the character receives an electric shock or something moderately nasty. When they spell "kniht", the door opens.
4. Test of purity (taken from Exile series by Spiderweb software)
In an ancient temple, the party enters a room marked "Test of purity" The room is a long hallway, with the door to the next section at the end. The middle section of the hallway is made up of golden tiles, and near the entrance is a sunken stone basin, full of a goopy whitish liquid (somewhat similar to shampoo or a milkshake.) The liquid smells faintly of perfume; if tasted, it tastes like sour milk mixed with soap, and if touched, it has a slimy, greasy texture. If the party steps on the golden tiles, a voice says "Unclean" and they are (depending on how merciful you want to be), either shocked for a small amount of damage or pushed back off the tiles. If a party member touches the liquid before crossing, nothing will happen and they can cross safely. The idea is that worshippers who used the ancient temple would use the liquid to do a purification ritual, and so the tiles check to see if the faithful were faithful enough.
5.Test of perception (taken from an old King Arthur PC game for DOS)
This one is pretty straightforward. A suit of armor, wearing a pendant with a dull red pendant on it, stands near a doorway. When the party approaches, the pendant flashes and the suit of armor comes to life, standing in front of the doorway and attacking anybody who comes near. When the armor is killed, it slumps to the ground, then the pendant flashes and it rises again and fights again, this time stronger. The party needs to cut off the pendant or shatter it or something to win this fight.
If they merely cut the pendant off and one of the members decides to keep it (there is a gem on it, after all), the pendant will continuously tempt them to put it on (a la the ring in Lord of the Rings, although it's probably best to do this through in-character temptation rather than will saves or something like that). If they do, they gain the same immortality but they will mindlessly attack the nearest living thing until the pendant is destroyed. Once the pendant is taken off, if they have taken a lethal amount of damage while it was on then they die.
They could theoretically use this to their advantage; when fleeing impossible odds one heroic member stays behind and puts the pendant on when the enemy hordes come near.
6. Test of the brother
This one is also fairly straightforward. The party has reached the innermost sanctum of the dungeon, with only one door between them and whatever they seek. But this door doesn't have a knob or lock; instead there is a handprint in the center of the door. If the party puts their hands in, nothing happens. There are two possibile solutions you could make for this
-If this is a modern dungeon (ie, a drow fortress), then they need to find a corpse of whatever critters run the dungeon and use the hand from that.
-If this is an abandoned dungeon (where the creators have long since left), you will have needed to put in a skeleton earlier in the dungeon of whatever species created the dungeon. This could have been in an overt place, as in a crypt, or this could have been a skeleton strewn about in front of a dangerous area. The party should have seen it on their path coming in, so they just need to remember it and go get it.
Alternatively, if the dungeon was made by members of a species that is in the party (ie, a dwarf temple or something) then it's just a matter of that member putting their hand in.
6.