Building a Bridge Enigma

[Dellis]

Good day!

Tomorrow I have a long play session with my poor, poor subj--- ehm, players.

I wanted to build an enigma for them.

This is what I had thought: they find a door covered in runes. They light up at touch, and a faint line runs on the surface of the door in places where they trace their fingers.

The idea is very basic, I give them the print of the door covered in runes, they have to correctly identify the runes associating them to a specific letter (i'll give them the chart after some knowledge rolls), and then trace the phrase

Spoiler: Do not read if you play a certain Pathfinder AP

Show

"Behold the Amber Arca"

on the sheet, touching the runes.

I wanted to add a twist, something like "you cannot trace the same line twice", or "no lines must cross", things like that, but I'm not exactly a mathematician. I wouldn't know if it was mathematically possible with that number of repeating letters, or even how to place the runes on the paper so that it is possible. This sounds like the konigsberg bridges problem, but I honestly wouldn't know if it is.

Are there any mathematicians/enigma lovers willing to help me, or barring that, anyone who has an alternative that came to mind reading me?

[Lord Torath]

Well, per the Three Clue Rule, make certain you have three completely independent clues pointing to the correct phrase. (Sorry, I saw "mind reading" in your post, and thought it'd be good to keep your players from needing that skill to complete this puzzle).

If you hide your runes in order (X E I B I S L E K S H K Z V S V O W P Z Q E etc.), or close to in order, it will not be a problem to trace them without crossing a line. Or are you saying you want to have each rune/letter appear only once, and the players need to trace that way without crossing? If so, I'd say this will be impossible, because you have to hit two letters three times each.

You say you'll give your players the letter-to-rune chart after some knowledge rolls. What if those rolls are failed? Will you still share the chart? If the answer is "Yes", then don't even bother with rolling. Just give the player with the relevant skill "You remember this from your studies in Ancient Rune-ology."

[Dellis]

Well, per the Three Clue Rule, make certain you have three completely independent clues pointing to the correct phrase. (Sorry, I saw "mind reading" in your post, and thought it'd be good to keep your players from needing that skill to complete this puzzle).

If you hide your runes in order (X E I B I S L E K S H K Z V S V O W P Z Q E etc.), or close to in order, it will not be a problem to trace them without crossing a line. Or are you saying you want to have each rune/letter appear only once, and the players need to trace that way without crossing? If so, I'd say this will be impossible, because you have to hit two letters three times each.

You say you'll give your players the letter-to-rune chart after some knowledge rolls. What if those rolls are failed? Will you still share the chart? If the answer is "Yes", then don't even bother with rolling. Just give the player with the relevant skill "You remember this from your studies in Ancient Rune-ology."

Thank you for your response! I had thought to build it the second way: only once. A friend of mine raised the same objection, and proposed repeating those single letters, but I fear it makes the enigma too easy (alas, not an enigma, just tracing with the fingers).

Hmmm... There must be a tracing enigma I can come up with that phrase...

(as for the chart, I had actually thought that I'd let them roll on rune groups - so that I can expect them not to fail them all. This will give them the possibility to learn which runes are which, with some attempts, provided they haven't failed to understand too many of them. In any case, the door is optional, it just hides a lot of treasure^^)

EDIT: I just read your joke on mind reading, I snorted orange juice all over my keyboard.