New Submissions
The party reaches a point where they find a box containing numbered blocks of wood with pegs in them, and a pegboard on the wall. There is nothing more than numbers on the outside of the grid to indicate what is to be done.
Prior to this point, the PCs have been given some hint as to what they need to do(I handled this by allowing them to find a note on a dead higher up who would know how the puzzle worked). The pieces of numbered wood are supposed to add up, on all sides, the sum of those numbers to equal the numbers that are on the outside of the board. All five pieces must be used to open the door.
The original puzzle was stolen from the following web page, thanks to that puzzle creator!
http://www.stetson.edu/~efriedma/battle/
This page contains all the puzzles and their solutions, pick your favorite one.
As game master, I like to give my players puzzles that they must actively solve, and this is merely one way to work in an otherwise "non-fitting" puzzle into a fantasy adventure. Truth be told, I simply like puzzles, and in order to work them in, I will create any implausible set of circumstances to fit them in. The "combination locked door" is one of my favorite circumstances, even though the determined player character can always simply bash down the door. My players are nice about that, though, allowing me to give them a puzzle to solve rather than applying their own "key" to the door(usually a large warhammer).
November 8, 2005, 18:26
November 23, 2005, 9:29
Puzzles can be fun, although, as you admit they sometimes "don't belong" in a game. Also, if you give players a puzzle do the ones with low intelligence scores have to not figure it out, or maybe you handicap them some way - there is a disconnect between player and character I think.
I do like putting puzzles into adventures, however. MH's comment actually makes me think, you could try doing an adventure where for some reason the players ar esor of put in a gameshow. For example, a rich guy hires them to recover something goblins stole from him, and points them to the goblin cave. Only in reality, the goblin cave is like a premade gameshow set, where rich and bored wizards send "adventurers" for their amusement. I've actually played in an adventure like this, and my paladin was rip-roaring mad when he found out what happened.
April 22, 2008, 11:02
Some PC's might be cool with it though.
July 12, 2011, 22:00
Interesting but a bit too basic to make the typhical player group get enthused about solving the problem.
The main Issue I find with "real" puzzles is sometimes the characters are supposed to be brilliant mages or scientists, (or super heroes) and the player becomes frustrated when their character could easily solve a problem they are struggling with, it really kills the immersion for them.
April 15, 2013, 21:22