The Puzzle Sharing Thread

[BootStrapTommy]

Now we're talking!

I also have two chess-based riddles, but i have to make a picture of the board and upload it. I will gladly present them if desired when i figured out how to do this

Yes, please, and thank you!

In other words, to make this work you probably need an evil Monty Hall tormenting the party.

I've always thought puzzles only make sense in a dungeon where the adventurers are being tested, rather than crypts whose owner wishes to keep people out (that's what traps and guards are for).

An Evil Monty Hall? That would be wonderful. A crypt whose owner was a sadistic jerk, but who is willing to give up his resting place's treasure to anyone smart enough or lucky enough to make it through his twisted games...

[smcmike]

I've always thought puzzles only make sense in a dungeon where the adventurers are being tested, rather than crypts whose owner wishes to keep people out (that's what traps and guards are for).

And Evil Monty Hall? That would be wonderful. A crypt whose owner was a sadistic jerk, but who is willing to give up his resting place's treasure to anyone smart enough or lucky enough to make it through his twisted games...

Agreed. In this case, my point is that the Monty Hall problem really relies upon some knowledge beyond what was presented by the previous poster. As presented, it didn't sound like the weird Monty Hall probability would kick in at all. They party really needs to know that no matter what door the they initially picked, the Puzzler would respond by showing them a monster behind another door.

I love logic puzzles, but my favorites are almost impossible to translate into this setting, and are too hard to work out quickly unless you already know them or are much smarter than I am.

The blue eyed islander puzzle is my favorite one that I consider reasonably solvable. Doesn't really work I game unless you are literally just asking riddles.

[inuyasha]

I recently came up with a riddle that I'll be using in an upcoming game:

Breaking some bonds like acid on metal
A wonderful substance that dwarves like to peddle
Making relations with this stuff is easy
Don't have too much though or you'll start to feel queasy

Spoiler: Answer

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Alcohol

It's kind of an easy riddle but I think it'll do it's job well in my dungeon

[WrittenInBlood]

Here's some of mine:

1. Coded passwords (might not work well, because of various pronouncing of "clues" depending on accent). Players need alphanumeric code of set lenght (7 digits), and only thing they can find is note with some sentences written on the last page:
a) I want you to see the end; b) You force heaven to be empty; c) Night in jail for two elves

Spoiler: Solutions

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a) I1U2CDN; b) U472BMT; c) 19J412S

2. Coloured guardians. Three inactive constructs - green, blue, and red - are standing in the chamber. There's inscription on the floor: "One of them can only lie; one of them speaks only truth; one of them doesn't tell all the truth; one of them holds the only one key." When interacted, they speak. Green: "I have the key and the blue one lies". Blue: "I dont have key and the red one doesn't tell all the truth". Red: I don't have key and the green lies". This riddle can also be just smashed through, if players get bored and feel strong enough to fight all three powerful constructs.

Spoiler: So, let's think about it

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ANSWER: Assumption: Green lies. SO ->G doesn't have the key and B speaks true. SO -> R is true about G (he lies, as assumed), and has to lie about key. SO-> R has the key.
All other possibilities are excluded - there's either two keys or none, or guardians contradict each other, or themselves.

[halcyonforever]

Puzzles are a major challenge to incorporate.

Intellect puzzles I have come to avoid because it needs to be the intellect of the character not the player. That and they slow the pace down to much and just break immersion unless it reaaaaly fits the narrative. I like to place clues for those around. Notes left by a previous adventurer or some such.

I'm also a big fan of ephemera so puzzles will often have a solution in a handout somewhere.

I like to use puzzle traps that separate the party to give them each some solo challenge. My favorite was a trap that required someone to sacrifice themselves for the good of the party. The group left, hired a beggar, gave him a night on the town with the agreement that he would throw himself into the theoretical volcano (don't remember the actual trap mechanic). Just to spite them for doing something rather despicable I had it bestow all sorts of blessings on the one who was willing to sacrifice themselves for others and a deadly prize for those that continued on.

[smcmike]

A labyrinth idea, though not fully fleshed out:

Enter via a stairwell to the center of a room with five equal sides, each with a door opening into another, identical room with five equal sides. This should either tip off your savvy players that it's a magical labyrinth, or frustrate the map drawers for a bit.

Above each door, there's a phrase, such as "Abandon all hope" or "Who wants ice cream!" You can change these to fit your setting. The key is that only the first letter really matters, and that the correct path spells out some password the party acquired earlier. Straying from the proper path summons demons, perhaps corresponding to the phrase the party entered under - oh, no, it's the ice cream man!

In every incorrect room, there's a door which leads to the first correct room, so it is possible to brute force it, but very time consuming.

The real trick is to bury the password deep in their notes, or to make the wrong phrases seem responsive to the password or other otherwise attractive. Once they get it, it's a breeze to walk through. It should be possible to hide more paths in the maze, though, which could make it interesting.

[Spartakus]

Chess based riddles: In my campaign chess was a recurring theme. I had the head of two opposing tribes (frost giants and treants) play against each other and delivering their moves via messengers. The giant elder had big figures made of ice moved by slaves and when a figure was captured he smashed it with his hammer. The treants had a board made of different coloured grass the pieces represented by little trees and bushes that were just ordered to move by the treant-king.
The chars had access to a book containing the rules, so I allowed the players to read the wikipedia-article via smartphone. This allowed me to avoid obscure knowledge-checks to get hints.
But enough about flavour, here are the puzzles.

Spoiler: The lawful guard

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Setting: A dungeon build around a portal to Limbo to keep the caotic inhabitants inside. So the dungeon was build by lawful creatures and the puzzle was intended as a way to ensure that only lawful-minded creatures could enter certain areas. At one point there was a statue sitting in front of a chess-board stretching out his left hand (something can be put in his hand) and ponting his right index finger at the pace of the second player. If a person sits in the other chair it could move his own pieces (and the opposing ones that can be captured if a piece is picked up). By giving the statue the correct piece it triggers a door opening. The wrong piece or an illegal move triggers a nasty spell from the finger.

Here is the board :

Text in front of the board: "Give me what disturbs the order!"

Spoiler: Solution

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White has two bishops on light squares, but still all pawns. There is no way this situation could ever come up. Just give the statue one of your own bishops without capturing any other piece.

Spoiler: know the past

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similar setting to the one above. Cant remember how exactly i did this, but the mechanics where the same.

Text in front of the board: "He, who knows the past can slay me!"

Spoiler: Solution

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There are two types of moves in chess, that require information about earlier moves. Castling and En passant. If blacks last move was to put his pawn from C7 to C5, the white pawn can capture it by moving to C6. Checkmate.

[BootStrapTommy]

Oh, wow. I feel a bit like those require you to really know your chess...

[Spartakus]

Oh, wow. I feel a bit like those require you to really know your chess...

Well, the players should know the rules, but they don't need to be good at it since no tactical knowledge is needed for the puzzles. My group solved the first one in the first try, and the second one after they searched for a chess-rulebook ingame. But they stopped simple try and error solutions after the third Energy Drain that hit them
If your group really knows their chess you can even hit them when they touch a piece and then try to move another.

Remember that your group always has the advantage of having multiple minds working together for a solution.

[Reltzik]

Well, the players should know the rules, but they don't need to be good at it since no tactical knowledge is needed for the puzzles. My group solved the first one in the first try, and the second one after they searched for a chess-rulebook ingame. But they stopped simple try and error solutions after the third Energy Drain that hit them
If your group really knows their chess you can even hit them when they touch a piece and then try to move another.

Remember that your group always has the advantage of having multiple minds working together for a solution.

Yup! That's always useful!

[PersonMan]

2. Coloured guardians. Three inactive constructs - green, blue, and red - are standing in the chamber. There's inscription on the floor: "One of them can only lie; one of them speaks only truth; one of them doesn't tell all the truth; one of them holds the only one key." When interacted, they speak. Green: "I have the key and the blue one lies". Blue: "I dont have key and the red one doesn't tell all the truth". Red: I don't have key and the green lies". This riddle can also be just smashed through, if players get bored and feel strong enough to fight all three powerful constructs.

I always feel like this kind of puzzle has issues in a game where you can do more than 'hit X to interact'.

So, you solved the puzzle. Now what? You know which one has the key, how do you get it? If they respond to anything with something other than their opening line, can't you just ask a couple questions to figure it out more easily? If not, how does knowing which one has the key help you? Do you need a specific phrase to make them cough up the key? Why not just do that from the start, then? Or do they all attack if you say it more than once?

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Personally, I'm a fan of 'anti-puzzles', or puzzles that subvert normal restrictions.

One idea I had is a sliding-thing puzzle. There's an energy field around the side, and inside is a key. You can reach in and move it around, to get it to the exit, where you push it out, then can put it into the nearby lock. Things in the box move easily if moved by a living being, but not if touched by nonliving matter.

Spoiler: Unsolved Position

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Spoiler: Solved Position

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EDIT: Woops. This one has a mistake - shift the one in the middle down for a more accurate positioning, my bad.

Now you can see there's an 'intended' solution. But the other, much faster, method is to simply say 'no' to the puzzle and take the key out of the box, then put it into the lock.

Similarly, some kind of two-guardian or three-guardian door puzzle, with the puzzle conditions written on a note or similar. The trick is...

-[Optional] The instructions are written by a lying guardian and are utter BS.
-Complex questions and such provoke aggression.
-The guardians aren't necessarily a threat - you just need information from one to continue.

So, fairly similar to a standard guardian-truth/lie thing, I think (without the optional twist). The solution, though, is as simple as asking one or two questions to figure out if the guardian in question lies or not - 'Will it damage you if I attack?' -> 'No' -> *Attack damages* 'Alright this one lies', for example.

[goto124]

The last one... there's an OotS comic strip about it.

[PersonMan]

Yeah, I wanted to mention it, but had forgotten the details and didn't want to look it up again (I was going to say 'similar to Haley's shooting the guards').

[BootStrapTommy]

Successfully used my OC puzzle this last session. Party came up with a creative solution after some guess and check (and lots of failed Dex saves). They loved it.

Planning on an optional fight with a Shield Guardian at the end of this dungeon, determined by the party's success or failure at a variation on FreelanceGM's logic puzzle.

[Freelance GM]

Planning on an optional fight with a Shield Guardian at the end of this dungeon, determined by the party's success or failure at a variation on FreelanceGM's logic puzzle.

Glad I could contribute!

[Amphetryon]

No one ever argues that Ocarina of Time was too hard because the dungeons have block pushing puzzles.

If your players can't solve simple puzzles of LoZ level complexity, than it is a surprise they're capable of the basic mathematics required of TTRPGs.

Solving a puzzle is not like a moral dilemma. It does not require reading the GM's mind. It requires problem solving skills.

If your players lack problem solving skills, then you shouldn't put puzzles in your dungeons. Just let them kill stuff.

If your puzzles are challenging your Players' problem-solving skills, rather than the problem-solving skills of their Characters, then you're generally engaging them in a different game than the TTRPG which they thought they'd come to play. Their Characters almost certainly have a different set of skills than the Players do, unless you know that your Players can restore damaged IQ points, or accurately fire a laser cannon at an oncoming spacecraft, or play an instrument well enough to bring a charging band of berserkers to a halt (and to tears). . . et cetera. Exceptions for Self-Insert Character concepts may exist.

[BootStrapTommy]

Any instance in that statement of "player" is easily applicable to "character". If your players are playing a party of idiots, why are you putting puzzles in your games? There might be a trope for that, but is it a good design choice to be making? And if your players are idiots, why are you putting puzzles in your games? Is that a good design choice to be making? Or might other challenges be more suitable for them?

Puzzle designs which are the most widely accessible (like those in LoZ) tend to be the safest and most applicable by design. Because they're a bit easier to excuse when the line between player and character becomes blurred, barring outlyers.