So I had a friend stop over this weekend and we were discussing traps, locks and bindings. He had a suggestion that I never would have thought of he suggested that I use those mind puzzles that you can get for like 3 bucks the ones that are made of metal and wood. He said that he uses them in his campaigns all the time. He times that player to solve the puzzle before 2 minutes after the 2 minutes that is considered one fail (example #1 so let’s say that player “Mike” is playing Fador the rogue, and there are 3 other players that get separated by a wall that is slowly closing in on them. So now “Mike” has to save the party by figuring out the puzzle and he gets 5 fails before the wall starts to crush his fellow player’s characters. Now “Mike” can not get any help from the players to solve the puzzle. So you know what that’s going to sound like at the table a lot of yelling and panic oh the stress). (Example #2 “Mike” our rogue I now faced with a trapped treasure chest and must disarm it. He gets 2 minutes to solve a new puzzle. If he fails to solve it in the allotted time it goes off. In essence “Mike” is trying to save his own character that helps involve the player in another way in the game.) Now as for the skills that perform these tasks they would still be very valuable because for like every 10 ranks or every 10 total points you can get additional time added to each attempt so like if Fardor our rouge has a total of 23 in his “lock picking skill” then he would get a bonus of lets say for every 10 points you gain 30 seconds so now he would have 3 minutes to solve the puzzle. Now there are other scenarios that you could use the puzzles in like anyone that is tied up just toss them a puzzle and say you have X amount of time before the guards get back to escape you bindings again you can add time for every 10 points they have in the escape artist skill. So I hope you like this idea and if anyone else has any other suggestions please post them in detail who knows what might be out their.
Honestly, this sounds like a bad idea. It would be the same as if you asked your player to grab a real sword and try to hit an ogre with it. First, it's time consuming. Second, if your player isn't very good at such things, I know I find them to be difficult, it can be intensely frustrating, and nobody here is a rogue with 15 ranks in Disable Device, a 26 Dexterity and Skill Focus. In my opinion (which you are of course free to disregard) unless this were left to extremely important moments where you wanted to create a real sense of urgency, and if you gave your other players something to do during "Mike's" fumbling with the puzzle, it would not be a lot of fun.
I'd say it was a table-to-table decision. My gaming group wouldn't like this for our standard game, but if we were in a special kind of game - where our characters were supposed to be more realistic extensions of the players - it might be interesting.
It's rarely a good idea to expect a player to have the same knowledge or skills as their character. Metagaming is generally frowned on in most games, and that's basically what this is asking players to do. It's an in game task (that the character might be great at), but now the player needs to use out of game knowledge (to perform a task they may hate, or not do well).
That said, riddles and puzzles are an original AD&D staple, and some players enjoy the challenge. I think the way to add this is as an option, not a requirement. If you as a GM want your players to do these little puzzles, maybe make an in game reward of some kind? Reward all characters (and players) with a little xp for participating?
I'm doing something like this in a Desert of Desolation 3.5 campaign now. This is an AD&D campaign converted to 3.5, and includes a number of code translation style puzzles...ancient writings to translate. When the group encountered the first puzzle we established the system we would use. Spells and skill checks are always permitted to attempt a translation. However, decoding the text IRL earns the group bonus xp that is shared between all party members. Some players like completing the translations, others don't, but they all like the bonus xp and tend to remain patient while the players who love the puzzles work it out.
The only way this works is if you have the whole group on board. YMMV.
It's rarely a good idea to expect a player to have the same knowledge or skills as their character. Metagaming is generally frowned on in most games, and that's basically what this is asking players to do. It's an in game task (that the character might be great at), but now the player needs to use out of game knowledge (to perform a task they may hate, or not do well).
That said, riddles and puzzles are an original AD&D staple, and some players enjoy the challenge. I think the way to add this is as an option, not a requirement. If you as a GM want your players to do these little puzzles, maybe make an in game reward of some kind? Reward all characters (and players) with a little xp for participating?
I'm doing something like this in a Desert of Desolation 3.5 campaign now. This is an AD&D campaign converted to 3.5, and includes a number of code translation style puzzles...ancient writings to translate. When the group encountered the first puzzle we established the system we would use. Spells and skill checks are always permitted to attempt a translation. However, decoding the text IRL earns the group bonus xp that is shared between all party members. Some players like completing the translations, others don't, but they all like the bonus xp and tend to remain patient while the players who love the puzzles work it out.
The only way this works is if you have the whole group on board. YMMV.
That a great suggestion. I like the idea of translation style puzzles. Many of my players are in the computer field. So translation puzzles would appeal to them as well.