I know that there's already a million puzzle threads, but I can't find any that have the style of puzzle I'm looking for.
I recently got into a game "The Legend of Grimrock", a game styled like the old "Eye of the Beholder" dungeon crawler, and am having a ball with it.
I thought it might be fun to run my players through a dungeon styled like that, combat plays a major role, but equally important is slow, methodical thinking to solve the riddles and puzzles throughout the dungeon. Some of them even require you to traverse several floors of the dungeon, climbing up and down stairs and using the pitfalls to get past obstacles.
When I mentioned using puzzles and they just about squealed hard enough to blow my ears out so I know that they're all for some intellectual adventures. (I suck at writing political intrigue or mysteries)
I'm mostly wondering if anybody has any examples of these type of puzzles, not the usual, solve a riddle or color pattern and the door opens.
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Puzzles have a problem most of the time, you need to balance just the right amount of difficulty. If it is too difficult, then it become boring and you have maybe one or two trying to find the solution, while everybody else is playing on their phones.
The right kind of puzzle varies from group to group, you'll have to try a bit of all kind of difficulties and just find the sweet spot for your group.
Making puzzles isn't too difficult, the main idea first is that the goal should be obvious. I mean, when they come into the room, they must know what they are trying to reach or achieve (get this item, get behind that door etc...).
Back in the day, it was kind of hard to reference people to puzzles but nowadays, you can just check videos online of various puzzles from video games, tv shows and movies for inspiration. Hell, you could even take one of your legend of grimrock puzzles and just put them into your game. You just have to make sure that it simply makes sense in a way, no matter how complex it can get.
I'm actually working on converting the entire game into a massive 13 floor dungeon for them. :)
Any good ideas on games to look at for puzzles? Someone told me Resident Evil but then it just devolves into another type of fetch quest
Oh god, Portal puzzles in D&D? I'd have brains splattered across the walls from their heads exploding!!
Classic oldschool PC rpg style puzzle:
Alcoves inside which you have to put some important items to unlock a path forward.
Use various signs with obscure hints liberally.
Use pressure plate mechanisms with weight thresholds. You have to LURE that big slow monster to step on it for the exit to open.
A room which rotates when someone speaks the command word.
A teleporter that teleports the players from one identical piece of corridor to an identical piece of corridor elsewhere. A perception roll makes them notice something happen... Like a glitch in the matrix...
Play Myst, Riven, Exile, Revelation or End of Ages. They're like, the prototypical puzzle games.
look at the death rooms in the original castle raven-loft, that was terrifying and adequately challenging.
Classic oldschool PC rpg style puzzle:
Alcoves inside which you have to put some important items to unlock a path forward.
Use various signs with obscure hints liberally.
Use pressure plate mechanisms with weight thresholds. You have to LURE that big slow monster to step on it for the exit to open.
A room which rotates when someone speaks the command word.
A teleporter that teleports the players from one identical piece of corridor to an identical piece of corridor elsewhere. A perception roll makes them notice something happen... Like a glitch in the matrix...
That's a lot closer to what I'm looking for, any games that use these that you remember the name of?
Legend of Zelda, God of War, Catherine, Braid, Portal 1 and 2 are the ones crossing my mind at the moment.
Legend of Zelda has some great puzzles but most of them relied on platforming or something that could just be resolved with a roll of the dice.
Legend of Zelda, God of War, Catherine, Braid, Portal 1 and 2 are the ones crossing my mind at the moment.
Wait . . . Catherine? Like, Catherine made by Atlus?! How would you go about making DnD adventurers climb a tower of blocks that they have to pull/push to form staircases up while the bottoms gradually falls away (sometimes while fighting a boss) from a mechanical point of view? Like do I need to pull out some boxes of Jenga, or is it all theatre of the mind?
Cuz if there's a simple way to do this, I will love you forever.
Classic oldschool PC rpg style puzzle:
Alcoves inside which you have to put some important items to unlock a path forward.
Use various signs with obscure hints liberally.
Use pressure plate mechanisms with weight thresholds. You have to LURE that big slow monster to step on it for the exit to open.
A room which rotates when someone speaks the command word.
A teleporter that teleports the players from one identical piece of corridor to an identical piece of corridor elsewhere. A perception roll makes them notice something happen... Like a glitch in the matrix...
That's a lot closer to what I'm looking for, any games that use these that you remember the name of?
Legend of Zelda has some great puzzles but most of them relied on platforming or something that could just be resolved with a roll of the dice.Legend of Zelda, God of War, Catherine, Braid, Portal 1 and 2 are the ones crossing my mind at the moment.
Though I will be using the LOZ block puzzles, those translate to a D&D grid very well.
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Legend of Zelda, God of War, Catherine, Braid, Portal 1 and 2 are the ones crossing my mind at the moment.Wait . . . Catherine? Like, Catherine made by Atlus?! How would you go about making DnD adventurers climb a tower of blocks that they have to pull/push to form staircases up while the bottoms gradually falls away (sometimes while fighting a boss) from a mechanical point of view? Like do I need to pull out some boxes of Jenga, or is it all theatre of the mind?
Cuz if there's a simple way to do this, I will love you forever.
Neverwinter Nights 2 map editor + VTT to show to your players during the game would be one of the easiest way, could even have your boss rotating around the cube tower.
3d props aren't too hard to make if you are into arts and crafts, personally I'm more like the kind who would use a map editor from a game to make something like that.
the lazy way method 1: use a grid map, move 5 ft forward and can use one move action to push or move cube, just color the cubes on your grid map. Make sure that you can erase the markers after use. Essentially consider that the map is vertical instead of horizontal when ascending. No need for climb checks with 5 ft cube and they have enough strength to pull and push the approriate cubes.
Method 2: Use the chase scene system presented in the gamemastery guide, just make the route a little more elaborate and works well with a boss chasing our heroes moving the cubes and choosing the direction to go.
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Here's one I stole from the old Batman: The Animated Series cartoon. There are several canopic jars with symbols on them. Later there are alcoves in the walls with corresponding symbols. Specific jars placed in the right spot to match up the symbols unlock a passage.
Similar thing happens in the movie The Fifth Element. The female protagonist gives the hint "wind blows... rain falls..." and so on. The other protagonists have pylons that need to fit to pedestals but then need to be "opened" through the use of the elements they align to. The one for air for example needs to be blown upon and the one for water has sweat dripped upon it.
Here's an example from Grimrock.
"You descend the stairs and emerge into a large, rectangular room with a central pillar. Torches burn in sconces along the walls and pillar. The far door is sealed with no visible means to open it. On the wall near the door an inscription in (insert language) reads. "A pillar of light stands alone in the dark"."
The solution is to put out or remove all the torches in the room except for the one on the pillar.
Later on, on the same floor you come across an identical room without an inscription. To solve this one you simply remove the torch on the pillar.
Most of the other puzzles devolve into, "put item A into slot B"
Another good puzzle I came across on a thread was as follows.
The party comes across a room that leads to where they need to go, however the door is shut and remains closed to any attempt to open it.
In the room is a large statue of a wizard with hand outstreched as if waiting for something to be put in it. On closer examination the statues arm is a lever likely keyed to a specific item and the entire statue can rotate, pointing to various sigils on the floor.
Elsewhere in the dungeon is the key item for the statue, in another location is a clue as to what sigil must be used. (The poster suggested a painting, with the sigil hidden in the background)
Once both are used the door opens and they can continue, if the use and incorrect item or sigil a weak elemental spawns and attacks them. Nothing too dangerous, but annoying and will consume too many resources to brute force their way through the puzzle.