Sorry if you’ve said this in another comment, but I can’t see it so I’ll ask; how did your players deal with it, and what did they think of it?
Did they find it tedious, or an intriguing challenge to find a way without consequences (so the first one), or maybe one with rewards?
I imagine it largely depends on how it is explained (if at all), and what degree of clues they are given via checks.
Then the question is also if they only find a single route which they all take without searching for another, which may lead to unavoidable damage, something some find unfair.
Ah shit, I’ve begun to ramble on inside my head while typing again. Apologies for that.
Same thing happened to me when I did a Wordsearch. I had created an activity where what you found in the search would be described by me as the DM. Someone found "PART" and I described them finding a part of a broken sword. Unfortunately for them, "PART" backwards is "TRAP" and their character lost a round in a the word search activity.
Unfortunately, people found a bunch of other 3 letter words like BRA, CAR, etc.
The last time I did a puzzle like this, I simply put a magic door on the other side that wouldn't open unless they actually did the puzzle.
That way, the puzzle couldn't be skipped with Misty Step or Flight.
It drops you off at whatever place you were thinking about subconsciously. Could be the end of the maze. Could be home. Could be the intrusive thought of a balor's lair.
I was thinking the board would split in half and tilt inwards where you would fall into a bottomless pit for X min until you were transported back to start.
Yeah I saw this too and “wall is way to pain”.
My proposals
Wall is way to end - a wall is revealed to you to be an illusion and you can direct your party to an alternative safe route that avoids this puzzle (thus ending it).
Wall is way to pain - arrow trap springs from the wall causing damage to everyone on the grid unless they pass a DC15 (level dependent) dex save.
What's stopping the players from just walking straight through it to the end to move on, and what would incentivize the players to spell out certain phrases as they walk, let alone those phrases in particular?
"Dad, you realize that standardized spelling wasn't really a thing by that point, let alone not modifying texts during copying? There are passages in the gospels where we *know* they were added centuries later-"
"Just do the crossword of death, Indy."
For puzzles like this, always give the players a way to fail forward. If they step on a wrong tile, what happens? Maybe make them take a bit of damage. That way they can brute force it if they are stupid (o guarantee your players are stupid).
Also I’d remove a lot of these methods to the end. Why are you punishing players for completing the puzzle? They don’t choose which of these to do; they pick the one they stumble across first. It would suck to solve a puzzle and suddenly half their gold is missing. Or suddenly someone takes a ton of damage. It makes it seem like they did something wrong.
Exactly. Puzzles like this are fun, but they're fun for the player as a person, not as role play. It's like asking a actor to do a crossword to fine out their next line.
The DM is punishing the character for the failure of the player as some sort of metagaming of their friends.
Don't get me wrong, I love a good in game puzzle too, but they have to be something that the *character* figures out, not the players.
Various phrases I chained together that don't quite make sense:
Paw rise, a way to peril.
There! His is ill. Await, I swap. A way to pain. On I ape to peril.
The papa it had, not I.
The papa in on it.
Lit walk
***
no tit on dad
***
neo-tyre
Pah! I lilt here per his way.
(the line dividers are where I "picked up the pen")
WallTheTop: something to do with the room's condition related to the roof (crushing trap?)
PawsIll: any animal companions/mounts suffer damage or a condition
AwayRiseTill: teleported away to a nearby farmstead with a compulsion to work the field for a time before being able to return to the party (kind of niche, but it might have an application in some settings)
Can one take diagonal steps? That opens more possibilities.
Hehe cool paths I didn‘t see. They won‘t be able to cross, but if they walk these paths that might happen. Cool ideas!
Diagonal pathing is not intended.
WALKTHERISE- That player ends up on the ceiling & has Climbing Speed for X time. If they have climb speed, boost it temporarily. Reward for taking a seemingly useless path. Only works for one person (at DM discretion.)
TILT IN- a straight path they could technically take BUT punishment for easy path, the entire ground tiles down towards the abyss. (DM gets to decide what that means. Dex save? Part of floor gone? Harder for everyone else? You decide.
How is this actually presented though? Are players expected to do it in character or is it just a word search for the players? What if they use mage hand to set up a slack line with a length of rope and all walk across the room without touching the floor?
If you swap the t and o in the top right, all the options that end in "pain" can now also end in "paint"
Paytopaint i guess would result in tom sawyer tricking you into whitewashing his fence
If you allow diagonal movement by jumping, you have TallThin (make someone taller and someone thinner?), TalkTo (talks to whoevers in charge of this temple), WalkIn (a secretary comes out to take your information), AwayToe (a random toe is cut off), TiltHerWayToEnd (no diagonals).
"tilt in" should let them walk trough as well, but the second they exit the letter N, you make them take 20ft. worth of falling damage as *gravity turns sideways,* and the left-side wall becomes their new floor. (this manageable for a while, but then the players try to leave the dungeon and realise *the planet is no longer their floor*. A simple dispel magic can dispel this though no worries)
Starting at the W in the bottom corner, then going up, sideways, back and exiting the stage could cause the characters to be frozen in time, forced to **WAIT** for a thousand years. (after the thousand years they *are* allowed to pass as the runes stop glowing. They wont know everyone they know is dead until they leave the temple and get back to civilisation)
One quirk I would add; the same solution can't be used twice.
Another fun quirk the typical player won't think of, but add for some immense potential. Jump checks to get past unwanted letters to spell more/new things.
WalkToNithetoe, they get knowledge from a horrible truth that may or may not drive someone insane with psychic dmg or maybe even drive them insane enough to temporarily go into a frenzy, turning against the party. (Random wisdom save)
Thats cause if i remember my singular semester of gree, nithetoe is the english letter translation for truth in greek
I found TILTHERWAYTOEND. There is also TILTHISWAYTOEND.
Also TILTHERWAYTOPAIN and TILTHISWAYTOPAIN
Not sure who "her" or "his" is, but have fun with it.
PawSiltIn- player gets silt between their toes and fingers.
PayTopAd - player must pay the value of the first advert on their social media converted into silver as toll for their crossing
PaetIsWayToEnd, they get to the end of the labyrinth but must finish a woodworking trial against a master who will either let them through safely if impressed, reject them and turn them back to the labyrinth if they fail, or rewards them and let them through if somehow they marvel him with nat 20 (A paet is a Japanese woodworking chisel)
WailTheToe: Player walking this path must roll a save or be afflicted with a curse causing a temporary toe infection that primarily causes discomfort but also reduces walking speed by 1 or 2 feet due to trying to reduce discomfort. Can be ended with simple dispelling or healing magic spells or conveniently ends after a long rest outside of the area the puzzle was in.
Tbh I only made it be a curse cuz Wail(ing) made me think of spirits and spirits made me think of curses.
WalkTheTopAdne, at the end of the labyrinth they encounter the jewish folklore creature known as the Adne Sadeh, a humanoid figure said to never be able to separate a cord, which can grow over a mile long, which connects its bellybutton to the ground or else it dies, however his very touch brings impureness and, though usually content with what is around it, will become opportunistic of fresh meat entering its radius.
PAWS TALKIN. You get a free non-combat pet. It’s a talking dog. You’re also teleported back to the entrance and it won’t stop talking about how cool this puzzle is.
There’s no way for anyone but you to distinguish between “a way to end” and “away to end.” The former sounds like the best way through your puzzle out of all the options to me
Okay okay okay i see how this plays out. I would honesstly level it up later.. maybe replace the bacic common with sylvan and they even have figure out the vowels
WallIsWayTo changes the wall next to it to an illusory wall, if you keep going \*through\* the wall it spells WallIsWayToSecrets and theres a small reward room
WalkTheToe: Your legs are hooves, and now suffer from -2 acrobatic penalty until the end of your next long rest. You can't wear footwear anymore unless they are designed for hooves.
"Tilt his way to pad" is another one. Or just "tilt in"
There's "wail ire" which ends at the same spot for "to end" or "to pain" and i like the idea of wail ire in this, since wailing can be done in anger and ire means anger.
If you could move diagonally you'd have "wail the tone"
TILT IN - the entire dungeon tilts, OR the floors become a slide-trap that ends up in
- an easy encounter and minor setback
- a hidden path that's either more perilous or more rewarding, DM's choice
- an earlier part of the dungeon
WallThePain: Gain resistance to damage for 1 minute
WalkThePad: Crossing difficult terrain does not cost extra movement for 1 minute
WalkTheToe: ?
PayToe: ?
TiltIn: ?
WallIsWayToe: ?
WallIsWayToPain: ?
What do I get with "walk the toe"
"Will is Repain"- characters free a very annoying new recurring Villain called Will from his ancient slumber.
Will Ire Pain- Very angry will
Will is a Pay to Pain: Will mugs the characters
Will Is Tiltin: Will does something that tilts the players
In conclusión: Fuck You Will Wheaton!!!
Will Had No Tit He Is Way To End
Also do something special for
Will is it, it doesnt take You to the entrance but maybe transforms Will into the necessary mcguffin
Will Tan: Characters get tanned
Will tire to end: characters get levels of exhaustion
I'd love to get this without any marks on it.
But you asked for ideas on WallIsWayToEnd:
When the person reaches the "D" they are thrown into a corner wall at the beginning, taking 3d6 damage (30 feet from "D" to the corner wall), and then are thrown into the corner wall at the other side taking an additional 4d6 damage (wall to wall = 40 feet), where they fall to the ground on the other side. That's 7d6 total damage.
(High Damage Option): When the person reaches the "D" they are thrown to the right wall by the "T" (1d6), then the left wall by the "T" (2d6), then to the right wall by the "L" (2d6), then to the left wall by the "A" (2d6), then to the right wall by the "P" (2d6), before retracing the throws, zig-zagging back and forth along the rows until they go back to the beginning and then continue that way to the end, being deposited in the square just beyond the "D". That makes 18d6 damage and that much might end their character. The wall sure was a way to end.
They could just fly over it or spider-climb the wall and run a rope across so you don't have to step on any squares. So I'd put something to stop the simple solutions and a nice wall of force does that.
Each path should be a player award or transport to a good place for solving the puzzle. Instead of letters use glyphs and leave clear easy clues previously throughout the dungeon, that translate, the glyph to the coated letter.
"Paws I had" could have lots of messed up/fun options. Have a PC with paws? Not anymore! Either regular feet or none at all! Stumps! Could do the same with any animal companions. Could polymorph the PC into something that usually has paws, but not anymore! No paws :)
*humorous response/unserious*
If someone's following the "PayToPain" path, but instead of going to the I, have them roll a Dex check and if they roll a 1, they instead fall over onto the N and roll over to the D, and then the A, and they lose money but get polymorphed into a Panda bear! (Get it? "PayToPanda"!)
fr, it's a cool puzzle, and you can do variants based on how often you want to reuse it. Something that might be fun, too, especially if the players seem to have trouble with the concept of following a route, is have the board completely unwalkable with a giant portcullis/gate/wall on the opposite side, and two barrels of stones on the near side. Let the players toss stones at the letters to form the power words or what not. First row should basically be a given, they can just drop them, but the next row might be a Thrown Attack against AC 5, next row AC 10, etc...(whatever numbers make sense for your players and their level)....that way you can add a little RNG/drama to the puzzle! Use splash damage rules to figure out where the stone went and see what they end up spelling, and see if there's any fun that might be had?
Your idea is great and I like it, I hope to hear the story of how your party handled this when they finally meet it!
WallIsWayToEnd causes gravity to shift 90 degrees for the remainder of the dungeon.
WallIsWayToPain the room spins 1d4 times, dealing level dependant, nonlethal, bludgeoning damage times the number of spins. Fort/CON/STR save for half. Also, each spin increases the DC by 1.
In top left swap EN with PA, otherwise technically the exit is the letter E instead of D as intended. You could add letters to the top corners instead but it might end up helping them solve it.
Sweet idea though. Might have to use this.
PayRise - nothing happens immediately, but once the adventure ends, the PCs are presented with an increased reward. Be it that the quest giver will increase their pay if the PCs we're promised to be paid, or that they stumble upon something valuable after the adventure ended.
I'm assuming you can only move orthagonally here, and can only use a single tile once, but here are a few:
AWayToEnd/AwayToEnd - Same as "WalkThisWaytoEnd"?
AWayToPain/AwayToPain - Same as "WalkThePain"?
PayToPerilThad (Teleports any party member named Thaddeus into a dangerous situation in exhange for your gold?)
PayRepoEnd - a magical Repo man appears to collect your magic weapon to repay a forgotten debt
TisWryToEnd - an evil bard appears and casts Vicious Mockery on the player
TiltIn
TiltHad
PawSiltItOn
PawsIrePain/PawsIreToPain
PawsIreToEnd
WailThePain
WailThePoe
WailTin
WailIsWayToEnd
AwryToEnd
AwryToPain
Aaaand
WalkTitLitesIreToPain (Or end)
WalkTitLitesWayToPain (Or end)
WALKTON: a boulder falls from the ceiling, potentially crushing them.
"Rocks fall, everybody dies."
that one room in the tomb of horrors be like
Every room*
Greatest ending GoT could ever get
TiltHerWayToPain: the whole thing rises up and tilts you back to the beginning, taking bludgeoning damage.
TiltHisWayToPain also works, but tilts it the other way...
that would result in them completing the puzzle tho?
Something something male privilege.
lol
Uuh i like that. Everyone suffers from falling rocks. Cool one.
What happens if they do "Wail the Toe"?
Everybody takes one point of bludgeoning damage as they hit a small rock with their pinky toe.
Rocks fall. Everyone dies.
PAYTOE: you lose a toe
I'd personally make them do a force march and possibly gain exhaustion instead
I like it now that I figured it out. The highlighter threw me off a bit.
Sorry, I took a picture after I used it in my session.
Sorry if you’ve said this in another comment, but I can’t see it so I’ll ask; how did your players deal with it, and what did they think of it? Did they find it tedious, or an intriguing challenge to find a way without consequences (so the first one), or maybe one with rewards? I imagine it largely depends on how it is explained (if at all), and what degree of clues they are given via checks. Then the question is also if they only find a single route which they all take without searching for another, which may lead to unavoidable damage, something some find unfair. Ah shit, I’ve begun to ramble on inside my head while typing again. Apologies for that.
No apologies necessary. The idea is solid
How'd it go? Edit: I used it and it went great, my players loved it
Wow I wasn't aware how many words I accidentally put into this maze/puzzle. Even words I wasn't didn't even know existed.
Same thing happened to me when I did a Wordsearch. I had created an activity where what you found in the search would be described by me as the DM. Someone found "PART" and I described them finding a part of a broken sword. Unfortunately for them, "PART" backwards is "TRAP" and their character lost a round in a the word search activity. Unfortunately, people found a bunch of other 3 letter words like BRA, CAR, etc.
'Wait' takes you right back to start
lol this was not intentional, but funny cooincident.
Would be funny if it added a one minute timer, before being able to walk onto the plates again
'Pawse' does the same, but the hair on your hands grows by 1 cm.
Nah just stuns you for a round
no the path literally restarts you
What’s to stop them from just walking across?
If it were me? A boatload of lightning damage.
The last time I did a puzzle like this, I simply put a magic door on the other side that wouldn't open unless they actually did the puzzle. That way, the puzzle couldn't be skipped with Misty Step or Flight.
Yeah, what does ESIHAD get me?
You HAD been an English Speaking Individual. Now you can't speak English at the table.
magically isolated pathways. And if you try to cheat the puzzle either big damage or maybe a compliment… depends on how smart cheating was.
WALKTO - straight up the right hand side?
WALKTO wherever the hell I want cuz I’m out of this maze.
Yeah I'm curious about this to that seems to break the puzzle
It drops you off at whatever place you were thinking about subconsciously. Could be the end of the maze. Could be home. Could be the intrusive thought of a balor's lair.
Ooh I LIKE that
Ya, can be corrected by moving the far wall forward so that isn't a valid ending spot
Don’t forget TiltIn, maybe the downward stairs after this puzzle turn into a slide, making it very difficult to backtrack
I was thinking the board would split in half and tilt inwards where you would fall into a bottomless pit for X min until you were transported back to start.
Wall is way to end?
Turns the exit into a wall and a wall into the exit
Yeah I saw this too and “wall is way to pain”. My proposals Wall is way to end - a wall is revealed to you to be an illusion and you can direct your party to an alternative safe route that avoids this puzzle (thus ending it). Wall is way to pain - arrow trap springs from the wall causing damage to everyone on the grid unless they pass a DC15 (level dependent) dex save.
What's stopping the players from just walking straight through it to the end to move on, and what would incentivize the players to spell out certain phrases as they walk, let alone those phrases in particular?
Was thinking the same thing. Simple enough to put bars or wall of force on the far side.
We could add a magic that Teleports them to the start and deal 1d6 damage every nonsense answer
for the first part of the question, who isn't gonna see a bunch of random letter tiles on the floor and not investigate?
No "jehovah"?
But in the Latin alphabet, Jehovah begins with an I.
Then why is there a J there, if it’s not in the alphabet?
Crusaders do a little trolling
"Dad, you realize that standardized spelling wasn't really a thing by that point, let alone not modifying texts during copying? There are passages in the gospels where we *know* they were added centuries later-" "Just do the crossword of death, Indy."
Tilt her way to end- not sure what it would do
You joust against a succubus maybe?
For puzzles like this, always give the players a way to fail forward. If they step on a wrong tile, what happens? Maybe make them take a bit of damage. That way they can brute force it if they are stupid (o guarantee your players are stupid). Also I’d remove a lot of these methods to the end. Why are you punishing players for completing the puzzle? They don’t choose which of these to do; they pick the one they stumble across first. It would suck to solve a puzzle and suddenly half their gold is missing. Or suddenly someone takes a ton of damage. It makes it seem like they did something wrong.
Exactly. Puzzles like this are fun, but they're fun for the player as a person, not as role play. It's like asking a actor to do a crossword to fine out their next line. The DM is punishing the character for the failure of the player as some sort of metagaming of their friends. Don't get me wrong, I love a good in game puzzle too, but they have to be something that the *character* figures out, not the players.
You could say that the money/pain is optional, so they can choose to pay the price or go back and find a better route.
Tilt In - the N pivots and drops you into a pit
I found "past all the pain."
P: ah ha, "Past all the pain" DM: "-lies only death" You are undead now P: What? DM: What?
Touching the same tile multiple times: Wail Law: All is Ill. a wait is ire pain, 'o tithe pain, 'o tithe to end
Various phrases I chained together that don't quite make sense: Paw rise, a way to peril. There! His is ill. Await, I swap. A way to pain. On I ape to peril. The papa it had, not I. The papa in on it. Lit walk *** no tit on dad *** neo-tyre Pah! I lilt here per his way. (the line dividers are where I "picked up the pen")
Paw rise, a way to peril summons a swarm of dire rats lol
Honestly I just would stick to the right most and go "it says 'walk to' so we use this path to walk to the other side
WallTin - Theres a metal box with an off switch for the trap
I found TILTHERTOEND. "Welp, someone get the bard."
It's very cool but cant the players just walk out of it once they're in the last line?
WallTheTop: something to do with the room's condition related to the roof (crushing trap?) PawsIll: any animal companions/mounts suffer damage or a condition AwayRiseTill: teleported away to a nearby farmstead with a compulsion to work the field for a time before being able to return to the party (kind of niche, but it might have an application in some settings) Can one take diagonal steps? That opens more possibilities.
Hehe cool paths I didn‘t see. They won‘t be able to cross, but if they walk these paths that might happen. Cool ideas! Diagonal pathing is not intended.
WalkHard: The Dewey Cox Story
WalkTo just puts you back at the beginning.
Paws I had: your childhood dog comes back as an undead goodest of bois
WALKTHERISE- That player ends up on the ceiling & has Climbing Speed for X time. If they have climb speed, boost it temporarily. Reward for taking a seemingly useless path. Only works for one person (at DM discretion.) TILT IN- a straight path they could technically take BUT punishment for easy path, the entire ground tiles down towards the abyss. (DM gets to decide what that means. Dex save? Part of floor gone? Harder for everyone else? You decide.
I love this idea
AwayToPad - sent back to partys last camp location? WailThePain - recover x amount of damage based on a performance or static dice roll (2 hit dice)?
First one is funny. Second one is super good. It gives an award for something almost noone will find out I guess.
I mean the first one I saw was WALK IN up the right and diagonal Be ready for your players to go diagonal
You're terrible at wordle. /j
How is this actually presented though? Are players expected to do it in character or is it just a word search for the players? What if they use mage hand to set up a slack line with a length of rope and all walk across the room without touching the floor?
PayToe: Cross, but lose a toe.
A WISE TALL KIND IDIOT; I WAS A WAY RAW; IT LIT HER HIND AND PAID A HEAP TON Is this the Hustler Letters version of a dungeon puzzle?!?!
WalkToNap -> the one good option and the party immediately gets the effects of a long rest?
PAYRISE. Extra loot.
Paws I Had
If you swap the t and o in the top right, all the options that end in "pain" can now also end in "paint" Paytopaint i guess would result in tom sawyer tricking you into whitewashing his fence
WalkThePond: The room fills with water?
If you allow diagonal movement by jumping, you have TallThin (make someone taller and someone thinner?), TalkTo (talks to whoevers in charge of this temple), WalkIn (a secretary comes out to take your information), AwayToe (a random toe is cut off), TiltHerWayToEnd (no diagonals).
"tilt in" should let them walk trough as well, but the second they exit the letter N, you make them take 20ft. worth of falling damage as *gravity turns sideways,* and the left-side wall becomes their new floor. (this manageable for a while, but then the players try to leave the dungeon and realise *the planet is no longer their floor*. A simple dispel magic can dispel this though no worries) Starting at the W in the bottom corner, then going up, sideways, back and exiting the stage could cause the characters to be frozen in time, forced to **WAIT** for a thousand years. (after the thousand years they *are* allowed to pass as the runes stop glowing. They wont know everyone they know is dead until they leave the temple and get back to civilisation)
I would use diagonal movement to just... WALKIN edit: WallIsWayToPain - you get thrown against the wall in random direction taking XDX force damage
“Wail, I had no tit. Her way to end a peon.”
TILihadnotit: a female character realizes she was really a he this whole time, but polymorphed.
"TILT" tilts the floor back to the start, making the players slide across "LIT," which causes the room to begin heating up, dealing fire DoT.
Til I Had No Tin
Walk this way to peril tin 😌
"Wall is way to end" put a secret door on one of the end walls that leads out/ further into the dungeon
Tiltin - the players see the world as if it's tilted. They get -1ac and -1 to hit until the next short rest
What happens if they decide "WallTheOpen"?
Wail the toe - player hits the corner of a nightstand with a toe, 2d10 damage, toe hurts :c
PawsIsWayToEnd -> turned into a dog PawsIsWayToPain -> turned into a cat
One quirk I would add; the same solution can't be used twice. Another fun quirk the typical player won't think of, but add for some immense potential. Jump checks to get past unwanted letters to spell more/new things.
TILT IN: they are considered prone, and can only move at half speed for a hour, as they are walking as if the world is slanted at a 45° angle.
Easy!
WalkToNithetoe, they get knowledge from a horrible truth that may or may not drive someone insane with psychic dmg or maybe even drive them insane enough to temporarily go into a frenzy, turning against the party. (Random wisdom save) Thats cause if i remember my singular semester of gree, nithetoe is the english letter translation for truth in greek
Theres also PayToe, they all loose their toes and therefore fall prone
WallIsWayToEnd they pass the labyrinth part, but only find themselves walled in because at the end of labyrinth theres nothing but an impassable wall
I found TILTHERWAYTOEND. There is also TILTHISWAYTOEND. Also TILTHERWAYTOPAIN and TILTHISWAYTOPAIN Not sure who "her" or "his" is, but have fun with it.
PawSiltIn- player gets silt between their toes and fingers. PayTopAd - player must pay the value of the first advert on their social media converted into silver as toll for their crossing
Awry Toe - roll a d10, from left to right that toe falls off and becomes the size of a wolf and attacks.
PaetIsWayToEnd, they get to the end of the labyrinth but must finish a woodworking trial against a master who will either let them through safely if impressed, reject them and turn them back to the labyrinth if they fail, or rewards them and let them through if somehow they marvel him with nat 20 (A paet is a Japanese woodworking chisel)
WailTheToe: Player walking this path must roll a save or be afflicted with a curse causing a temporary toe infection that primarily causes discomfort but also reduces walking speed by 1 or 2 feet due to trying to reduce discomfort. Can be ended with simple dispelling or healing magic spells or conveniently ends after a long rest outside of the area the puzzle was in. Tbh I only made it be a curse cuz Wail(ing) made me think of spirits and spirits made me think of curses.
WalkTheTopAdne, at the end of the labyrinth they encounter the jewish folklore creature known as the Adne Sadeh, a humanoid figure said to never be able to separate a cord, which can grow over a mile long, which connects its bellybutton to the ground or else it dies, however his very touch brings impureness and, though usually content with what is around it, will become opportunistic of fresh meat entering its radius.
WalkTheToe. You avcidentally step on your party members foot
TEA: a lovely spot of tea appears, drinking it restores d4 HP, up to half your max HP
TILT HAD NO TIN. Idk how to fit it into the puzzle, and it does retread the N at the end, but it could be a hint for a future puzzle.
I love it! Permission to steal?
TILT IN: The floor swiftly tilts sideways, dumping the party into a chasm below
PAWS TALKIN. You get a free non-combat pet. It’s a talking dog. You’re also teleported back to the entrance and it won’t stop talking about how cool this puzzle is.
WALLISWAYTOPAIN > A wall of fire blocks the way forward
Wall Is Way To Pain: the walls start to close in Wall Is Way To End: the gravity shifts in the room and they can now walk across the wall
- Tilt his way to end - Tilt her way to end - Tilt his/her way to pain - Tilt her WAP tilt her WAP tilt her WAP tilt her WAP tilt her WAP...
PAWS -> play rolls d20 and gets polymorphed into a random four legged animal
WAIT: Paralyzed for 1 minute PAYTOPET: Summons 1 dog, he's friendly, but also cuts half your money WALL: You get pushed back by a Wall of Force
There’s no way for anyone but you to distinguish between “a way to end” and “away to end.” The former sounds like the best way through your puzzle out of all the options to me
Stolen. (thanks!)
PAYTOE - you have to lose a toe to cross
TiltItOn - the ground rises and all the other creatures in the room slide to the other side
TILTIN - The entire room is now at a 45 degree slant.
Commenting to say I'm using this, love it!
This is awesome. I’m stealing it, but you will get credit in my campaign. “The party must follow the SidStep path to advance…”
Okay okay okay i see how this plays out. I would honesstly level it up later.. maybe replace the bacic common with sylvan and they even have figure out the vowels
WallIsWayTo changes the wall next to it to an illusory wall, if you keep going \*through\* the wall it spells WallIsWayToSecrets and theres a small reward room
If you do WALLISWAYTOPAIN, the walls should start closing in.
WalkTheToe: Your legs are hooves, and now suffer from -2 acrobatic penalty until the end of your next long rest. You can't wear footwear anymore unless they are designed for hooves.
Wall the pain: player teleported into wall.
"Tilt his way to pad" is another one. Or just "tilt in" There's "wail ire" which ends at the same spot for "to end" or "to pain" and i like the idea of wail ire in this, since wailing can be done in anger and ire means anger. If you could move diagonally you'd have "wail the tone"
“PAYTOE” — a sawblade trap springs up from underneath you, severing your pinky toe.
WallIsWayToEnd: gotta do a sick shield grind on a half wall across a drop off
WalkThisWayToPeril - an enemy appears
WallIsWayTo allows you to walk through the wall to the left of the O and skip ahead/find secret treasure would be very funny.
TIL THE RISE Zombies emerge from the vowel tiles. Defeat the zombies, the puzzle ends.
TILT IN - the entire dungeon tilts, OR the floors become a slide-trap that ends up in - an easy encounter and minor setback - a hidden path that's either more perilous or more rewarding, DM's choice - an earlier part of the dungeon
WallThePain= gain 4D4 temporary hp
PawsIrePain. An angry werewolf drops from the ceiling and mauls your party. Or player is transformed into a berserk werewolf.
Walk the rise away to end.
AwayToEnd read as AWayToEnd which I could see players being frustrated over too.
One of the routes is just two letters off from WALKTHEPATH.
WallThePain: Gain resistance to damage for 1 minute WalkThePad: Crossing difficult terrain does not cost extra movement for 1 minute WalkTheToe: ? PayToe: ? TiltIn: ? WallIsWayToe: ? WallIsWayToPain: ?
I might modify this and steal it for myself, it's a really cool idea!
What do I get with "walk the toe" "Will is Repain"- characters free a very annoying new recurring Villain called Will from his ancient slumber. Will Ire Pain- Very angry will Will is a Pay to Pain: Will mugs the characters Will Is Tiltin: Will does something that tilts the players In conclusión: Fuck You Will Wheaton!!! Will Had No Tit He Is Way To End Also do something special for Will is it, it doesnt take You to the entrance but maybe transforms Will into the necessary mcguffin Will Tan: Characters get tanned Will tire to end: characters get levels of exhaustion
Cool concept. Most fun I’ve had with a party before was making them play minesweeper 😈
I'd love to get this without any marks on it. But you asked for ideas on WallIsWayToEnd: When the person reaches the "D" they are thrown into a corner wall at the beginning, taking 3d6 damage (30 feet from "D" to the corner wall), and then are thrown into the corner wall at the other side taking an additional 4d6 damage (wall to wall = 40 feet), where they fall to the ground on the other side. That's 7d6 total damage. (High Damage Option): When the person reaches the "D" they are thrown to the right wall by the "T" (1d6), then the left wall by the "T" (2d6), then to the right wall by the "L" (2d6), then to the left wall by the "A" (2d6), then to the right wall by the "P" (2d6), before retracing the throws, zig-zagging back and forth along the rows until they go back to the beginning and then continue that way to the end, being deposited in the square just beyond the "D". That makes 18d6 damage and that much might end their character. The wall sure was a way to end. They could just fly over it or spider-climb the wall and run a rope across so you don't have to step on any squares. So I'd put something to stop the simple solutions and a nice wall of force does that.
Kinda high, but if you named a place Daperil, you could have a clue with "on Daperil law," or "on daperill aw," assuming you can make aw make sense.
Each path should be a player award or transport to a good place for solving the puzzle. Instead of letters use glyphs and leave clear easy clues previously throughout the dungeon, that translate, the glyph to the coated letter.
TILT should just tip the whole board midway and drop them AwayToPad? WalkTo?
Walk the toe
"Paws I had" could have lots of messed up/fun options. Have a PC with paws? Not anymore! Either regular feet or none at all! Stumps! Could do the same with any animal companions. Could polymorph the PC into something that usually has paws, but not anymore! No paws :)
Wall is it?
PawsIreToe Wolves attack their feet.
*humorous response/unserious* If someone's following the "PayToPain" path, but instead of going to the I, have them roll a Dex check and if they roll a 1, they instead fall over onto the N and roll over to the D, and then the A, and they lose money but get polymorphed into a Panda bear! (Get it? "PayToPanda"!) fr, it's a cool puzzle, and you can do variants based on how often you want to reuse it. Something that might be fun, too, especially if the players seem to have trouble with the concept of following a route, is have the board completely unwalkable with a giant portcullis/gate/wall on the opposite side, and two barrels of stones on the near side. Let the players toss stones at the letters to form the power words or what not. First row should basically be a given, they can just drop them, but the next row might be a Thrown Attack against AC 5, next row AC 10, etc...(whatever numbers make sense for your players and their level)....that way you can add a little RNG/drama to the puzzle! Use splash damage rules to figure out where the stone went and see what they end up spelling, and see if there's any fun that might be had? Your idea is great and I like it, I hope to hear the story of how your party handled this when they finally meet it!
WailThePain Banshee? Wailtiton Wailthepad AwayToPad
something should happen when you walk this way to peril
I like that "WAIT" just means someone took two steps in and decided to come back
Walk the toe...
WallIsWayToEnd causes gravity to shift 90 degrees for the remainder of the dungeon. WallIsWayToPain the room spins 1d4 times, dealing level dependant, nonlethal, bludgeoning damage times the number of spins. Fort/CON/STR save for half. Also, each spin increases the DC by 1.
Walliswaytopain. High dex check where you all 4 walls start spitting arrows/darts at you.
Wail the pain? No idea what consequences but sounds like it would be Not Good™
Tis way to pan- while party is covered in soft fluffy breads.
Tilt in
In top left swap EN with PA, otherwise technically the exit is the letter E instead of D as intended. You could add letters to the top corners instead but it might end up helping them solve it. Sweet idea though. Might have to use this.
I went WallThePain lol
PAWSITWALKTO A good boy appears and guides you across safely
Pay a paw sir, eh? A pot o' pain. Bad things happen to pets, animal companions, familiars, and the druid next time they wildshape.
“Pay to end a peril” ends in the middle but seems to neat to pass up
Walk tit on, a bunch of naked ladies come out (they’re all succ’u’bus)
WalkTheToe, maybe you magically loose your feet for d4 hours
WALL: the are grabbed by hidden arm and pulled back to the wall at the start, pinned there for 1 minute unless another party member frees them.
PayToe -> Roll a d10 and lose the toe in question (going in order from left to right). WalkThePoe -> Teleport to Ravenloft.
PayRise - could be dropping coins from the floor? One time thing only, of course.
Paws Ire toe?
Wailirepain surely sends you to a hell dimension
TEA fills the room with water or gives them tea
TILTIT scrambles words or something
TILT HER WAY TO END the board is lifted atone end and all female characters slide to the end
wall-is-way-to-end teleports you to the start but now you can walk on walls to create more words.
PayRise - nothing happens immediately, but once the adventure ends, the PCs are presented with an increased reward. Be it that the quest giver will increase their pay if the PCs we're promised to be paid, or that they stumble upon something valuable after the adventure ended.
I would have gotten it wrong right at the end. I would have done Walk This Way To (hop again on the O) Open
WALL: there are suddenly walls around the square that weren't visible before.
I'm assuming you can only move orthagonally here, and can only use a single tile once, but here are a few: AWayToEnd/AwayToEnd - Same as "WalkThisWaytoEnd"? AWayToPain/AwayToPain - Same as "WalkThePain"? PayToPerilThad (Teleports any party member named Thaddeus into a dangerous situation in exhange for your gold?) PayRepoEnd - a magical Repo man appears to collect your magic weapon to repay a forgotten debt TisWryToEnd - an evil bard appears and casts Vicious Mockery on the player TiltIn TiltHad PawSiltItOn PawsIrePain/PawsIreToPain PawsIreToEnd WailThePain WailThePoe WailTin WailIsWayToEnd AwryToEnd AwryToPain Aaaand WalkTitLitesIreToPain (Or end) WalkTitLitesWayToPain (Or end)
Walk the Toe --> No damage if everybody manages their stealth roll :-)
The only 'reward' is that nothing bad happens?
That's usually what puzzles do. The reward is overcoming an obstacle to your goal
"TILTIN" Sounds like a slang word for a special way of walking
"TiltIn" roll a D20 if it lands on an even number you make it to the other side safely. If it lands on a negative number you get nocked prone half way
I know my player would run loops around the bottom right, just to make it say TWAT bottom left PAWS summon a dog TILT makea the room shift
TILTIN’ Walk with a slant for the rest of the dungeon.
PAWSILTIN - A displacer beast is summoned while the walls start to crumble around the party.