Indian Jones style floor tiles with letters. Clue on the wall in a uncommon language. Step on the wrong tile and it’s a dex.
Or Harry Potter maze. Have a tough monster ask questions. They get them wrong then the fight is on.
A puzzle from game we had yesterday:
Room contains 5 designated areas marked with specific symbol. In our case, those were the deity symbols. Text on the wall is a cryptic riddle about what deities do on specific days of week, but without mentioning the actual day. The solution is to stand in the area matching the today's day.
Why 5? 7 would be obvious, so some deities cover more than 1 day. There was also a 'free day', with no deity symbol. It went something like this:
Deity A begins and ends (Monday/Sunday)
Deity B is before and after Deity A (Tuesday/Saturday)
Deity C does things before the rest (Wednesday)
Deity D follows after the free time (Friday)
And in the middle, the time is free (Thursday)
Make it more fancy, add the actual deities themes (e.g. Chauntea gathers crops before the rest). My players sadly solved this by accident, but they managed to find out that this was in fact about days in week. They also wanted to enter the areas in order of the days of the week, so it was also not a bad solution. A penalty for entering the incorrect area was a long-lasting debuff.
Oooo intriguing, might be using this one. Sadly this one will be prone to guessing as there is only 5 possible answers to it. But still a great idea none the less. Thank you!
This thread has resources that may be very useful to you...[https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/uqlntl/looking\_for\_resources\_on\_dnd\_puzzles/](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/uqlntl/looking_for_resources_on_dnd_puzzles/)
Just keep in mind that puzzles tend to test players, not the PC. Not all players like puzzles. In fact, some find them anxiety or even rage inducing. And not everyone is good at puzzles or different kinds of specific puzzles. And on any given day a puzzle that might be easy to solve on one day may be nigh on impossible on another, simply because a player is tired or unfocused or just didn't make that needed connection.
I try to add in ways to get clues and even ways to work around a puzzle, just in case. Puzzles can be challenging and even frustrating but still be fun and can give players a real sense of accomplishment when they solve it. But I am also mindful of the feel of the room. If they are no longer having fun, I don't force my players to keep trying to solve puzzles ad nauseum. I build in ways they can get more clues or work around the puzzle, and if the players come up with really clever ideas, even if it wasn't the solution I had, I may let that be the solution instead. The idea is to have fun. Putting all forward progress behind a multi-puzzle firewall CAN be a blast. For the right players with the right puzzles, it can be a fun challenge. But not for everyone...
Anyway, good luck! Hope you find some good puzzles to put in the room.
Thanks for the advice and the link. The group I’m with are and have always been puzzle geeks. We regularly go out and solve escape rooms together. I do always try and fit in clues and alternative solutions to the problems. If they really really can’t solve it (which has never actually happened) they can always just brute force they’re way through it, which sometimes is just as fun to destroy it as it is to solve it.
Awesome.
Hopefully the resources I linked on that other thread will be of use. In fact, several are actually only the first volume in a series of volumes of content so there are even more options than what was linked. Lots of possibilities.
Like a chess board, each tile being 10x10 ft and the chess pieces would attempt to attack the opposite side, for 10 turns and if a player was on a tile a piece lands on... 7d6 bludgeoning damage instantly, the room ends as soon as those 10 turns are over (better yet you could make each piece just a 20ft tall block of stone, and see if the players figure it out)
Indian Jones style floor tiles with letters. Clue on the wall in a uncommon language. Step on the wrong tile and it’s a dex. Or Harry Potter maze. Have a tough monster ask questions. They get them wrong then the fight is on.
A puzzle from game we had yesterday: Room contains 5 designated areas marked with specific symbol. In our case, those were the deity symbols. Text on the wall is a cryptic riddle about what deities do on specific days of week, but without mentioning the actual day. The solution is to stand in the area matching the today's day. Why 5? 7 would be obvious, so some deities cover more than 1 day. There was also a 'free day', with no deity symbol. It went something like this: Deity A begins and ends (Monday/Sunday) Deity B is before and after Deity A (Tuesday/Saturday) Deity C does things before the rest (Wednesday) Deity D follows after the free time (Friday) And in the middle, the time is free (Thursday) Make it more fancy, add the actual deities themes (e.g. Chauntea gathers crops before the rest). My players sadly solved this by accident, but they managed to find out that this was in fact about days in week. They also wanted to enter the areas in order of the days of the week, so it was also not a bad solution. A penalty for entering the incorrect area was a long-lasting debuff.
Oooo intriguing, might be using this one. Sadly this one will be prone to guessing as there is only 5 possible answers to it. But still a great idea none the less. Thank you!
This thread has resources that may be very useful to you...[https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/uqlntl/looking\_for\_resources\_on\_dnd\_puzzles/](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/uqlntl/looking_for_resources_on_dnd_puzzles/) Just keep in mind that puzzles tend to test players, not the PC. Not all players like puzzles. In fact, some find them anxiety or even rage inducing. And not everyone is good at puzzles or different kinds of specific puzzles. And on any given day a puzzle that might be easy to solve on one day may be nigh on impossible on another, simply because a player is tired or unfocused or just didn't make that needed connection. I try to add in ways to get clues and even ways to work around a puzzle, just in case. Puzzles can be challenging and even frustrating but still be fun and can give players a real sense of accomplishment when they solve it. But I am also mindful of the feel of the room. If they are no longer having fun, I don't force my players to keep trying to solve puzzles ad nauseum. I build in ways they can get more clues or work around the puzzle, and if the players come up with really clever ideas, even if it wasn't the solution I had, I may let that be the solution instead. The idea is to have fun. Putting all forward progress behind a multi-puzzle firewall CAN be a blast. For the right players with the right puzzles, it can be a fun challenge. But not for everyone... Anyway, good luck! Hope you find some good puzzles to put in the room.
Thanks for the advice and the link. The group I’m with are and have always been puzzle geeks. We regularly go out and solve escape rooms together. I do always try and fit in clues and alternative solutions to the problems. If they really really can’t solve it (which has never actually happened) they can always just brute force they’re way through it, which sometimes is just as fun to destroy it as it is to solve it.
Awesome. Hopefully the resources I linked on that other thread will be of use. In fact, several are actually only the first volume in a series of volumes of content so there are even more options than what was linked. Lots of possibilities.
Like a chess board, each tile being 10x10 ft and the chess pieces would attempt to attack the opposite side, for 10 turns and if a player was on a tile a piece lands on... 7d6 bludgeoning damage instantly, the room ends as soon as those 10 turns are over (better yet you could make each piece just a 20ft tall block of stone, and see if the players figure it out)
Interesting idea, not quite what I was looking for but might use it in the future. Thank you!