D&D Puzzle Contest

[stevelabny]

Doing the whole event in one day is probably the best way to get as low a turnout as possible. It automatically cuts out anyone who has anything (work, family, game) to do that day.

What do you think of doing it this way?

Post the first batch of puzzle and metapuzzle on a particular day.
The first X people who respond correctly can get into the "semi-finals" also every correct answer is worth points for people who are getting things right, but not answering quickly,

Do a few rounds, each posted on a different day to give people a fair chance.

Once you get to the semifinals and finals, you can ramp up the difficulty and time will be a bit less of an issue. You can even TRY to find the best time for most of the people who are left.

It involves a bit of work on your part, but I think most ENworlders are around for a bit every day or every other day rather than once a week for a whole day.

Obviously, if youre running the game, you're gonna make the call on the when and where and how just like any other game master, and i'll try to be there for it. I'm just throwing out some suggestions

 

[jlhorner1974]

Okay, here is the sample puzzle I promised. Hopefully, this will whet everyone's appetite. The title of the puzzle is "ALE", and you will need one or more of the core D&D 3.5 books to solve it. This puzzle is probably between easy and medium difficulty. The answer to the puzzle is a single word. Please do not post the answer here, so that others can try to solve the puzzle on their own. To check your answer, you can send me e-mail (just click on my username if you are new to the boards, and it will give you an option to send me e-mail). GOOD LUCK!


ALE


“I like to have ale after a difficult day of fighting,” said Soveliss.
“Anytime is a good time for ale,” replied Tordek, roaring with laughter.
“That was a tough battle today – our foes were hiding quite skillfully, but you knew the enemies well”, added Lidda.
“They have been my nemeses for a long time”, replied Soveliss solemnly, quaffing the rest of his ale.
“Tordek even cut one completely in half with his axe!” laughed Mialee.

D T H I K W A H W O R R A S I S N S T
T I H E N A M U H P L E R G O A H C E
T G S A L A M A N D E R O F I A N D T
G N S P I D E R M H E A N S M W K E R
E I B U L T L I V E D R E B A O D O N
L L N F O A N R A H I N L T B I N A S
A F T E A O C D B O F I F O O C I U E
T L S I T R N E G O N N L W H M A I D
I A T A O G A N R G O D N E R O B W F
N H U T O R H E M B M O N O S M A T E
O R R L S W A O E N E L F X O R N T G
U D E M O N U H T U R A N Z F Y O N U
S M R A T N O T E N T I S O N T I O W
C H A T D L A D I N A J O T T L H E Y
U A R E D F E M O N G I G H F T I N G
B E A E C H O D A Y R D T E H E R F O
E R R N E H O B G O B L I N L L E S N
U I N V I S I B L E S T A L K E R E H
K L O F R E M T N E E S O E V G A H I
N O G R A D K C L A B N S I E N S A R
S U O R T S N O M H G P T E R A C E S

 

[jlhorner1974]

Also, if you are interested in the contest but are not sure about how much time you can commit, please post anyway so I know. It will affect how I do the contest.

 

[jlhorner1974]

Has anyone tried the puzzle yet? If you can get stuck, I can send you a hint.

 

[stevelabny]

I am. The problem is I don't know how tricky you're trying to be.

Spoiler text:

Spoiler

It looks like word search, I've found numerous words inside, but not enough to use up almost every letter. If I could use up almost every letter and then unscramble the rest, I'd be happy.

Instead I'm trying to keep tracks of which letters are used twice. If I don't count goblin and hobgoblin, the letters I have twice are SPOILERAGE. but that doesnt seem to scramble into anything.

I did see "balck dargon" combined with the story clue of "our foes were hiding quite skillfully" I thought that maybe that was the answer. But since rangers don't have to choose a type of dragon, I decided it wasn't.

I'm also wondering if I cant add or subtract the letters A L E at will, because theres a few spots where that would come in handy.

Heck, I even tried to see if the circled letters made a pattern. But they don't.

But by myself, looking at it for a while, thats all I could come up with. It would probably be easier to look it at it as a word search if my printer had ink right now.

 

[IcyCool]

I'm in the same boat as stevelabny. Without additional clues, it's just too vague for me to figure out.

 

[jlhorner1974]

I'm not trying to be all that clever on this one.
Here are some hints (spoiler text below)

1. The puzzle is a word search, of course.

2. Soveliss is a ranger, right? The flavortext suggests that his nemeses are hiding in the letters.

3. The puzzle has to do with favored enemies.

4. The word list for the word search was not put together randomly -- a particular source was used to get the list. You should be able to spot a few obvious creature names in the grid of letters. Where do these creatures appear together in the core books? Favored enemies are not talked about in many places, so you should be able to narrow down your search. You will probably know when you see it.

5. You can find the list you need somewhere in the Player's Handbook (sorry, the SRD does not have the information you need).

6. One of the creatures wouldn't fit into the puzzle as is, and had to be cut in half -- it should be easy to figure out which one this is. Because one was "cut in half", you should be looking for 33 words (not 32) in total in the word search.

7. Once you find all the creatures in the word search, you should be able to find a message that tells you what to do next. The hidden messages will lead to a clue phrase that is three words long. To check your work, the clue phrase should have 16 letters in it, not counting spaces. The answer to this clue phrase is the answer to the puzzle.

 

[jlhorner1974]

Hints above updated to help those further along with the puzzle. The hints are now numbered -- if you want to try to figure things out on your own, highlight each hint, one at a time, until you have enough information to continue.

 

[jlhorner1974]

Stevelabny has correctly solved the puzzle. Congrats!

I will still verify correct answers for anyone else that wants to try.