Is this puzzle solvable?

[kutulu]

You enter a 15x15ft room with a small dais in the middle. It is cylindrical and 3 feet tall with a diameter of 3 feet. on top of the dais 5 dice arranged in a pentagon. each one is 6 inches on each edge. They are imprinted with dots for numbers, cannot be picked up or moved, in fact they seemed magically attached to the dais.

Two comments. From a player's perspective, as a puzzle-oriented player I'd start by putting the yellow gem in place, then start pushing things. Once I determined that pushing on the gems moved the die I'd try the typical gimmicks:

* Push gems until all the die read the same #
* Push gems until the die read 1-2-3-4-5 in some order
* Look for numbers scratched into the wall somewhere

From a DM's perspective, throwing puzzles at your players is a gigantic risk. If you already know that your players like puzzles, and the answer is at least reasonable, then you're fine. But I'd estimate that at least 2/3 of the players I've ever played and/or DM'd with would react by staring at the puzzle silently until I gave them the answer.

If you are gonna throw puzzles at your players, remember this: just because your player cannot solve the puzzle should not imply that the character cannot solve the puzzle. You don't expect your players to actually make a standing 30 foot jump before you allow their character to leap over a pit. So don't expect your player to display a 140 IQ before allowing their genius character to solve a puzzle.

If they are truly stumped by the puzzle, let them make skill/ability checks and give them hints. "You notice that pushing each gem causes the same die to spin each time." ... "You realize that 3 of the 5 die now read '2'." ... "You see scratches in the rock of the dias reading: | || ||| |||| |||||".

Etc.

 

[Nebulous]

I have one player who is a theoretical physicist. He does advanced maths for fun. He might like this puzzle.

No-one else I have ever gamed with would care beyond the first few minutes. They would dismantle the room with magic or earth moving equipment if they have the time (a la Alexander and the Gordian knot.)

So I guess my response to your question is: are any of your players the type to do advanced maths for fun? If so, stick it in. Be prepared for the other players to get bored.

I have to agree here. If you know your players well and think they would enjoy this kind of challenge, go for it. If you as the DM are the only one who thinks it is fun and challenging, your players are likely to hate it. My brain curls up into a pretzel when i think about a puzzle like this, i don't like them.

The only kind of puzzles i've ever really invented were simple rhyming puzzles with a relatively easy to solve solution.

 

[malraux]

Since the slots for the gems are unique, are there obviously findable number of facets for each gem (or gem slot)?

edit: also, since we are now in the solve it for fun phase, does the 1400 number actually matter?

 

[devastator]

Perhaps one word of advice, if you do decide to run this in a game: do make good use of props, perhaps one red die, one blue die and one yellow die (all non-d6 if you can manage it) to represent the gems, five d6's and a saucer or some other kind of disc to hold the dice so that they can be easily rotated. Having a physical representation of the puzzle that the players can see and manipulate would make it a lot easier for them to understand what's going on.

I always use props, the players love it

For those of you who want the answer, i have altered how the puzzle operates and the actual solution to fit the campaign better.

It's a time travel campaign, and this puzzle is a lock that opens a portal to the campaign's final confrontation, which the players are actively trying to reach. The number 1410 is important as a keystone year in the world's fate (which the players are familiar with, and have returned to several times to stop calamitous events), a trusted NPC will be emphasising it's importance before they go.

Instead of dice, there will be 5 clock faces set into a large wheel on the ground. The clocks go to 6, and the hands don't move unless the buttons are pushed.
The yellow button's function is also changed. instead of increasing the number of the three dice, it will decrease them by one.

Each button is engraved with a symbol to give a clue as to what the clocks must show.

Beside the blue stone ".___"
the red stone "_.__"
the yellow stone "__.."

so the clock nearest the blue stone must be made to read 1, the red must read 4, and the three clocks nearest the yellow stone must add up to 10.

I know a pattern that will solve it in three moves, but the players will obviously take longer to do so.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

If you're going to have clocks, why not have them go to 12? Then you could have one actually point at 10.


Also, if they know when they are shooting for, you could do day/month/year. even add in hour and minute if you wanted to.

Heck the dais could even be a clock with internal gears that needs to be set to a specific time to function.

 

[devastator]

I've been using clocks throughout the campaign that don't go to 12.
There time machine is a clock that goes to 1000. (1999 if you count the minute hand).
It's all part of how the different planes interpret time and such.
Also, six works with my die scheme, I've worked out the solution using them and its easy to do props.

 

[Mark]

I've been using clocks throughout the campaign that don't go to 12.

This is information that would have been good to have in the first post.

 

[The Green Adam]

I'm a trap/riddle fan as both a play and a GM and I've still got to agree with the majority. I would step back and let the more mathematically capable of the group at the thing. If he or she couldn't solve it or at least make progress within a few minutes I would get bored and try to figure out how to rig fliny and tinder, spell components and a flask of oil into some kind of MacGuyvered high-yield explosive.

I like logic puzzles and riddles whose clues or resolution is directly tied to the adventure's story. This is a math problem. Math problems are not fun and have nothing to do with my adventures unless we were fighting evil...algebra people or something. Hmmm. Evil algebra people eh....

AD

 

[The Green Adam]

This is information that would have been good to have in the first post.

Agreed. Now there's an adventure hook.

AD

 

[Slife]

Honestly, I'd start by casting Understand Object or using other divinations.

In general, spamming divinations is how I deal with puzzles.