Penny Arcade posts interesting puzzle challenge

[Henry]

More please? Like, how do you make such props interesting when you can't do magical and awesome things in the real world without movie magic?

The Crystal Datapad started out as a replica stone tablet ( I presume he got it from a curio store or gift shop or such); one corner was broken off, and we later found the missing piece in a Jedi archive (he had the piece available when we found it), and when activated (which was via description) became a crystal datapad (glass, actually). The sith holocron was a paperweight pyramid with some funky symbols on the sides, and we did things from the Jedi trying to communicate with it (which he failed), to pressing symbols in various sequences and asking him what happened. When we figured out the correct sequence, he swapped it for one of those 3D pyramid puzzles you can get at barnes and noble, lit with a light from below to demonstrate the effect. Finally, the light saber was a replica he had purchased and re-engineered a bit to create a hollow compartment in the handle, putting in a small cylinder that he had decorated to look like a miniature code cylinder.

In all cases, the objects kept the focus on the objects themselves, rather than rolling some dice for a search roll, and saying, "you succeed" or "you fail." There was no time limit or condition in game that if we failed to find the secret to such things that we failed; we just kept adventuring until we unlocked the secret to these artifacts, and that took us in a new direction. In all, everyone thought it was a great touch to the game.


EDIT: In regards to the "more against minis than props" comment, I've seen minis use in general add to the story we're building, though less so than a fun prop or puzzle does. I remember fondly playing a cleric who was challenging a wanna-be godling at an Epic game, calling him out as round by round I strode through firestorms, blade barriers, and over dead minions and telling him he was going to die. Thank Tempus for Energy Immunities and Spell Resistances.

 

[Henry]

I might also add that this was the same GM who gave our group a "locked door" puzzle which consisted of an UNLOCKED DOOR which we kept locking. We had just unlocked two previous doors to get to the level, found a room with lots of corpses and signs of battle before it, and what we thought was a locked door. We fiddled with it for thirty minutes before we figured out that it was UNLOCKED from the beginning, and by moving a certain crystal from what we thought was the locking slot to the unlocking slot, we were actually sealing the damned thing! We cursed his name for five minutes afterwards, before saluting him for a truly rat-bastardly DM tactic.

 

[mudbunny]

I might also add that this was the same GM who gave our group a "locked door" puzzle which consisted of an UNLOCKED DOOR which we kept locking. We had just unlocked two previous doors to get to the level, found a room with lots of corpses and signs of battle before it, and what we thought was a locked door. We fiddled with it for thirty minutes before we figured out that it was UNLOCKED from the beginning, and by moving a certain crystal from what we thought was the locking slot to the unlocking slot, we were actually sealing the damned thing! We cursed his name for five minutes afterwards, before saluting him for a truly rat-bastardly DM tactic.

I remember seeing an episode of McGuyver that had a puzzle like this.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I remember seeing an episode of McGuyver that had a puzzle like this.

I saw a similar puzzle in an episode of McGruber....those 3D puzzles of like famous landmarks are fun too.... anyway there was this door and