Chessboard Puzzle Help

[fanboy2000]

Chess clock.

 

[Ryujin]

Chess clock.

Yes, or egg timer.

At the end of the first count the surrounding floor drops away, into some form of terrain that does damage every round. At the end of the second count being on the wrong square causes damage, each round. Timer is real time, damage is game time. That should get the old heart pumping.

 

[Firebeetle]

Another shot at this, I like the minion thing and then it clicked for me.

8x8 board, with a collection of pieces on the player side (you can have an actual pile of pieces). A player cannot pick up more than one at a time, if they do the previous ones they picked up disappear back into the pile and they only hold the last one they held. Minions spawn from every part of the board they do not dominate. Any square with a minion on it will not spawn, but otherwise it will.

When a player steps on the board they automatically destroy any minion in the area the piece they hold would dominate. If they do not hold a piece they cannot enter the board. Further, they can only move as their piece would move, the board will not allow them to move any other way and gives them damage if they try. If they need to enter the board a different way (being a bishop or knight they may need to) then they have to exit the board and re-enter.

The players will have to adapt quickly or face 64 minions a turn.

 

[hipnotode]

for a nice bit of fluff, i would use a real chessboard for this encounter, and have the minions be animated chess pieces. dont know, might seam lame, depends on your group.

 

[Rune]

It seems as if your group really likes this type of puzzle and really likes to spend their time working out solutions (as opposed to quickly getting frustrated like most groups would).

...In which case, why would you want to impose a time limit?

If they're spending their time having fun, roll with it. You can spring the encounter on them after they finish!

 

[KarinsDad]

The Queen's Domination puzzle might take a while to resolve. Depending on your players, it might be a non-trivial problem.

You should be cautious in setting a time limit or penalties.

 

[Mengu]

Yeah with infinite time, the puzzle would be boring. I'd definitely put a time limit. When someone stands on a corner tile, start the timer. Maybe the room starts filling with salt water, and they won't be able to exert sufficient relative pressure on the tiles. The corner tile should also probably sink in a bit, indicating this is one of the tiles they need to be standing on. With acrobatics checks, people can walk on the edges, without stepping on tiles. An electrical charge surging through the salt water would make a good punishment for stepping on a wrong tile.

Whatever you do, make sure failing to solve the puzzle doesn't halt the adventure in its tracks.

You might also make some other checks available to give clues. Maybe give an indication when they step on the right tile. Maybe when time is running low, have one make a perception check to figure out a clue. When time runs out if they have like 1 piece left to place, have someone make an insight check as a last ditch effort to "guess" the right spot.

Thanks for the idea by the way, I'm definitely going to incorporate a chess puzzle in my game at some point. I have quite a few Harry Potter themes already, so this will fit right in.

 

[OSEZNO]

The Queen's Domination puzzle might take a while to resolve. Depending on your players, it might be a non-trivial problem.

You should be cautious in setting a time limit or penalties.

He seems to have an intelligent enough group, or at least it sounds like it.

Moving on to my next point...

It seems as if your group really likes this type of puzzle and really likes to spend their time working out solutions (as opposed to quickly getting frustrated like most groups would).

...In which case, why would you want to impose a time limit?

If they're spending their time having fun, roll with it. You can spring the encounter on them after they finish!

He wants there to be a sense of danger or immediacy, it sounds like his group might consistently spend time thinking about a problem, which may make sense for their characters (or it may not) but the DM might not (it would seem clearly does not) want them to approach every problem this way, sometimes it is worth throwing a monkey wrench of (potential) impending failure or demise.

I agree, it should probably not be a penalty so awful or a repercussion so dangerous that it could do irreparable damage (or maybe it should?) but that's up to the DM and what he wants and expects from the group and visa versa.

 

[KarinsDad]

He seems to have an intelligent enough group, or at least it sounds like it.

Have you ever solved that problem? If so, how long did it take you?

One thing the DM might want to try is to have some other small group of people solve it and see how long it actually takes.


Course, if the DM hands out hints via skill checks, then it might not take long at all.

Even knowing that it requires 5 "queens" is a pretty major hint.

 

[OSEZNO]

Have you ever solved that problem? If so, how long did it take you?

One thing the DM might want to try is to have some other small group of people solve it and see how long it actually takes.


Course, if the DM hands out hints via skill checks, then it might not take long at all.

Even knowing that it requires 5 "queens" is a pretty major hint.

Having never done it before, I was prompted by your question to try it. I just completed it in ~2m30s by myself (that is, not with a party of 4 other people counting the paths but also consider I knew it was a puzzle and I know that its queens).

If there are 5 players and they are lead to believe this is a feat they can accomplish, they might presume the "5" part of the 5 queens, perhaps there is an arcane effect when players step on a tile that he can describe (via an arcane skill check or passive arcana) so they understand the "queen" mechanic".

Regardless, he seems to want that urgency.

Perhaps an apt punishment would be if the players fail the time constraint, there is a round about way to continue, potentially involving both a skill challenge and a combat encounter to successfully reach their objective.