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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr_Ruminahui" data-source="post: 5897359" data-attributes="member: 81104">Perhaps something I did might be modifiable for your needs. Basically, the PCs needed access to 3 rooms, each associated with an ancient empire. Each of the 3 rooms had 3 puzzles to open the door. For any and each each failed puzzle, the encounter against the guardian spirt in the room was more difficult... but you could easily have different consequences for failure. Each puzzle consisted of 2 disks, and a 3rd element that was static. Each disk had 3 choices on it, and one had to rotate the disks so that it told the correct story. One had only one chance to "enter" each puzzle, so no retries if you got it wrong. For each room, one puzzle dealt with the beginning of the associated empire, one with the empire's role in the demon war, and one about what happened to the people of the empire who fled the demon war. Before the game, I have each of my 5 players a list clues (usally thematically - for example, the wizard got the clues from arcane sources), which basically accounted for tidbits of knowledge they knew from various obscure sources. Putting those clues together, they could figure out which way to turn the disks. Plus, there was a room associated with a 4th empire that the PCs knew all the right answers to (2 PCs are heirs of that empire), which by them doing that first let them figure out how the puzzle worked. It was a fun way of introducing some obscure back story into my campaign and was a lot of fun for all involved... though the PCs only failed 2 of them, and one of those was one player getting his own idea in his head at the last moment and turning to the wrong element after the group had figured out the correct one.  My only real complaint is that the way I gave the clues meant that the players didn't really go at it "in character". Okay, I found my notes, so I will give you an example of one of the easier ones: Fixed symbol: a flag with a boat on itDisk one: An arcane circle, a boat & a metal horseDisk two: A forest, floating rocks, an ocean Clues: 1. The 4 wonders of the ancient lands were the Engine of Damkina, the Hall of Idun, the Palesian Gardens, and the Library of Accaris. Common lore regarding the Ancient Lands  2. Some have been mislead by the Engine’s name to think it moved… but I think not... instead it… moved others? Scrawled on the margins of Practical Applications in Thamaturgy  3. “Prince Sybald wore a boat on his breast – not because his peoples were mariners, but because they travelled the byways between the worlds, and so by earned their vast fortunes. His ostentation led some critics to snidely remark that it was unfortunate he had no real boat nor ocean to sail it, for so gilded would it be that they would be rid of him in a watery grave.” The many deaths of Sybald Osgodden. Based on the puzzle they knew the answers to, they PCs knew that the fixed element was the flag of the empire, the second was one of the great wonders of the ancient world, and the third was where it was located.  The correct answers from the disks were the arcane circle (it moved others, transport circles are an important element of my campaign) and the floating rocks (not an ocean, had to guess between forest and floating rocks, and floating rocks are also kind of a "thing" in my campaign). What made things a bit more challenging is they got all the clues for all the puzzles at the same time, so had to work out which clue was for which puzzle, which wasn't always easy.</blockquote>

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