Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7582669" data-attributes="member: 6801286">One puzzle that I used last year, was one where the players need to match the quotes of famous characters to their names. How it works, is that you insert a location early on in the dungeon where the players can find three famous quotations by three famous characters (perhaps in the form of a mural or statues). Then later in the dungeon they can encounter a door that has 6 rotating metal cylinders on it, in three pairs. Each of these pairs has a cylinder with a list of names, and below it a cylinder with quotations. All the players need to do to open the door, is match all three quotes to all three characters.Now, if you want to make this puzzle more difficult, you can also add more quotes and characters that are not relevant to the door, in other areas of the dungeon. But the important three should definitely stand out (perhaps because depictions of them are larger and more prominent, or because the characters have more importance to the lore). This part is very important, it must be perfectly clear to the players who the three people are that should be matched on the door.If you want to make the puzzle even more difficult, make one of the quotes that they need unreadable (perhaps because the mural was defaced). A mending spell can restore the text, or a check may allow the player to decipher some of the words. Or maybe the players can find part of the defaced mural elsewhere in the room, or elsewhere in the dungeon.Lastly, you can add a failure condition to entering the wrong combination. The door may lock permanently (don't do this if opening the door is required for progression), or a trap may activate, or an alarm may sound. You can flavor this puzzle any way you like. The names of the famous characters could easily be replaced by depictions of deities, that the players must match to a patron animal of the deity, or an object relevant to the deity. The puzzle lends itself well to establish lore in your campaign.</blockquote>

Verification