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Message: <blockquote data-quote="uzirath" data-source="post: 7585518" data-attributes="member: 8495">Some other more immediate options for possible puzzles or riddles are below. Note that puzzles can sometimes break immersion because they are really about the players rather than the characters. Depending on your group, you may need to provide more in-game explanations to help set the context. (For example, the chess puzzle only makes sense in a world that features chess and where the PCs could be expected to know the rules.) <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Depending on the reading/movie-viewing habits of your players, the classic riddles from The Hobbit can be great. Some are probably too hard, but others are spot on. I've always liked, "A box without hinges, key, or lid, / Yet golden treasure inside is hid." (Riddle answer at the end of this post.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There's the old chess-board puzzle from an old AD&D module which basicaly has a checkerboard floor to a room. Depending which square you initially step on, you need to move like that piece in the game. So, if you step onto the board where a bishop would be, you can only move diagonally (or take damage or something like that). I've seen this puzzle more than once. On one version you had to fight opposing "pieces." On another, it was just a puzzle to get across the room.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Similarly, I read a dungeon a while ago that had a setup kind-of like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minesweeper_(video_game)" target="_blank">Minesweeper</a>. Each square had some tick marks on it or something that said how many contiguous squares were dangerous (or had bombs in the video game). You could use logic to figure out which squares were safe and work your way across that way.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There's the famous puzzle where you have two options, one of which leads to success and the other to failure. You have two sources of information, one always tells the truth, the other always lies, but you don't know which is which. You can ask only one question of either source. This can be reskinned in a variety of ways for a game. Spirits of gods of truth and trickery, talking statues, etc. The doors can be magical portals, teleporters, pits, passages, etc.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Variations on a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_crossing_puzzle" target="_blank">river crossing puzzle</a> can be made explicit in the game world, replacing things with world-appropriate creatures. Of course, players will often come up with a solution that doesn't involve logic. ("We teleport across!")</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I've created a number of perception puzzles over the years. Here are a few variations:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">An object at the end of a corridor appears to recede from the group as they get closer. The solution might be to close their eyes or to approach it backwards or to nab it from a distance (lasso, whip, telekinesis, etc.) You can insert riddles ahead of time with clues.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Similarly, an object in a massive round chamber moved away from anyone who approached it. The trick was to spread the party out and approach it from multiple directions. (Make the room a zero-gravity sphere for 3D madness.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">An object seems to be illusory: when you reach for it, it is just a mirage. Using another sense, however, can lead you to the real, invisible object. For example, it might produce a dim humming sound, or it might be hot or cold or have a subtle scent.</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The old AD&D module,White Plume Mountain (updated for 5e in Tales from the Yawning Portal), had a variety of old-school tricks and puzzles. There was a sphinx with a riddle at the entrance. There was a passageway that super-heated metal so that PCs had to remove metal armor and weapons; naturally, there is an ambush at the end of the passage. There was a frictionless room with a pit (or multiple pits?). Things like that.</li> </ul>Let us know what you choose to do. Tricks and puzzles can be very memorable in a game. Riddle answer: an egg.</blockquote>

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