Newbie Wife Needs Puzzles to Surprise DM Husband w/Adventure for Anniversary Gift

[The DMs Wife]

Hi guys,

I need a little help. My 1st wedding anniversary is this weekend and I want to put together a surprise DnD game for my hubby. We just started a game that he DMs for me and another player (this is only my second game - I've never DMed). He just introduced an NPC character that he has put a lot of time into developing in the hopes that when we are through the current dungeon either I or the other player will write an adventure that he can play.

My idea is to write a short adventure that I would DM for his NPC (a Gladiator) just the 2 of us this weekend. I have a semi-plausible way to get him into this mini dungeon by himself (mysterious cave-in just under his feet, other characters seem frozen in time, he must explore to find alternative way out) and I've got a theme and rough sketch of the dungeon laid out in my head, but I want to include a couple puzzles that he can solve - he loves puzzles. I did a google search for puzzles, but he's been doing this a LOT longer than me and I'm afraid that I don't have enough time to find something that he hasn't already read about and used. I don't have time to order a book and pick a riddle before this weekend. Anyone out there willing to share some puzzles, riddles or ciphers for me to stump my DM husband with!?

I'd love something like some sort of contraption where you can do different things to it to make it open 3 doors in a hallway one at a time. But any puzzle will do!

 

[fba827]

Hi,

Welcome to the boards, welcome to D&D, welcome to DMing, and Happy 1st Anniversary


You mention in your post that you "have a theme in mind"

What sort of theme is it? It might help when coming up with puzzles/riddles.

But the fact that others are "frozen in time" suggests some strong time origin to this mysterious cave. So perhaps a riddle whose answer is "time" or if you have a giant puzzle of sorts where it is hour-glasses that must be turned in a certain sequence.

There was once an adventure where it was a single player trapped in a maze and there was a minotaur that was chasing the player around the maze. scattered about the maze were gems of different colors. you have to touch the gems in the proper r-o-y-g-b-v order. if the minotaur ever caught up with you you'd have to fight it (when you killed it, it would 'vanish' for a round). if it killed you, you have to start all over. So maybe something like that but thematically changed from gems to something else (sun dials that must be turned, etc) and replace the minotaur with some other appropriate monster. of course, you can't make a whole adventure out of this, but it could be a room or something that you have to complete to unlock the door to the right hallway.

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

I would recommend something that has an unusual or clever element. For example, the old CRPG Planescape: Torment featured a puzzle that could only be solved by somebody who could be killed repeatedly and would spontaneously revive.

For example, say you have a time-based puzzle. The player's character is trapped in a tesseract (Tesseract - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) where each room is at a different point in time. In each room is a scrying pool that shows what the character's party is doing at that point in time. The point of the scrying pool is so that the trapped person can figure out the chronological order of the rooms.

Then, give them a series of tasks that has to be done in chronological order. The clues for what to do could be in the form of riddles. This could be a simple series of levers, or something more sophisticated.

Reward cleverness. For example, lighting a candle in one room could make the candle appear in all rooms later in time, with the amount of melting indicating which room comes first.

Solving the puzzle releases the trapped character. Alternately, solving it in the wrong way might cause a bad effect. You could have a mistake do harm to the party outside, which would be visible through the scrying pools in the rooms that occur after the one where the mistake was made; the player would have the opportunity to undo the mistake in an earlier room to prevent the bad thing from happening.

If you use this, I would recommend making numbered cards so that you can keep notes on the chronological order of the rooms and what happens in them. I would also recommend thinking through several different scenarios to get used to the wierd time flow between rooms.

 

[weem]

How did the game turn out hawkswine?

I didn't get in here in time to share ideas, but I am very curious how it worked out. What you did, etc.

Oh yes, and welcome to ENW

 

[Sigurd]

Yes Geeks and Gentlemen want to know...


We hope it went well. Spare some details?

 

[Scott DeWar]

and gentlemanly geeks want to know!If you still need ideas, Tomb of Horrors has enough traps in it for two lifetimes of gaming.

Example: three slots and one door. you need three items to put in the slots and the door opens, however you lose what ever you put in the slots, such as that really nice magical sword you are carrieing... I used three Master work arrows cause that was all of the cheep items i had.

 

[The DMs Wife]

Omg! My email notifications never came through 3 years ago and I'm just finding all of these wonderful, generous replies!! Thank you so much all for your thoughtful suggestions!

The game went REALLY well. I ended up using a puzzle where you had to put 8 queens on a chess board in which none of them could "kill" each other. This lead to a wonderful theme for the adventure of the PC awakening the tomb of the 8 Jealous wives of a king. The awaken spirits of the wives all thought he was their king and he had to visit and help out each of these eight wives in their separate rooms. Sometimes he had to rescue them or hunt with them or solve a puzzle for them. I even worked in a scene where he rescued one from a runaway carriage being attacked by dwarves. And each wife of course "rewarded" her husband. And that was fun to roll play too! ;-) We played for like 8 hrs. It was amazing, he flipped.

I found these answers because I'm back again asking for riddle ideas for a new game for him (my 2nd!). Ive got a scene where he's chasing an NPC through a crowded marketplace and I thought it would be fun to do some kind of puzzle that has the feel of chasing someone through a crowd - all Indiana Jones style. but I can't quite figure out what that would be like. I've found threads on this forum about chase rules, but I think a puzzle would be more fun and since I'm not a super technical minded DM, I prefer to stick with basic game mechanics. If anyone is still on this thread and has some ideas, I'd love some help. I promise to read them this time!!

 

[Bagpuss]

Sounds really cool, and I think you might have just won some award for thread necromancy as well.

 

[Rune]

I found these answers because I'm back again asking for riddle ideas for a new game for him (my 2nd!).

Here's a bunch of riddles.

Ive got a scene where he's chasing an NPC through a crowded marketplace and I thought it would be fun to do some kind of puzzle that has the feel of chasing someone through a crowd - all Indiana Jones style. but I can't quite figure out what that would be like.

I think you'll want him to feel harried, so you might consider a time-limit (or a round-limit).

Since it's an urban environment (I assume), you can make it somewhat of a maze. I would first sketch out a map, including the destination of the NPC being chased. I would also figure out checkpoints--places the NPC will be at certain points (on certain rounds) of the chase. Then, create some obstacles--some preexisting and some created by the NPC, and some ways to bypass or remove the obstacles. Make sure there are a few shortcuts, as well, so your husband can gain some ground.

The crowd, itself, can be a major obstacle during all of this. It can hinder the pursuit and can obscure the quarry, but it can also be a resource: folk within it might know of shortcuts, could be recruited to help in the pursuit, and so on.

Anyway, looks fun!

 

[The DMs Wife]

Sounds really cool, and I think you might have just won some award for thread necromancy as well.

ROFL!! Do you think they have a badge for that?

And Rune - I'm liking where that's going! Would I keep the other NPC mini on the board? I'd like him to feel he's in real danger of losing her. The plot is hes taking a possessed woman to a temple to get an exorcism before she's overtaken by the evil spirit (ok a sucubus - yes it's a sexy themed game). At this point in the adventure the spirit is getting very strong - its the penultimate scene right before they reach the temple. She takes off running for the temple because she just wants to get there but he doesn't realize why she's slipped away and I think will assume the spirit has taken over and maybe going on a rampage, charming others to assist her. I'd like him to catch up with her right as she's entering the temple.