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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 3093469" data-attributes="member: 22424">I like both puzzles and traps. Their major use, IMO, is to challenge the players directly, rather than challenging the characters. I find this to be a good thing, but also something that is extremely difficult to handle well.There was a recent "Design & Development" column on Wizards.com that caused me to radically rethink my handling of traps in the game. It pointed out that a good trap won't simply be placed arbitrarily, and therefore a smart player will always know when to check for traps. However, the problem with that is that the characters will therefore find and remove virtually all traps without fanfare or (frankly) much interest. And those traps that aren't spotted too often are simply 'spoilers' (you get zapped by lightning. Lose 24 hit points), which again isn't much fun.Instead, the column suggested that traps should be considered an encounter in their own right. Perhaps the entire room is trapped, with all manner of moving blades and mechanisms. The rogue then must interact with the trap on a round-by-round basis, perhaps dodging past one part of the mechanism to allow him to disarm another, or whatever. (And, of course, a really good DM can combine two or more encounters into one - try combining a trap like that with an attack by Wraiths.)The key to traps like this is that there are really two parts: the game-mechanical 'trap' bit, and the non-game 'puzzle' section, where the player figures out how best to use his character's abilities. In general, the 'puzzle' bit for this sort of trap should be fairly simple - you don't really want to have this one trap consume the entire game session, after all.(Oh, and as with all puzzles, there should be multiple ways past. If the Wizard wants to just bypass it with a Disintegrate, or the Fighter wants to just suck up the damage and smash it down, they should be able to do so.)Puzzles, on the other hand, are generally defined by being entirely non-game-mechanical in nature. The players have to figure out the answer to proceed (or open the vault, or otherwise reap the rewards of defeating the encounter). And, although you can bypass this to some extent with Intelligence checks, that rather defeats the point of having the puzzle there at all. Might as well simply say, "The Sphinx asks you a riddle. Your Int check is high enough, so you answer it and move on", which seems a bit dull.Here, again, it is crucial that there be multiple ways through, including at least one way through that doesn't rely on solving the puzzle. These can be non-optimal routes (it's reasonable, for example, to require PCs who don't solve the puzzle to instead have to fight there way through tunnels filled with troglodytes and rust monsters), but they must exist, except in the case where getting past the puzzle is strictly a nice-to-have.When developing the puzzle, start from the solution and work backwards. Make sure all the pieces needed to solve the puzzle are easily available to the PCs... provided they realise they need them. They work out a set of clues to aid the players in solving the problem. Work out how many clues you think are needed... then double it.Finally, assign a (real) time limit to the puzzle, beyond which you won't hold up the session any longer. Decide whether to rule that they party Wizard solves the puzzle once that time has elapsed, or whether to rule that the party Barbarian gives up in disgust (or whatever... but the key thing is to avoid frustrating the players for too long, so you want to move them on at this point - might be better to have orcs kick in the door at that stage instead). You could play this by ear, by watching for signs of frustration from the players, but should have a back-up plan in advance.If the players solves the puzzle, they get the XP for doing so (a normal puzzle should have a CR equal to the Average Party Level, IMO). If they don't, they don't get the XP (even if your ruling has the Wizard solving it). Oh, and they get the XP if they come up with some sort of clever solution for the puzzle.Of course, as with traps, puzzles should not be placed arbitrarily. They're entirely appropriate in the lair of a Sphinx or Brass Dragon, but less so in the lair of some orcs.Anyway, just some thoughts on how I will handle these things, should I ever get to run a game again.</blockquote>

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