NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 6844813" data-attributes="member: 16814">Wasn't aware I needed to.  Are you questioning my ability to do what I said, or are you curious?Pretty much this.  Most of my 'puzzles' are extended challenges requiring interaction and skill rolls (as needed).  A riddle or mystery is solved by going out and looking for clues.  I almost never insert a contained puzzle in a game, such as a puzzle door lock, as I find those trite and, as you note, a player challenge, not a character challenge.  The closest I usually come to that is a mechanism that may require doing multiple things at once to cause it to function as intended, requiring the party to be in different places (maybe in a room, maybe on a continent) to operate it.  This, by itself, is still boring, so the challenge isn't to operate the device, it's to do so while under pressure, either from the environment or opponents or both.But... occasionally I have something more puzzlelike.  As recent example was a puzzle box, which was carved and spelled ironwood box about the size of a jewelry box that had cubes with different symbols on it in four slots on the top.  An obvious puzzle, and usually one of the trite ones.  This had a trick to it that made it unlikely to be solved by brute force applications (one of the cubes had to be removed while the others were in the correct slots when the catch was operated).  The backstory was that this was an ornamental toy often used by the 1000 year dead Dwarven Empire, and was usually given with a present inside to a favored relative or friend.  Part of the present was the effort to solve the box, so this was a puzzle for the sake of a puzzle, and always intended for such.  In this case, a knowledge (history) would reveal this, and provide the clue that the solutions were generally related to a popular Dwarven fable or tale.  Also, the solutions to well made boxes were impervious to just moving pieces around until it opened.  A INT(investigate) check looking at the symbols would have allowed the recall of similar symbols in a previously explored ruined Dwarven Cathedral.  A moment's thought (as in, no check needed) would recall to the characters that that Cathedral was centered around the Dwarven creation myth (and the mystery therein was tied to that same myth*).  A quick search of their tomes would easily find a number of translations of the myth, all of which follow the same pattern.  At that point, once the characters had figured out the likely myth of the box, they had a simple INT check to pass to determine which keyword, and therefore which symbols, needed to be in which order.  The trick was a hard INT check to determine that the Void symbol on the first cube didn't align with many of the myths, which said that 'Nothing' came first.  The key was removing the first cube, with the rest in order, to open the box, which held a nice treasure.  Now, this puzzle has many of the features that I've said I don't like.  It does, but it's point wasn't actually the puzzle.  The puzzle was there to hide my real intents, which were 1) to remind the players of the Dwarven creation myth again, as it has a big part to play in the upcoming arc, 2) further develop the ancient Dwarven civilization that they've been exploring.  This is pure flavor, but it helps humanize (for lack of better term) the Dwarves who are mostly reviled in modern times and blamed for destroying the world (obviously, it wasn't really destroyed, just broke up real good). And 3) be a momentarily interesting way to give treasure, making the minor treasure inside have just a bit more personal value to the players.  I wouldn't put this puzzle into my game just for the sake of the puzzle.*The party's sage had identified the ruins as the location of something the party wanted (this would involve way too much backstory).  They party knew that there was a hidden area in the Cathedral, and had a clue as to where to look for it.  While there, they explored the Cathedral, took in the frescoes (the hint was about the carvings) and after finding no secret doors in the frescoes, actually took interest in what the frescoes were about, with was the Dwarven creation myth (DCM).  Further exploration revealed that the Cathedral was used for services specifically related to the DCM, and they found both a preserved prayer book and scattered elements of the rituals.  In the book, they deciphered a number of rituals, including one for the 'Secrets of Creation'.  So they gathered the bits they needed, invoked the ritual, and were rewarded with access to the hidden area.  Which was even more fun, as they rapidly came to realize that the hidden area was built like a prison for something nasty (wards, animated guardians, traps) and that they were having to disarm all of these security features to go deeper towards whatever the Dwarves felt they needed a hidden secret facility under consecrated ground with massive, obviously built to last defensive features.  The conversation about halfway through about, 'guys, is this a good idea?' was the highlight of that adventure for me.</blockquote>

Verification