#ttrpg puzzle

[ttrpgtreacle]

The final puzzle of Skies of Walltestia. This plaque went along side a room with 8 (visible) columns. A number of the columns had wall effects that were modified. e.g. Light could pass through some, audio could pass through some, one was invisible, one had no collision. The puzzle was to ferret out these features and then punch the corresponding pillar buttons on the plaque in the order indicated by the symbols up top.

[ttrpgtreacle]

The Puzzle of Two Degrees Tom. This one was a flop. Total flop. The four quadrants represent separate letter palettes the party would have to select to spell out MAMA, the name of the leader of the Clean Knives gang. The difficulty comes with the fact that there's very little immediate feedback, and it had been so long since they dealt with the Clean Knives gang that they had kind of forgotten about Mama. So it goes.

[ttrpgtreacle]

The Cave Puzzle (it's in a cave) was an example of how slavishly following your inspirations can lead to chaos. I'm a big fan of the Dishonored games (and other immersive sims, generally) and a common gameplay shakeup within those is to have small ancillary puzzles. My attempt to translate this into dnd did not go well. The players hyperfixated on the vault, and decided that this is what the game was going to be about for a little bit. For 3 sessions.

To be honest, even though I kind of consider it a failure for completely throwing off the pacing. I'm more proud of my players for finding a goal and sticking it out until completion.

The solution of the dial corresponds to the order of steps in the production of Ygat, an elicit drug peddled by the Clean Knives gang. The four colors in the back represent the seasons. The puzzle is made somewhat tractable by the fact that the grey lines on the background are the only positions you can place the arms.

[ttrpgtreacle]

Aboard the otherwise outdated Venercian merchant meant to smuggle the Unreflecting mirror from Sergach to Venercia, several modifications were made to hide the lead lined vault containing the contraband; A hidden panel was affixed to the guest room, and behind this panel a unique puzzle lock was placed. Made by Koshchey Mechanicals, famed throughout the world for their mechanically uncrackable puzzles.

It's implied that the unreflecting mirror somehow drove the ship's captain mad, causing him to fill the cockpit with drawings of spirals. I'm not sure how it did that, actually.

solution:

[seanofbeankeep]

DMs could come up with riddles and puzzles but you can also get a puzzle box and have a breather as the player’s try to solve it

Gifted one of these this year and apparently it was great fun