I host a teens DnD group at my local library, and the party is in the middle of a heist, per se, to steal a "victor's torch" to escape an unwinnable tournament.
Anyways, I need a puzzle for the room where they find the torch, it'll come out of the floor or whaever. I want it to be a spinning/rotating dial on the floor, that I would make a paper prop for them to mess around with, it needs to be simple enough for ages 11-16, I saw one online that spelled out a number of words but i wanted mine to be more creative than that, i love riddles but they're not needed also if it could be dragon themed that would be cool but not that important, lastly i need it to be some kind of trap where they would get caught, but thats not that important either i could finess and way for them to get caught I really just need a creative semi-easy puzzle.
How about a rotating picture one similar to the ones used in Assassins Creed 2? A series of concentric rings that rotate to form a picture. Do three or four successive ones that get harder as you go, more confusing pictures or rings that move together (A moves by itself, B moves by itself, A & C move together sort of thing) making it harder to match. You give them the picture to rotate and as each one is solved the floor opens to reveal the next
I also run a teens group at a library and the one thing I’ve realised is I can steal puzzles and even entire plots from films, tv, and games because they’ve not seen as much as I have so I tend to recycle other people’s ideas a lot
What if it works like a combination lock and it has a pointer at numbers ringing the wall? Maybe there is a book they find somewhere that has 3 page numbers circled or clearly dog eared with a scribbed note next to each number with 1R, 2L, or 3R for 1st # turn right, 2nd # turn left...ect, or something that like and the floor is controlled with the special something in the center of the room. They can get hints if they super stumped with investigation checks or the special puzzle box in the center is somewhat shaped liked a combination lock.
You could also make two rotating disks and fix the on top of each other with the bottom disk being bigger than the inner one. Then you add symbols of dragon themed stuff around the outer edges of both. Then give them a riddle that tells them how to align the two disks. Maybe it is a multi step process. Like three alignments done correctly solve the riddle. And just for fun add a "bad outcome" combination that should not be locked in at all or some enemies come and attack them! :)
How about a rotating picture one similar to the ones used in Assassins Creed 2? A series of concentric rings that rotate to form a picture. Do three or four successive ones that get harder as you go, more confusing pictures or rings that move together (A moves by itself, B moves by itself, A & C move together sort of thing) making it harder to match. You give them the picture to rotate and as each one is solved the floor opens to reveal the next
I also run a teens group at a library and the one thing I’ve realised is I can steal puzzles and even entire plots from films, tv, and games because they’ve not seen as much as I have so I tend to recycle other people’s ideas a lot
What if it works like a combination lock and it has a pointer at numbers ringing the wall? Maybe there is a book they find somewhere that has 3 page numbers circled or clearly dog eared with a scribbed note next to each number with 1R, 2L, or 3R for 1st # turn right, 2nd # turn left...ect, or something that like and the floor is controlled with the special something in the center of the room. They can get hints if they super stumped with investigation checks or the special puzzle box in the center is somewhat shaped liked a combination lock.
You could also make two rotating disks and fix the on top of each other with the bottom disk being bigger than the inner one. Then you add symbols of dragon themed stuff around the outer edges of both. Then give them a riddle that tells them how to align the two disks. Maybe it is a multi step process. Like three alignments done correctly solve the riddle. And just for fun add a "bad outcome" combination that should not be locked in at all or some enemies come and attack them! :)
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