Set up: The group is hired by someone (a rakshasha in my game) to retrieve an item. He gives them half a verse and 8 sheets of music that he has collected over the decades. Once the arrive at the overrun temple of a long-forgotten music deity they soon find the second half of the verse. Soon after, at a prominent location in the dungeon, they see another code and a grid laid out for them.
Verse 1: Only Music Fills the Grid Within These Hymns the Answer Hid
Verse 2: Words of Note Will Surely Please As They Intersect Like Harmonies
Sheet 1: A Blot on Her Soul iii1 – (Redemption Chorus) – iii3
Sheet 2: Doff the Mask of Apathy iv2 – (Show Your True Self) – iv7
Sheet 3: Drown Evil in Song iii3 – (Lift the Good) – v3
At the end of the day, this is just a crossword puzzle where each solution can only spelled with the letters A through G (musical notes). I was hoping this would be conveyed by "words of note" and "intersect".
The clue for the word to go in the grid is bolded. Example: Unhearing
The direction and length can be surmised by the codes near the sub-title. Example: i2 to iv2 is 4 letter word going across.
So the answer for sheet 8 would be: DEAF
After all the clues are solved, the final code can be found by looking at the letters in each of the grids, which spells out: BEADED EGG
If I could figure out how to post an image, I would show the actual sheets of music I created as props. :(
The bolded words do appear as bolded for the players.
I also have an image of the grid that they saw.
Also, I named the forgotten music god Gabbadaf. One of the players immediately noticed his name was made up only of notes (A-G)... but didn't make the connection for the puzzle.
As someone who does not know music, this is all gibberish to me. I can certainly see where anyone who dabbles in music would find this to be quite elegant, though.
Assess your audience before assaulting them with this puzzle.
Coming from an engineering background, I was looking for mathematical relationships (or Sudoku patterns), and probably would have taken too much time to realize it was a crossword. Your puzzle is great otherwise.
Real crosswords typically have the dead spaces blacked out, so if you want to achieve something similar stylistically, you can add a layer of padding and do something like this: (grey is blocked out, and color is just for reference.)
That would likely steer them in the right direction.
edit: After rereading the first and second verses, it all makes a lot more sense, but it's easy to get tunnel vision after putting pen to paper.
Hm. Well, I'm no good at puzzles, but I also wouldn't have gotten it - I didn't make the connection that it was a crossword and that one part of the name of the songs (?) were clues, I was trying to put words in positions on the grid rather than letters and didn't get anywhere. I got the horizontal/vertical positions. Not sure I would have guessed that only letters A-G would be used, I haven't done any music-reading since I was a kid.
But you kind of have to know your audience. If your group involves people who enjoy crosswords they might recognize the crossword, or if it involves musicians they might get the thing about notes. (Or involves people who do a lot of puzzle hunts and things and enjoy this kind of thing.) I'm definitely a bad benchmark, I'm not any good at puzzles anyway and I don't do either crosswords or music, so if I got this it probably would mean it was too easy :).
I think that I am hearing that it I need to make it more evident that this puzzle is a crossword. Hopefully this could be accomplished with an improved grid:
For a puzzle, it's great. For a D&D game, it's way, way too hard. In my experience the best puzzles are simple to the point of stupid—they can be solved quickly, so less puzzle-loving players don't have to sit out, and most importantly, they make the players feel smart. As I always say, the goal of D&D puzzles isn't to force the players to be smart, it's to make them feel like they are. And it's hard to puzzle things out when you're playing an exciting RPG! If it seems stupidly easy to you, it's probably perfect.
If your players are well versed (pardon the pun in music and puzzles, this might be ok. But It's pretty hard, and probably runs the risk of them getting bogged down if puzzle solving isn't what they are primarily interested in. But maybe you could give it to players who are super interested in puzzles as something to take away and work on outside fo the game if you're really keen to include it?
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Set up: The group is hired by someone (a rakshasha in my game) to retrieve an item. He gives them half a verse and 8 sheets of music that he has collected over the decades. Once the arrive at the overrun temple of a long-forgotten music deity they soon find the second half of the verse. Soon after, at a prominent location in the dungeon, they see another code and a grid laid out for them.
Verse 1: Only Music Fills the Grid
Within These Hymns the Answer Hid
Verse 2: Words of Note Will Surely Please
As They Intersect Like Harmonies
Sheet 1: A Blot on Her Soul
iii1 – (Redemption Chorus) – iii3
Sheet 2: Doff the Mask of Apathy
iv2 – (Show Your True Self) – iv7
Sheet 3: Drown Evil in Song
iii3 – (Lift the Good) – v3
Sheet 4: The Mendicant’s Plea
vi4 – (Alms Aplenty) – vi6
Sheet 5: Precipice of Faith
i1 – (Take a Leap) – i4
Sheet 6: Escape the Prison of Doubt
i7 – (Freedom of Faith) – iv7
Sheet 7: Proverb Retold
ii5 – (words of Wisdom) – vi5
Sheet 8: Unhearing Saints
i2 – (Silent Prayers) – iv2
Grid: Across the top: i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi
Down the left: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Final Code: vi4 i1 iii2 iv6 ii2 v3 i4 vi6 iii7
I forgot to add my thought process / solution:
At the end of the day, this is just a crossword puzzle where each solution can only spelled with the letters A through G (musical notes). I was hoping this would be conveyed by "words of note" and "intersect".
The clue for the word to go in the grid is bolded. Example: Unhearing
The direction and length can be surmised by the codes near the sub-title. Example: i2 to iv2 is 4 letter word going across.
So the answer for sheet 8 would be: DEAF
After all the clues are solved, the final code can be found by looking at the letters in each of the grids, which spells out: BEADED EGG
too hard if all I have is your first post
Thanks for the input!
If I could figure out how to post an image, I would show the actual sheets of music I created as props. :(
The bolded words do appear as bolded for the players.
I also have an image of the grid that they saw.
Also, I named the forgotten music god Gabbadaf. One of the players immediately noticed his name was made up only of notes (A-G)... but didn't make the connection for the puzzle.
As someone who does not know music, this is all gibberish to me. I can certainly see where anyone who dabbles in music would find this to be quite elegant, though.
Assess your audience before assaulting them with this puzzle.
There needs to be slightly more context.
Coming from an engineering background, I was looking for mathematical relationships (or Sudoku patterns), and probably would have taken too much time to realize it was a crossword. Your puzzle is great otherwise.
Real crosswords typically have the dead spaces blacked out, so if you want to achieve something similar stylistically, you can add a layer of padding and do something like this: (grey is blocked out, and color is just for reference.)
That would likely steer them in the right direction.
edit: After rereading the first and second verses, it all makes a lot more sense, but it's easy to get tunnel vision after putting pen to paper.
Hm. Well, I'm no good at puzzles, but I also wouldn't have gotten it - I didn't make the connection that it was a crossword and that one part of the name of the songs (?) were clues, I was trying to put words in positions on the grid rather than letters and didn't get anywhere. I got the horizontal/vertical positions. Not sure I would have guessed that only letters A-G would be used, I haven't done any music-reading since I was a kid.
But you kind of have to know your audience. If your group involves people who enjoy crosswords they might recognize the crossword, or if it involves musicians they might get the thing about notes. (Or involves people who do a lot of puzzle hunts and things and enjoy this kind of thing.) I'm definitely a bad benchmark, I'm not any good at puzzles anyway and I don't do either crosswords or music, so if I got this it probably would mean it was too easy :).
All -
I think that I am hearing that it I need to make it more evident that this puzzle is a crossword. Hopefully this could be accomplished with an improved grid:
For a puzzle, it's great. For a D&D game, it's way, way too hard. In my experience the best puzzles are simple to the point of stupid—they can be solved quickly, so less puzzle-loving players don't have to sit out, and most importantly, they make the players feel smart. As I always say, the goal of D&D puzzles isn't to force the players to be smart, it's to make them feel like they are. And it's hard to puzzle things out when you're playing an exciting RPG! If it seems stupidly easy to you, it's probably perfect.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
If your players are well versed (pardon the pun in music and puzzles, this might be ok. But It's pretty hard, and probably runs the risk of them getting bogged down if puzzle solving isn't what they are primarily interested in. But maybe you could give it to players who are super interested in puzzles as something to take away and work on outside fo the game if you're really keen to include it?