Hello! I'm trying to build a kind of random chaos "dungeon" with 15 independent puzzles that are each contained to a single room (so no scouring a whole building for clues, etc). I'm also trying to avoid cliches and things easily solved on google since my group plays online (spread out too much for local play).
There's a door in the center of the room, casting a shadow. The door leading to the next room is locked. If you examine the door in the center, there is no lock, however, the shadow of the door has a lock.
Solution: Use a key (any key will work here) to cast a shadow, and use the key's shadow to unlock the shadow door. The door to the next room will then unlock. If the players do not have a key, have one hanging from the door.
Hello! I'm trying to build a kind of random chaos "dungeon" with 15 independent puzzles that are each contained to a single room (so no scouring a whole building for clues, etc). I'm also trying to avoid cliches and things easily solved on google since my group plays online (spread out too much for local play).
Any favorites here?
honestly, best advice, google around some random. And I mean random, escape rooms (pick a random city and their escape rooms) and reskin the escape room puzzles
Escape Rooms. Sonova, why didn't that occur to me? All right, score. Most of them don't broadcast their puzzles or solutions though, to my knowledge, but I'll see what I can find.
Escape Rooms. Sonova, why didn't that occur to me? All right, score. Most of them don't broadcast their puzzles or solutions though, to my knowledge, but I'll see what I can find.
There’s always some reddit or forum where people talk. ;-)
Only caution is how many of those puzzles depend on props, which you can duplicate at a table, but might be hard to describe in an online game without either giving away too much or too little.
Only caution is how many of those puzzles depend on props, which you can duplicate at a table, but might be hard to describe in an online game without either giving away too much or too little.
I hear that. Lucky I am quite skilled and creating virtual props in Photoshop
Never underestimate the classic Two doors and two guards. "One of us only tells the truth and one of us only lies. Ask us your questions".
It's a bit of a one shot though: Once they get it "wrong" something bad happens and then they know the right door to use. Though maybe... wait... If they get it wrong, both doors disappear, something bad happens and when the bad is over, the doors reappear and have been clearly changed to new doors (thus they don't know which is right anymore). Yay magic!
Also, there is the follow the pattern across the room by only stepping on the safe stones. Keep the ceiling low (to minimize jumping) and expect some kind of "we can totally cheat this" but it could still be fun. I recommend something obscure like an important word spelled out in runes (with some hints as to how to decode the runes in the room).
* Sundays 7pm EDT: Ravenloft 1921 / Alt. Tuesdays 5pm EDT: CoHost of Happy Hour at the Old Timer Tavern * Wednesdays 7pm EDT: The Convergence - Homebrew 5E / Saturdays 8am EDT: The Bitter Victory - Pirate Homebrew 5E **Streams hosted at at twitch.tv/LaternNoir Join the table at: Start Playing Games
Never underestimate the classic Two doors and two guards. "One of us only tells the truth and one of us only lies. Ask us your questions".
It's a bit of a one shot though: Once they get it "wrong" something bad happens and then they know the right door to use. Though maybe... wait... If they get it wrong, both doors disappear, something bad happens and when the bad is over, the doors reappear and have been clearly changed to new doors (thus they don't know which is right anymore). Yay magic!
Also, there is the follow the pattern across the room by only stepping on the safe stones. Keep the ceiling low (to minimize jumping) and expect some kind of "we can totally cheat this" but it could still be fun. I recommend something obscure like an important word spelled out in runes (with some hints as to how to decode the runes in the room).
That one is too easily solved because it’s too cliched and used.
kill one guard. Ask the other if the dead guard is dead. Now you know who lies and who doesn’t. Murderhobo culture solves that one before you as the DM can react to how quickly it was solved.
Never underestimate the classic Two doors and two guards. "One of us only tells the truth and one of us only lies. Ask us your questions".
It's a bit of a one shot though: Once they get it "wrong" something bad happens and then they know the right door to use. Though maybe... wait... If they get it wrong, both doors disappear, something bad happens and when the bad is over, the doors reappear and have been clearly changed to new doors (thus they don't know which is right anymore). Yay magic!
Also, there is the follow the pattern across the room by only stepping on the safe stones. Keep the ceiling low (to minimize jumping) and expect some kind of "we can totally cheat this" but it could still be fun. I recommend something obscure like an important word spelled out in runes (with some hints as to how to decode the runes in the room).
That one is too easily solved because it’s too cliched and used.
kill one guard. Ask the other if the dead guard is dead. Now you know who lies and who doesn’t. Murderhobo culture solves that one before you as the DM can react to how quickly it was solved.
Meh. Use indestructible gargoyles. Or worse, when one guard takes damage so does the other. When one dies the other dies and "bad stuff" happens. Then when bad is over, the room magically resets and the players are back at square one.
Murderhobo meets prepared DM. Prepared DM wins.
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"Teller of tales, dreamer of dreams"
* Sundays 7pm EDT: Ravenloft 1921 / Alt. Tuesdays 5pm EDT: CoHost of Happy Hour at the Old Timer Tavern * Wednesdays 7pm EDT: The Convergence - Homebrew 5E / Saturdays 8am EDT: The Bitter Victory - Pirate Homebrew 5E **Streams hosted at at twitch.tv/LaternNoir Join the table at: Start Playing Games
Never underestimate the classic Two doors and two guards. "One of us only tells the truth and one of us only lies. Ask us your questions".
It's a bit of a one shot though: Once they get it "wrong" something bad happens and then they know the right door to use. Though maybe... wait... If they get it wrong, both doors disappear, something bad happens and when the bad is over, the doors reappear and have been clearly changed to new doors (thus they don't know which is right anymore). Yay magic!
Also, there is the follow the pattern across the room by only stepping on the safe stones. Keep the ceiling low (to minimize jumping) and expect some kind of "we can totally cheat this" but it could still be fun. I recommend something obscure like an important word spelled out in runes (with some hints as to how to decode the runes in the room).
That one is too easily solved because it’s too cliched and used.
kill one guard. Ask the other if the dead guard is dead. Now you know who lies and who doesn’t. Murderhobo culture solves that one before you as the DM can react to how quickly it was solved.
Meh. Use indestructible gargoyles. Or worse, when one guard takes damage so does the other. When one dies the other dies and "bad stuff" happens. Then when bad is over, the room magically resets and the players are back at square one.
Murderhobo meets prepared DM. Prepared DM wins.
Meh. Still doesn’t meet OPs “I’m trying to avoid cliches” part. But yeah prepared DMs should win vs bs antics
Hello! I'm trying to build a kind of random chaos "dungeon" with 15 independent puzzles that are each contained to a single room (so no scouring a whole building for clues, etc). I'm also trying to avoid cliches and things easily solved on google since my group plays online (spread out too much for local play).
Any favorites here?
Favorites... absolutely!
Magic Mouth: A puzzle the characters will have to solve by using their sense of taste. All the while, the Magic Mouth will not shut up! Eyes of the Beholder: Putting eyeballs into a stone statue of a beholder. What's the worse that can happen? Veterans Day: Five statues of wars from the past give a clue on opening the door.
Plenty more... here's a video playlist of over 50 D&D puzzlesfor ya... Hope this helps!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have a YouTube channel with 5th Edition D&D Puzzles, Character Creations, DM Tips and Quests ideas. Check it out!
I'm more of a leering-green-demon-instant-annihilation sort of person, but here's my most annoying puzzle so far:
I had a long and "bottomless" chasm with a floating platform, and a bunch of levers. One of the party tied a couple of ropes together and set off to attach them to the other side. When you pulled a certain lever, the platform moved smoothly forwards across the chasm. But when you pulled the other levers, Bad Things™ happened, like flamethrowers or tipping the platform over. All of the levers had nice patterns on the end, so you could tell that the one with a brass knob worked the fire and the one wrapped with leather released the enemy with a good Athletics bonus for shoving.
The puzzle, of course, was that each round, the levers changed around in an almost incomprehensible pattern (at first glance) which I could easily look at on my character sheet. (It was Plain Hunt Minor, if you're wondering). It took them a while to work out how exactly to avoid falling, especially after the Wizard used their only prepared Feather Fall!
I'm certain that if you like that sort of thing, you could easily adapt it to your single rooms.
except that the two tidbits that no one seems to remember is 1) it must be a yes or no question and 2) that behind one door is something really good (heaven, loot, treasure) and behind the other door is something really bad (hell, a hostile ancient dragon, a pit of lava and the door behind them has disappeared) you have to ask a question that both guards would answer, and that would still reveal to the party which door is the bad thing that would get them killed. killing one guard actively destroys your ability to solve the riddle, because you have to rely on both guards giving an answer. its a difficult riddle to solve if you've never heard the answer before.
Hallway leads to a room with a heavy door at the end of the hall. In the hall there are busts of people or monsters, famous or not as you like. Many busts have gems for eyes. The gems can be different colors for ease of tracking. The last three are different. One and two have one gem in a socket. The third and last bust has empty sockets. Through investigation and trial and error the party discovers that putting the gem from #2 into #1 raises the door at the end of the hall. Moving the gems from #1 into #2 closes the door at the end of the hall but opens a door further down the hall. Placing the gems from #1 and #2 into bust #3 closes the first and second doors but also opens the next (last) door in line.
The trick is that someone needs to stay and move the gems so the rest of the party can get to the last room. This will require teamwork and communication through the multiple doors and may require magic for that communication. The last room may have a lever that opens all the doors but I prefer to have a short fight and some treasure that the lone party member can only hear and do little about. Or you can have another encounter with just that lone PC fighting while the rest of the party fights a different foe. Be sure that the encounters are adjusted for the numbers of PCs involved. You have split the party and need them to have the opportunity to survive. Undead\spirits work well with a sarcophagus in the last room.
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Hello! I'm trying to build a kind of random chaos "dungeon" with 15 independent puzzles that are each contained to a single room (so no scouring a whole building for clues, etc). I'm also trying to avoid cliches and things easily solved on google since my group plays online (spread out too much for local play).
Any favorites here?
I have one I really like!
There's a door in the center of the room, casting a shadow. The door leading to the next room is locked. If you examine the door in the center, there is no lock, however, the shadow of the door has a lock.
Solution: Use a key (any key will work here) to cast a shadow, and use the key's shadow to unlock the shadow door. The door to the next room will then unlock. If the players do not have a key, have one hanging from the door.
"You are a slave. Want emancipation?"
-Persona 5
honestly, best advice, google around some random. And I mean random, escape rooms (pick a random city and their escape rooms) and reskin the escape room puzzles
Blank
Escape Rooms. Sonova, why didn't that occur to me? All right, score. Most of them don't broadcast their puzzles or solutions though, to my knowledge, but I'll see what I can find.
There’s always some reddit or forum where people talk. ;-)
Blank
Only caution is how many of those puzzles depend on props, which you can duplicate at a table, but might be hard to describe in an online game without either giving away too much or too little.
lol if you've got a hot tip, feel free to throw it my way via private message, otherwise I'm sure I'll fall into a google hole
I hear that. Lucky I am quite skilled and creating virtual props in Photoshop
Never underestimate the classic Two doors and two guards. "One of us only tells the truth and one of us only lies. Ask us your questions".
It's a bit of a one shot though: Once they get it "wrong" something bad happens and then they know the right door to use. Though maybe... wait... If they get it wrong, both doors disappear, something bad happens and when the bad is over, the doors reappear and have been clearly changed to new doors (thus they don't know which is right anymore). Yay magic!
Also, there is the follow the pattern across the room by only stepping on the safe stones. Keep the ceiling low (to minimize jumping) and expect some kind of "we can totally cheat this" but it could still be fun. I recommend something obscure like an important word spelled out in runes (with some hints as to how to decode the runes in the room).
"Teller of tales, dreamer of dreams"
* Sundays 7pm EDT: Ravenloft 1921 / Alt. Tuesdays 5pm EDT: CoHost of Happy Hour at the Old Timer Tavern
* Wednesdays 7pm EDT: The Convergence - Homebrew 5E / Saturdays 8am EDT: The Bitter Victory - Pirate Homebrew 5E
**Streams hosted at at twitch.tv/LaternNoir
Join the table at: Start Playing Games
That one is too easily solved because it’s too cliched and used.
kill one guard. Ask the other if the dead guard is dead. Now you know who lies and who doesn’t. Murderhobo culture solves that one before you as the DM can react to how quickly it was solved.
Blank
Meh. Use indestructible gargoyles. Or worse, when one guard takes damage so does the other. When one dies the other dies and "bad stuff" happens. Then when bad is over, the room magically resets and the players are back at square one.
Murderhobo meets prepared DM. Prepared DM wins.
"Teller of tales, dreamer of dreams"
* Sundays 7pm EDT: Ravenloft 1921 / Alt. Tuesdays 5pm EDT: CoHost of Happy Hour at the Old Timer Tavern
* Wednesdays 7pm EDT: The Convergence - Homebrew 5E / Saturdays 8am EDT: The Bitter Victory - Pirate Homebrew 5E
**Streams hosted at at twitch.tv/LaternNoir
Join the table at: Start Playing Games
Meh. Still doesn’t meet OPs “I’m trying to avoid cliches” part. But yeah prepared DMs should win vs bs antics
Blank
Favorites... absolutely!
Magic Mouth: A puzzle the characters will have to solve by using their sense of taste. All the while, the Magic Mouth will not shut up!
Eyes of the Beholder: Putting eyeballs into a stone statue of a beholder. What's the worse that can happen?
Veterans Day: Five statues of wars from the past give a clue on opening the door.
Plenty more... here's a video playlist of over 50 D&D puzzles for ya... Hope this helps!
I have a YouTube channel with 5th Edition D&D Puzzles, Character Creations, DM Tips and Quests ideas. Check it out!
Wally DM on YouTube
fan tastic idea
I'm more of a leering-green-demon-instant-annihilation sort of person, but here's my most annoying puzzle so far:
I had a long and "bottomless" chasm with a floating platform, and a bunch of levers. One of the party tied a couple of ropes together and set off to attach them to the other side. When you pulled a certain lever, the platform moved smoothly forwards across the chasm. But when you pulled the other levers, Bad Things™ happened, like flamethrowers or tipping the platform over. All of the levers had nice patterns on the end, so you could tell that the one with a brass knob worked the fire and the one wrapped with leather released the enemy with a good Athletics bonus for shoving.
The puzzle, of course, was that each round, the levers changed around in an almost incomprehensible pattern (at first glance) which I could easily look at on my character sheet. (It was Plain Hunt Minor, if you're wondering). It took them a while to work out how exactly to avoid falling, especially after the Wizard used their only prepared Feather Fall!
I'm certain that if you like that sort of thing, you could easily adapt it to your single rooms.
Just want to mention the key part of this bit is you get to ask 1 of them 1 question. So after the 1 question is asked you gotta pick a door.
except that the two tidbits that no one seems to remember is 1) it must be a yes or no question and 2) that behind one door is something really good (heaven, loot, treasure) and behind the other door is something really bad (hell, a hostile ancient dragon, a pit of lava and the door behind them has disappeared) you have to ask a question that both guards would answer, and that would still reveal to the party which door is the bad thing that would get them killed. killing one guard actively destroys your ability to solve the riddle, because you have to rely on both guards giving an answer. its a difficult riddle to solve if you've never heard the answer before.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/65wp3c/100_dungeon_puzzles_mysteries_community_made/
playing since 1986
So, I have found this series of games: Exit The Game - The award-winning escape room game series from Kosmos – Thames & Kosmos (thamesandkosmos.com)
To be really easy to understand puzzle design and dvelop my own based upon.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
Try this.
Hallway leads to a room with a heavy door at the end of the hall. In the hall there are busts of people or monsters, famous or not as you like. Many busts have gems for eyes. The gems can be different colors for ease of tracking. The last three are different. One and two have one gem in a socket. The third and last bust has empty sockets. Through investigation and trial and error the party discovers that putting the gem from #2 into #1 raises the door at the end of the hall. Moving the gems from #1 into #2 closes the door at the end of the hall but opens a door further down the hall. Placing the gems from #1 and #2 into bust #3 closes the first and second doors but also opens the next (last) door in line.
The trick is that someone needs to stay and move the gems so the rest of the party can get to the last room. This will require teamwork and communication through the multiple doors and may require magic for that communication. The last room may have a lever that opens all the doors but I prefer to have a short fight and some treasure that the lone party member can only hear and do little about. Or you can have another encounter with just that lone PC fighting while the rest of the party fights a different foe. Be sure that the encounters are adjusted for the numbers of PCs involved. You have split the party and need them to have the opportunity to survive. Undead\spirits work well with a sarcophagus in the last room.