Help with making some puzzles.

[Mytical]

Need all you intelligent people to help me make some challenges (non lethal, hard but not impossible) for a rpg game. No magic will be able to be used by the two people (magic dead area).

I have one, but it seems too obvious to me.. and need a real challenge. The one I have is a 50' wide by 100' long room. The entrance they come in will stay open regardless, but another entrance at the other end of the room is closed and can only be opened if both of two levers are held in place. One must be held up, one must be held down. The levers are at the entrance they come in, on opposite walls. (one to the left, one to the right). They have adventures gear (armor, rope, etc). The only other things in the room is a barrel and a sack of grain. However, to me it is obvious.. weigh down one lever with the grain, hold one up with the barrel. It's the first challenge though, so dont want it tooo difficult. Need some harder puzzles... anybody up to the challenge??

[EricKei]

For one room, you can use a variation on the good ol' Wall-o-levers room:

The far wall (from the starting point) has a series of levers -- no less than 4, preferably more like 6-8. One, and only one of them will open the way forward/down via trap door, etc. Pulling any lever causes the entry door to shut and latch. No visible keyholes anywhere.

To be fair, if they guess right on their first try (or deduce it -- the room is covered in old bloodstains and weapon scrapes, as well as years' worth of dust; searches will reveal nothing of use), they can go forward. If they fail, a trapdoor opens in the ceiling, or a summoning circle is triggered, etc, you get the idea, with a small group of enemies just above the players' level.

Each group of mobs, when defeated and searched, will have a note or other clue on them that will eliminate at least one of the OTHER levers from contention (e.g., the mobs triggered by lever 4 may have a note eliminating lever 2). Note that, due to the enemies' levels, the whole point is that if the players keep guessing wrong, they'll end up dead before they run out of wrong choices.

Attempting to rest in the room will result in the timer going off within 6 hours (let's say, d4+2, which is not enough for a full rest/spell recovery)...and all of the dead mobs will spring back to life (not undead, just cursed to be here and keep rezzing over and over and over -- a high-difficulty Lore check could reveal that certain kingdoms that were stamped out many centuries ago did this as a way to have a neverending supply of gladiators -- These poor creatures have simply gone mad from centuries of being trapped in there). Unless the players are well-hidden, the mobs will all attack them. If they are well-hidden, the mobs will gather up any loot, re-light any torches that fell (so THAT'S why they're still lit after all this time!), and return to their original hiding places. Either way, the levers will all flip back up.

[Kittish]

In one room, you could have inscribed tiles, with a safe path through the room which also unlocks the exit upon completion. Near the entrance where they come in could be some clue as to which symbols are safe to step on, any other tile triggers a hurtful but not immediately lethal trap. Step on too many wrong tiles and eventually it will kill them. Just eating the damage and running across the room won't help, because they didn't unlock the exit by following the path.

Maybe in another room, there's a book with a riddle in it (pick some hoary old chestnut that the players might be familiar with). There's also a pile of stuff, and the riddle gives a clue about which item in the pile unlocks the next door. The one about the hunter walking a mile north, two miles east, running down and stabbing a bird for his dinner then walking a mile south to get back home comes to mind. What color was the bird? The clue there is for some black and white item. Catch is, if they try too many wrong items, the room fills with water or something. Be sure to include one or more items that look like the obvious choice based on the riddle (for example a spear and a feather for the riddle I mentioned) that are not the correct choice.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Have four levers to open the far door. The levers all start in the down position. They have to be flipped up in binary counting order until they are all up. Like this
0=down, 1=up
0001
0010
0011
0100
0101
etc.
You can provide some sort of clue if you wish. Maybe in the form of a wall engaving.

[dalesys]

You are in a room of flipping levers, all alike...

Fill barrel with some of the grain, pack the rest for grainola (or ratbert bait). Hang on lever ?X?. Knock Goldilocks hole (just right) in bottom of barrel. As grain runs out (if you put all the grain in, the barrel just sits on the floor), the lever rises from 33%. At 66% the door opens, at 83% a portcullis drops. Hopefully, your improv lifetimer runs long enough so you can cross the room, but not so long that the thin man who speaks in SMALL CAPS appears to speak with you.

[mjr]

Math puzzles and logic puzzles are always good...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_puzzle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Logic_puzzles

[lordlundar]

So I guess this means anything in the Grimtooth's collection is right out then?

[Akasa]

What about some wheels with symbols on it. You can only see the symbol you need to match on the top of the wheel with the symbols on the wheel in torch light. And the torch has to be close to see the symbol. The symbol doesn't need to be large, and maybe you not only need torch light, but a perception check.

Once all the wheels are in the proper place the door opens.

[Nunavut Pants]

There are always the Sphinx-type riddles. Some really powerful critter asks the players a riddle, if they answer it they are free to go and if not they get eaten. (Or at least attacked!)

Tiles on the wall in a Fibonacci series, picking the correct next tile in the series rewards the players while picking wrong punishes them. (E.g., key behind the correct one, poison needle trap behind the wrong ones.)

How about a big rolling bolder, a la Raiders of the Lost Ark? Triggered by a player (the "Lovable Rogue", naturally!) grabbing some tasty-looking loot from a specific location. That one winds up with the players crushed or running, possibly being able to make a turn to get out of the way of the boulder or maybe (if they are small) ducking into a corner so the boulder only brushes them or hits with moderate impact for less damage.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Just had this thought. If you are known for puzzle rooms, have a room that looks like a puzzle, but isn't. If you're really nasty, solving the puzzle actually locks them in the room.

[mjr]

Just had this thought. If you are known for puzzle rooms, have a room that looks like a puzzle, but isn't. If you're really nasty, solving the puzzle actually locks them in the room.

And the only way to get out is the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch...

[Kit-Ginevra]

Check out Knightmare on Youtube.That had some fabulous puzzles-often there was a clue room,and getting riddles right would give you information as to which items to take with you-do you take a jewel or a glove?-and it sometimes wouldn't be till much later that you found you had the wrong thing...
I loved that as a kid-racing home on Friday afternoons to see it!

[Mytical]

Thanks for the ideas. Will use them in the future, as they have passed the tests right now. May even use some of the more dangerous tests for the grand finale which they are approaching.

[Crossbow]

So I guess this means anything in the Grimtooth's collection is right out then?

Any of my contributions would be, anyway...

[ApolloSZ]

In a nod to a friend of mine and a challenge he introduced me to for work places (said friend is Deaf, and the challenge/experience is to wear ear muffs for ten minutes and try communicating at work, to simulate what a Deaf person experiences) - They get into a room with a trap/puzzle that requires group co-ordination (so it will need communication) how ever, its sound-deadened/they're magically deaf in that room, so cannot just talk/shout across the room.