Help with making some puzzles.

[Mytical]

Good trap for later, but as magic was dead in the area.. wouldn't have been possible magically.

[EricKei]

Myt -- Perhaps Apollo meant that there was a "Deafness"-type spell on the area, not an anti-magic zone? I suppose you COULD have both of those at once if the setting allows for a technological way to suppress sound, though

As an extreme, one could always have a setting -- or at least, a broad area -- that runs on "Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura" rules. i.e.: Where magic dominates, technology doesn't, and vice versa. At a wizard's tower: high-tech weapons will simply function as heavier versions of normal weapons; mechanical devices will lock up or simply fall apart; alchemically/scientifically created healing items will lose their ability to heal. In a tech-dominant area, such as a steampunk city or a powerful locomotive: enchanted weapons will act as if they were mundane; spells will fizzle; magic potions will effectively be colored water, etc. e.g.: One of the specific caveats to the setting is that mid-level mages who wish to take trains are confined to the caboose (so their very presence doesn't make the engine spontaneously explode or break down), and higher-level ones are forbidden entirely.

[Kittish]

Thought of another one. The key is a 3-d jigsaw puzzle, with the pieces scattered through one or more rooms leading up to the locked door. Maybe some of the pieces have been taken by denizens of the place, who will guard them fiercely. Maybe some of them are set into mosaics in the walls and/or floors. Maybe some of them are protected by traps that the players have to figure out how to get around. You could give your players an actual 3-d puzzle and have them solve it once they collect all the pieces in the dungeon. There are lots of them available, in difficulty ranges from fairly easy to diabolical.

If you wanted to use the silence trap sort of thing and there's no way to enforce it magically or mechanically, set it up so that any speaking at all in the room (even whispers) triggers one or more painful traps. Might take the players a while to figure that one out. Maybe have inscribed on the walls of the room 'Silence is golden' over and over again to give them the hint. Or alternately have so MUCH ambient noise in the room that there's no possible way they players can hear each other, even shouting right next to each other.

[ApolloSZ]

Myt -- Perhaps Apollo meant that there was a "Deafness"-type spell on the area, not an anti-magic zone? I suppose you COULD have both of those at once if the setting allows for a technological way to suppress sound, though

White-noise generators? (I think that's the term).

[dalesys]

White-noise generators? (I think that's the term).

Death metal rap polkas at 120db?