Has anyone come up with puzzles for their players?

Ime thinking of introducing maybe some riddles or maybe something more complex involving moving parts of machinery, something like that.

What do you guys have?

I'v got a few worked out as door lock type of thing i dont kown if that what you want but here one of them.

I'v got them as a powerpoint I could email them if anyone whants.

There is a Playstation platform-and-puzzle game called "Little Big Planet" that both have a very tricky soloplayer story with many puzzles, but most importantly has a lot of opportunities for the players to create their own mechanical puzzles. The system used is potentially very complex and very clever using all sorts of physics and mechanics. For example, completely functional mehanical calculators have been built using the game engine, pure porn for geeks

I've often found that the problem with using puzzles in role-play games I've ran in the past is that it was often very frustrating to the players to sit and figure out logic puzzle that "my character would have no trouble with, because he's a super-genius".

I haven't found a good work-around for the player-knowledge verses character knowledge yet, but if i do I'll let you know

Cornelius Vermuyden said:

The player can ask you a number of yes/no questions equil to his or her characters Intelegance Bonus. If still stuck, they can get more yes/no questiones answered by passing a Logic test, 1 question +1 per DoS. If they fail by 3 or more DoF, you will be unable to give them any further hints... something like that maybe?

I've been very cautious about implementing puzzles...especially with strict consequences because of the whole Player Ability vs. Character Ability. However what I have found that works well with my group are action oriented puzzles that uses some logic...incredible machine style. For example, I had players stuck on a Chaos cruiser that was preparing for warp. They had to get out, but to do so they had to operate a Chaos Teleporter - safely might I add. So I had them encounter the teleporter but reveal its dangers immediately. The puzzle is now in place and through their characters they must find the solution.

An example of a piece of the solution was a Sorceror's Amulet. A successful knowledge check or a tech use (allowing for multiple careers to participate) revealed that it produced a personal bubble that acted as a geller field when exposed to warp energies. If no character had the skills needed, they could always discover it during combat with a warp entity...the amulet would seem to shield the group, warding away the warp creatures and nullifying any warp based attack. Later they figured that they would need this to protect themselves during teleportation. The trick to making it up to the players to solve is to not tell them how it relates to the teleporter puzzle directly. Combine this with other difficulties depending on how much you like torturing your players.

Graver said:

I was thinking about something like that... problem with my players is they would just get frustrated with the logic puzzle for the door lock and just shoot the bloody thing off! *sigh*

Player-characters eh?

I once came up with a puzzle. It is a word-based puzzle. While this one was "german", I think you should be able to build a similiar on your own after this description.

Situation:
The pc found a strange decive looking similiar to a cheese cover. The heavy ground plate (which made up the "socket" was made of something looking like copper, ornamented & engraved and clearly of acient imperial design. Incorporated was a keyboard, circling the glas hemisphere. Under the glas hemisphere (which will proof resistent to simple attempts of breaking) was book the pc wanted. A low humming noise could be heared.

A very easy check on a suitable law skill made it clear that the decive was build to shield the book against the environment but would incinerate it if the "hood" was unsealed without "unlooking" the device with a password.

The pc started inspecting the keyboard, it was clear that some of the keys where used more often then the others. The keys more used (in my german variant) where

C E H N S T U

The "keyword" was Sehnsucht (which mean "longing" or "desire" in engl.)


The "trick" is to use a word where a certain letter is used twice or more often. This ensures that the players will need to think a bit.

I found a good one in an adventure module written for another game.

Basically, the PC's are trying to track down this guy who's stalking an ex-girlfriend. Using the photos he sent her on the Vox (or you could adapt it to Security tapes or something else) clues were given in each photo/video.

The cool thing about it was that all the PC's really needed to do was realize there were clues in there. (sometimes my guys wouldn't know a clue if it danced naked on a Land Raider humping Slaanesh shouting "I'm a clue! I'm a clue!") Then the rest needed particular skill roles that at least one of the characters should have. All they needed to do was suggest something like "Can I enhance that section of the frame? Reverse image it perhaps?" Make a Tech-Use Roll. Or "Can I use my Underworld Lore to see if my character knows what that symbol might be?"

When they figure it out, it leads them to several locations where they find this guy's former business associates brutally murdered, finally bringing them to his hideout which happened to be in a derelict HoloVid store/bot repair shop.