I want to put some puzzles into my players' campaign, but I'm not sure how. Can anyone give me some example puzzles and how they work?

Well, that depends.

I like to do social puzzles, murder mysteries, and whodunits. I also throw in lock boxes and strange devices that have to be operated in a specific pattern to work. Let the players try to figure it out, but offer the occasional dice roll to offer a hit or three. Be careful about putting in a puzzle and expecting the players to "break a rule" of the puzzle in order to solve it. A previous GM of mine did that and the player group spent A FREAKING MONTH of real time trying to solve it over and over again.

We haven't let him GM since, and it still has painful memories of session after boring session.

Try to use visual aids along with verbal descriptions to help the various types of learners. Also listen to what type of puzzles your players enjoy.

I'm thinking back to various console RPGs I've played that had puzzle encounters. It can be trickier in a table top, because the characters have limitless options.

GM: There's a console that will open the door to next room if you tap the colored bars in the correct sequence.

Slicer: O.K. I slice into the programming and override the controls.

GM: Don't you want to try and solve the puzzle?

Players: Pshh!

Granted, this example pushes the suspension of disbelief. I mean who has a security system that's "anyone" able to solve a puzzle can open? Then again, it might be an eccentric inventor who sets up a weird set of puzzles and offers his latest device as a prize for whoever solves it.

FangGrip posted as I was typing, and making sure it's something the players enjoy is key. You might consider using actual puzzle games in place of dice rolls. For example, if my friend Jason were to play, and he were a slicer, instead of rolling dice, I'd give him a Soduku puzzle and 3 minutes to solve it. He'd most likely be done in a minute, 55 seconds, but sometimes he gets stuck.

I think the problem in FangGrip's example is partly the difficulty of the puzzle, and the stalling of all other action because it couldn't be solved. There's no problem with having a really tough puzzle, if there's incentive to do it, but not if it holds the game up. If you have something that difficult, let there be a way that the players can come back to it later, perhaps after finding a helpful clue or gaining some new insight while adventuring.

Another angle would be a puzzle that requires the player characters' skill and knowledge rather than the players. Say they find a medical lab where a Doctor had been trying to find a treatment for his own degenerative condition. The condition worsened just as he was near completing his research, so he put himself in stasis (carbon freeze?) with the controls connected to his analysis computer. He needs to receive a certain genetic code to correct the problem (yes, it's sounding like the Lizard in Spider Man) The code should not be from a race that is included in the party, because they could just each scan a blood sample and solve the puzzle.

A Doctor could spend some time analyzing the existing data, which the computer was able to compile a little better in the interim, so as not to make it seem like years of research was finished in a few dice rolls. If they find the correct sequence, they then have to find a blood donor, bring a sample back, and put it in the machine. Simply overriding the control to release the doctor would result in his death soon after being released.

Now, you'll need to provide incentive for the players to do it. If you have a more noble group, no problem. But in most cases, you will have to make it "profitable" to do so. Perhaps he is the only one with information they need. He may be a bounty acquisition and "he's no good to me dead." Personally, I am not above enacting a little meta-gaming by saying "well there's a room full of medical gear you can loot, but there's also a puzzle here that is worth bonus XP."

I think the problem in FangGrip's example is partly the difficulty of the puzzle, and the stalling of all other action because it couldn't be solved. There's no problem with having a really tough puzzle, if there's incentive to do it, but not if it holds the game up. If you have something that difficult, let there be a way that the players can come back to it later, perhaps after finding a helpful clue or gaining some new insight while adventuring.

You have no idea. It was a chess puzzle, but he wouldn't set out the puzzle with an F-ING chess board. And the win condition meant we had to cheat at chess.

ARARRRRGH!

Still pisses me off everytime I think about it.

Oh, and if we guess wrong our party had to ride down an F-ing underground river and then trek back days in game.

Sorry, just venting.

Puzzles can be awesome... or terrible. My group rotates between 3 GMs and one of them is so good at providing puzzles that she's inspired the rest of us to try to up our game.

At the other end of the spectrum, the worst puzzle I was involved in was in a D&D (2nd edition) game. The puzzle involved statues representing the 8 schools of magic and aligning them in a room so they were opposed to one another. Not terribly challenging... except the DM was a new DM so he refused to tell us the schools of magic when they PLAYERS couldn't remember them. We argued that our characters (there were two magic-using types in the party) WOULD know the schools, but he refused to allow for character knowledge.

Every wrong combo of statues did Hit Point damage, so eventually, we just started placing stuff randomly and hoped for the best.

The DM was a great player, but had a steep learning curve as a DM. He also refused to let the players have a cartload of hay (which we intended to possibly set fire to and push toward undead), yet the townsfolk of the FARMING COMMUNITY we were in gave us a bunch of low-end magic items and potions. So the FARMING COMMUNITY had access to magic, but no access to hay. Awesome.

The DM was a great player, but had a steep learning curve as a DM. He also refused to let the players have a cartload of hay (which we intended to possibly set fire to and push toward undead), yet the townsfolk of the FARMING COMMUNITY we were in gave us a bunch of low-end magic items and potions. So the FARMING COMMUNITY had access to magic, but no access to hay. Awesome.

Wait...really? No hay? So...no dried grass as food for horses, or cows, or pigs?

Was there a drought recently? Perhaps a plague of hay eating vultures that descended from on high?

Oh well, everybody has a learning curve as a GM.

You have no idea. It was a chess puzzle, but he wouldn't set out the puzzle with an F-ING chess board. And the win condition meant we had to cheat at chess.

ARARRRRGH!

Still pisses me off everytime I think about it.

Oh, and if we guess wrong our party had to ride down an F-ing underground river and then trek back days in game.

Sorry, just venting.

I'm going to print this to show my players when they complain that I'm being too heavy handed.

The DM was a great player, but had a steep learning curve as a DM. He also refused to let the players have a cartload of hay (which we intended to possibly set fire to and push toward undead), yet the townsfolk of the FARMING COMMUNITY we were in gave us a bunch of low-end magic items and potions. So the FARMING COMMUNITY had access to magic, but no access to hay. Awesome.

That definitely seems to be a reflection of being inexperienced as a DM. After all, he knows the stats for magic items, but hay? How do you stat burning hay? I usually have the opposite problem. I put things in the environment to use for problem solving, but there's usually one player who has a magic item (or modern contraption), awarded by another player who GM'ed one session, and which completely negates the challenge I had set up.

Puzzles are hard to do. I've found that often it's either to simple, or if I make it hard, we just dead end if the players can't figure it out, and I have to give them the answer.

My general philosophy is don't make a puzzle required for a task that you absolutely need to be done in order to advance your plot.

Puzzles are hard to do. I've found that often it's either to simple, or if I make it hard, we just dead end if the players can't figure it out, and I have to give them the answer.

My general philosophy is don't make a puzzle required for a task that you absolutely need to be done in order to advance your plot.

You can also give puzzles that are required, but do not have a time component. I gave a encoded list of names, locations, and other details to the players as part of the plot. I then continued the plot as they poked at it over time. The list was a list of names of victims. Every one they discovered in game was another clue, and eventually they solved it.

The Old WEG adventure "The Isis coordinates" (WEG40036) has a couple of tile based puzzles. They could easily be used in any game or situation.

I know places like Barnes and Noble have puzzles, you could buy them, figure them out, then have players use skill rolls to help them out. Even the classic Tower of Hanoi could be used. One time i even used a " Lights out " handheld game as a way to unlock a security door. The players LOVED it

But I agree, leave it as an option, don't have it as a dead end. Too often a player will "Take over" and start fiddling, while others are left out to twiddle thier thumbs. Or some players will not care for the puzzle. Like for the WEG game mentioned above, the first puzzle was a door control to prevent the evacuation of a needed cargo in a hold. you could still lump the boxes, and maybe reprogram some binary load lifters, or find some other way to move the cargo from the hold. or you could spend the 2 hours in game time and fiddle with the controls.

I think the problem in FangGrip's example is partly the difficulty of the puzzle, and the stalling of all other action because it couldn't be solved. There's no problem with having a really tough puzzle, if there's incentive to do it, but not if it holds the game up. If you have something that difficult, let there be a way that the players can come back to it later, perhaps after finding a helpful clue or gaining some new insight while adventuring.

You have no idea. It was a chess puzzle, but he wouldn't set out the puzzle with an F-ING chess board. And the win condition meant we had to cheat at chess.

ARARRRRGH!

Still pisses me off everytime I think about it.

Oh, and if we guess wrong our party had to ride down an F-ing underground river and then trek back days in game.

Sorry, just venting.

I have used puzzles in my games, the best ones are word riddles that lead to locations. For example when they arrived on a planet I made certain they where aware of names of a few establishments, then there was a riddle that they solved and the answer was one of the the establishments they wrote down. They were super excited when they put it together ran raced off to the location.

**** . . . my hubris demands I post in this topic.

A year or so ago my buddies and I wanted to start up an Earthdawn campaign. Not sure if any of you fine folk are familiar with it, but in the Earthdawn system your character is an Adept, a magic user, and even if you choose to be a Fighter, the idea is that you are simply honing your magic to be better at fighting. Think Jedi in Star Wars, but different ways of honing the force.

Anyways, so everybody made their character, chose their "Class" (We had a Thief, Scout, so on . . . ), and then I (As their primary DM throughout the years) took their character sheets and handed them new ones based on what they made. The idea was that they were all still "human", none of them were actually Adepts (Force Sensitive as it were since we're on the Star Wars Forums). They dug this idea and couldn't wait to earn themselves Adept status. Although, Adepts are born, so they were curious about this. I simply explained to them that I was running a human campaign, and them choosing what kind of Adept was merely a Guideline for me as to what they wanted to see in this campaign (I rolled Bluff and passed my check.)

So, a few weeks into the campaign they came across some ruins and saw 12 statues all lined around. Of course they went into PUZZLE SOLVING mode and did, in fact, solve the puzzle. It unlocked a small hatch that led deeper into the ruins.

Inside they came across a large, dormant machine and 4 rooms, each displaying 1 of the elements. Each room had a 'real life' puzzle. In other words, puzzles I handed to them, as players, and gave a time limit to. For example, the water puzzle room was your classic 5 gallon / 3 gallon-give-me-4-gallons-and-you-have-2-minutes-to-solve-it-before-you-drown puzzle. Note: It killed 2 of my players.

Anyways, with those two dead, the rest of the rooms were solved fairly easily. Each time they solved a room they were granted with a handful of True X, where X = the element they solved. (True Elements are amazing in Earthdawn).

Now, I have a tradition in my games to play the song from Community (/watch?v=wCBTJZPo6ZE) when a player dies and I ask for their character sheet. So as the two players died in the water puzzle, I did so and took their character sheets. I also informed them I was afraid this was going to be a TPK and had a song set up for that occasion. We were using the Game of Thrones theme as our intro song when talking about "previously on . . .", so I thought it only fit for a TPK wipe song from GoT.

As they got all 4 True Elements and placed it in the machine in the middle of the ruins, the machine sprang to life. Instantly it began to damage them as round after round they worked to figure out the puzzle of the machine. Little did they know, the purpose of this machine was to kill you and "rebuild" you as an Adept. So they're running around, panicked, crying, sucking thumbs, when as each of them dies I play the song and take their character sheet as tradition for years of RPG's dictates.

When the last one died, I began to play this song: (Start at 1:42 for effect)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNpUnUBhURY&t=1m42s

So I just sat there in disbelief as the song began to play, saying "Wow . . . I'm . . . I'm sorry guys. I don't know what to say . . . " Really just putting on a show for my players. The music droned on sad as I explained this is the TPK music, explaining to them that their characters might have been legends, but that destiny is forever changed.

At around 3:18 I changed the tone and suddenly kicked into DM mode saying "Suddenly . . . you feel something . . . a twitch, a muscle spasm . . . something . . . . . . but you feel."

As they began to perk up, curious as to what was going on, at around 3:47 I began to explain each individual "dream" the character was having (i.e. The Thief Adept was envisioning the shadows calling to him and whispering his name, the Scout was imagining the wilderness opening up to her and pointing the way, so on . . .).

After explaining an individual dream, I would hand the player the character sheet they originally made as an Adept . . . yes, even the players that died in the water puzzle room, as the machine kills you to break you, then rebuilds you.

It was a pretty epic introductory adventure all together . . . and to me? That's how you do puzzles.

Also, you might be thinking to yourself, "Well Endrek, this is a topic about Puzzles, but you didn't REALLY explain any of your puzzles, just the story."

And you would be right . . .

re: hubris

The moral of Endrek's story is to only use puzzles to kill players

I think the problem in FangGrip's example is partly the difficulty of the puzzle, and the stalling of all other action because it couldn't be solved. There's no problem with having a really tough puzzle, if there's incentive to do it, but not if it holds the game up. If you have something that difficult, let there be a way that the players can come back to it later, perhaps after finding a helpful clue or gaining some new insight while adventuring.

You have no idea. It was a chess puzzle, but he wouldn't set out the puzzle with an F-ING chess board. And the win condition meant we had to cheat at chess.

ARARRRRGH!

Still pisses me off everytime I think about it.

Oh, and if we guess wrong our party had to ride down an F-ing underground river and then trek back days in game.

Sorry, just venting.

That's from a Warehouse 13 episode... Lame

I have used puzzles in my games, the best ones are word riddles that lead to locations. For example when they arrived on a planet I made certain they where aware of names of a few establishments, then there was a riddle that they solved and the answer was one of the the establishments they wrote down. They were super excited when they put it together ran raced off to the location.

This was about six years ago, so I don't think he stole borrowed it from WH13. Still uber lame though.

I've been thinking about a puzzle to put in my upcoming EotE game at some point, but I haven't quite figured out exactly how to make it work yet.

So, the idea is this: For whatever reason, the crew needs a new computer. Maybe it's a central computer for their ship. Maybe it's a new astronav system. Maybe it's a personal computer for the group's slicer. Whatever it is, they need a new one.

The problem is, they are on a very remote world, and there are limits to what they can get. The local junk dealer only has one unit left, and it is very, very old. Like, so old that it requires translation to even use old.

What this does mechanically is upgrade the difficulty of every check they make with the new computer. However, the user (slicer, navigator, mechanic, whoever) knows they aren't using the system to its full potential because of translation issues.

Well, the issue is that the computer was designed using something weird like base 6 or base 7 instead of base 10. So, once they figure that out, the checks are not only no longer upgraded in difficulty, but they actually receive a boost die because the computers were designed by a species that was particularly competent at whatever the computer was designed to do in the first place.

This also adds a potential story hook, if the players decide to track down this species to see what other goodies they might have to upgrade their ship. Or, the species could be tracked down as a way to solve the mystery of the strange new computer system. Either way, it's a fun way to add a new species into your game.