Puzzles in Dungeons.

>>49512248
puzzles normally are useless because it tests the players and not the characters so it become a problem when the players cannot solve it or when they solve it but there are only stupid characters in the party.

It can be done, but I believe it would be more rewarding to do a simple quest, even just a fetch quest to complete the red key to open the red door.

A good puzzle in my opinion would be something that requires knowledge of the world they play in.
For example, if you play CoC, and a player know a detail because he read the books, that is a good "puzzle" in my opinion.

>>49512248
>>49513436

I just had my first session as a DM last night and built what was essentially a test dungeon both for my own skills, my players, and their characters. I had a puzzle that involved objects related to some gods needing to be placed in the hands of a statue and a riddle to help tease out the solution and alternative solutions. It was completely optional and they could have advanced without solving it, but there was a motif of the Ioun (the goddess of knowledge, prophecy and skill) throughout the dungeon and thus the puzzle itself was integrated into the overall narrative. The various objects and solutions I am using to foreshadow and plant story seeds.

It was very difficult to make a genuine dungeon puzzle not break immersion and feel like it belonged. Barring a situation like that where a person/thing in the narrative specifically builds a puzzle as a test, or a mad wizard being obtuse for the sake of it, they don't make much sense.

>>49513819
That sounds pretty cool anon. Is a rare sight to have a GM that puts that much effort on the game.

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>>49512248
Related to your choice of image:

>>49513862

We spent about 2ish years playing with my brother as a DM and he's my best friend and I love him but he is an awful DM and I had little to no fun just about every session.

The effort I am putting into this is my form of rebellion. I'm playing with the same players as the other group and I want to give them the kind of experience that we never got to have.

>>49513879
that is a WoD character.

>>49513908
well anon, more power to you, at least you have a GM.

Last time I tried to play I reunited my old party in my birthday as are the only ones I can play with, and after sitting on the table and hearing a small intro to the game, started talking about everything else except the game to the point that I could not play at all.

The party was great but I wanted to play.

>>49512248
To stay on topic, the puzzles I like are the ones where the party need to everything at their disposal to survive.

For example one time the party was trapped in a room with a huge stone door and the GM let us there to try and get out. We had no idea on how to, the DM didn't either, but after an hour fo trying everything we managed to get out and was one of the most satisfying puzzle I ever played in a role playing game.

No fights, no spells (or not too much), just tools we had in ours sheets, racial abilities and normal skills.

So a little story about puzzles and how not to do them.

>Playing d&d
>the dm railroads and is inexperienced, but this is normal
>we start in a dungeon with puzzles and it leads to this, cause magic
>scene: 20 square foot of floor, hovering in darkness, looking over the edge In the black misty void you can hear screams of agony and terror, 3 white glowing portals float at varying distances away from the platform.
>characters; some kinda sneak ranger or sum shit, me. Some kinda asshole fighter pirate. A cleric. And something else I can't remember
>Crack a rod of daylight, so we can see where we stand
>Drop a dagger off the side, it falls and disappears
>reach under the platform
>running leap with rope tied around me through the closest portal
>this spits me out the middle portal, now I'm dangling over void while others hold me up
>climb up and stand on the edge of a portal half in both portals, I don't know how
>this and an talking of theories everyone has been trying to figure out what was going on for about an hour and a half irl.
>one of them gets tired of it and decides to jump over the edge
>doesn't fall cause magic
>"it was suppose to be a leap of faith"

It depends on how it is executed.

Sometimes a description, even a very clear and detailed one, isn't going to be feasible to solve because the picture the description creates in a mind's eye could be different from player to player and especially the GM's original thought of it.

Riddles are just lame in my opinion.

But a puzzle with a visual aid, like a diagram of the room and the components of the puzzle, can work well.

The only type of puzzle I ever like to use is one where they fight stuff of they get it wrong and after that can continue on.

Puzzles that stop the adventures if you can't figure it out are shit