>DMing 1e >PCs are in a warlock's tomb >been nursing

>>52315620
>What is not Gold, but the closest thing to Gold?

Players never did get the answer.

>>52315719
Yellow? Silver? The King?

I did a simple math problem in the form of dividing a pile of gems into two piles of equal value. Around the room were clues to the "value" of the gems in the form of "The Pearl is twice as valuable as the Onyx" and similar statements. The party's wizard and rogue argue for close to forty-five minutes on the gold piece values of the gems.

Meanwhile the barbarian and paladin, arguably the meatheads of the group, realize the nature of the puzzle, tell the smarties to sod off, and solve the puzzle opening the treasure vault.

Shit was funny as fuck.

>>52315620
>What is delicious
The answer is 'yes'. It is a statement, not a question.
>How will you die?
"I will stop breathing" is the answer I'm looking for, but any literal, simple explanation of the body ceasing to function will work.

>>52315719
Silver, mercury, platinum, and roentgenium of course.

>>52315840
Explain the first one. Is "what" some kind of food?

This one was just with a bunch of close friends but I thought it was funny.

>Second time DM
>There was three puzzles I made.
>All the puzzles were crap.
>Party finishes the two puzzles
>The third puzzle is they have to get to the other side of the room
>Problem is their is a large curtain/net thing in the way
>Players spend about 5 to 8 minutes trying to get around it, burn it, blow it up and so on
>One player decides to lift up the curtain
>Congrats you solved puzzle 3.

>>52315719

The chest.

>>52315797
>>52315871

None of those. My players tried most of those btw.

>>52315871
No. What is a form of inquiry. Inquiry is, in and of itself, delicious. Desirable. To be savored.

>>52315719
The coin sack.

>>52315719
Hold

>>52315873
Heh, I had a similar puzzle in one of my games. Took them about 10 minutes to solve.

>>52315940
>>52315989
>>52316027
All good, but not right.

>>52315719
Old

>>52316076
Hmm....
Close to gold but not....
The light?

Semi-related.

>Party comes upon a sphinx
>must solve it's riddle to pass or just kill it, but let's humor the DM
>"I have a mouth, but never spe-"
>River. Give me another.
>"I, uh, a rich man wa-"
>Nothing. Another one.
>"Thirty-"
>Teeth. Another one.

Usually I'm frustrated by the sphinx, but this time the sphinx was frustrated with me.

>>52315719
Dragons

>>52315969

I hope you jizzed all over the table for that one.

>>52316136
>>52316141
>>52316177

Nope.

The answer is Gold. I lied about it not being Gold.

>>52316215
You fucker.

>>52316215
Eight year old lich designs dungeon: uses riddles that double as terrible jokes as the key to bypassing traps.

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>>52316215

See this is good, but to properly be a master Tomb of Horrors DM you need to disconnect actions from their logical reactions.

Punish your players for expecting a consistent logic to the world. Kill them when they act on learned patterns.

They've learned that switches are frequently hidden in alcoves where traps can be placed. The rogue is fast enough to dodge a trap in an alcove, so make the alcove an orb of annihilation instead.

Make the puzzle do nothing. If they guess correctly a trap goes off. The door isnt' even real, it's just carved into the wall.

This is how a master puzzlesmith works.

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>>52316215

Idiots make puzzles hard.
Normies make puzzles impossible.
Geniuses make puzzles not even puzzles.

>>52316215
Lying is antithetical to puzzles. That's not a puzzle, it's just a lie.

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I feel like if I were to introduce puzzles into a game, I would have referenced the solution either earlier in the dungeon, or in the events leading up to the party entering the dungeon.

Sure, they wouldn't really be thinking problems, more like memory tests, but at least my party wouldn't have to deal with my particular brand of logic.

>>52315620
Is this post pasta, or just pure, concentrated Reddit?

>>52315620
Tbh I did something similar. Has 8 statues with metal handles attached to them in front of a door. You could use the handles to turn the statue but ever quarter turn you took electrical damage. 20 minutes of Mike Pencing my players until they even thought to try the door.

I made a very simple pattern puzzle as the entrance to the dungeon.
4 sets of 3 symbols. You turn the blocks until they line up, then it unlocks.
The last panel showing the symbols was broken, so you had to logic the pattern based on what had followed, or just brute force it by trying every combination because there were only 4 symbols total.
After 30 minutes of fucking around I just gave it to them and let them through.
It was the last puzzle I tried with any group. They just don't work with most players.
You give them a locked door and a key, and they will try everything except put the key in the lock and turn it.

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>You enter the front door of the Mage's Tower and step into a grand hall.
>Four pillars stand flanking the path towards a large double door in the back of the tiled hall.
>On either side of each pillar stands a simple clay sculpture of a robed figure, the sculpture is too simple to make out any recognizable features.
>There are two very large suits of armor standing on the left and right walls.
>There are three doors on the back wall a simple wooden door on the left and right, with a central door that is bolted closed with four seals and marked with four symbols.
>Upon the walls are some tapestries and a bear fur with a singed rear left paw.
>Upon each pillar is one of the symbols marked upon the door.

>As you step onto the tile floor, all four suits of armor begin to animate, lifting their swords as they approach you menacingly.
>Startled, you back out the door, raising your weapon. After a moment, the suits of armor stop pursuing you and return to their positions.

What is the one solution to enter the tower unharmed?

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>>52320314

>>52322067
Nuke it from orbit. The only way to be sure.

>>52322067
Now the seals are throwing me for a bit of a loop, but I'm thinking you just hop in on your right foot.

Is this entire thread just pretentious GMs who want to appear intelligent and waste the time and efforts of the players ?
I mean come on, one trap-puzzle can be fine, but an entire adventure where "AHAH ! You just did what made sense, you die !" is not very fair, isn't it ?

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>>52322120
>Nuke it from orbit. The only way to be sure.
Were that a possibility, one might assume a Mage of this power level would have anti-nuclear countermeasures equipped to their Tower.
But the approach is a sound tactic, nonetheless.

>>52315719
>>52316215
This puzzle is terrible, because it is basically unsolvable (unless the context helps somehow: e.g. it's in the temple of the God of Lies). The answer is gold, arbitrarily. It may as well be Beetlejuice.

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>>52322172
>Now the seals are throwing me for a bit of a loop, but I'm thinking you just hop in on your right foot.

>As you hop onto the tile floor, all four suits of armor begin to animate, lifting their swords as they approach you menacingly.
>The suits of armor loudly clank and creak as they approach, raising their swords to attack.

>>52322178
What gave it away?

>>52322209
The entire thread. I'm just amazed at how petty GMs are here.

>>52315719
A comma?

>>52322067
Cast Dispel Magic

>>52322208
Alright, clearly not the right way to approach, backing up.

I dunno, I'm stumped. I'd run in as fast as I could and push the clay figures over to break them out of some petty spite.

>>52322067
Wait, why are there four suits of armor? You said there were only two.

>>52322067
You have already entered the tower unharmed

>>52322178

The guy sucking his own dick cause he killed the party didn't tip you off?

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>>52322266
>Wait, why are there four suits of armor? You said there were only two.

>>There are two very large suits of armor standing on the left and right walls.
>Two on the right, two on the left. Two plus two equals?
(Ooh! a riddle within a riddle!)

>>52322261
>I'd run in as fast as I could and push the clay figures over to break them out of some petty spite.

>You run directly down the center of the room, reawakening the suits of armor.
>As you run past one of the interior sculptures, you smack the first one, spitefully.
>Your attack breaks the sculpture.
>Within is revealed the Mage!

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>>52322320
>Upon another look, it is clearly not the mage, but a simulacrum of the mage.
>It is holding a strange wand and seems intensely focused and does not respond to anything you do.
>The closest suit of armor approaches closer as the mage stands concentrating.

>>52322266
>There are two very large suits of armor standing on the left and right walls.
i think he meant two for each wall, but yeah it reads like that

>>52322320
don't be a faggot, just admit you made a mistake

>>52322067
>What is the one solution to enter the tower unharmed
Be the mage of course.

>>52322285
>>52322320
>>52322330
This was a serious answer. You have already entered the tower unharmed. Progressing further is the problem.

>>52322330
Take wand, break wand.

Punch mage as required.

>>52315719
Fools?

>>52315719

Merchants. Or Dragons. Really depends on where the gold is, in all honesty.

I find it hard to believe, that any self respecting DM would include puzzle rooms in his game.
I mean if you want puzzles go play fucking zelda. All these floors with letters, switches and piles to be sorted are so fucking video-gamey.
You are able to create real mysteries to be solved through plot, you don't need colour sequences.

>>52315840
Candy. Candy is delicious.

>>52322344
>don't be a faggot, just admit you made a mistake
I posted a line of text that could be interpreted as two or four suits of armor with a picture of four suits of armor.
I feel okay about it.

>>52322285
>You have already entered the tower unharmed
>>52322362
>This was a serious answer. You have already entered the tower unharmed. Progressing further is the problem.
Technically true.
It is also technically true that you can jump into a volcano and be unharmed, until you fall close to the lava.

>>52322372
>Take wand, break wand.
>Punch mage as required.
>Your attack is harmlessly deflected by a magic barrier.
>Perhaps you could try a different kind of attack?
>Perhaps using a different form of energy?

>>52322347
>Be the mage of course.
I... cannot fault this solution as the Mage knows the one solution to enter the tower proper unharmed.
Welcome home.

>>52322427
Use fire/cold/electricity/the moon to attack the clay statues

>>52322444
Yeah, I was wondering about the magic system. It'd be kinda rad if the main forms of elemental damage are Fire, Cold, Electricity, and Moloch.

>>52322444
think that last one is supposed to be a biohazard symbol, probably for acid.

>>52322427
But that anon is onto something. However, I am a monk. So the only option is to sunder all the suits of armor while the casters shit otu their elements onto the clay statues.

>>52322330
I examine the want. Is it a wand of cold, acid, fire, thunder?

I think I'd try and kill the simulacrum and return the wand to the clay figure on the pillar with the symbol corresponding to the wand type.

If the simulacrum is too strong to take on, I'll let it fire on the appropriate clay figure and try to dodge.

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>>52322444
>Use fire/cold/electricity/acid to attack the clay statues
>Your matching attacks break the sculptures.
>Magical energy erupts from within the outer sculptures and is absorbed into the nearest pillar.
>The three remaining inner sculptures shatter to reveal simulacrums.
>As the outer statues break, the magic barriers fall.

>>52322415

It is a game though. The real problem with puzzles is they don't treat it like a game.

ToH Three Chests makes sense as something Acererak would do to fuck on people trying to break into his house, but this isn't actually Acererak's.

The real problem with shit like this is the "guess what color i'm thinking of" element like this stupid door wizard shit above, or they subvert the player's understanding of the world's logic.

Which is betraying the player's trust in the DM to honestly relay information about the world to them. Three Chests is a clever thing for an actual lich to do, but in a game it's basically "fuck you for behaving rationally"

>>52322468
>acid
>biohazard
The symbol for "corrosive" is a little test tube pouring acid on a hand, not a biohazard symbol.

>>52322497
The stupid part with convoluted game-y "shoot the right kind of energy at the right pillar" solutions is nobody is gonna do that shit every time they walk in their front door. Maybe hustle across to a mystic altar and scribe a couple runes in the air to deactivate your wards or whatever, but hopping on only ye tiles marked with a glyph of the Waxing Moon is a hot load of bullshit you'll be taking out after a damn week.

>>52322468
>think that last one is supposed to be a biohazard symbol, probably for acid.
Got it.

>>52322444
>the moon
>>52322464
>Moloch.
Better ideas.

>>52322513
>The symbol for "corrosive" is a little test tube pouring acid on a hand, not a biohazard symbol.
Oh sure, that's sooo magical.
heh
Yeah no, I settled on mediocre, not gonna lie.


>>52322468
>I am a monk. So the only option is to sunder all the suits of armor while the casters shit otu their elements onto the clay statues.
>The monk's efforts keep the suits at bay while the casters cast.
>The monk's attacks do not destroy the suits, despite being formidable.

>>52322483
>I examine the want. Is it a wand of cold, acid, fire, thunder?
>Using your superior identification skill, you can tell it is a custom made wand used to control a construct.

>I think I'd try and kill the simulacrum and return the wand to the clay figure on the pillar with the symbol corresponding to the wand type.
>Now that the others have lowered the magic barrier, your (presumably appropriate type) attack fells the simulacrum.
>It falls to the floor and as it drops the wand, the suit of armor collapses.
>Magical energy erupts from both the fallen simulacrum and the suit of armor and is absorbed into the pillar.
>The pillar seems somehow weaker.

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>>52322562
>the suit of armor collapses.

>>52322562
Use each wand to control the armors, make them bring down the pillars

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>>52322648
>Use each wand to control the armors, make them bring down the pillars
>The pillar cracks and shatters under the might of your construct's attack.
>Upon the pillar’s destruction, one of the bolted seals snaps and dissolves.
>As the final pillar is destroyed, the final bolted seal on the double door snaps and dissolves.

>You are distracted from this, however, as the heavy stone ceiling supported by the pillars comes crashing down upon you.
>Rocks fall and everyone dies.

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>>52322669
>>Rocks fall and everyone dies.
Just kidding.
You're badass adventurers.

>Shaking off death’s embrace, you approach the double doors, now unsealed.
>As they are now completely undefended, you open them.
>Behind them you find…
>A solid wall. No magic, no trick, no secret. Just a wall.

>>52316215
8 would have gone with "glitter"

>>52322676
Well, try the other two doors.

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>>52322676
As the monk, I will handle this, flurry of blows style.

You're already demolished.

>>>/qst/

Also, I hope there's an easier way to get past the puzzle. Nobody would want to do this shit everytime they came home. Also why would you make it solveable by but you? Defeats the purpose really, unless that's just how magic works.

>>52322676
>>52322562
>>52322487
>>52322330
>>52322320
"Speak, friend, and enter" makes sense, because it means an elf can get in the secret entrance within 30 seconds, and if he's being chased by a thousand goblins he can get away scott free.

"destroy the clay figures (that he has to remake) by pushing them over with lots of effort, in order to reveal the wands to use magic on four different statues in order to proceed" is not a good security measure especially when you're being chased by a mob and need to get back in your tower to get your big mob-smashing stave out RIGHT NOW.

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>>52322722
>As the monk, I will handle this, flurry of blows style.
>You're already demolished.
>Your power attack destroys a wall several feet thick.
>Breaking through, you find yourself... outside, standing behind the tower.

>>52322721
>Well, try the other two doors.
>You open the left wooden door and find a simple storage room filled with cleaning supplies and a small locked chest.
>Inside the chest you find four wands: A Firebolt wand, an Acid Arrow wand, a Ray of Frost wand, and a Lightning wand as well as four matching bracers, suitable for being worn by a monk.
>These might have aided those with neither magic of their own nor the insight to use the suits against the defenses themselves.

>You open the right wooden door and find a simple stone stairwell leading up to the next floor of the tower.

>>52322731
HERE is an example of a good puzzle security systems.
>Inside the mage's tower, a long narrow bridge over a spiked pit, door on the other side. A 5 foot wooden staff with a metal ring on the end is on a hook by the entrance. When the far door is interacted with (touched, pushed, pulled) the last 50 feet swing down and drops everyone into the pit.
>High perception: parts of the spikes on one side are discoloured, where a faint breeze is coming from.
There's an invisible path off to the side into the wall on the right, above where the spikes are discoloured. The wizard would use the wooden staff to find the invisible path and just walk into his tower.

>>52322770
This is a quest thread in disguise now?

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>>52322770
>You climb the stairwell.
>Doubtlessly alerted by your lengthy battle with the clanking suits of armor, the mage has left the tower.
>He has had time to expend extensive necromantic magicks and has left his lieutenant behind, fully buffed and supported by powerful undead creations, to ambush your party.
>Even if you survive this climactic battle, your prey has escaped you for now.

>>52322726
>I hope there's an easier way to get past the puzzle. Nobody would want to do this shit everytime they came home
>>52322731
>"destroy the clay figures (that he has to remake) by pushing them over with lots of effort, in order to reveal the wands to use magic on four different statues in order to proceed" is not a good security measure
Indeed.

>Racing directly to the right door and up the stairs, without pausing to fight the suits of armor, you find the mage caught completely unaware and away from his wand. You defeat him quickly and overcome his tower’s defenses relatively easy with him at your mercy.
>You have found the solution to the door and entered unharmed.
Well done.

>>52322726
>>>>/qst/
>>52322781
>This is a quest thread in disguise now?
Welp, there's a waifu >>52322786
So I guess so, sorry.

>>52322786
Hey, you just asked us how to get in unharmed, not unheard.

>>52322808
So, how does the mage get into and out of the tower?

Please don't say "he uses a different route", because he's dumb for having this route lead in at the first place.

>>52322808
I though of this same thing, but wouldn't the suit of armor just chop your head off as you went past?

>Cathedral crypt.
>Cathedral is centre of theocratic city.
>Party breaks in because the cleric kept getting visions about it.
>Le ol' teleport puzzle, gotta figure the right sequence to proceed.
>Let them skip the 2 hours worth of messing around to get enough information.
>Crypt consists of a 3x3 grid, each square with a different sarcophagus and name on it.
>Sign near entrance states, "This is dedicated to those who follow the WAY of [INSERT GOD NAME HERE]."
>All they had to do was take the route where the first letter of each name would spell WAY.
>E.g. Will Irongut -> Anna Fairmaiden -> Yvonne d'Aubigne.
>Spent 30 mins until they caved in and begged to just INT/WIS roll it.

>>52322899
This puzzle is kinda difficult though. I mean, it's kinda obvious in hindsight (and acronyms are often one of the first things I try) but unless they get that idea quickly it'd take them a lot of time

>>52322817
>Hey, you just asked us how to get in unharmed, not unheard.
Good point.
If you survive the climactic battle "unharmed", you will have found another technical solution.
Good luck.

>>52322823
>So, how does the mage get into and out of the tower?
He walks briskly past the suits of armor before they reach him, enters the right hand door, and goes up the stairs.
As soon as the person leaves the room, the suits return to their original spots.

>>52322834
>I though of this same thing
Good thinking.

>but wouldn't the suit of armor just chop your head off as you went past?
First, not if you're a badass adventurer.
Second:
>all four suits of armor begin to animate, lifting their swords as they approach you menacingly.
The words "begin" and "approaching" were intended to convey "slowly menacing".
If you're quick, you can get by with no trouble.
But everything about the room is desgned to make you pause.
Besides, the suits are an alarm, not a defense.

>>52322925
That's the problem with designing puzzles, the solution always seems simple to the designer.

Locked door and a puzzle? That's OK I've got my adamantine zweihander.

>>52322925
>it's kinda obvious in hindsight but unless they get that idea quickly it'd take them a lot of time
"Clever GM Puzzles" in a nutshell.
This is why all puzzles should have multiple possible solutions as well as be able to be broken.

Here's a puzzle for you guys, give an example of a puzzle dungeon done right.

>>52323030
>Locked door and a puzzle? That's OK I've got my adamantine zweihander.
>The fighter casts "Knock".

>>52323047
What about mine? >>52322067
Complex, but solvable puzzle with an ultimately practical purpose.

The purpose of the puzzle itself is too often overlooked.
This is why most puzzles, aside from the "testing the character's worth" puzzles, are nonsensical.

>>52323003
See, that's also a poor defense, because it doesn't trap people going for the obvious "blitz it" strategy.

If I were a the mage, I'd have at least locked the door, and set a safe space just around the door where the guards wouldn't attack. Then kept the key on me.

Most people attacking wouldn't solo the tower so the thief's friends would get hammered, while a single mage would be able to get past.

>>52323047
See >>52322780
for reasonable defense systems that are deadly, and yet can be figured out with reasonable guesswork.

The better sort of puzzles come about from less contained deathtraps and more turning them into monster fights.
>Kobolds have taken this spinning mechanical monstrosity apart, but it still belches fire and its parts still slash at the ground nearby, spokes that have come undone, levers and poles that manipulate it exposed.. Kobolds are atop part of it and attacking with arrows.

>>52323115
>poor defense
Well, your ass didn't figure it out, so...

>>52323147
I didn't even try. My players would have bumrushed the door straight off, though, then savagely hacked through it without even waiting to see if it opens.

>>52323036
Or be optional, with neat rewards for completing it. That is what I always do.

>>52323115
>If I were a the mage, I'd have at least locked the door
First, locking the door at the top of the stairs would have been a good idea.
Second, this was actually designed with a specific mage in mind and his weakness is a not entirely unjustified overconfidence.

>>52323235
>My players would have bumrushed the door straight off
Which door?

>>52323277
Yeah, this works much better, it doesn't actually halt the gameflow as much.

I made a dungeon once that, if mapped out, would reveal it to fit inside of a perfect rectangle, but with one spot where there was no room. The party succesfully deduced that there was likely to be a secret room there.

Of course, rather than looking for the entrance they then chose to break through the wall to get to it, but still, they solved that "puzzle".

I has a 5x5 grid of tiles with each row in a different colored tile. There were deformed stone heads along the wall on the side of the grid. The idea was that you should only step on the same colored tile, causing them to light up until the trap was triggered and you would be fine when you crossed. It was even laid out so they didn't have to move onto other tiles at all and yet they still did and got confused of how the trap worked while I was trying my best to not laugh my ass off.

>>52315719
Lead

>>52323368
Read the replies, he already gave the answer

See if you can solve this /tg/. All you need to know is that the game was set in 1850s london:

When the Hour of the Witch is Upon You
Listen to the Tarsus' Bell.
Follow the Tolls Minus Seven
In Stadium Like Romans,
Towards Helios' Sepulchre.

Look Below the Law
Where the Poor Knights Once Stood
And you Shall Find.

>>52325566
Is there a solution to this and is it possible to reach it or it's just like the douchebag with the gold puzzle?

>>52325654
I promise it's solvable and has a logical way to get there.

>>52323092
Yours was a boring piece of shit, I feel bad for player that has to run through your dungeons that are "so smart guys". I bet you spend most of your off time smelling your own farts.

>>52325566
>When the Hour of the Witch is Upon You
3AM

>Listen to the Tarsus' Bell.
Nearest I got was the Executioner's Bell

>Follow the Tolls Minus Seven
3AM minus 7 is like 8PM or -4. Even if there was the misconception of it being midnight, that gets me 5. No answer I get as a clock direction matches if North is 12, if the clock is oriented elseways, (Big Ben?) it could be any direction.
I have no idea what to do with this.

>In Stadium Like Romans,
London Colosseum fits ideologically and geographically.

>Towards Helios' Sepulchre.
St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, also known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre fits perfectly geographically. Alternatively "Sun Tomb" which is meaningless.

>Look Below the Law
>Where the Poor Knights Once Stood
These both bring me to King Bench's Walk.

>And you Shall Find.
Cerca Trova
What? I have no idea. Inner Temple Gardens?
Temple Church? For all I know I could be looking for the Thames River.

>>52328027
Although you missed a few steps, you end up arriving at the correct spot, which I find amusing. I'll see if someone else takes a guess and post the answer in a few minutes.

Also you are right, I thought the witch hour was midnight. Gonna have to correct that.

>>52327507
For future knowledge, when offering fecal metaphor as critique, it is optimal to present feces you find superior in texture, density, olfactory presence, and any other factors you find exciting so as to provide the recipients of your sagely worded criticisms the benefit of comparison and education.

>>52328027
Sun Tomb...Would it be the west? I mean, the sun sets at west. So you could go the length of the roman Colosseum towards the west?

>>52328099
>Although you missed a few steps, you end up arriving at the correct spot, which I find amusing.

Those last two clues would have been enough to get me there, but rest confirmed I was near the right spot.

>>52328192
Fellow Britfag?

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>>52328027
I forgot my pic!

>>52328124
That works as metaphor, certainly.

But of course, the sun doesn't set on the British Empire.

>>52328027
And there I was heading south from saint pauls cathedral.

>>52325566
>>52328027
>>52328099
>>52328124
>>52328288

As Promissed, the answer

>When the Hour of the Witch is Upon You
As stated before, I believed that to refer to midnight.

>Listen to the Tarsus' Bell
Saint Paul was also known as Paul of Tarsus', so the starting point should be St. Pauls cathedral

>Follow the Tolls Minus Seven
Twelve tolls for midnight minus seven is 5

>In Stadium Like Romans
Red herring but also a valid clue. Stadium (also used as Stadia in plural form), is an old unit of measurament used by greeks and romans. The punctuation is a clue here, follow 5 Stadium...

>Towards Helios Sepulchre
...Facing the direction where the sun 'dies', West. 5 stadia should be roughy 750~800 meters, or 2600 feet. So, 2,6k feet West of Saint Paul's.

>Look Below the Law
In 1850, the building in this coordinates was home to the Order of Barristers

>Where the Poor Knights Once Stood
Poor Knight's of Christ was a name of the Templar Order, who build the Temple Church and occupied the buildings around the Inner Temple Gardens. Below, in the crypts of the Temple, there are templar sarcophagus, were the figures are often 'standing'.

So the clues are meant to take the players through the crypts below the Temple Gardens connected to an old templar church

>>52328209
No, I just know my way around a clue is all.
Plus, my wife was going to go to the London School of Facial Aesthetics, so I absorbed some info from her.
Ideally, an 1850's map would have helped, but I wasn't going to put that much effort into it.

>>52320399
At least they are no longer gay

>>52328428
I should have gotten Paul of Tarsus and setting sun, but there was that other church nearby. Accidental red herrings.
Stadia. That's clever, actually.
But everyone gets the Witching Hour wrong.

>>52315620

Never DM'd but assuming I did in the future I thought it might be cool to have a dungeon that has been partially solved. Like the first half, you can see there were puzzles and traps that have already been thwarted by other adventurers, but then in the second half you see that the previous group died. And the solutions to the previous puzzles contain clues about how to deal with the challenges ahead.

>>52315719
Fools gold?

>>52319619
>>52322191
Why does the puzzle need to be solveable?

>>52322067
havent read any further yet, but if those symbols on the pillars and the door has something to do with the solution, please go kill yourself you Skyrim tier shit

>>52329803
Because you're playing with people who can punch you in the face.

>>52315719
The thief snatching the purse.

>>52315831
You stole that from Shining the Holy Ark.

Still a great puzzle, though.

>>52330102
>>52315831

sounds like something from Layton

>>52315719
Mint

>>52329655
That's actually been done before and is a decent way to introduce clues, rather than "You'll never get past my puzzle! (Here's a riddle telling you how to get past my puzzle.)

Or, like in Last Crusade, where somebody else already spent a lifetime gathering clues for you.

>>52315719
JEWS.

>>52322415
The times I've included puzzles I made sure there were reasons for them. One of them was a laboratory made by an egotistical and eccentric scientist. Another was a set of trials that were built to keep people out except for those the spirits of the place gave hints to. And the third was more a logic puzzle that was a test of faith. (You had to choose to let yourself be swept away in a set of waves crashing into the room and filling it. The lesson was "don't fight back".)

So puzzles do work, if you put a modicum of effort into justifying them.

I actually used a puzzle like this.

There was an undead worshipping death cult. Where members joined in the hopes of being worthy to become undead. The party knew this and was wandering around the cults temple hq. they find paintings, notebooks etc all detailing the path to initiation ending in the initiation ritual. The ritual involves a final question where the cultists acknowledge they are ready for the final step. The party finds the initiation chamber and my gf's cleric activates the altar and the question/riddle is asked with the pretty obvious answer of death.

She starts talking about the potential answers with her party members who are pretty much ignoring her because one of them is mentally inferior and a puzzle hating party pooper.

She answers Death. Which sets off the death trap and she fails her save and dies.

"But I got the answer right" she says, confused.

"Yes you did. And became the latest member of the death cult to sacrifice their mortal form in the hopes of returning as undead. Too bad all the necromancers are long gone."

"oh." she said as she head-desked. "oh yeah"

She was so happy to find a puzzle and get it right that she completely whiffed on why it existed and fell right into it. Everyone at the table agreed it was perfectly fair, that there was plenty of warning and she totally deserved it.

And then they took her corpse to the local druids and she got reincarnated as a goblin.

I always get worried if I put puzzles in my dungeons because although my regular group is normally a fairly smart group they seem to lose all thinking power as soon as the session starts. No critical thinking or some shit

>>52315719
The comma.

>>52340942
Oh, someone already said that, and you also already gave the answer. Time to hang myself.

>>52316215
Are you a fucking idiot? That's not even close to being a riddle or puzzle, imbecile, there is literally no way beside flat-out random luck to get the answer. The answer isn't even the answer, it could be literally anything. If you can "lie about it not being gold" then what stops you from lying about it being close to gold too? Actually, you did lie about it, since "close to gold" by itself implies that it could be anything but gold. In no universe the definition of X is going to be "closest thing to X" you useless piece of shit.

>It's not gold, but it's the closest thing to gold.
>The answer is "gold" because I lied about it being not gold xD

>It's not gold, but it's the closedt thing to gold.
>The answer is "a whale" because I lied about it being close to gold xD

Jesus christ. And you actually think it's clever, I can't fucking wrap my mind around how retarded you must be. I pity your players, I really do, they must have looked at each other and thought "what a retard, let's just move past this and not bring it up ever again", because there's no way another human being would think it was fair, logical or clever in any fucking way.

It's not a puzzle. It's not a riddle. It's not wordplay. It's not funny. It's just a plain shitty lie that wasted everyone's time.

What you did is the equivalent of:
>Pick a card from this set.
>Player picks a 9 of diamonds.
>Oops, you lose, the actual solution to this clever conundrum was to whistle a musical note and I lied and said to pick a card instead, aren't I the mastermind!!?! You just had to whistle a G sharp!! Devilish!

There's no conceptual difference between this strawman and your actual post.

Damn.

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>>52322191
>in the temple of the God of Lies

This is... actually a pretty cool idea. There are a bunch of unsolveable riddles around, but they become easy when you realize that each riddle contains a lie. Because you know you're in the house of the god of lies.

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>>52341097
Well said!

But I also like the take that one anon gave it
>An 8 year old Lich is behind all of this
This is how you would explain such a shitty would-be riddle

>>52323115
>The better sort of puzzles come about from less contained deathtraps and more turning them into monster fights.
this. adding new dynamic features to a fight is always a great idea.
i once had a 'dungeon' that was an old temple dedicated to machinery and movement, where a bunch of kobolds had taken it over and converted all of the mechanical sculptures and statues into deathtraps, most of them by pulling the sculptures off of their motors and pinning giant whirling blades on instead.
said whirling blades were positioned above the heads of the kobolds, so everybody who wasn't below like, 4' had to duck to get under and fight the kobolds

even just that one addition worked pretty well and lead to some interesting shit happening on both sides, like the kobolds using mancatchers to try to force the players into the blades and the players grappling the kobolds to lift them up.

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What is older than it's father, yet younger,
Who comes from the purest evil who draws men to slumber,
Who drains blood for the life within,
Interred within a living coffin,
And was not made through the touch of death through o'cursed of blood
Who sires not a powerful brood
For all power which lies within
Would draw mere mortal man to the abyss therin,

Whom owns land for power wrought,
yet the life of the earth nourishes him naught,
Whom feeds on kith and kin,
to store a greater power of life within,
To empower himself in gluttony and sin

Whose true form devours from beneath,
the blood mortal men is not what he seeks.

millennium is his power,
to know this is to earn his ire.

For a lord forfeit the heritage of his race,
that no pig follower could ever take his place,
to this he knew and this he stayed,
the course taken hurried but neveer swayed,
for the year of power that he chose
and to the horror of the heavens,
a new Elder Evil rose.

What kind of Vampire am I?
I bet no one can figure this out.

>>52342455
This better not be a reference to Trump, or his hair, or I'll be even more annoyed.

>>52342561
What? Fuck no, go read some Van Richten's guide to Vampires, BOVD, Libris Mortis, and DM's Bloodlines article and come back to me.

>>52342602
No.
But thank you.

I recently realized my group is unbelievably dumb. Worst thing is they're ok people and very good roleplayers, but couldn't get a puzzle even if the solution was literally slapped in their face.
Are all players dumb, /tg/? Or it's just the GM perspective that makes easy answers not equally easy on the other side?

>>52342837
>Are all players dumb, /tg/? Or it's just the GM perspective that makes easy answers not equally easy on the other side?
Yes.
The answer is never as obvious as you think it is.
But a player will spend twenty minutes overthinking a push/pull door.

>>52329803
Because then it's not a puzzle, it's nonsense.

>>52315620
Wtf, I love OSR now

>>52342837
>Or it's just the GM perspective that makes easy answers not equally easy on the other side?
It's precisely this.