D&D Puzzle Ideas for Your Next Dungeon Adventure

D&D Puzzle Ideas for Your Next Dungeon Adventure

1. The Crumbling Floor

To proceed to the subsequent space, the celebration should cross what seems to be a tiled flooring. Simple, proper?

Wrong.

There’s just one appropriate — learn: protected — path they will take. Touching any tile that isn’t a part of that path will put a participant character in peril. The unsuitable tiles crumble beneath their ft, inflicting them to fall onto spikes, into lava, or simply right into a bottomless pit. Or perhaps they continue to be intact however trigger electrical shocks. They may simply explode. It’s as much as you, actually.

Obviously, the celebration might want to determine which tiles are protected with the intention to cross. You may pressure them to make use of a trial-and-error course of, however that’s a lot much less satisfying than giving them an precise puzzle to unravel. Here are some concepts for this D&D puzzle:

• Each tile has a letter on it.
  • The gamers should spell out a selected phrase or phrase to go.
  • The letters come from completely different languages/writing programs, and solely these from a selected language or writing system are protected.
  • The letters come from completely different languages/writing programs, and the gamers should spell out a phrase by alternating between languages/writing programs. (Ex., if the password is duck and the protected languages are Italian (anatra), French (canard), and Igbo (ọbọgwụ), the answer is likely to be A-C-Ọ-N-A-B-A-N-Ọ-T-A-G-R-R-W-A-D-Ụ.)
• Each tile has a quantity on it.
  • The gamers should select solely the prime numbers.
  • The gamers should select solely the prime powers.
  • The gamers should select solely numbers that are multiples of the identical quantity.
• Each tile has a phrase on it.
  • The gamers should create a before-and-after chain of phrases, equivalent to “WRIST-CUFF-LINK-ARMS-RACE-TRACK.”
  • The gamers should recreate a proverb or riddle discovered within the dungeon.
  • The gamers should select solely phrases of a selected class, equivalent to creatures, crops, or spells.

Inspiration: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lumberjanes, vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy

2. The Cain’s Jawbone

The celebration finds an assortment of artworks depicting a single topic. Together, the scenes add up to an entire story, however the gamers should decide the right order of occasions to advance. The issue could also be modified based mostly on the reward and the gamers’ bandwidth, from a collection of 4 easy scenes that may be appropriately organized on the spot to an epic story informed in items all through the dungeon.

Inspiration: Cain’s Jawbone

3. The Frictionless Floor

The celebration enters a room that doesn’t appear to abide by the legal guidelines of physics. When a participant character steps into the room, they slide alongside the ground in the identical route till they collide with an object or enter an unaffected house. They can not change route whereas sliding. There’s just one appropriate path main out of the puzzle room, however be at liberty to drop some loot across the space that may require them to exit of their option to decide up. Shenanigans will ensue, belief.

Inspiration: Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal and extra

4. The Golem

In the story of the Golem of Prague, the titular creation got here to life when a phrase was inscribed on its brow. It may solely be deactivated by eradicating a letter from that phrase and altering it into one other.

Here are some concepts for a D&D puzzle room utilizing the identical idea:

• Some oozy skeletons are at work within the space, blocking the celebration’s path. Each has the phrase TOIL written on its brow. Removing the T causes the skeletons to morph into inert puddles of oil.
• The room homes a big assemble, which viciously assaults something that strikes into the house. The phrase RASH is carved into the assemble’s chest. Removing the R causes the assemble to disintegrate into ash.
• A younger dragon branded with the phrase BOLDER guards his treasure right here. Removing the dimensions containing the letter B causes him to age quickly and die. This trick works finest if the gamers have already encountered a puzzle of this sort. (Note: You could make this right into a doubtlessly lethal lure room by getting older him into an grownup — and even historical — dragon as an alternative of killing him when the B is eliminated.)

Inspiration: The Golem of Prague

5. The Future Is Now

The celebration is cut up into two separate variations of the identical space: one from the previous and one within the current. They may need a way of contacting one another however can not bodily work together. The characters caught previously might want to protect objects within the space that the remainder of the celebration can use within the current. Alternatively, they could must destroy one thing previously to get it out of the others’ approach.

Inspiration: Day of the Tentacle, The Lake House, Frequency

6. The Heckedy Peg

In the image guide Heckedy Peg, an evil witch turns seven siblings into varied meals gadgets. Their mom should then determine which youngster is which meals to save lots of them. Her solely clues are what she already is aware of about her youngsters: particularly, what every one requested her to convey them from the market. The youngster who requested for butter has been become bread, for instance, and the one who requested for crackers is now cheese.

This type of puzzle is a good way to imperil the celebration’s favourite NPCs — or just check the gamers’ powers of phrase affiliation.

Inspiration: Heckedy Peg

7. The Mind Meld

Looking for D&D puzzles that require teamwork? Picture this: The celebration has reached a room that solely unlocks through a mechanism in a separate space. That mechanism requires an energetic participant to manage it. Within the room is an impediment that may solely be cleared if the participant character utilizing the unlocking mechanism thoughts melds with the participant character who goes into the room.

Now, the celebration’s causes for clearing this room could also be myriad — get it? The room would possibly maintain a treasure the participant characters actually need to get their palms on. Passing by it might be required to get by the dungeon itself. Feel free to mess around with what this room incorporates and why the celebration wants it to make it suit your wants.

Inspiration: Gideon the Ninth, Pacific Rim

8. The Cube

Some of those D&D puzzle concepts may function the premise for complete dungeons. This is one in every of them. Don’t fear, although; it’s straightforward to shrink down for puzzle functions.

In Cube, the rooms are numbered, and solely these whose numbers include powers of prime numbers are protected. (And sure, spoiler alert: it does take some lethal trial-and-error to determine this out.) Unless you’re enjoying D&D with a bunch of mathematicians, I’m going to advocate figuring out a distinct approach of tagging the protected rooms.

Inspiration: Cube

9. The Fission Mailed

Regardless of style, age class, or tone, most video games have one core purpose that stands above the remainder: survival. If you actually need to befuddle your celebration, give them a puzzle they should die to unravel. And then convey them again since you aren’t a complete ass.

Inspiration: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Bloodborne, Chrono Trigger, and extra

10. The Cryptogram

Of all of the D&D puzzle concepts on this record, that is essentially the most versatile by far. There are tons of the way to implement cryptograms in your D&D sport.

My favourite iteration includes spreading a completely international writing system all through an area and drip-feeding your gamers the clues they should crack the code. And that house might be one in every of any measurement — a dungeon, a metropolis, a nation, and even a whole airplane of existence.

Of course, there’s nothing unsuitable with a basic cryptoquote. If you’ve obtained skilled puzzlers in your palms, nonetheless, chances are you’ll need to problem them a bit. Instead of buying and selling every letter for one other letter, quantity, or image 1:1, strive a whole-word or phoneme-based writing system as an alternative. This one from Tunic makes for some nice inspiration.

Inspiration: cryptogram puzzles, Tunic

11. The Sound Map

Another extraordinarily versatile puzzle thought, the sound map, requires the celebration to make use of a collection of sound clues to progress by an space. Here are a number of concepts to get you began:

• The celebration hears a sequence of notes performed on completely different musical devices and should play these notes on comparable devices to unlock a door.
• The celebration hears an assortment of sounds, equivalent to clinking cash, pruning shears, and flapping wings. The sounds trace towards the right sequence through which a brief collection of buttons — depicting a sack of gold, a flower, and a feather — should be pressed.
• The celebration hears what appear to be unusual recordings of background noises. These would possibly embody rattling chains, sawing wooden, and the sound of flint placing metal. These noises present solutions as to how a collection of puzzle rooms — or one lengthy gauntlet — should be solved.

Inspiration: Myst, Blow Out

12. The Dan “Encyclopedia” Brown

I firmly consider that the most effective D&D puzzles are those that make use of things and talents your gamers typically overlook. This state of affairs, through which the celebration is given the puzzle answer written backward in fancy script, offers any participant character with a mirror — such because the one named within the Monster Hunter’s Pack or presumably contained in a Disguise Kit — their time to shine.

Inspiration: Encyclopedia Brown, The Da Vinci Code

13. The Gentleman’s Door

Finding a option to seamlessly implement D&D puzzle concepts in your sport could be a problem. Done carelessly, a puzzle can come throughout as a shoehorned nuisance.

That’s why I like door puzzles. D&D is filled with doorways of all types, and sprinkling a number of door-related puzzles and traps all through an space is a good way to stop your barbarian from kicking their approach into each room the celebration encounters. Many of them will even purchase you some much-needed time to prepare your notes for the subsequent encounter.

I’ve seen fairly a number of options to this one. A participant would possibly invite the gentleman within the doorway to depart the room earlier than they enter it with a easy “After you.” They would possibly stroll by backward or discover that the gentleman solely exists if they will see him. I like to recommend going into this one with no fastened reply and seeing what your celebration comes up with.

Inspiration: The Gentleman’s Door

14. The Soak

Remember in Guardians of the Galaxy how our intrepid heroes needed to make a dwelling chain to resist the Power Stone’s results? That intense power was sufficient to vaporize one individual — and even a number of folks. But, by becoming a member of forces, the Guardians had been capable of share the load and use the artifact to kill Ronan.

This type of damage-soaking mechanic isn’t as frequent in D&D as it’s in different RPGs, equivalent to Vampire: The Masquerade and Final Fantasy XIV, which makes utilizing it at your desk all of the extra interesting. (Plus, it’s enjoyable to see how lengthy it is going to take them to determine it out.)

Inspiration: Guardians of the Galaxy, Vampire: The Masquerade

15. The Puzzle Which Is Not One

The idea right here is easy: As quickly because the celebration enters the room, all of the exits lock, and a timer begins counting down. The timer could also be visible or auditory; as long as the celebration and the gamers can hold observe of it, it is going to work. There’s a change within the heart of the room, however hitting it solely resets the countdown.

This is a really foolish puzzle in that it isn’t actually a puzzle in any respect. It requires the celebration to do nothing. Seriously. The doorways unlock as quickly because the countdown ends — which means that the extra determined your gamers are to unravel the puzzle, the longer they’ll spend in existential disaster.

If your gamers have been doing this complete D&D factor lengthy sufficient, they’ve most likely encountered this one earlier than. Veteran gamers who’ve seen this puzzle is likely to be keen to sit down again and let the newbies have enjoyable with it, nonetheless.

Inspiration: The Countdown Puzzle