D&D puzzles that make your players think

Comments · 1.1K

• JA

  @jaspor902 · 3 years ago · pinned

  Thanks so much for the feature, and glad people are enjoying our puzzles book! :D Also, by popular demand, there is now a discounted bundle available that includes all three volumes!

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• RE

  @RetroTeddyBear · 2 years ago

  One of my favourite puzzles is the Goblins guarding some sort of passage way and they just make up a nonsense riddle on the spot because "isn't that what we are supposed to do?" except they never came up with an answer, so they accept any answer as correct. Since the players don't know this and the riddle makes no sense, they often spend a hilarious amount of roleplay trying to figure out wtf is going on.

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• ST

  @stuffingtonjfluffypantsiii · 3 years ago

  I think the solution to a puzzle that surprised me the most was politely asking the gargoyle blocking the door to move aside.

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• AN

  @anthonybooyay · 3 years ago

  The best advice I ever got was “don’t solve your own puzzles”. When the players suggest something cool or creative that’s the solution.

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• GE

  @GeorgeAlone2376 · 3 years ago

  when your character is intelligence 20 but irl you're struggling with 8

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• BL

  @blondesonic · 6 months ago (edited)

  If you want a puzzle that will keep your players busy try this 1. You enter a room with a door. From my experience they will discuss the door for a good 20+ mins checking for traps, listening at the door examining the door, hitting/casting a spell on the door. If your rogue immediately trys to lock pick the door allow them and on a success the door clicks (the rogue just locked the door) the door was never locked to begin with. It was just a door they had to open and walk through. In my experience its the best door puzzle.

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• AS

  @astiengreenhart · 3 years ago

  Her players: &quot;It could be a biblical allegory&quot;<br>Mine: &quot;Maybe if we hit it a 5th time...&quot;

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• VI

  @Vice-Rosewater · 3 years ago

  I once asked my players, &quot;what kind of corn grows on trees and is not yellow.&quot; 20 minutes later, my players were frustrated and started naming parts of a tree until they got an acorn.

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• CH

  @chadbergquist1383 · 3 years ago

  If I were a player with that puzzle I would be like &quot;We need 118 more keys??&quot;

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• K2

  @k2k4 · 3 years ago

  My favorite simple puzzle. &nbsp;As you enter the door shuts behind you. &nbsp;In the center of the room is a pedestal with a big red button. &nbsp; An ominous clicking noise rhythmically clicks from somewhere in the pedestal.<br><br>The door will automatically open if nobody pushes the button after 5 minutes, &nbsp;but if they do, &nbsp;the timer resets. &nbsp;I&apos;ve had groups use over an hour debating how to get past this obstacle and it&apos;s so great.

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• KA

  @KaiserSoze679 · 3 years ago

  The part about being open to alternate solutions is one I learned the hard way.<br><br>Long story short, I had a character in my game who was supposed to be a master of military strategy, and the player running said character is really good at puzzles, and plays chess, so I found a brain teaser thing online about creating a mini chessboard with only queens on it, and the challenge was to lay the queens out on the board such that none was in a position to kill another. I set it up so the number of queens matched the number of factions currently locked in a looming war in the game world, and posed it to the character as essentially finding a way to create balance and peace.<br><br>He went in a totally different direction, placed the queens and told me he&apos;d solved it. It looked nothing like the couple possible solutions I had printed up, so I told him nothing happened. He was surprised and filled me in on his thinking: &quot;They&apos;re in positions so that EVERY queen is threatened by at least one other, so if one of them starts the war, they all end of up dead. It&apos;s mutually assured destruction.&quot;<br><br>I thought about it for a second and went &quot;Ya know.... you&apos;re right. I didn&apos;t think of that. Congratulations.&quot; 😆

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• DJ

  @DJFelixChester · 3 years ago

  I made the boat crossing puzzle into a social encounter and the player at my table who “hates puzzles” didn’t even notice it was one until another player pointed it out to them afterwards.

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