I’d like to talk about a neglected aspect of adventuring: Puzzles. They are a traditional part of adventuring. Looking as far back as the Hobbit, Bilbo had his riddle contest with Gollum and then there was the secret door on the side of the Lonely Mountain. Puzzles add an element of intellectual engagement to your campaigns. It can’t all be rolling dice and looting bodies. Not only do puzzles give a break to the action scenes but they also can be instrumental in drawing players into the game.

I was glad to see a chapter dedicated to Puzzles in the 4E Dungeon Masters Guide. They did a good job of suggesting how to add Puzzles to your adventures but I was disappointed that their emphasis was on how to make puzzles and not on how to fit them into our campaigns. A good integrated puzzle can draw players deeper into the world, encouraging them to pay closer attention to their surroundings. As DMs we are responsible for including puzzles that challenge our players but we can only do so much. A really good puzzle takes a considerable amount of time both in designing the puzzle and integrating it into the campaign world. After it is designed you still have to establish how the party will find it, what clues will be readily available, what clues will be hidden, and what red herrings are there. Writing out the descriptions of all the affected areas can take a lot of time but it is really the only way to hide clues because players are an inattentive lot and will need descriptions read to them again and again. Still, some puzzles require a lot less set up. A simple colored stone moving puzzle could be the lock on a door, You see this kind of thing all the time in computer RPGs. There is also the problem of designing riddles and such. Many riddles require a cultural point of refernce. KoL has some good examples of this like:

Though spelling’s not our strongest case,
We have deph jams to pheed your phace
Our music’s loose and phree and trippy
Come see our show, you philthy hippy.

The answer is of course Phish, but if you didn’t know there was such a band it may seem impossible. Consider also:

I do not walk, I do not fly
Breathe what I breathe, and you will die
The Catholics, they all come my way
for they can eat me on Friday

 This is closer to good, You may be able to get it from the first two lines but still if you know nothing about Catholicism you may stumble a bit. The best way is this:

I am a fish, blind as can be
I swim beneath a darkened sea.
My name’s a bad pun (no surprise,)
What do you call a fish with no eyes?

Now that’s cool if a little misleading. So they included this to help out:

Of this riddle we’re not proud,
If you get stuck, try reading it aloud.

So that ‘fish with no eyes’ becomes ‘fish with no “I”s’. What I like about this one sis that it doesn’t require any knowledge than spelling. Cultural references can be dangerous. Even setting specific ones after all a cultural specific riddle incorporating the Harpers in the Forgotten Realms might be appropriate but all the players I ever had in the Realms never knew much about them. So make sure to over all else design your riddles for your players.

There are many stumbling blocks in puzzle execution too. Different players have different levels of skill with and patience for puzzles. If you don’t match your puzzles to your players, it will just frustrate everyone. Also consider most adventurers… direct method of problem solving. Say you give them a chest with a puzzle lock. First they cast knock. Then they try cutting the sides or bottom of the chest. Then they try smashing the lock. Only then will they look at your puzzle and try to solve it. As they go up in level and develop more magical resources it gets even worse (Break Enchantment, Disintegrate, and such.) Worse is when there comes a point where the characters are so capable that it is inconceivable that they could be stopped by a puzzle door or such. It only works in computer RPGs because other wise you get the wizard saying “Fine I’ll disintegrate the rest of the structure and then take your invulnerable door and make a tower shield out of it!” There is also the problem players who have no interest in puzzles and have the 18 INT characters. High INT characters are fine if the player is into the puzzle, you can give them clues or insights based on their stats. It’s when they want an answer that it becomes a problem. Most of these problems can be avoided by warning your players before you start a campaign that you plan on using puzzles as an integral part of your campaign. A little willing suspension of disbelief goes a long way.

One more thing about 4E puzzles. The DMG suggests treating puzzles as skill chalanges. I see this aonly as a last resort. I’d rather let characters use their skills to get clues. Give the players every chance you can to figure it out on thier own.