Give players a puzzle to solve

>Give players a puzzle to solve.
>They're trying to solve it by force.

There is an Alexander the Great inside everyone of us.

>Star Wars campaign
>Players use The Force to solve puzzles
>feels good man

>GM has us solving a riddle
>Solution is a poem written on the back of the PHB.

Good fucking thread, you shitposting ban-evading spamming piece of shit.

Three rules of puzzles.

Rule one, nobody likes to be frustrated, play guessing games, or waste hours. Provide a variety of clues.

Rule two, have there be at least three solutions.

Rule three, if all else fails, brute force should be a highly inefficient and possibly costly but functional solution.

This is great.

Rule 4 imo would be "if they come up with something that legitimately clever and makes sense, let it work."

>Give players a puzzle to solve.
>Players come up with the most convoluted and unexpected solution that not only solves the puzzle, but use the puzzle as the key to break the entire setting, the plot, and the tone and direction of the campaign in one stroke.

Or Rule 0: Don't use Puzzles in the first place.

Seriously, every single time it happens, it always ends up turning into either a waste of time or an errant clusterfuck because the GM doesn't know whether he wants to test the party or the players, so it'll lead to dumb shit where nobody in the group can roll INT to get a hint while even correct answers are discounted based off of the INT of the character not being high enough for the GM to accept that they've solved the puzzle.

Rule 1 is everything my GM needed to hear last time he made a puzzle. We must have tried every four letter word aside from the answer twice. "Is it Khan?" became an in joke at our table.

Devise a walk through the city that would cross each of those bridges once and only once.

My favorite kind of puzzle in a tabletop RPG is those described more like a scrapyard than a locked door.
The party finds a ton of interactive objects with no clear intent, and whenever one of them gets an idea and starts asking questions, the GM is encouraged to say yes.

But there's no solution to it.

Seconding this. I've got nothing against puzzles in general, but in RPGs they are typically out of place and an annoyance.

That's because you're no dwarf and can't dig tunnels.

That's the point.

>Can't use puzzles because they're too hard and make players feel bad
>Can't use traps because they're bullshit HP taxes and make players feel bad
>Can't use combat because nobody wants hack and slash and it makes players feel bad
>Can't have a plot because it limits player choice and makes them feel bad
So, what, does everyone show up and get free handjobs from the GM?

Can you blame them? Puzzles don't translate well to RPG format. This isn't helped by the fact most GMs aren't as clever as they like to think.

I can't imagine trying to play Myst solely through some guy just describing what I see.

Brainlets can't solve puzzles.
If your party isn't intelligent, don't put puzzles.

>I opened this thread just as Eve of Destruction came up on my playlist.
Heh.

Captcha: nature end of

>none of the players get it because none of them read the handbook

...

Not a puzzle, but we ended a campaign by choosing to ignore the big bad and blow up the moon instead.

If you give players powerful tools, they'll use them to destroy your world.

>So, what, does everyone show up and get free handjobs from the GM?
Can't do that either, makes the women feel unwelcome.

And? If it fits the character, it's fine. If there's only one solution to a situation, you're not GMing right.

You're right.

I propose everyone gets a rimjob from
That's something everyone can enjoy equally.

Except people without anuses, fuck them.

well that or the players decide to build themselves a bridge, dam of the river and walk through, burn down the city because no bridges, no walks

No matter how unsolvable a puzzle is SOMEONE will find a solution and most like, said solution isn't going to be a pleasant one

Traps and combat already have rules on how to resolve them and plot something that the group generates by making choices by default.

I'm sorry people don't think that solving a logic puzzle is fun but don't try and say that people hate everything else when most other shit is at least partially covered by the rules.

You missed a Bridge, but fortunately I have you covered, and now all the bridges have been crossed.

Nobody got it because there was no indication at all that we were supposed to use the poem from the back of the book.

We were told "you must tell me a riddle" and after an hour or so of being told we were wrong, he was like "well, you were supposed to read read this particular riddle from the back of the book and I'm going to let an NPC that was traveling with you guys."

I most certainly did not miss a bridge, I crossed all of them once and only once, as I was tasked.

you know, it's surprising just how many problems can be solved with an adequate application of flame and accelerant
especially when it comes to adventuring

OK well new challenge: The fire is spreading through the city. What now, smart guy?

Hey, don't ask me, I didn't start it.

You know, you could've just left the city limits and reentered for that one bridge, or used a boat or something, just because you can make magical fires doesn't mean you should.

I just make puzzles/riddles timed and if they don't get it they get a fight. They either get to feel smart or they get to fight, my party enjoys both. I also don't usually make the puzzles especially challenging. If I include a riddle at all it will relate to the dungeon or even the room they're in.