D&D puzzles that make your players think 

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!

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

Her players: "It could be a biblical allegory" Mine: "Maybe if we hit it a 5th time..."

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

"When players encounter a door with key holes they know they are looking for keys" *Roguish laughter intensifies*

If your characters don't have a way to fly/spideclimb - Consider having them play jenga to work on a scaffold to reach an area too high or sheer to climb. Magically enchanted logs that will move to the highest stack, as if moved by invisible hands.

Ginny this is a life saver. I'm literally having my players climbing a tower that is based in a mix of encounters and puzzles and this video gives me so much to think about and possibly rework. Thank you so much!

every so often between sessions our dm gives us art pieces that relate to the next plot point/character arc/etc that she calls “teasers” and they always have codes or ciphers that we have to get together to solve. it’s so cool and one of the best times i’ve ever had solving dnd puzzles

The way you promote the DMs Guild materials is great. It's the perfect balance between not giving away the contents of the books for free, but they're also never annoyingly vague in a 'you just have to buy the book if you want to know more' kind of way. You have a great video as usual with solid advice and nice examples that can stand on its own, and also give a clear indication of what to expect and how to use it if you do invest in the sponsored materials if you want to go more indepth. Done with respect to both creators and viewers!

All I can think of now is Sam going, “If there is a key, then there must be a lock.” 😂

My biggest problem with most TTRPG puzzles is that they block progress until the players solve them. It's like a wall that the characters have to climb, but if everyone fails their checks ... nothing interesting happens. Just try again until you get it. The triangle lock puzzle, for example: it sounds like a cool puzzle, but if the players fail to solve it, all that really happens is they're pushed back out into the hall and take a little damage. The situation doesn't change in any interesting way. Their only choice is to go back and try again. (The secondary doors closing is a nice touch--there are consequences for the players' failure--but it doesn't solve the fundamental, "try until you get it," problem.) I use a very liberal application of the "Success at a Cost" suggestion (DMG p242) to get around this. Basically, redefine what it means when the players fail to solve the puzzle. Normally, success = players solve the puzzle and progress; failure = players don't solve the puzzle, don't progress, and have to try again. But what if success = the PLAYERS solve the puzzle and progress, while failure = the CHARACTERS solve the puzzle and progress (i.e. you give the players the solution through their characters), but they suffer some sort of complications/dire consequences? Going back to the triangle lock puzzle. Let's give the players three chances to solve it on their own before the walls close in. If they get it in three tries, great--the walls draw back, the door opens, and they progress. But if they don't get it, their characters solve the puzzle anyway, BUT it takes them a little too long--the door opens just as the walls come together. The characters manage to squeeze through, but everyone has to make a Dexterity save. The character who rolls lowest takes full damage from getting squished by the walls, the character who rolls second lowest takes half damage, AND the walls coming together makes a lot of noise, so everything ahead of them in the dungeon is now alerted that they're coming, and guards or curious critters are likely headed their way, so they can't even stop to tend their wounded just yet. End result: the adventure moves forward, the group is in a new situation determined directly by their success or failure in the previous situation, and now they have new and interesting choices to make (instead of just, "try again").

I had a puzzle once where players just had to stand/sit/exist on top of colored circles that corresponded to their magic, and it took like 1/2 the session. Simplicity is sometimes a its own challenge, lol.

I just want to say, I am SO HAPPY you made a Galaxy Quest reference 😂 that movie is so underrated ❤

In a scifi game, I had players run into a first contact situation and had to decode manually the messages sent by the aliens. Alien script was a corrupted form of tengwar, so my super nerdy players quickly identified the characters of the messages. It still took them hours to fully decode the messages, but at least it was relatively entertaining for everyone. And we were playing over the weekend at a player’s parents who had a sauna and swimming pool so we had plenty of time and also could take a break to enjoy some swimming and sauna. I think I’d do it differently these days when weekend games are a thing of the past.

Puzzles for doors or chests are cool but one thing I don’t see enough is simple puzzles during combat. Take some inspiration from dungeon or raid mechanics from video games. Simple mechanics and puzzles can elevate a fight and completely change the way your players play. My best fights are ones that had simple mechanics of puzzles for my players to solve while their characters are *also* fighting for their lives.

One of my favourite moments as a dm was when I had a puzzle that had the players mirrored on the other side of a tunnel. I intended them to use a table cloth or minor illusion to block the reflection with something that didn’t have physical weight, however there was a door at the end of the tunnel, so they used the door that only existed on their reflections side to lock their reflections at the end of the tunnel, so that they could pass through the barrier with ease. While not the solution I intended, it was super smart and they felt super proud for having thought of it.

One thing I’ve found is that a puzzle with physical elements, like levers or keys or something, might be fairly easy in reality but becomes more difficult when you only have a description of it, even with a very good description.

Our GM always tells the players what their character would know when we encounter a puzzle

My new favorite source of puzzles is to steal them whole cloth from certain challenges in the show Taskmaster. Offering a clear goal at the start but leaving the exact solution vague or open to interpretation really helps the players shine and improvise a way through!

I created an enigmatologist NPC, if the party doesn't want to deal with puzzles they bring a sketch/detailed description to him and he helps them solve it. He can also secretly be the BBEG who is waiting for them to lead him to the door that his cult is trying to open.

I use puzzles as Easter Eggs. You can get through the encounter with dice rolls and abilities, but the WHY of the whole thing could be figured out later. Having a group with engineers and chemists and a linguist makes me spoiled for choice, so I know that if I use a Turkish word for something or hand out a clue in the Hex value for an ascii letter, they'll eventually have that epiphany. Or that the "Tomb of Jerrod Sproing" is just a test because Mister Sproing isn't actually dead.

The best advice I can give a DM as a player (outside of what's presented in the video) on puzzles is this: if your puzzle requires a spreadsheet to solve, throw it out, it will not be fun for anyone, ever.

I love using puzzles during combat and just in general. I had a session where the party found an underground lost and forgotten (or so they thought) dragon tomb. I had a few dragon based puzzles the first being fairly easy. Many tapestries of various dragons with a plaque on the wall saying “the eyes are the doorway” after carefully inspecting the paintings they found that they could only see the eyes on the red dragon painting so they pulled it open revealing the door. Further down the line they came across a room filled with junk (much like the room of requirement in Harry Potter) at the other end of the room was an iron door that was welded shut. It had a noticeable and very odd looking shaped lock. The party looked around the room trying all manner of keys until one found droplets of water on the floor, the shelves above them were full of dragon scales. The wizard grabbed a scale walked to the door and asked “Dm, do scales work in this world the same way diamond does in ours?” Knowing what he meant I said “yeah sure why not” the wizard then proceeded to use the scale to carve open the door around the welding when he could have just put it into the lock and the door would have lowered into the ground.

I got all 3 of these guides close to a year ago and used them to make a puzzle gauntlet of of sorts for my players. Its started with them separated solving something on their own before they reconvened to gather the keys to the triangle lock you mentioned here. They loved it and it was a couple of my most memorable sessions. Thanks for shining a light on an absolutely fantastic guide to puzzles!

Honestly, I tend to go so far in the "reward solutions I didn't personally think of ahead of time" that I usually make puzzles with no solution, and go with whatever the players do that is creative, sensible, and fits the narrative arc of the session best.

DM here. From my experience, the things that leave the best lasting impressions are the ones that like Ginny said, strike that fine line between difficulty, complexity, accessibility and of course taking into account your player's learning curve itself. It's always best to have something rewarding for them at the end. A big pile of gold, a rare magical item, etc. My player's favorite was a random labyrinthian maze that popped up while the were travelling along the road, conjured by my homebrew world's God of Entertainment. The front door had a plaque warning participants of the danger and locked and sealed completely shut once they entered so they couldn't escape unless by completing the maze and it's challenges. Fill the maze with random traps (I went with more or less harmless traps that just wrought chaos like one that conjured a powerful magical illusion of a giant boulder that chases the party but stops just short of running them over). Once they reached the middle, a construct held the treasure they sought and prompted them to solve a riddle. On wrong answers they would get bolted by magic missiles to give them a sense of danger and totality to their response. On a correct answer, the construct would give them the treasure (in this case, a Ring of Protection) and dissipate the entire maze. They had a blast with it, and it was hilarious describing my party's bard stepping on a magical trap that frightened her by turning her party members into her greatest fear: audience members laughing at her and mocking her incessantly.

This is a great vid! It also reveals why I enjoy S1 TOMB OF HORRORS so much: there's a poem at the very beginning that cryptically explains all of the necessary traps to bypass, so when run well it's a puzzle dungeon rather than a sadistic deaðtrap

As someone who just finished playing Tomb of Annihilation, I'm not sure if I'm ready for more puzzles yet, even if they are actually player friendly 😅lol. Joking aside, I love puzzles; like the Professor Layton games are one of my faves. I'd get the book just to read through and try to solve the puzzles myself, even if I never use them in a game lol

Cool to see a Wyrmwood GM screen in the beginning skit!

I’m a DM, and some of my favorite puzzles are the ones that are solved by saying please to whatever’s in your way. Is that dragon blocking the door? He’s just sleepy, but he can move over for polite people. What about that golem who stole a key? He just likes the shiny, but life’s full of shinies. The players can fight if they want, but all they had to do was ask 😁

Number Four is one of the most important things, in my opinion. I have created puzzles without a single note written about the solution, and I've made them with three or four general ideas. I got away from making single-solution puzzles a long time ago. This also helps you guide pacing of the session. If they're taking a while to get to your assumed ending, but also do a cool thing, then adjust and move on.

I once had an entire dungeon centered on logic puzzles, and since we were playing via Roll20, I even made tokens that the PCs could move around, so they could actually figure out the solutions visually. How well they did with a given puzzle determined how difficult the following encounter was, and they did amazingly well, although a highlight was one character taking a rabbit mask from one of the puzzles and chasing around another character with it, as she was afraid of rabbits.

This is EXACTLY the kind of video I’ve been needing, studying up to one day DM. I’ve been hoping to do a puzzle and exploration oriented campaign and had no idea where to start with the puzzle part.

I started an rpg campaign a while ago and since we weren't playing DeD, but with a system that I had set up, I needed to introduce the universe to the players in a way that wouldn't get boring, my solution was assemble a puzzle in a library where players are asked questions by a mysterious man and had to investigate the library for clues and put it all together in the end. It was such a cool section and we had so much fun :)

I'm in the middle of putting a one-shot together and was stuck needing a puzzle, this is a great resource! *Buying with Ginny's discount*

In one session I had an artifact that consisted of four pieces which they had to gather and then put together into the actual artifact, which in essence functioned as a key. To do this, I used my 3D printer to print one of these puzzle cubes, which are tough to put together and require a special trick or order of operations, and I just handed them the pieces and told them to assemble it. Half the table loved it, half the table hated me. I'll call it a success.

I've found that I can't really use puzzles because they take forever because the party just dances around an answer. I tried timing them but then they compained they couldn't get it. I feel like everything I do is so easy. Thanks for the tips, Ginny.

this reminds me of one of my favourite sessions I DM'd. I had a spirit island themed campaign so it was all about nature. they came to cave with plants that grew based on coloured light sources. red light? red plants would grow. complimentary colours hurt the plants. I taught them the mechanic by giving them the solution in the first chamber and then asked them to recreate the solution in the second chamber. This made sure everyone was on the same page on the basic mechanics. Then I gave them a couple chambers that they weren't explicitly given the solution so they could experiment. (blocking passages and making paths by killing and growing plants were the primary puzzles. How to get from point A to B) To finish it off I through a monster at them with coloured flower buds on them and bioluminescent mushrooms. the boss monster was resistant to attacks but they could use what they learned from the previous puzzles. Lathering their weapons in the appropriate colored mushroom goo gave them double damage instead of reduced damage when attacking its complimentary flower. (or healed if they chose the matching colour working in line with the puzzles) It was great! I was racking my brain for a week on what to do and then I came up with this mechanic a few hours before the session. I should have hinted at the mushrooms sooner but when the players struggled to connect the mushrooms with the light I had them dragged past a mushroom they needed when grappled by vines. worst case you could drag them through the mushroom and have it wither and rive and watch it click :) Take luck DM's :D Thanks for another great video Ginny!

To quote my teacher: The solution to a harder escape room is more puzzles, not harder puzzles Instead of players finding a key to open a door, for example, maybe they have to solve a word puzzle to open a safe, which contains a carved piece of stone they need to put in a specific corner of the room with the same markings, which opens the door. This is much better than making the key only open the door if turned clockwise 3 times then anticlockwise 4 times

Shoutout to Wally DM who also has tons of great puzzles on his channel.

I am simply waiting for my players to figure out half the solutions to my puzzles don't exist until they come up with an idea.

4. If they come up with a solution that should work, let it work ... the very best advice on puzzles

I once had one of the arrange-a-grams over stairs to a treasure room in a practice dungeon!

Picked up the Bundle, seems VERY worth it so far. Looking forward to using this advice with my groups. As always, such a refreshing perspective on running games. Thank you!!

This channel just gets better and better. So much good thinking being shared. Thanks for elevating an already great game.

I am obsessed with your hair, in the natural light it is so satisfying to look at, the color is amazing

Loved the opening skit, I've been on both ends. Glad the algorithm sent me your way, love the channel!

Ginny, I love these type of sponsored videos. You do a great job of providing the same content most of us come here for (Tips/Suggestions/Advice) while also highlighting some other content creators who deserve love. For example, the video on Ancestry weapons solved a huge problem I had on the horizon of my game and now I got a neat solution with a whole new game mechanic. So keep it up and thank you!

The way I usually balance between players who do and players who don't like puzzles is to give the player a hint if they pass an INT check -- helps players who don't like puzzles a way to still progress and contribute during the encounter, while giving players who like solving puzzles room to solve them. And then of course, I also usually avoid there only being one correct solution to puzzles, depending especially on what kind of puzzle it is. (I haven't watched the full video yet so if I'm just repeating anything said in the video I apologize)

Ginny... You been talking to my players?! They're in an archfeys keep, one known for deadly puzzles and traps... and coming up with that balance of puzzles, clues, and other challenges guarding the archfeys mcguffin has totally paralyzed me a few times.

I included a puzzle a while back that was intentionally somewhat difficult, but every 15 minutes (real time) I'd select a person to make a skill roll to get a clue regarding either the clues or the pieces to the puzzle. I figured that would keep the players from being stonewalled by the puzzle, but not making it a simple skill check to beat it. While I thought it seemed to work pretty well, I did have one player that I think just wasn't into those kinds of puzzles. But in a group of eight, not every session is going to be for everyone.

You've given us a 10% discount code for a book of puzzles that I really needed for my game❤️ There really is only one appropriate response "By Grapthor's Hammer, what a bargain!"

Nice! I like the idea of lock based puzzles: they are natural, and the intent is clear. People are familiar with locks and keys, even unusually shaped keys. And there are already alternatives to actually using the key. Also, people are familiar with trapped locks that have some consequences for picking or other attempts to bypass. I'm very fond of puzzles in general. Puzzles that don't even feel likes puzzles might just be the best kind! Thanks :-)

One of my favorite puzzles is a Rhebus. Essentially a letter and an illustration that make words. I’m a DM and planning to make a super complex Rhebus that can get different answers for each picture depending on order

As someone about to run ToA, this is good timing. Thanks for the code, I do have a wish list.

Ahhhh "Brain teasers for kids" LOL

Thank you!! I've had problems making puzzles so I really appreciate this.

Proud to say I've been following you for years and this is just what I needed. I gave my players secret roles and secret codes for an unexisting enigma, and I was hoping to make it up on the spot in a clever way. In the end I had months to prepare it between sessions so it turned out fun and exciting.

one of my favorite puzzles i made: there was a hidden door in the wall. once they brushed off the stone and dust off it, they found an animated face doing the "sad Greek Drama face" and it asked them "who's there?" the goal of the puzzle is for them to tell a knock knock joke to the door, at which point the face laughs, goes into "happy Greek Drama face" and the door opens

My first thought for a locked door is using Heat Metal to melt the lock or mould earth to make a path around the door

Ginny really seems to read my mind on what videos a need at the moment. 😂❤ amazing video as always! Very informative

@Ginnydi Thank you for the suggestion for this book. I am sure it shall be a great help for my campaigns!

Thanks for the video! I've loved DMing with puzzles since 1974 but always leave an alternate solution and don't allow it to bog down the game. It's a wonderful way to allow players who aren't big on combat or talking / RPing to become engaged and shine. Great fun!

Running a spooky mystery one shot with lots of puzzles, so this could not have come at a better time 🙏

cool cool, good puzzle tips... helpful stuff for my campai... ... and now I'm giggling like a 10 year old. 😄 Great content as usual Ginny.

The part about being open to alternate solutions is one I learned the hard way. 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. He went in a totally different direction, placed the queens and told me he'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: "They'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's mutually assured destruction." I thought about it for a second and went "Ya know.... you're right. I didn't think of that. Congratulations." 😆

In one of my campaigns as a DM, i' ve concoted a very particular puzzle that was a literal puzzle. I made my players find a trinket that needed to be open to reveal a magical map. Now, the trinket was one of those IQ mind trap, it was a little circular metal "medal" with two interconnected parts that could be separated just by putting it on the table and then spin it, to make the little pins inside go away. I was so proud. Anyway, i gave it triumphantly to one of my players, that took it in his big hands, broke the pins and open it in like one second. End of the story.

Great video and I loved the reminder to give puzzles a narrative purpose!

You highlighting cool supplements on DM's Guild is some of my FAVORITE content you put out

I loved this video. As a DM in love puzzles, and thankfully so do my players. The problem is, the more complex I make the puzzles and riddles, the easier they solve them. But the simple puzzles they will overthink to death. It's funny unli give them a simple puzzle that I need them to solve quickly.

Excellent content as usual

Our Barb totally tore a stone tile out of the last puzzle we came across 🤣 Thankfully he was able to Jimmy rig it so we could complete the puzzle lol. We laughed so hard 🤣

I used the Triangle Lock puzzle in a homebrew one-shot. As soon as I pulled it out, I watched the whole session grind to a halt while two of the four players actually tried to figure it out, and the other two sat back and said/did nothing. They ended up unable to figure the puzzle out and had to backtrack through the labyrinth and find another way through.

Hey ginny, stumbled on your channel this week and watched a bunch of videos already, your content is great and very insightful, thanks !

This will really help me make my party of Murder Hobos have a more challenging loot time versus just rolling. Thanks Ginny!

Gandalf couldn't figure out a "puzzle" that literally had the how to open instructions written on it, so don't feel like the "super smart wizard" needs to figure it out

This video is so good... And not just the content, but the production quality too. Happy to have stumbled across you.

This video was glorious! Greatly enjoyed the humor and good advice. Thank you!

Great to see puzzles getting some attention! The PPP series is fantastic. One of my favorites. There are so many hidden gem resources for puzzles in D&D. Heck, there's even a small RU-vid channel that has over 100 puzzle videos on it. 😉.lol. Well done Ginny, as always, fantastic video. Cheers!

You're opening skit for this one reminded me so much of my party, too relateable😂 I'm the one in the group who would've suggested the Biblical Allegory, hahaha But also I'd be the one downing the wine

Perfect timing! A campaign I run is having a session in a few days, and a lot of the plot-relevant stuff is puzzled based. this will help so much :D

I enjoy some good puzzles. One of my DMs is fantastic at putting together puzzles. The first one he had us do was a letter from my character's half-sister. At first we thought it was a cypher, but it quickly became clear that it was not the case. In her letter she provided a recipe for a drink called an "Ifrit" which provided hints at how to do it. Turns out the letters had been cut in half and we had to reconstruct them and once we worked that out, we moved pretty quickly. Towards the end there was one word which had us stumped so the DM let us roll a linguistics check to get that one word. I think that can be a good idea if the puzzle is otherwise well put together but players get stuck at a certain point. This puzzle was done by my character, a magus, and our bard. Our rogue/monk, meanwhile, went off to find somebody to teach her how to bake. In a later session we were exploring a dungeon and came across doors with animals on them. There were holes in their ears. My character wanted to keep moving and assumed we'd find a key or something later. The rogue/monk walked up to one and made the noise that animal would make and the door opened. That was hilarious.

I love puzzles and would love a source book with “drag and drop” puzzles for my games

👍👍The book sounds really good!

Ginny, I really enjoyed watching your episode with the Dungeon Dudes! What an incredible twist you brought to the bard class.

Ginny slowly turning into Anna farris :)

Sadly, most of my players are "Smash first, puzzle later." If there's a magic crystal pulsing in the middle of the room, my players first instinct is to destroy it before even realizing it's a puzzle.

one of the puzzles i made was a room with i think 6 stones, 2x3 arrangement, each with a symbol or word carved into them naming one type of elemental. this room was only accessible after beating a wizard who amongst other things had a note with a 6 lined poem, each in a different language. the idea was each line used a vague reference to the element, and you would have to touch the stones in order they appear in the poem. however after writing each of the lines i realized it was pretty easy to figure out what each line was referencing, so i made several of them in different languages to reward my parties varied language comprehension. the language itself was a hint in case they couldn't read the line, like the line written in dwarven was the stone element. the only two the party couldn't read was infernal and celestial, which they quickly figured out was fire and radiant elements. however they misinterpreted a line so while the first three were suppose to be water, stone, thunder they ended up touching water, stone, water. yet they clearly understood the idea of the puzzle and solved it based on that understanding, so i decided to let that code worked and they all felt pretty slick about figuring it out.

Yes! Perfect timing as always Miss Di ☺️ I needed a challenge for my upcoming session. I think a puzzle will be a fun way to accomplish their goals 👍😁

My favorite puzzle I used in my campaign was a ritual circle that required 6 to 12 players to participate in a specific dance and song to be performed successfully in real time. I would begin the music and then have each player roll their performance check (DC 17) and note the number of failures. Depending on the final score, the consequences were annoying to deadly.

I created three seemingly very different keys and printed them on paper. The players got two of them. They got the sense that they might fit together. So I gave them one of the keys, printed on transparant foil at the same scale. After a while they found it! Later they found a third key. And behold, it fitted too! :) So I gave them a print of the three keys, fitted together. Now they only needed to find the keyholes where those keys could fit. In a castle they found odd geometrical shapes and they realised that the shapes were the same as the rings of the keys, so they tried to make them fit and... tadaaaaaa! Secret door, and behind that door: a dwarven vault! Now they obviously could use the keys to open the vault.

This is actual perfect timing for my first time DM’ing coming up soon❤

"It sucks to try stuff, gain no understanding from it, and see no path forward." Yeah, tell that to the author of the module we just ran through. An elaborate hedge maze filled with obtuse clues and a ton of space-warping magic... And it was all pointless. It was a red herring, the only way to solve it was to cut through the hedge. Which is one of the first things we tried, but since we didn't cut through it in exactly the right place we ended up going in circles for two or three game sessions. It might make sense for a high-level wizard to create such a thing to keep the unwashed masses away from their stuff, but it's no fun to play through.

One solution to every challenging puzzle: hire the lock-picking lawyer

HOW DO YOU SOLVE THE OPENING PUZZLE?! WAS IT PEE ALL ALONG?!?!