Making D&D / TTRPG puzzles more immersive (tips and examples) 

Predicting this channel absolutely takes off in the next month or so.

“Snitch” Just impeccable showmanship from this person. Got me feelin some type of way.

I love the idea of these organic puzzles like the kids, where it's not a whole magical passphrace thing but literally just a situation that demands creativity.

Ooh, these puzzles are EXCELLENT, I really love the idea of having them be less of a standard video game puzzle and more like what a protagonist in a book might find. Great framing, I’ll be using this for sure in my games!

Really liked your point that went along the lines of "If we can spend hours playing pretend, its ok to also be interested in playing with toys"

Incredible video and great insights. The more I've run games, the more I've come to similar conclusions. The immersion is paramount to everything else that follows in the session, and most often the simple - yet immersive - problem to solve, runs so much better than the clever - yet superficial - puzzle to solve. And your advice to start from the perspective of the players is particularly powerful. After all how can we expect them to suspend their disbelief of the scenario, if we have not walked through it ourselves to test the illusion? Apologies for the rant. Again, great work.

This is exactly the stuff Ive been looking for. As a player I love puzzles and riddles but as a DM i always had trouble running them, they felt boring, my players were uninterested etc. But basically everything you brought up in this video addresses what they disliked about them! I cant wait to incorporate this into my home game.

This is my first video I’ve seen of you, and it won’t be my last. This is amazing as a DM and Keeper, your advice on puzzles and riddles. Was spot on. Thank you for this 😊

Thank you, these are wonderful ideas that are most definitely going to inspire me! Instant subscription! One thing I'd like to add to the conversation is that progressing doesn't have to mean succeeding: it's ok to have a real chance that your players won't "succeed" in the puzzle, so long as the story still progresses: they aren't just stuck in the same situation but something changes that furthers the plot: maybe they fail the magical test to enter the temple and they are dragged away to a prison cell but now in prison they encounter a character who they had helped in the past. The story of why this charter was taken to prison reveals a clue that takes them in a different direction: the head priest keeps the secret writings of the cult in his own home. Perhaps reading those secret writings would be more valuable than spying on their rituals. That might be easier, if only they can escape this prison cell...

Thinking about puzzles in the context of there role in the narrative rather than just a challenge for the players is actually a really grate idea. I am a little annoyed such a thing never occurred to me. Grate video. I will definitely be keeping this in mind going forward.

How is this channel not a massive success yet?? Fantastic work!

I'm *absolutely* stealing the vibe of your Sleeping Room in the campaign I'm running. I'll likely swap out the fleshy bits for tendrils of moving shadows to more accurately fit the theme, but everything else you've said is spot-on fantastic advice!

These are great tips, seriously ! I GMed my first game last summers for my nephews and I didn't like most of the tips I found back then on puzzles. So I tried finding out an alternative, and that's when it ticked. Taking inspiration from escape rooms and minigames, and in particular, their interactivity. I ended up looking at Anglo Saxon runes and grabbing parts of these. Printed them on paper and cut them. Then I came up with a few symbols by combining them and rotating them around a decided pivot point (indicated by a circle on the rune pieces). In-game players could interact with it, but once combat started, they had to use an action to try and figure out within some limited IRL time the symbol magically represented/glowing... and there were a few in a sequence. What's great is you can actually easily change the difficulty by making harder symbols or even harder base "shapes" to combine for your runes, and making an explanation for it is fairly easy. It can be an uncompleted ritual or deactivated device. Doing it mid combat ? Change the amount of IRL time players get to interact with it based on the character's intelligence/your system equivalent to INT. Maybe have it make the fight easier somehow. In my case it was getting an easier fight and getting the "good" ending (saving a kingdom prisoner of a timestopped bubble universe they'd have had no idea was a thing without completing the puzzle). I ended up making it a bit too easy (first GMing I was scared of scarring my young players, should have planned a back up in case they were flying through the puzzle :P ). I would love to revisit it and get some hard transparent sheets to print/draw on, cut a hole in the pivot point and have the runes on those plastic sheets stack over on some stick to rotate them around easier (kinda like the cypher in the video) but I know for sure that interactivity is how I'll handle puzzles going forward. Though narratively engaging puzzles is another way I'll consider creating those too now !

Certainly makes my approach seem rubbish. I wanted more puzzles, so I sent my players off to the tomb of an ancient king, where finding the McGuffin required avoiding/solving a series of puzzle traps. Don't get me wrong, it was a great session. It started at the entrance to the tomb and ended with them emerging into the sunlight, victorious, so the pacing was perfect... But they were just puzzles. Video game "solve this with that" puzzles. This video is just gold. :D

I like the interaction with a prop idea; rewarded with a show of manners, certainly will try this one..... Its like passing round a pair of scissors and asking crossed or uncrossed.....

Awesome content! Glad to see the start of a nice, quality DnD channel. Keep it up!

here from Taron’s community post. this video is gold! subscribing like my life depends on it.

If anyone is stuck on needing a trap, use a hole. No I am not kidding. A hole that is too big to jump and seemingly endlessly deep. I have seen this simple environmental “trap” stump low level adventures. It’s not like you can’t modify it for higher level adventurers too. You can have a key on the other side which is a heavy object that needs to be brought back so those players who can fly do not have a simple answer. If you are looking for something that has your players involved use this. There has not been a single time where I have used it and not had my players start planning. Which I think is what most DMs want when we plan for traps.

About tip 4, sometimes when my players feel stuck in a puzzle for long enough, and one of them comes up with a creative solution, even if is not the solution I intended I let it pass and count it as a success

This makes so much more sense to my brain! My improv group will love this. Tysm!

Let’s get this magnificent channel to blow up everyone!! 🎉🎉🎉

Happy to be part of this story from almost the start.

I think another example of what makes your puzzle examples work really well as opposed to some others (that I have been guilty of as well) is the immediate feedback. There's no "nothing happens" when you do it wrong, leaving you to wonder if you should even expect to have the puzzle finished at that point, but both the room and the children give direct response to all of your decisions, which lets players test their ideas and judge their plans based on the newly acquired information.

I'm running an adventure, where the party has to do something with a sleeping godess. Immediately switched out the ritual for waking her up to... ...guess what! Really great inspiration and also the general tips. Liked and subbed! Keep more of this stuff coming, please!

Thanks for the great video and tips! The sleeping flesh room sounds so nice as a way to prop up the atmosphere of the game. It's really inspiring The potion puzzle is also a nice twist on the "hidden rules" kind of puzzles

Fantastic video! I love the way your mind works the settings and puzzles.

Great stuff. In a similar vein I picked up a bunch of 2 (or 1 or 5) minute mystery books. That style of logic puzzle where the players ask questions (ie investigate) works great. And with a few books you don’t have to do the work of thinking of good ones). These also work for environmental narrative. The puzzle doesn’t have to be a blocking thing or directly related to why the players are there, it can just be the story of what happened there before you arrived. Even if the players don’t try to solve the puzzle it can make the space feel like it has a life outside of the players plot.

Rather than break immersion…we want to SHIFT THE GEARS of immersion Thats brilliant

I am practically salivating at the creative puzzles in this video. It’s a great way of reframing critical thinking dilemmas (which can be daunting to some players) seamlessly into a lens of continued role playing. More examples! More puzzles! More content! Bravo! 🎉

Those puzzles are simply lovely. I had never heard of the moon game, thank you for sharing that one.

Just come across this channel in my recommended, and my GOSH it's so good. Love the useful tips, the creative ideas, and the fun loving attitude!

I've said that when designing TTRPG puzzles, you should take inspiration from things like the backs of cereal boxes, or issues of highlights. Ive seen and been in plenty of parties that got stuck on litteral popsicle-stick riddles. In the moment it can be really hard to get Puzzle Brain going, and so even these little kiddie puzzles will be a lot harder than you expect once you add the fantastical coat of paint to it.

You are a genius and this is what I've been searching for. Thank you! I'll try and share you around to boost those numbers a bit

5:33 I feel called out. Well played. This advice aligns with how I like to approach gameplay. Not just with roleplay OR combat OR exploration, but usually a combination of two aspects (rarely all three, that might be a bit overboard) to grant more dynamism to encounters.

Found you via Matt Colville's channel. Enjoying your work and look forward to more.

Fantastic video and tips, I loved the examples! I like cyphers and word puzzles a lot, too, but like you said they can get stale and they don't fit in every context. I've shied away from more complex puzzles after a few bad DMs left a bad taste for me, with several occasions of all the players sitting around for an hour on individual puzzles; I'm excited to try more with your tips in mind and a few good backup plans! Might also try a soft timer with punishments (that also reveal hints/clues) at regular intervals.

Immaculate vibe and aesthetic ! And cool ideas, the sleeping room is definitely a great encounter. One thing I'd add on the backup plan part is that it's also a good idea to let your players come up with their own solution, even if it doesn't fit the actual solution or any of your backup plans. If their plan makes sense, make it happen, even if you didn't think about it before. I'd even argue that you could have a puzzle without any solution, and the players will probably find a way to solve it anyway (because players always have crazy ideas). Regardless, great work, I hope your channel takes off as much as you like !

These are great tips, it's always intimidating starting to writing a puzzle but I will try more. The idea of mixing social encounters with puzzles it's terrific, I love it. Side note: omg the background is gorgeous, so atmospheric. I'd want to sit there and read a book. Also the lighting *chef kiss*

This was great - really imaginative and interesting tips, definitely gonna be using some of this! Looking forwards to seeing more from this channel.

Very useful info/tips and great format, also love the setup. Looking forward to more videos

Incredible. I'm so glad I found your channel.

Most excellent video. Looking forward to more.

Lovely video! Very helpful, can't wait to put some of these suggestions to use

Amazing tips and the video is put together really well. Hope your channel grows a lot

This is brilliant, got me thinking about puzzles in a lot of different ways now.

Delighted I found this! Phenomenal video and really good tips :) thank you so much

I get the feeling this channel is going to pop off.

I love it! Wish you luck ib your creative journey, you shine!

You are great! I love your point of view and style of delivery.

Extremely well put together video. You have gained a new subscriber

Love this, definitely using the flesh room Instant subscribe

This is absolute gold! I was trying to look for some puzzles for a cemetery dungeon crawl and these are perfect!!

Great video the examples were really useful!

Amazing video, 100% going to use some of these in my home game!

You are Brilliant and Diabolical !!! Thank You!

The pace of your video is well done. Lots of facts, ideas and info paced rapidly without a lot of "soap opera" that other DMs soemtimes have.

Just find out about this channel today and this video is such a well done and its a blast to watch, cant wait to see more

Oh My God, what a wonderfully, wonderfully twisted creative spark you have! Thank you for sharing it.

Wow! This is FULL of good stuff! I will def use the sleeping room and the dragon potion in the next few weeks! Great video!

This is so cool and clever, and your voice really makes it enjoyable to listen to!!! I love this!

I like your channel ! You have interesting twist on traps etc. Please continue to do more.

Love your content and your work as a game designer so far. Can't wait for more!

The sleeping room is brilliant! Using it tomorrow.

Just came across your channel and was shocked to see how new it was. You have some amazing ideas and I've subscribed as I can't wait to see what else you share with us.

This is so cool, much to learn from thank you

Lo e the content, great advice, and very well put together video. I would more of this and really hope.more people find your stuff. Kind regards

Thanks ! I've been a DM for 39 years, and I am still learning (and re-learnig). Love your perspective and ideas on this !

Hey these are incredibly good tips! Thanks for making this video! I'm making a cypher wheel for my table ASAP.

I'm gonna hop on the bandwagon and say this video's absolutely fantastic! You definitely know what you're doing both with the content itself and how you present it. Like other people have said, I'm a big fan of the creepy vibe you've got going on! I've always struggled with running puzzles -- my players never get the answer, and they always feel like a huge waste of time. BUT I really like your idea of designing the puzzles from the players point of view, and making them make sense within the context of the world. You're absolutely right when you say it makes no sense for the riddle that opens the door to be on the door to the cultists lair. Looking forward to what you make next!

This is REALLY well made

Excellent video! Very entertaining, and gave me some ideas for the heist mission I'm currently planing.

Just became the 500th subscriber! This is an amazingly insightful video, thank you for the thought and care you poured into this video!

Great video! Your channel is gonna be great

I just found your channel, and it's so refreshing and wonderful to discover another unique RPG content creator! I love the atmosphere and creepy vibe of your videos, and I think the topics you've posted about so far are very unique. I will definitely be subscribing, and I look forward to seeing your channel take off!

I love this framing so much

loved this video, really good advice and cool examples of physical props. but also just the room/your outfit/the visuals as a whole are really cool, love your vibe.

This is absolutely genius thank you so much. I really want to try the sleeping room and have my players close their eyes before using a wireless speaker and my phone hidden around the room so that they actually hear crying, mumbling, singing from different spots around them

Instant suscription, such a good video

Cool channel! Puzzles are one of the hardest things to get right in gaming. They're also one of the few things that are hard to both CREATE and EXECUTE even if you have a good one written by someone else.

What can I say, watched everything and loved it

Very cool video on important topic

This is so so so good!! Thank you for the great advice♡♡ I was grappling with how to engage my player's more! I've written them a poem with clues in metaphors and little drawings in the letters and they're doing great, but those are such fun ideas to get them to think outside the box even more than a 'traditional' riddle would!! You're super creative and have amazing ideas, I'm off to watch your other videos now! :D

I am so glad that youtube decided to recommend this banger of a video to me! you're approach to puzzles is so fresh and invegorating, honestly as a DM I was starting to feel a little bit of burn out cause things were starting to feel stale, but after watching this video my mind is buzzing with ideas!!! You're approach to puzzles as 'story first' and the quality of your writing and ideas reminds me a lot of Dael Kingsmill over at Monarch Factory (which is a great channel if you haven't seen it) you got yourself a new subscriber I cannot wait for the next video!

Excellent work! You have a new subscriber here. ;)

This is awesome! Seriously, really well done. One piece of constructive criticism: See if you can reduce the room echo. The echo makes it difficult (for me at least) to make out some individual words occasionally.

I am borrowing this ideas and using this tips to make my own, Thank you very much, this is amazingly helpful (and i love both of the examples provided). Also for what's worth, i have done some simpler puzzles before, I usually run games on maps (both irl and online) so I like doing visual puzzles my players can understand more easily and riddles. Ex:An abandoned mansion which was meant to be a trial for the owner descendants, after unlocking the passage to the next floor they see a snake head on drawin on the floor, but beyond that it is dark. Should the players shed light on it, they will notice that the floor beyond that is of 2 colors, revealing the snake body, but if they try to progress using dark vision, the 2 colors are purposely chosen so that when seen through dark vision, they look as the same tone of grey. There is a small text written on the side using the same trick: "for tricks and and lies i shall be your guide for following my trail you shall abide wether you follor or not is up to yourself for in the end, i may be a trick myself" should the party walk only stepping on the snake's body, they will be safe from harm, but if they don't there will be traps and obstacles that will activate, making it harder to progress. The trick being that the tip of the tail of the snake will also be a trap, for it was a trick in the end.

I play a lot of narrative-focused TTRPGs (but not D&D), with some occasional others. Puzzles are a big part of narrative games, just not in the way they are for a video game or even some board games. The puzzles are story-based. They're about social connections, a mystery that doesn't make it obvious it is a mystery, what a character says versus what the player characters see/notice, and trying to address a problem when it seems like you just don't have the resources you need. But mostly, some sort of mystery generally delivered to the players in a way that _doesn't_ shout "this is a mystery, you should try to solve it!" In fact, I will often try to introduce the elements of the mystery (or conundrum or problem) in pieces where it feels like a very natural development in the story. This doesn't always work, sometimes players are far more clever than you expect, and sometimes you (I) fumble it a bit. But mostly it works. I just prefer to have a world that _feels_ real. And it includes things not working as intended. In fact, that's my favorite thing. I'll think up of a situation, perhaps someone with malicious intent dabbling in things they shouldn't... they _think_ they know all they need to, might even by over confident. But something goes wrong. That thing has a ripple of repercussions. Those repercussions touch the player characters in some way, bringing them into the story/mystery and wanting to solve it to get rid of whatever problem dragged them into things. While I don't always use the same pattern, it is the one I use most often because I just really like the idea of unintended consequences -- if there is a big-bad this shows that they can screw up and maybe what makes them "bad" is that they don't particularly care about who gets hurt by the repercussions of their actions OR they are too cavalier and didn't consider that they were leaving a trail of bad outcomes. But it lends itself to a fairly tidy cause-and-effect mystery to suss out. It may involve magic or the supernatural or it might not -- just depends on the sort of game I'm running. But I also like any puzzles in my games to stem from the narrative rather than be a sort of bespoke one-off that could be completely divorced from the story / setting / characters. And for it to at least touch on the bigger picture. If it's a story about someone gone missing amid a city that features vampires preying on people who _know_ vampires don't exist, then a puzzle/mystery may revolve around a lost and found or the items left behind from a person or people who have gone missing... or maybe it's buried in investigator reports concerning various instances of assault/harassment at a local club (all with the implication of a third party not detailed in the reports) or it's tied to a brownstone apartment building that may or may not be home to some sort of predator. While my focus is more on theme and of course not to stray far from the core story, I think that ties into momentum. As everything feels connected but maybe not in a way that is immediately obvious to the players, it builds tension and _hopefully_ builds interest for my players.

Absolutely excited to see where this channel goes! I loved everything in this video and enjoyed watching it. Looking forward to the next upload! Subscribing now so I can be along for the journey!

Lovely take on the topic! I've been considering and postponing the use of puzzles in my campaigns for a long while, as I really want to do them justice, have them support the narrative, and not make them feel like a chore or pointless speedbump. Scary challenge, but always love hearing thoughtful and creative people talk about it. Hope you have fun with running the channel!

My personal favorite for the 'Clues all around' puzzle is that after the way is opened, passing through it makes you forget the password. It's a precaution to make sure the password isn't pulled out easily by divination/mind-reading magic, since, except during the short time between figuring the puzzle out and entering the door, no-one knows the password.

This is one of the best puzzle videos I've watched and one of the best puzzle ideas I've heard of, and I started playing D&D some 21 years ago! Thanks for the delightful video. I seldom include puzzles in my campaigns because they don't usually make sense (if the deceased queen's family didn't want people to access the royal tomb with the door puzzle, why even put a door in it in the first place?), but this room-monster idea of yours is just what I needed to start considering including some organic (in both senses of the word, haha!) puzzles! Thank you!

Thank you almighty algorithm thats a sub..definitely stealing that sleeping room also your voice is awesome 😊

I've been DMing for 17 years, weekly or often daily games; as well as screenwriting for about 5. It's rare that a DMing channel teaches me much any more. You saying that a horror monster should be more of a vibe than a creature was so, like... bwaaah, that's dead one the mark. You and I would get along fuckin' FAMOUSLY dude. As far as rolling INT goes in the puzzle solving capacity, I do allow them to roll an increasingly difficult (DC 10, 15, 20) check for clues, but not the answer. Also, I LOVE making painted parchments and malleable objects. Another strategy I employ is to have a nearly impossible fight break out, with the solving the puzzle being the only way out. Some characters have to hold the line while others solve the riddle. I once had a player die and then instantly figure out the answer, so I let his character shout the answer as he was being killed, allowing everyone else to open the portal and escape. You shoulda seen their faces - pure panic

There was some real gold in there. "Thank You!" (and now I can breathe fire) 🐲

Draw a Moon reminds me a lot of a party drinking game we played back in my teen years called "Going to the Beach". One person would be the Beach Master who knew the rules of the game. Then we'd go in a circle and the beach master would ask the player "Player Name, you're going to the beach, name something you are bringing with you?" and the beach master would tell them whether or not it was allowed. Fail and drink. The key is to have at least one other player understand the rules. The solution? You can only bring things that start with the same letter as your name starts with.

Wow such a good concept, ive tried puzzles before but always ended up planning it poorly and losing their interest. Will have to try some of these. In this vein, I might also look at some drinking games, and how they could be adapted in the same way the potion one is. Cant wait to see the channel grow!

Working at an escape room is an epic GM backstory

Wow, ive never thought, that Ramona Flowers will tell me something about dnd🎉🎉

That potion one is perfect for the orphan kids from Waterdeep Dragon Heist and I'm stealing it for my current game!

I'm about run Curse Of Strahd for my group, and I'm so happy I found this channel. I was already planning on replacing the Shambling Mound in the Death House with a demonically corrupted baby Walter Durst. And now I think I'm going to make the basement a sleeping room. I'm just worried it'll be hard topping that as we go on.