gamegoblin

One of the main struggles of any Castle Keeper or Dungeon Master is to come up with original and challenging puzzles to challenge your players. These puzzles can represent a myriad of obstacles to the adventurers, two of the most common being the locked chest or the locked door. While in most circumstances its perfectly okay to make it a simple lock, whereupon the rogue whips out his lockpicks, or the wizard trundles out his knock spell. However, sometimes the CK wants to present something a little more interesting, and that’s the sort of challenge presented here.

Read the following passage to the players. While the situation presumed here is a locked door, it can just as easily be a chest, or any other obstacle that fits your dungeon. The idea is to give the group something to figure out without them resorting to the dice.

You see before you a door with an unusual device on the front of it. The device resembles the face of a clock with only one hand. The twelve hours are distinctly marked in gold, and the hand is a bright red arrow. At the moment, the hand is pointing to the number …(roll a d12)

On each side of the door is a pedestal with small levers on it. The left side has six levers, while the right has seven. The levers are uniform in appearance, as are the pedestals. The only difference between the two is the number of levers.

The PCs will, of course, be unable to open the door without figuring out the puzzle. Here’s how it’s done:

The key is addition. The levers on the left represent the numbers 1 through 6, from left to right respectively. The levers on the right, however, represent the numbers 0 through 6. In order to unlock the door, one lever must be pulled on each side, and the total of the numbers that the levers reflect must equal what the clockface is showing at the time. For example, if it is on a twelve, then the solution would be to pull the lever that is on the far right on both pedestals (6+6=12). Keep in mind that the first lever on the right hand side doesn’t equal 1, it equals 0.

There are also multiple solutions for most of the numbers that can come up. For example, 3 on the clockface could be arrived at by pulling the first switch on the left and the third switch on the right (1+2), or the second switch on both sides (2+1). For the ease of the CK, here are all the possible solutions:

Left Side Levers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (from left to right).

Right Side Levers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (from left to right).

Each time a wrong set of levers is pulled, the hand on the clock face will spin with a whir of clockwork noises, and randomly point to one of the numbers (roll d12). Only one lever can be pulled on each side at a time. If you pull a second lever on the same side, it causes all levers to reset and the hand to spin again (roll d12).

It is also completely possible that the PCs will randomly pull the correct set of switches the first time. This will allow them passage, but without knowing why it opened, the same puzzle can be used to foil them again and again until they figure it out. Simply make another door or chest that is guarded by the same type of lock. Perhaps they will need to get out the way they came, making it necessary to open that same door to escape. Be as nice or as mean to your PCs as you think their level and skill warrant.

This puzzle should be considered medium to hard, depending on the cleverness of your players. Because of the random factor it contains, it can prove very tough to solve through trial and error. Remember to dole out hints as you see fit if they get stuck- this will help prevent player frustration. One mechanism I like to use in C&C is the handy Wisdom save. I let anyone who has been actively trying to solve the puzzle make a save to get a “flash of intuition.” Here are a few hints you can use in this case.

• “The key is in addition.” You can also drop hints through pieces of paper with mathematical formulas, or perhaps the clockface lock is found in a library. This would be especially appropriate in wizard’s towers and lich’s lairs. You can give hints to this in advance by mentioning the Villain’s fascination with mathematical puzzles (great fodder for Bardic lore, if you have one in the party!).

• “Even though they’re unmarked, the levers must represent something.” As another way to give the PCs a hint covertly, you can have the levers marked in some way. For instance, using the Greek alphabet as an example, the levers on the left are marked Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, while the right are marked Omega, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta. This will tell the players that the first switch on the left and the second switch on the right are the same, and so on down the line, while the first lever on the right represents something different or special. The markings don’t even have to be obvious- perhaps a search roll is needed to find them

• “The clockface is important- it’s the focal point of the design.” Get them to think about the significance of the number that’s being pointed out to them. After a few tries, they will get the idea from your dice rolling that the number comes up random, which should indicate that what it is pointing at right now is important.

With these three key clues, the PCs should be able to puzzle it out. Remember though, that if they get stuck, provide an alternate solution- for instance, you could say that while the party has been sitting there trying to figure the darn thing out, the door opens from the other side, and an appropriately nasty monster comes through, possibly surprising them! This breaks the boredom and frustration with some action, and allows the party to bypass the lock, but not necessarily in a good way. In addition, don’t forget that they may need to get out the same way…

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