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I just stumbled across your puzzles. I have randomly seen a few of your vids, but now I am subscribing. I am always on the lookout for puzzles that aren't just another riddle to solve and the three vid's I have watched so far are all a good fit for this. Thanks!
Oh, hey there! Sorry I missed your comment. Glad that you are enjoying the puzzle videos and I appreciate you taking the time to reach out, thank you! Great to have you here, welcome to the channel!
The floors having certain aspects such as the birds, matching to certain clock aspects like the cuckoo clock, was very creative. I would personally prefer riddles inside of the automata instead of numbers, although it would take me some time to write out that many riddles with numbers/times that makes sense. Midnight/Noon would be easy ones to utilize.
I sure do. That is why I can only get about 1 done per month. To give you an idea, most of the "creation time" is simply spent thinking about the puzzle and what I want to do. Running a puzzle idea through my head can take a week, month, or sometimes longer. I actually have some puzzle ideas I have been thinking about for years. But, when I'm ready, preparing, recording, editing and publishing the video probably involves about 6 hours of work. Thank you, for taking the time to stop by and watch my video, Fred. I always appreciate it. :)
A good puzzle that has many possibilities. One way to provide clues would be finding objects. 2 waist coats both size 42 for 2:42, a cane in seven parts (5 points if you get the reference) with the number 12 written on it for 7:12, a tree statue with 11 birds marked with a 37 for 11:37, and a bell with 5 clangers with a 52 stamped on it for 5:52.
I dig it! Thank you buddy. And... we aren't held to those numbers... the times can be anything we choose... I only randomly determined them so I could use my d60.
A reward that come to mind: 1) the pocket watch… casting slow or haste 1 time per day The action being the player pulling it out and cranking it forwards or backwards in time. 2) the alarm clock casting Alarm and shatter 1 time per day 3) cuckoo clock casting conjure animals, but they are all clock work birds( useful for scouting, and giving the aid action) 4) grandfather clock- time travel( limited to 24 hours) 1 per week[ trying to make this cool, but less broken]
I like where you are going with this. Some really good ideas. The cuckoo clockwork birds are probably my favorite. Well done. Glad to see you having fun with this puzzle. An old favorite of mine for sure. Cheers!
for those parties that are good at puzzles, when the automatons die, they notice one arm is longer than the other. when it dies the arms point at the positions of a clock and are immovable with the doors having the number 12 on them. But great puzzle will use the basis of it for sure. IF i ever get a chance to DM anytime soon
This is awesome!! My players tend to have a hard time engaging with my traps and puzzles but this is one that's sure to excite them!! They've been searching for these map pieces for a while now and I think sticking one up at the top of a tower would be perfect. Thanks for putting your ideas out there!!!!!
Fantastic! I am glad that you will be able to use this in your game! This was a very fun puzzle that I ran in a 3 hour one-shot adventure. Your players will love it! Be sure to come back later and let me know how it goes. :) Also, don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already, a lot more great stuff coming in 2020... stay tuned!
This fits perfectly into my game as my players are searching for a set of magical lanterns, each with its own themed power. There is a time lantern that will allow them to cast haste and I've been searching for a place to put it for them to find. I think I would add some additional encounters within to ramp up the difficulty but this is perfect! Thank you.
Fantastic! I'm glad that you are going to be able to use this idea in your game! Hooray! Thank you for the great comment. Good luck to your players and their search for the magical lanterns!
Wallu just found you getting your book tomorrow. I design puzzles when I can but no reason reinvent the wheel. Shooting for time/space puzzles. Thanks for all your work.
Hooray, welcome to the channel. Ya know, I do like to present puzzle ideas from subscribers, so maybe we'll take a look at a few of your ideas someday too. Cheers, I am glad to have you here!
I totally love this puzzle. I'm going to use it in this week's game. My group is in the oriental adventures world and they are being introduced to new things all the time(new weapons, new armor, gun powder...). Time pieces would be new to their characters as well. The BBEG is an Ogre Magi who captures local towns folk for his own time based experiments and I'll leave it up to my players to get thru this puzzle to get to him and rescue the people.
Awesome, that's amazing! Definitely sounds like a perfect fit. Be sure to let me know how it goes! Also... are you playing AD&D Chad? I remember (and have) the Oriental Adventures AD&D book... just curious if you are playing 1E or using it in a different edition.
Well, my players finally got to this puzzle. They like to think they're pretty intelligent and for the most part, they are. They were completely dumbfounded though. Took them a half hour of game time to finally understand that the grandfather clock represented the old looking automaton, and such for the others. I used Golems for the mechanical men. The battles took a heavy toll but everyone survived. And yes, we are playing AD&D, with some 2nd edition thrown in. I'm old school. Been playing since '80.
@@chadlight652 Oh, awesome! I am really surprised that it took them a bit to figure out... I would have loved to see their faces when the "light bulb" went off and they figured it out. Awesome on the AD&D. I dig it! 1980? Nice! I used to play BECMI (1984-2001) with some 1E thrown in. The Red Box is what got me into puzzles. :) When I started [;auomg D&D again, it was 2016, I went from Pathfinder to 5E... Absolutely love 5E, although I will always have a soft spot for my old school stuff.
Planning on using this for a homebrew of my own similar to the Black Fortress as in the movie Krull. Its a traveling castle that vanishes into different area every month quite randomly. Inside will be similar to Eberron filled with warforged, automotons, and modrons with a BBEG artificier seeking to control the portals to the different planes of existence. Its still in its working phases but plan on having this pretty deadly and a LARGE fortress.
Oh dang, I forgot about Eberron! This would be fantastic for that plane. Nice! Also... I have never seen Krull, but I like the idea of a traveling castle... perhaps this tower can travel... through time??? Anyways... awesome response! And if you use it, be sure to let me know how it goes!
Hello there adventurers! Sometimes I post puzzles that are still a very "rough" idea. This puzzle is one of them. I knew what I wanted my puzzle to involve four different types of clocks, but wasn't sure how to deploy the clues or why this puzzle even exists. I think there is a good core here for something fun and interesting... so I'm looking forward to seeing how you would use this idea!
For any kind of imaginary, I love towers, I love clocks. Epic :) We are running a 1 - 1 1/2 year campaign and your puzzles helped a lot for my DM work at some dungeons, closed places, etc. Very epic stuff as always~
@@JaxsaSkepticalMisanthropy Awesome! 1 1/2 years? Wow... you have been with me for a while then. Super cool, I appreciate that! Glad I could help give some ideas for your game. Much more to come! :)
My group loved this puzzle, I did make some small changes. All combat was over in 1 round no matter what. For the pocket watch, I had armor with 5 arms, it would grab handfuls of gears and throw it at everyone in the room when attacked. For setup, The Clockworkers Union bought a bad Time Binding/Animated Armor spell (maybe they paid cheaper for a black market version, maybe their normal scroll supplier is sending corrupted spells, maybe someone switched the spells on purpose, my party didn’t bother to investigate further). Also, they got to join the Local #2643 Clockworkers Union, so they are welcome at all unionized Clocktowers in the world. It was just cryptic enough my players had to spend a couple minutes at the end, but once my PCs solved it they were quite pleased.
What an amazing story, thank you for sharing this with me Burls! I love the Local #2643 Clockworkers Union idea, lol. Super glad that your players enjoyed the puzzle, Well done!
At first I was like "Where is wally going with this puzzle?" then once I saw the last room it ticked me like a clock and a huge smile popped up :P This was brilliant both the execution and the general puzzle idea, nothing to complex but just a little bit cryptic enough to make the players gears work to find the solution if they do not pay close attention! As far as ideas go, I think both you and Foerick have gotten it covered :P But...maybe what I would do is have one of the Automatons missing a number inside and use one of the ideas Foerick mention just to watch players struggle a bit and change things lol I would also love to throw an alice in wonderland rabbit reference in there but not sure how...(maybe if the players take too much time to figure out the puzzle? Regarding the way to use the puzzle...one thing pops into my mind...The Clocktower from Castlevania :P It would be a nice fit in a dracula like campaign lol But I might use it in a sort of a time travel idea to connect previous campaigns or one-shot ideas ^^ PS: This puzzle might need a Part 2 with Sundials and Hourglases :D
Glad I could hold you in suspense for a while as we worked through the levels! Hooray! That is definitely what I intended to do... :) And absolutely, we definitely need some Alice in Wonderland Rabbit in this somehow. Also... now I need to check out the Castlevania reference. Thanx, as always for the solid support, my friend!
I love this puzzle! I might steal this for my Athenaeum in my home brew world. It’s a guarded library with arcane knowledge that only important people can enter or people that the wizard living there seems worthy. Maybe they have to traverse the tower first. When they get to the last room it opens the secret door. The guild idea is also good too. Maybe the guild uses the party to pen the way, then swoop in to try to steal the treasure for themselves?
Maybe to simplify it a little more, have the chest plate number also be visible on a small hand and after the chest plate is opened and the inside number is revealed it also appears on the larger hand. This brings a little relevance to time come the end when it's time to solve the puzzle. Overall, this sounded like fun. Thanks for the video.
Hmm, I'm thinking that maybe it's a hostage rescue. The one they need to rescue is being held at the top of a clock tower. The puzzle opens the door to the top of the tower where the captive is being held in mid air by a magic spell, frozen in time. They then need to defeat the wizard to break the spell. What you think? Bonus points if they adventurers send the wizard crashing through the face of the clock (as if it's also a stained glass window) who then falls to his death on the ground below.
Absolutely! I love it. You know what would be funny... if the hostage was eating breakfast when frozen in time. I could see the characters opening the door and seeing the captive being held in mid air... They are sitting at a table in their pajamas, with the Waterdeep Gazette in one hand and a spoonful of Dragon-O's cereal in the other. Haha, but yes! I love this idea. :)
fantastic idea - I really don't think most players would get this, but I teach ESL, and don't know much about gamers. My students would balk and have no clue, but the idea is great. As for pretext, so your idea of freezing time is relevant and good. I think I'll keep it to just one or two clocks, because it looks repetitive with 4. Then they need a bunch of clues to get to the end, so I'm thinking of just having a ghost who can answer yes/no questions, and they get closer by asking yes/no qs - retains the interactive/english thing, means they never run out of clues. The ghost is simply a magical projection, and has only a vague idea of his own identity. The story is just that the town is run by corrupt and incompetent people, so a powerful wizard enchanted it, and only clever people can solve the puzzle, then they can run the town. So, great idea, but many people will find it hard.
Hmmm. I will definitely need to create some new clues to try and help players out. Or, possibly an alternative solution in case the players get stumped. That's a super cool idea with the ghost and town background. I could definitely see that play out. Out of curiosity, what is ESL? My initial guess is Elementary School Level, but wasn't for sure. Thank you for the great feedback!!!
It could be used in an antique engineer Castle with lots of mechs and 4 main towers and a central pillar with the evil boss being protected by this puzzle
in terms of how I'd make this fit, I'd either theme it as a tower that controls wild magic in an area, as constructed by an enchanter, and recently, the tower has stopped working. this has caused chaos in the region, so the party need to fix it. whether it was kids who were just playing, or if it was some nefarious villain, would be up to the campaign. or, a simpler, lower level, would be simply the clock tower in town has stopped, and the clockworker who originally created it has passed away, and his automatons won't let people past, so the mayor has hired you to fix it. but hurry, because the yearly festival is about to start, so they need it to be fixed quickly. this version probably wouldn't use the reset thing I'll talk about, but you never know. I'd probably add a little bit more as well, though this is more me wanting to have more than just numbers on clocks.. on the first automaton, the party need to gather some gears from him, which are used later in the dungeon. the second automaton has a chain coming off of his pocket, which needs to be used as well. the third has the cane, which turns out is a lever, and can be unscrewed from his hand. the fourth has a 'bedtime storybook' under the bed, which is really an instruction manual, which is there to help the party. the final room is similar to presented, but there's two parts. the first is the clock mechanism, and the second is a smaller control room. The timing mechanism for the clock tower needs the largest gear from the first. the timing mechanism connects to the main mechanism through a chain, which they substitute the pocket watch chain for, and the lever/cane restarts the whole mechanism. the control room where the lever can be inserted is as you presented with the four clocks, and must be solved in the same way. if they haven't fixed the main mechanism, then nothing happens. if the clocks aren't set to the right times, then when the main mechanism is correctly assembled and tested, it will cause a time reset, and they find themselves in the start of the tower, facing the automaton from the first level. (literally as they're rolling initiative) if you want to be mean, they're at the same hit points and spell slots, if you want to be nice, everything has reset as if a long rest had happened. they would then have to fight their way back up the tower again (so if the fights were easy, that's suddenly 8 fights instead of 4) if you added a time constraint, such as "we need it in time for the carnival" or "wild magic will start destroying stuff soon" that can make it even worse for the party. only if the main mechanism is remade correctly, and the times are set correctly, will the tower being functioning as it was intended.
Ummm... your ideas on this are amazing! I love both scenarios of how to use the tower, but the second one sounds like we have already written the one-shot adventure that this puzzle fits into. Love it. Now then... gathering the extra pieces off of the automatons to be used later is genius! I absolutely love the fact that the grandfather's cane needs to be used as a lever later on in the tower. This stuff is gold and I think combining our ideas will serve as a great adventure for anyone to run!
Wally D.M. I'm glad you like it, personally, I do think the second scenario is much easier to pull off, the first required a lot more specifics in terms of setting, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it definitely leads to a larger adventure, whereas the simple town based is easy to slit in either as a one off adventure, or, a way to link the party to a mayor, into further adventures. The only change I'd do is make the cane shoot ray of enfeeblement rather than age a certain amount, just because I aim more on combat effects than narrative effects, such as aging. Now I'm wondering if there's a basement... something with a door puzzle, maybe it is linked to the clock, and can only open after this puzzle has been solved. I'm imagining a letter box puzzle, like the one you did recently about the eye, possibly leading into a chess board puzzle, then something with a sphinx style 'fight or solve' riddle. I remember seeing one suggested that the answer was 'flint' or 'spark' and there was a stone golem, made of flint, and lamp oil on the floor. If the pc's used metal weapons, it would have a chance of lighting the oil. Behind the guardian is then a treasure vault door, sealed with perhaps intricate rings that need to be aligned (eg a ring that says 'sun' towards the roof, and a ring that depicts a devil pointing down (to the pits of the abyss) that type of thing.
@@Sentinel851 Nice! I really like where you are taking this. And yes, absolutely, opening the basement afterwords is a great idea! Thanks for sharing this creativity!
Howdy, Mr. D.M. First time poster here but long time viewer. Your work is amazing and we are all better game masters because of it! I'm loving this puzzle, but feel it needs a role play encounter. What if (and this is a stretch LOL) the cuckoo clock encounter is some extremely menacing clockwork construct (I'm currently 3-D printing a clockwork beholder). But just when the PCs are shaking in their boots because they think they have to fight it, it says something really bat S#%T crazy?! In fact, it will continue to try to converse with the players. and make absolutely no sense. See where I'm going with this? LOL! It will have the "hour" number etched in just like the others and the "minute" number can be gathered in any number of ways (I'm leaning inside the panel that the PCs can simply open because the construct is not agressive). Anyway, I don't want to waste any more of your time...just a crazy thought...I'm cuckoo for constructs! Take care and thanks again!
Hey there Jim! Thank you for the great comment. Absolutely, I love the idea of breaking up the encounters with some role play and totally dig your idea, well done. I could also envision some role play with the "Grandfather" construct... perhaps they need to sit and listen to the story he is telling to get a clue, or, gulp, they need to ask him about "the good ol' days". lol. Thanx again for being a long time subscriber, be sure to say hi again soon! :)
I recently found your channel and I have been loving these puzzles! I'm going to try one out in my own game soon. I was wondering where did you get the tokens of the clocks and bookshelves and such? I'd love to add something like that to my own game, as well. I think it adds a nice touch.
Hi Jessy! Super glad that you found my channel. Thank you for saying hi and commenting! :) In this puzzle... I believe I found most of the 3D furniture- bookshelves, tombstones (used as birdhouses) and things of that nature at GenCon. It may have been Miniature Market, I'm not sure. But, I always scour Etsy, Ebay, and the Internet for terrain pieces to use in my videos. Most, unfortunately, arrive unpainted, so I have to slap some color on them. The clocks were simply images I found on the internet and printed them out to help demonstrate the puzzle. Hope this helps and welcome to the channel!
... i know, i could have edited this into my last coment, but YT loves coments ;) i will change only one thing, the rooms with the autonotoms(???) will have an exit door, with is locked by an old AD&D wizzard of level 249 that survived the "destruction of Greyhawk*" and can only be opened by a key that is inside the compartment with the 2nd number. *i love your saying of the highlevel wizzard XD ... about the "destruction of Greyhawk", i don't remember if it was in the Dragon or the Dungeon magazin, but a reader submitted a letter with the request to send him all the chards of characters who play on GH becase his Level xyz Necromancer just destroyed the world and he and his DM wanted to acount the exp 😂😂😂
RUclips definitely loves comments, and so do I, lol. I'm back from holiday now, so sorry for the delays... I have lots of catching up to do. Good to see another high level wizard making things difficult for the party, surviving the destruction of Greyhawk is a splendid touch. By the way... I have rewritten this entire puzzle in my new Journal of Puzzle Encounters. I've recently playtested it and was a lot of fun. Be sure to check it out, if you can. Thank you for watching and... on 2 the next!
To drive home the idea that the second automaton is a "grandfather," I'd start by giving it a long "beard" of some contrasting silvery metal. If I wanted to be really goofy, I'd put a portrait on the wall showing the automaton "family"--all three generations. (Maybe the "parents" and grandmother are on the other three levels?)
it bugged me for days now, "how to substitude a d60?" and it was to easy, just roll a d6-1 and a d10. just as a tip for everybody who wants random numbers but has a to complicated thinking brain like me ;D and yes, my party will SOOO run into them and get beaten up by a old man with his cane XD
I don't remember if I mentioned, but the entire reason I created this puzzle was to showcase the d60 that was sent to me by flyinghorseduck, lol. Since then, it's become one of my favorite puzzles. The new version of this puzzle in my book, doesn't require the d60 and is vastly different from this video.
you fail to roleplay as dm. if the player roll the d60 its mean the number generated when they open the hatch. plus the number cant be followed with zero since its automatons its made in clockwork factory not in robot factory, which means the numbering was made by hand and zero will do nothing but raise suspicion among the workers. also clockwork machine cant inflict psychic damage by noise. the aging ability sound very unrealistic, if its so easy to age people that you send a machine to a mere guard duty then why not manufacture an insane automaton army of 1000 age machine that can kill even elf in one turn and dragon in 3 turns? by the way you can replace d60 with d20 multiplied by d3 or d10 by d6 or keep rerolling your d100.
To each their own... but sometimes, I like to include strange and bizzare things in my game. Sure, the situation could lean towards unrealistic or even seem impossible... but as long as my players and I are having fun and I run a fair game, why hold back the reigns on my imagination?
Awwwww someone got butthurt by the use of "Psychic" damage. Well unless your trained or deaf to ringing and noise, theres not that many people in the world that are immune to annoying, buzzing, ringing noises. There is a psychological war going on when noises such as that are being used.
@חגי אהרן אוקרט thats only in 5th edition, because theres no Psionics. However, if you dont go by the rules and adapt from other modules that work around Psionics, than there you go. I done that in one of my games, and yes, it pissed off people, mainly because they were rules lawyers, and they never read any of the psionics books...and i have a few of them. Besides, Psionics is one of the main ways to truly takeout a barbarian with all their BS damage resistance.
Ah, one of things that you need to remember about the puzzle videos is that they are simply "ideas". Ideas are made to be changed and adapted to the game you are running. When I present a puzzle, I am presenting an idea. If I run this in my game, I will align the world, lore, settings and things of that nature to match what we are currently creating.
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I just stumbled across your puzzles. I have randomly seen a few of your vids, but now I am subscribing. I am always on the lookout for puzzles that aren't just another riddle to solve and the three vid's I have watched so far are all a good fit for this. Thanks!
Oh, hey there! Sorry I missed your comment. Glad that you are enjoying the puzzle videos and I appreciate you taking the time to reach out, thank you! Great to have you here, welcome to the channel!
The floors having certain aspects such as the birds, matching to certain clock aspects like the cuckoo clock, was very creative. I would personally prefer riddles inside of the automata instead of numbers, although it would take me some time to write out that many riddles with numbers/times that makes sense. Midnight/Noon would be easy ones to utilize.
Ah yes, riddles would be a great idea as well... If you decide to create them, stop by again. I'd be interested in what you come up with.
Great video. You must spend a lot of time trying to come up with these puzzles.
I sure do. That is why I can only get about 1 done per month. To give you an idea, most of the "creation time" is simply spent thinking about the puzzle and what I want to do. Running a puzzle idea through my head can take a week, month, or sometimes longer. I actually have some puzzle ideas I have been thinking about for years. But, when I'm ready, preparing, recording, editing and publishing the video probably involves about 6 hours of work. Thank you, for taking the time to stop by and watch my video, Fred. I always appreciate it. :)
A good puzzle that has many possibilities. One way to provide clues would be finding objects. 2 waist coats both size 42 for 2:42, a cane in seven parts (5 points if you get the reference) with the number 12 written on it for 7:12, a tree statue with 11 birds marked with a 37 for 11:37, and a bell with 5 clangers with a 52 stamped on it for 5:52.
I dig it! Thank you buddy. And... we aren't held to those numbers... the times can be anything we choose... I only randomly determined them so I could use my d60.
I picked random numbers too, though have to always use 42... being the answer to life the universe and everything. And did you get the reference?
@@Foerick 42... that one I get. :)
@@Foerick 2 years for someone to answer, the rod of seven parts? 😜
@@lovelandfrogman2136 You've earned your 5 points, redeemable at WallyDM's discord. When you have 100 of them you gain a special prize.
A reward that come to mind: 1)
the pocket watch… casting slow or haste 1 time per day
The action being the player pulling it out and cranking it forwards or backwards in time.
2) the alarm clock casting Alarm and shatter 1 time per day
3) cuckoo clock casting conjure animals, but they are all clock work birds( useful for scouting, and giving the aid action)
4) grandfather clock- time travel( limited to 24 hours) 1 per week[ trying to make this cool, but less broken]
I like where you are going with this. Some really good ideas. The cuckoo clockwork birds are probably my favorite. Well done. Glad to see you having fun with this puzzle. An old favorite of mine for sure. Cheers!
for those parties that are good at puzzles, when the automatons die, they notice one arm is longer than the other. when it dies the arms point at the positions of a clock and are immovable with the doors having the number 12 on them. But great puzzle will use the basis of it for sure. IF i ever get a chance to DM anytime soon
Heya Craig! Oh wow, I really, really like this one hand is longer than the other idea. Nice inclusion. Cheers!
This is awesome!! My players tend to have a hard time engaging with my traps and puzzles but this is one that's sure to excite them!! They've been searching for these map pieces for a while now and I think sticking one up at the top of a tower would be perfect. Thanks for putting your ideas out there!!!!!
Fantastic! I am glad that you will be able to use this in your game! This was a very fun puzzle that I ran in a 3 hour one-shot adventure. Your players will love it! Be sure to come back later and let me know how it goes. :) Also, don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already, a lot more great stuff coming in 2020... stay tuned!
It went super well!! They loved it and I am sooo stealing more of your stuff in the future. :)
I love this! Definitely need to figure out how to incorporate it! Thank you!
You betcha! Good luck and lemme know how it goes. :)
This fits perfectly into my game as my players are searching for a set of magical lanterns, each with its own themed power. There is a time lantern that will allow them to cast haste and I've been searching for a place to put it for them to find. I think I would add some additional encounters within to ramp up the difficulty but this is perfect! Thank you.
Fantastic! I'm glad that you are going to be able to use this idea in your game! Hooray! Thank you for the great comment. Good luck to your players and their search for the magical lanterns!
Wallu just found you getting your book tomorrow. I design puzzles when I can but no reason reinvent the wheel. Shooting for time/space puzzles. Thanks for all your work.
Hooray, welcome to the channel. Ya know, I do like to present puzzle ideas from subscribers, so maybe we'll take a look at a few of your ideas someday too. Cheers, I am glad to have you here!
Thanks man I'll be using this as a test from a sphinx , they solve the puzzle and they get the reward they were after
Fantastic! Glad I could help. Be sure to stop back by and let me know how it goes! :)
Definitely going to use this puzzle/dungeon Friday night. Going to be a lot of fun!
Awesome! Hope this went well for you! :)
I totally love this puzzle. I'm going to use it in this week's game. My group is in the oriental adventures world and they are being introduced to new things all the time(new weapons, new armor, gun powder...). Time pieces would be new to their characters as well. The BBEG is an Ogre Magi who captures local towns folk for his own time based experiments and I'll leave it up to my players to get thru this puzzle to get to him and rescue the people.
Awesome, that's amazing! Definitely sounds like a perfect fit. Be sure to let me know how it goes! Also... are you playing AD&D Chad? I remember (and have) the Oriental Adventures AD&D book... just curious if you are playing 1E or using it in a different edition.
Well, my players finally got to this puzzle. They like to think they're pretty intelligent and for the most part, they are. They were completely dumbfounded though. Took them a half hour of game time to finally understand that the grandfather clock represented the old looking automaton, and such for the others. I used Golems for the mechanical men. The battles took a heavy toll but everyone survived. And yes, we are playing AD&D, with some 2nd edition thrown in. I'm old school. Been playing since '80.
@@chadlight652 Oh, awesome! I am really surprised that it took them a bit to figure out... I would have loved to see their faces when the "light bulb" went off and they figured it out.
Awesome on the AD&D. I dig it! 1980? Nice! I used to play BECMI (1984-2001) with some 1E thrown in. The Red Box is what got me into puzzles. :) When I started [;auomg D&D again, it was 2016, I went from Pathfinder to 5E... Absolutely love 5E, although I will always have a soft spot for my old school stuff.
Planning on using this for a homebrew of my own similar to the Black Fortress as in the movie Krull. Its a traveling castle that vanishes into different area every month quite randomly. Inside will be similar to Eberron filled with warforged, automotons, and modrons with a BBEG artificier seeking to control the portals to the different planes of existence. Its still in its working phases but plan on having this pretty deadly and a LARGE fortress.
Oh dang, I forgot about Eberron! This would be fantastic for that plane. Nice! Also... I have never seen Krull, but I like the idea of a traveling castle... perhaps this tower can travel... through time??? Anyways... awesome response! And if you use it, be sure to let me know how it goes!
Hello there adventurers! Sometimes I post puzzles that are still a very "rough" idea. This puzzle is one of them. I knew what I wanted my puzzle to involve four different types of clocks, but wasn't sure how to deploy the clues or why this puzzle even exists. I think there is a good core here for something fun and interesting... so I'm looking forward to seeing how you would use this idea!
@@FlyingAxblade_D20 Found your posts. They made it through!
For any kind of imaginary, I love towers, I love clocks. Epic :) We are running a 1 - 1 1/2 year campaign and your puzzles helped a lot for my DM work at some dungeons, closed places, etc. Very epic stuff as always~
@@JaxsaSkepticalMisanthropy Awesome! 1 1/2 years? Wow... you have been with me for a while then. Super cool, I appreciate that! Glad I could help give some ideas for your game. Much more to come! :)
My group loved this puzzle, I did make some small changes. All combat was over in 1 round no matter what. For the pocket watch, I had armor with 5 arms, it would grab handfuls of gears and throw it at everyone in the room when attacked. For setup, The Clockworkers Union bought a bad Time Binding/Animated Armor spell (maybe they paid cheaper for a black market version, maybe their normal scroll supplier is sending corrupted spells, maybe someone switched the spells on purpose, my party didn’t bother to investigate further). Also, they got to join the Local #2643 Clockworkers Union, so they are welcome at all unionized Clocktowers in the world. It was just cryptic enough my players had to spend a couple minutes at the end, but once my PCs solved it they were quite pleased.
What an amazing story, thank you for sharing this with me Burls! I love the Local #2643 Clockworkers Union idea, lol. Super glad that your players enjoyed the puzzle, Well done!
At first I was like "Where is wally going with this puzzle?" then once I saw the last room it ticked me like a clock and a huge smile popped up :P This was brilliant both the execution and the general puzzle idea, nothing to complex but just a little bit cryptic enough to make the players gears work to find the solution if they do not pay close attention!
As far as ideas go, I think both you and Foerick have gotten it covered :P But...maybe what I would do is have one of the Automatons missing a number inside and use one of the ideas Foerick mention just to watch players struggle a bit and change things lol
I would also love to throw an alice in wonderland rabbit reference in there but not sure how...(maybe if the players take too much time to figure out the puzzle?
Regarding the way to use the puzzle...one thing pops into my mind...The Clocktower from Castlevania :P It would be a nice fit in a dracula like campaign lol But I might use it in a sort of a time travel idea to connect previous campaigns or one-shot ideas ^^
PS: This puzzle might need a Part 2 with Sundials and Hourglases :D
Glad I could hold you in suspense for a while as we worked through the levels! Hooray! That is definitely what I intended to do... :) And absolutely, we definitely need some Alice in Wonderland Rabbit in this somehow. Also... now I need to check out the Castlevania reference. Thanx, as always for the solid support, my friend!
I love this puzzle! I might steal this for my Athenaeum in my home brew world. It’s a guarded library with arcane knowledge that only important people can enter or people that the wizard living there seems worthy. Maybe they have to traverse the tower first. When they get to the last room it opens the secret door.
The guild idea is also good too. Maybe the guild uses the party to pen the way, then swoop in to try to steal the treasure for themselves?
Glad you liked it! And I love both of these ideas to use it. Super cool! Steal away... and lemme know how it goes!
Maybe to simplify it a little more, have the chest plate number also be visible on a small hand and after the chest plate is opened and the inside number is revealed it also appears on the larger hand. This brings a little relevance to time come the end when it's time to solve the puzzle. Overall, this sounded like fun. Thanks for the video.
Ah, good feedback. And... glad you enjoyed the puzzle! I ran this at GenCon last year and it was a blast!
Hmm, I'm thinking that maybe it's a hostage rescue. The one they need to rescue is being held at the top of a clock tower. The puzzle opens the door to the top of the tower where the captive is being held in mid air by a magic spell, frozen in time. They then need to defeat the wizard to break the spell. What you think? Bonus points if they adventurers send the wizard crashing through the face of the clock (as if it's also a stained glass window) who then falls to his death on the ground below.
Absolutely! I love it. You know what would be funny... if the hostage was eating breakfast when frozen in time. I could see the characters opening the door and seeing the captive being held in mid air... They are sitting at a table in their pajamas, with the Waterdeep Gazette in one hand and a spoonful of Dragon-O's cereal in the other. Haha, but yes! I love this idea. :)
fantastic idea - I really don't think most players would get this, but I teach ESL, and don't know much about gamers. My students would balk and have no clue, but the idea is great. As for pretext, so your idea of freezing time is relevant and good. I think I'll keep it to just one or two clocks, because it looks repetitive with 4. Then they need a bunch of clues to get to the end, so I'm thinking of just having a ghost who can answer yes/no questions, and they get closer by asking yes/no qs - retains the interactive/english thing, means they never run out of clues. The ghost is simply a magical projection, and has only a vague idea of his own identity. The story is just that the town is run by corrupt and incompetent people, so a powerful wizard enchanted it, and only clever people can solve the puzzle, then they can run the town. So, great idea, but many people will find it hard.
Hmmm. I will definitely need to create some new clues to try and help players out. Or, possibly an alternative solution in case the players get stumped. That's a super cool idea with the ghost and town background. I could definitely see that play out. Out of curiosity, what is ESL? My initial guess is Elementary School Level, but wasn't for sure. Thank you for the great feedback!!!
@@WallyDM ESL = English as a Second Language
Do you have a video about how you set about crafting your puzzles? I'd love to hear if you have a particular method!
I do have a particular method! I'll definitely get a video made with my process. Stay tuned... Coming soon in 2020!
@@WallyDM I look forward to it! Happy early new year!
@@katgrimm5479 Thank you! Happy New Year as well, hope to see ya back on here soon!
It could be used in an antique engineer Castle with lots of mechs and 4 main towers and a central pillar with the evil boss being protected by this puzzle
Ah yes, I definitely dig this idea!
in terms of how I'd make this fit, I'd either theme it as a tower that controls wild magic in an area, as constructed by an enchanter, and recently, the tower has stopped working. this has caused chaos in the region, so the party need to fix it. whether it was kids who were just playing, or if it was some nefarious villain, would be up to the campaign.
or, a simpler, lower level, would be simply the clock tower in town has stopped, and the clockworker who originally created it has passed away, and his automatons won't let people past, so the mayor has hired you to fix it. but hurry, because the yearly festival is about to start, so they need it to be fixed quickly. this version probably wouldn't use the reset thing I'll talk about, but you never know.
I'd probably add a little bit more as well, though this is more me wanting to have more than just numbers on clocks..
on the first automaton, the party need to gather some gears from him, which are used later in the dungeon.
the second automaton has a chain coming off of his pocket, which needs to be used as well.
the third has the cane, which turns out is a lever, and can be unscrewed from his hand.
the fourth has a 'bedtime storybook' under the bed, which is really an instruction manual, which is there to help the party.
the final room is similar to presented, but there's two parts. the first is the clock mechanism, and the second is a smaller control room. The timing mechanism for the clock tower needs the largest gear from the first. the timing mechanism connects to the main mechanism through a chain, which they substitute the pocket watch chain for, and the lever/cane restarts the whole mechanism.
the control room where the lever can be inserted is as you presented with the four clocks, and must be solved in the same way.
if they haven't fixed the main mechanism, then nothing happens.
if the clocks aren't set to the right times, then when the main mechanism is correctly assembled and tested, it will cause a time reset, and they find themselves in the start of the tower, facing the automaton from the first level. (literally as they're rolling initiative) if you want to be mean, they're at the same hit points and spell slots, if you want to be nice, everything has reset as if a long rest had happened. they would then have to fight their way back up the tower again (so if the fights were easy, that's suddenly 8 fights instead of 4) if you added a time constraint, such as "we need it in time for the carnival" or "wild magic will start destroying stuff soon" that can make it even worse for the party.
only if the main mechanism is remade correctly, and the times are set correctly, will the tower being functioning as it was intended.
Ummm... your ideas on this are amazing! I love both scenarios of how to use the tower, but the second one sounds like we have already written the one-shot adventure that this puzzle fits into. Love it. Now then... gathering the extra pieces off of the automatons to be used later is genius! I absolutely love the fact that the grandfather's cane needs to be used as a lever later on in the tower. This stuff is gold and I think combining our ideas will serve as a great adventure for anyone to run!
Wally D.M. I'm glad you like it, personally, I do think the second scenario is much easier to pull off, the first required a lot more specifics in terms of setting, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it definitely leads to a larger adventure, whereas the simple town based is easy to slit in either as a one off adventure, or, a way to link the party to a mayor, into further adventures. The only change I'd do is make the cane shoot ray of enfeeblement rather than age a certain amount, just because I aim more on combat effects than narrative effects, such as aging.
Now I'm wondering if there's a basement... something with a door puzzle, maybe it is linked to the clock, and can only open after this puzzle has been solved. I'm imagining a letter box puzzle, like the one you did recently about the eye, possibly leading into a chess board puzzle, then something with a sphinx style 'fight or solve' riddle.
I remember seeing one suggested that the answer was 'flint' or 'spark' and there was a stone golem, made of flint, and lamp oil on the floor. If the pc's used metal weapons, it would have a chance of lighting the oil.
Behind the guardian is then a treasure vault door, sealed with perhaps intricate rings that need to be aligned (eg a ring that says 'sun' towards the roof, and a ring that depicts a devil pointing down (to the pits of the abyss) that type of thing.
@@Sentinel851 Nice! I really like where you are taking this. And yes, absolutely, opening the basement afterwords is a great idea! Thanks for sharing this creativity!
Howdy, Mr. D.M.
First time poster here but long time viewer. Your work is amazing and we are all better game masters because of it! I'm loving this puzzle, but feel it needs a role play encounter. What if (and this is a stretch LOL) the cuckoo clock encounter is some extremely menacing clockwork construct (I'm currently 3-D printing a clockwork beholder). But just when the PCs are shaking in their boots because they think they have to fight it, it says something really bat S#%T crazy?! In fact, it will continue to try to converse with the players. and make absolutely no sense. See where I'm going with this? LOL!
It will have the "hour" number etched in just like the others and the "minute" number can be gathered in any number of ways (I'm leaning inside the panel that the PCs can simply open because the construct is not agressive). Anyway, I don't want to waste any more of your time...just a crazy thought...I'm cuckoo for constructs!
Take care and thanks again!
Hey there Jim! Thank you for the great comment. Absolutely, I love the idea of breaking up the encounters with some role play and totally dig your idea, well done. I could also envision some role play with the "Grandfather" construct... perhaps they need to sit and listen to the story he is telling to get a clue, or, gulp, they need to ask him about "the good ol' days". lol. Thanx again for being a long time subscriber, be sure to say hi again soon! :)
I recently found your channel and I have been loving these puzzles! I'm going to try one out in my own game soon. I was wondering where did you get the tokens of the clocks and bookshelves and such? I'd love to add something like that to my own game, as well. I think it adds a nice touch.
Hi Jessy! Super glad that you found my channel. Thank you for saying hi and commenting! :)
In this puzzle... I believe I found most of the 3D furniture- bookshelves, tombstones (used as birdhouses) and things of that nature at GenCon. It may have been Miniature Market, I'm not sure. But, I always scour Etsy, Ebay, and the Internet for terrain pieces to use in my videos. Most, unfortunately, arrive unpainted, so I have to slap some color on them.
The clocks were simply images I found on the internet and printed them out to help demonstrate the puzzle. Hope this helps and welcome to the channel!
any word on your puzzle book, and will it be on dmsguild? I keep looking for it. I love your puzzles.
Spoke with publisher and hoping for an early 2020 Kickstarter launch... Check out my live stream video from a few days ago for full details. :)
... i know, i could have edited this into my last coment, but YT loves coments ;)
i will change only one thing, the rooms with the autonotoms(???) will have an exit door, with is locked by an old AD&D wizzard of level 249 that survived the "destruction of Greyhawk*" and can only be opened by a key that is inside the compartment with the 2nd number.
*i love your saying of the highlevel wizzard XD ... about the "destruction of Greyhawk", i don't remember if it was in the Dragon or the Dungeon magazin, but a reader submitted a letter with the request to send him all the chards of characters who play on GH becase his Level xyz Necromancer just destroyed the world and he and his DM wanted to acount the exp 😂😂😂
RUclips definitely loves comments, and so do I, lol. I'm back from holiday now, so sorry for the delays... I have lots of catching up to do. Good to see another high level wizard making things difficult for the party, surviving the destruction of Greyhawk is a splendid touch. By the way... I have rewritten this entire puzzle in my new Journal of Puzzle Encounters. I've recently playtested it and was a lot of fun. Be sure to check it out, if you can. Thank you for watching and... on 2 the next!
I would use this puzzle in a Groundhog Day situation. The days keep resetting until the clock puzzle and bbeg are defeated.
Awww yeah! Nice. I love Groundhog Day and Deja Vu situations. Great application of this!
Awww yeah! Nice. I love Groundhog Day and Deja Vu situations. Great application of this!
'Tis all a dream. You wake up like you were dreaming in Super Mario 2...
To drive home the idea that the second automaton is a "grandfather," I'd start by giving it a long "beard" of some contrasting silvery metal. If I wanted to be really goofy, I'd put a portrait on the wall showing the automaton "family"--all three generations. (Maybe the "parents" and grandmother are on the other three levels?)
Yes, definitely... we must be goofy! If I get a chance to run this I am stealing the portrait idea... That's amazing!
Instead of using a d60 you could just use a d6 as the first digit and a d10 as the second
That is clever! I love that idea, well done!
it bugged me for days now, "how to substitude a d60?" and it was to easy, just roll a d6-1 and a d10.
just as a tip for everybody who wants random numbers but has a to complicated thinking brain like me ;D
and yes, my party will SOOO run into them and get beaten up by a old man with his cane XD
I don't remember if I mentioned, but the entire reason I created this puzzle was to showcase the d60 that was sent to me by flyinghorseduck, lol. Since then, it's become one of my favorite puzzles. The new version of this puzzle in my book, doesn't require the d60 and is vastly different from this video.
What time is it?
Puzzle Time?
Reminds me of a game played as a kid, 'What's the time Mr Wolf?. 10 oclock, Whats the time Mr Wolf, Dinner Time!!
you fail to roleplay as dm. if the player roll the d60 its mean the number generated when they open the hatch. plus the number cant be followed with zero since its automatons its made in clockwork factory not in robot factory, which means the numbering was made by hand and zero will do nothing but raise suspicion among the workers. also clockwork machine cant inflict psychic damage by noise. the aging ability sound very unrealistic, if its so easy to age people that you send a machine to a mere guard duty then why not manufacture an insane automaton army of 1000 age machine that can kill even elf in one turn and dragon in 3 turns?
by the way you can replace d60 with d20 multiplied by d3 or d10 by d6 or keep rerolling your d100.
To each their own... but sometimes, I like to include strange and bizzare things in my game. Sure, the situation could lean towards unrealistic or even seem impossible... but as long as my players and I are having fun and I run a fair game, why hold back the reigns on my imagination?
Awwwww someone got butthurt by the use of "Psychic" damage.
Well unless your trained or deaf to ringing and noise, theres not that many people in the world that are immune to annoying, buzzing, ringing noises.
There is a psychological war going on when noises such as that are being used.
@חגי אהרן אוקרט thats only in 5th edition, because theres no Psionics.
However, if you dont go by the rules and adapt from other modules that work around Psionics, than there you go.
I done that in one of my games, and yes, it pissed off people, mainly because they were rules lawyers, and they never read any of the psionics books...and i have a few of them.
Besides, Psionics is one of the main ways to truly takeout a barbarian with all their BS damage resistance.
Good point... a perception check would not be necessary to determine where the automoton's hands are at...
Ah, one of things that you need to remember about the puzzle videos is that they are simply "ideas". Ideas are made to be changed and adapted to the game you are running. When I present a puzzle, I am presenting an idea. If I run this in my game, I will align the world, lore, settings and things of that nature to match what we are currently creating.