(animated D&D) The Countdown Puzzle
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- Опубликовано: 17 фев 2019
- The players found themselves in a large metal room.
Voice of Tansy Hilletje Bashew
PLAYERS:
Wades: Diceandbrews on instagram
Tansy @chicknugs
Dafyd @Raisins
Poke @StabbyGM
At its center was a well which encircled a button, like a moat. On the button was carved the symbol of a hand, and along the edges of the well were drawings of weapons. The water below sparkled and moved strangely.
So there they were. Trapped in a metal room.
First, they hit the side of the well with a weapon.
Nothing happened.
Music:
Where to by Birocratic
She Died Up There You Know by Dan Bodan
Addicted by VYEN
English country garden by Aaron Kenny 
Кино
I'm laughing at this now but if you gave me this puzzle tomorrow I'd still push that button at least 10 times.
Sl-slimcicle?!
Hold up what are you doing here
Why did people only find this a week ago?
@@bitsaucetv I know it's weird
Flynn Salazar nice pun
My favorite trap was an enchanted unbreakable door. The rogue couldn't decipher what can of lock it had, or if it were trapped. The barbarian couldn't sunder it. No spell could harm it, no divination could decipher its secrets. After an hour of game play the fidgety gnome ran up and yelled, "I pull the door open!". And it opened easily. You don't need complex traps, the party will make it complex.
Thexsoar the Bearded Something very similar happened in a game I was part of, we tried pushing the door open, it wasn't locked, we didn't have a crowbar etc. After sometime, we try pulling the door, and it opens. From then on, whenever we came to a door, "I push AND pull the door". Kind of an in joke :3
@@veggiedragon1000 "which way does the door open?" Is a very common question from one of my players.
Literally the first door in the first game I ever ran. (Adventurers broke all weapons on that door before a confused kobold opened it from the inside)
@@veggiedragon1000 i kinda feel like that should be an assumed, i dont feel like i want to point out that i gotta do that for literally every door i ever deal with in DnD
And of course, the classic "break the walls instead" approach... Seriously, it's all too easy for someone to forget that as being possible.
I used this twice: an adult group took 45 minutes. My kids (11 and 14 at the time) solved it in less than 1.
They probably didn’t worry about death.
They could’ve just tied a noos-
*Nah*
An adult has the experience to recognize "Oh bad stuff is gonna happen when that reaches 0!" but kids don't care as much.
The age strikes the difference of
"How?" vs "Why?"
as in
"How do I open this door?"
to
"Why is this like it is?"
Given that traps are usually deadly, I wouldn't want to rush into anything. There's no quickload button.
@@YoshioSan sure there's a quickload. TPK, then come back playing as your character's identical siblings.
*prepares himself to hear about a party wipe. Suddenly remembers that this is Zee, not Puffin.*
Oh. Yeah the players will be fine.
Honestly the players are usually fine with Puffin
Bruh, don't even get me started on Puffin. 😂😂😂
I press the like button
Countdown 'till the next video starts counting
The video restarts*
20... 19... 18...
17...16....15...
@@DanteOscilla 14... 13... 12... *I press the button*
Countdown: *3....2....1....*
*Doors open.*
Poke: “I PUSH THE BUTTON!!*
Party: “NOOOOOO!!!!”
lolol my thoughts exactly!!!!
Reminds me of the halo 3 days when people would cancel the timer to stop matchmaking
This reminds me of tron...
Imagine they were under it when someone pressed the button
I keep rewatching that segment because the voice is so fantastic.
I've run this one for players a few times over the years. I always present it as a room similar to yours (button in the middle, slamming doors, etc) but I add small rates in the ceiling that start to push a heavy mist slowly into the room as the timer starts. The longer the players take the closer to the middle of the room the mist creeps, then when it reaches the middle of the room, covering the entire floor, I have it start to rise slowly filling the room. I describe it as feeling cool to the touch but not in a biting way, more like a thick cold wind but still. Then when the timer runs out the dias with the button on it raises and a grate under it sucks away all the mist. They find lore/notes/whatever later telling them it was a decontamination room.
This was my initial thought for this puzzle to incorporate it into my own campaign. I like your spin.
I love this as a justification for this room existing!!
“A decontamination room” has got to be the most hilariously logical explanation for this puzzle 🧩 I’ve ever seen. Nice work, Matt! 😂👍
@@master0fthearts894 something that confuses me though, was the flashing lights
Maybe the flashing lights served as a spell being casted, to ward unwanted curses of a specific level (y'know just in case someone has a curse backstory that doesn't want it to have thwarted yet or whatever)
Written at 12:37 am
Brilliant justification!
When I had it in the hideout of a long-dead wizard, it was an intruder-stalling measure. Not everyone who came to her home would want to kill her, so she kept the lethal traps further in.
"... which did nothing but it was a cool idea."
That and the dm having to answer a distracted player's "so whats going on now?" Is lile 80% of d&d
anxiety.mp4
666th like
Wait, the way those numbers are stylised to look runic?! That's COOL STUFF.
@@AliceHalley i do like how they did the 10's and 20's. Still readable, just cooler.
Dwarves take credit for everything.
@BG - 11JJ - Port Credit SS (2272) that's correct
they are arabic numbers, just stylized to look like a fantasy script.
th 18,19,20 still look like 18,19,20
the 12,13,14,15,16, 17 is a 1 rotated diagonally, attached to the bottom of the other number
11 is 2 diagonal 1's mirrored amd attached by the bottms
10 ..looks like a 10
same with 7,8,9,5
the 6's are flipped, mirror style
3 is the most alien looking one
2,1,0 look like 2,1,0 but the 0 is a diamond instead of a circle.
the point of this is that
i'm pretty sure this is not what primordial or dwarvish would look like if the fantasy worlds was real. . .
the PHB shows the alphabets in dwarven, elvish and draconic, but not the numbers so, i dunno.
but based on the fact that they look nothing like the english counterparts, i higly doubt that primordial numbers would look so similar to arabic numerals
@@AliceHalley Technically, wouldn't that make Dwarvish a Giant script?
Incredible video!! My favorite you've ever done. Visuals were so cool.
Surprised this got so few likes and comments
From a pretty well known youtuber as well
@@kingtreedede7303 almost 100.000
You guys know leomud? His hut is pretty dope
This is still my favorite D&D quest.
At least it’s not the door puzzle
This reminds me of a puzzle trap I made for a homebrew campaign where the the players were trapped in a small room with an altar, an axe, a shield, a wand, and a bow on separate pedestals. The altar was inscribed with the phrase "Only those who know what is most important to a Monolithian may enter the tomb of the First Chieftain." They were searching an ancient tomb of the Monolith tribe of orcs, who are notable for their unshakable will and surprisingly liberal policies, allowing anyone to join their tribe if proven hardy and willing to contribute to the tribe's glory. Every time a party member would place an object on the altar, it would return to it's pedestal and they would get a nasty electric shock of 6d6, or half on a save. The room was sealed tight and their oxygen was running out. The barbarian wanted to just break down the door, but the other party members talked him down. 30 minutes later, with the party half dead from electric shocks, the barbarian went apeshit and slammed the door. It clicked, and slid open. The idea behind it was that to Monolithians, the most important thing is to always move forward and progress, without being hindered or distracted by petty ideas like race or class. We all laughed pretty damn hard about it afterwards, and they admit that the only person in the room thinking like an orc was the barbarian and that they should have just listened to him in the first place. To this day, I still look back fondly on that puzzle and can't wait to use it again in my new campaign.
One of my favorites, since we're sharing... This one works well for low-level characters since this doesn't require a lot of power or resources to solve, and high level characters will do what high level characters will do and blow the door up with amazing magic powers and tools... anyway.
Imagine a heavy stone door whose handle is set into the jaws of an ornamental stone mouth (a skull, a wolf's head, doesn't really matter as long as it has pointy bits and looks cool) Depending on if you want to ramp up the spook factor or kind of broadcast the trap to the party, you could put a severed skeletal hand loosely wrapped around the handle... but really it's up to you. Should they attempt to turn the handle of the door, the jaws will slide in on the hand of the person turning the handle at roughly the same speed as the handle is turned. The jaws will not sever the person's hand should they turn the handle enough for the mechanism to permit the door to open, but they will deal 1 point of piercing damage to whoever has their hand around the knob, and will not release the person's arm until the door is closed. The trap was created by someone with a number of expendable acolytes who liked the guy more than they disliked punctured wrists, who would hold the door open for him as he did whatever business was required on the other side of the door. Effective at keeping singular infiltrators out of their secret stuff and all that.
Forcibly withdrawing the person's hand from the door's teeth while they are imbedded will be quite nasty, and make it very clear that it will cause massive damage to the person in the door. (for me it's 1d6 dexterity damage and render the arm inoperable unless they receive a DC 18 heal check and and are returned to full health magically or naturally ... in addition to the 1d6 slashing damage because they just tore stone teeth through a dude's arm.)
So now we have a puzzle (and a breach of the first commandment of game mastering, don't split the party) that the party can work through, and there are a number of ways to deal with it, more than I've thought of certainly. Mage hand can turn the knob, then the players just have to push the door open. Unseen Servant too. Once the door is open a rogue can access the mechanism and disarm it, releasing the door's grip on the victim's hand. (The rogue has no way to access the mechanism to disarm the door while it's closed... unless they can somehow phase through solid stone or otherwise break through to the mechanisms) Or.... the guy on the other side can just sit and wait for the party to search the room on the other side. If the party opts for this option... maybe make sure there isn't more than a room or two on the other side of this door so that they can respond to the separated person. Or you could have a light encounter creep it's way into the room, leaving the person with his arm in the mechanism a choice to seal his friends in to free his arm and face the enemy or awkwardly fight one-handedly and hope his party comes back to rescue him.
Yoinking this for later
@@kevingriffith6011 You can put some water in the locking mechanism with shape water, and then freeze it solid. No more locking mechanism.
*AI PREZ DA BATTN*
Triggered Arin = Best Arin
DeluxeTux5249 AI U POZITVE?
@@TheChristmasNinja12 Arin?
I love how this comment has 2k likes but 4 replies
@@rynemcgriffin1752 What else is there?
The elephant button punch was really well animated
ITS A LOXODON FROM RAVNICA
@@magecretio4133 So... elephant?
how he hold the mace?
quantum mechanics forbid this
Especially when he punched it in the dark.
@@obsidironpumicia4074 yes.
They need to make a leap of faith....
Poke: *I hit button*
I couldn't stop laughing!
40 minutes spent in a room with no traps, enemies, or treasure. Are you sure you weren't playing Paranoia?
It's not a video game. You don't need to find traps, enemies or treasure every hour if you have a good group.
@Michael Richard I know that, what does it have to do with my comment?
This totally reminds me of Paranoia XP
Curse of strahd is like that some times
This will turn my players brains to mush. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Also you could call this "The Animated Dungeon"
No, "traps illustrated"
@@cdgonepotatoes4219 Big oof
You mean from the BUTTON of your heart?
Jan forberger WELL now you'd best stop those puns
So, how did it go?
If your characters are over using Detect Magic, you can use this one my old DM laid on us.
We were traveling through a tunnel and had forgotten that we were playing a roleplaying game and had started playing swat team simulator, crawling over everything and examining every stupid little thing, causing the game to just slog by. When our caster spotted a wide swath of magic running through the ground and walls. It looked big and scary under detect magic, and so the caster used arcane sight to get a better idea of it. He determined that the type of magic was abjuration magic which only narrowed things down to some pretty scary possibilities. We spent half an hour and an entire day's worth of spells and a load of consumable item's trying to figure out what it was.
Turns out it was literally just some concentrated ambient magic that had suffused into the wall. We spent half an hour and a ton of resources staring at the magical equivalent of a coffee stain on the carpet.
I had a fun "whoops" moment where one of our party detected magic on two massive stone doors, and we all just assumed it was a trap. So, naturally, I decide to dispel the magic. Then the DM tells us that this removed a magical effect that allowed the doors to open, and that they were otherwise impossible to move. Like, the two doors were a single, fused piece of stone that responded to a magic word, and now the effect was gone.
So we left and found another way in. It did prove useful later on when we were beaten and bloody while running from the angry inhabitants in this area. We all just used our secret entrance while they tried to use the door. 5/6 of our party adventures on to this day.
"IT MOVED!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
That was hilarious. I am totally using this the next time I run a game.
I've done something similar, but it was a narrow line, slithering steadily, wending about... all around them. They got very freaked out... by a plumbing system of holy water, keeping the undead imprisoned there trapped.
I'll give you one guess what catastrophe the PCs unleashed upon the area.
@@bismuthcrystal9658 drought
“First, they tried hitting the well with a weapon. Nothing happened.”
What a typical response from adventurers...
It would actually be hilariously awful if a DM just let one of the players casually break the only thing that can open the doors of the room they’re trapped in.
Player: “I hit the well with my warhammer.”
DM: “Okay. Roll for attack.”
Player: “Okay... 20!”
DM: “The well shatters under the force of your mighty blow. The puzzle is now broken, leaving the entire party trapped forever in this sealed room.”
Player: “...oh...”
Other Players: “......When we run out of rations, we’re eating you first.”
Chris Schoenthaler from a new DM’s perspective, that would be a a amazing way to TPK.
why wait till you run out of rations, and have one more mouth to feed?
@@ScientistCatit keeps The meat fresh
@@thechaospony6037 I think his point was, eat the fresh meat first so that you don't have to waste rations on keeping the fresh meat fresh.
A small door opens an hour in, out comes a little goblin with a tool box. The party watches in silence as the Goblin repairs the well. After the work is done, he looks to the party, tips his hat, and leaves back through his little door. The party stare at each other in confusion and awe, then try the button. The room starts again.
to be absolutely fair, I've been in a group where the DM could be quite ruthless. Not unfairly so, but you definitely took every room with care. And... there was once a plain long hallway, with a door at the end.
We spent fourty five minutes inspecting everything in this hallway for traps before we finally moved on.
I have a similar puzzle that is more malevolent.
In a room, pitch black, stands a brazier that just slightly glints in the shadows.
Approaching the brazier, the hairs on the back of our neck stand on end- you can hear, shambling down the hall beyond, the tortured murmurs of perhaps a dozen zombies.
“I cast fireball” says the wizard
“I enter a rage!” shouts the barbarian
“I turn back the foul undead with my holy power” says the cleric.
The spell and blessed light erupts down the tunnel and the barbarian leaps among his foes- to find nothing. The light on the other side of the room is brighter, enough to illuminate there brazier chamber but it doesn’t. The barbarian hears nothing.
Having watched their friend disappear into deepening shadows, the wizard readies a magic missile, to take out any zombies that get past. The shuffling and murmuring does not stop, and the battle cries of the barbarian cannot be heard.
Lacking spellfire or a mighty axe, the rogue slips into the room behind her companions and decides that the darkness is a liability on this occasion, and casually tosses a tinder twig into the brazier.
The fire illuminates the room, reveals the puzzled barbarian in the hallway beyond, and the zombie sounds promptly stop.
Players swear loudly regarding the wasted resources. Somehow it works every time, so attuned to immediate attack are PCs.
"I use Detect Favored Enemy: Undead" says the Ranger. "Guys, there's nothing there."
Fun fact: my own 5E UA Ranger chose Humanoids and Giants for his Favored Enemies because lulz. Things got real interesting when my character used it in the middle of an otherwise normal town lorded over by Wights (a fact we were trying to ascertain) and my DM fucked up the response. Instead of saying "You detect no traces of humanity from the Hunt Lords," he said "You detect no humanoids within range." The radius was like 5 miles.
There was a long moment of nervous and confused silence after that.
@@dairoleon2682 Bold of you to assume I wouldn't tailor the enemy type to avoid such an obvious solution ;)
@@dairoleon2682 Sounds like he worded it perfectly. Dramatic.
Although to be fair, it sounds as if the undead to all intents and purposes seemed to be human(oid), so I probably would have ruled that it would have detected them as human(oid). That's some powerful magic after all, and rangers are... well you know.
Two sessions ago, I was running a party of "several decades of experience each" players through a magically created complex of rooms with varying monsters and/or traps on the way to find a Dwarven artifact that the BBEG demon hordes wanted for some reason. They had fought their way though golems and undead rats and navigated a rather lethal trap with success. They entered a room lit and warmed by a wavering column of flame and they rushed in. "Ice Bolt!" "Magical arrow!" "Mighty slash with magical Nagamaki!" before they realized it was just a burning gas leak, thanks to the maze's ability to magically sustain breathable oxygen levels. That and a room with a talking statue that only lies prepped them for a beating by two constructs in a later room.
Replying to save this one for later.
That was evil! Make the players freak the hell out for absolutely nothing! Lol
Beautiful and elegant you mean.
Naw... Its actually a pretty good trap... Just something fun to break the grimness. A truly evil one would be one where they have to work a device once to get through the one-way door. Then it turns out they needed to have worked it x times so the other door at the end of the dungeon would open. =P
Although as a method of keeping out intruders, it's honestly kind of brilliant. Anyone who is _meant_ to be there will "solve" the puzzle no problem. They just press the button once, and wait.
Anyone who isn't in the know, however, will stress themselves out, resetting the countdown repeatedly out of fear that doing otherwise would kill them. Thereby stalling them, possibly for long enough for reinforcements to arrive and clear them out. If the designers of the trap were _really_ lucky, the intruders would run themselves ragged, and/or weaken themselves heavily from lack of food, water, and sleep (because they need to keep pressing the button).
Even if they figure the puzzle out, they'll come out the other side weaker. Diminished. More susceptible to later traps.
If you want it to be evil, integrate internal counter to it, to check how many times its pressed, and at lets say, 3-5 times, start flooding entire room with water/poison/nanotoxins/FUN(lava)
Ah, but I love doing that as a DM. It's the same as not showing the monster in a horror film. The players always panic far more at the unknown nothing than any kind of real thing. Let their imaginations be their worst enemies.
About 3 years back I ran something very similar to this.
Mine was in a Dwarven ruins deep in the ground, the room had 4 giant statues of Dwarves holding war drums in the corners, in the centre was a statue of a large muscular dwarf duel wielding weapons (when the players history checked it they found him to be a long lost deity), a pedestal rose out of the ground infront of the diety statue and contained an hour glass, on the pedestal was also a red button.
The button as you might have guessed caused the hour glass to empty and then flip over almost instantly, every 5 seconds (quarter of the hour glass) the statues abruptly moved and raised their arms a bit more aloft (including the large hammer / mallet things in them).
They pulled that room apart before they let the timer run out fully, eventually (it took about 15-20 minutes IRL if I remember correctly) they let it run out and the statues all did a drum roll; the locked door opened and presented them a throne room to the old Dwarven King.
hahah, the fact that you had a literal drumroll is what makes this story great
I did something similar with my group. Large marble room, doors slammed shut as soon as they entered, the only thing in the room was an opening in the middle of the floor for 3 people to fit in, and a button on the bottom of that. They pressed the button, and the ceiling started to lower. Once the ceiling hit a certain spot, they would just reset it. Not wanting anyone to get crushed, as only 3 of them could fit in the hole. 2 of them offered them selves to get crushed, and they let the ceiling fall. Once it touched some one, the ceiling stopped, raised back up, and the doors opened. It's fun always getting traps like this, and sending them to the players just to see their reactions.
I used a similar variant of this puzzle once. My players were exploring a tomb, each room themed after a a different type of damage. In the psychic damage room, an inscription reads “Speak ‘Wait!’ for more time. The only other features of the room were two doors and a divot in the floor big enough for one medium sized creature. The first time they say “wait,” the ceiling slowly began lowering, and every time they said it afterwards, the ceiling would reset at the cost of 1 psychic damage to whoever said it-The PCs were all level 1 at this point. This lead to about ten minutes of the four of them scrambling to look for hidden doors, trying to prop up the ceiling with weapons, and eventually, deciding that only one of them gets to hide safely in the divot. They all laid down, waiting for the ceiling to crush them, until it stopped just before and both the ceiling and the sliding doors went up.
A mind game in the psychic room. Smart.
That's evil.
I love it.
I love this. I've seen the variant of this with a slowly descending ceiling before, that stops once it gets past the point where the button can no longer be reached. Adding a humanoid shaped divot in the floor so it seems like only one can survive has the potential to cause the party to fight over who it is that gets to survive. Also, the 1 damage to whoever "hits the button" is great to keep the puzzle from just taking forever.
All of my players watch you so I can't use this, but I have used something like that before to totally stump players. It was just a door that required players to sing a Christmas carol. They refused to for over two hours.
hey, we tried your room/puzzle! it took 6 players 48 minutes to figure it out and it was a blast, nice job
I did this like 8 years ago when I was first getting into dming! There were some minor differences, for instance I had my players performing a set of puzzle challenges to prove themselves worthy of obtaining a special potion to help them progress. When the players pressed the button everytime, 2 ropes would dangle from the ceiling and a wooden pole would stick out of the ground. The ropes were attached to the ceiling and could not be removed without breaking them while the pole was completely removable and acted as a quarterstaff.
These were both ploys to distract the players. I also had the owner of the potion able to communicate to the party so he could keep saying "oh dear, if you don't solve the puzzle quickly, you're gonna be dead soon!" Which made the party question what could kill them and fear for their lives. Eventually after an hour of constantly resetting the button, the players decided to make a large swing with the ropes and pole and try to avoid the floor which they thought might kill them. They let the timer reach 0 and after nothing happened I had a whole lot of furniture thrown at me and I wasn't allowed to dm for a good while haha.
I just modified this puzzle for use in one of my dungeon encounters and my players spent about 40 minutes trying to figure out how to unlock the door. They're all so angry with me and I have never felt more alive
I had a similar puzzle. A riddle that demanded you shout the answer and if you're wrong you get prismatic beamed by a giant glowy eyed statue. The answer was to not answer the riddle at all and just walk by and the statue wouldn't notice you.
Was there also a correct answer they weren't supposed to figure out or was the answer to the question "scilence" or something?
A Dr McNinja reader huh
I used a variation of this a few years ago. I made the party do it in real time, and every time that they pressed the button the timer increased by a minute. It got up to 7 minutes before the party tied up the gnome that kept pressing the button. The gnome was played by the only experienced player, and he was metagaming a bit to mess with the other players. The trap was a ton of fun.
I used this puzzle in a session and it worked great. Counting down continually really helped cement their action as being 'in real time'. People tried various things, but eventually let it go to 0. The place they were in was taken over by hostile targets but not built to hold them out, but to hold something else in, and the lack of a damage based trap and gained enchantment really helped cement that into their minds.
Players come in two types
Panicking over-thinkers
Rash under-thinkers.
I have both in my group.
I loved this idea. 😈
I saw this on Reddit a few years back and tried it on my players. Used it in the context of a sewer that used a gelatinous cube to clean its filth. It was for a saferoom for maintenance staff from the cube, but the players didn't know it. The idea is that staff can run in and they'd be safe from the ooze so long as they kept resetting the orb.
There was an orb within the room and one player ran into the small room. As they entered, a magical force field formed on all the entrances and the orb glowed green (for safe). As it slowly counted down it turned yellow, and then red.
Durimg that, the party was running around the room with a gelatinous cube chasing them the entire time, trying everything in their power to free their friend while not gettimg caught up in the cube's acidic ooze.
My players are pretty good at NOT overthinking it and I wasn't experienced enough to make the "trap" seem more dangerous as the timer counted down. After resetting it only twice, they let it run down and the player was free.
In retrospect, the ooze itself wasn't that dangerous either since they kept kiting it around the saferoom. Next time I do the encounter, I'm going to make sure to up the stakes.
Ad some black ooze or maybe slimes maybe a second galantonous cube?
@@thatguy5391 Or just have the safe room at the end of a hallway?
I did a version of this puzzle for my players a while ago. They were exploring the Tomb of a dwarf king and had to collect gems to open the centre of the tomb eventually they reached a room and the door shut behind them the room was lined with stone statues of dwarfs aiming crossbows. In the centre was a pedestal with a button and at the end of the room, there was a large set of scales with the skeleton of a dwarf at its base with crossbow bolts sticking out of it. Above the scales was a Flipboard that counted down from 10 to 0. my players solved it in about 15 minutes but in hindsight, I wish that I made it as dramatic as the one you did. If I ever get a new group then I'll have to use it again.
"I HIT BUTTON AGAIN"
"are you serious?"
"What else is there????"
"...fine."
I push button
Just like me when your vids come out
Is Poke a Frost Goblin?
I think so
He looks just like how he draws his other frost goblins
Wouldn't know why the black dragonborn is hanging around them though, since the frost goblins killed one of his friends.
@@petersenior5432 could have been a different group of Frost Goblins? Not tied to that PC.
@@TecoEvi I more meant that it was Frost Goblins in general that killed the other PC... I'm sure there was some long RP'd out sequence of events that got them to trust e/o.
@@petersenior5432 At the very end of the healing word animated spell book, they chase that last frost goblin to the ropes, and he climbs up with them. The guy playing Sweet Willem must have switched to playing him.
I can feel the exact moment where you decided to homebrew in the idea that the door will shift as players leave the button alone, only to feel frustrated that they keep pushing the damn thing.
Traps and puzzles are always something I've struggled to impliment...more animated traps and puzzles would be amazing
I'd go with "Animated Dungeon". Not just because it could be used to spotlight various ideas concerning dungeon design, but because it reminds me of the old DUNGEON Magazine that TSR/WotC used to publish.
I love when the players trick themselves with something simple
Indeed. I once ran a campaign where the players arrived into a small coastal town which had recently suffered a tragedy: The mayor had been murdered by his daughter's lover because he was a dirt-poor nobody and the mayor had tried to force his daughter into marrying some baron's second son instead.
The group was offered the job of bringing the murderer back into town to face justice and they accepted the bounty.
THEN THEY SPENT THE NEXT 8 SESSIONS IN TOWN TRYING TO DETERMINE WHO THE "REAL" KILLER WAS because they were absolutely convinced that Occam's Razor isn't a thing and all the overwhelming evidence against the guy was faked by someone in town.
In the end, after a narrative week of wasted time they came to the conclusion that it had to be the mayor's dead brother's ghost that did the deed. For whayever reason, since the mayor and his brother had always been on good terms and the death of his brother had been a devastating loss for the mayor.
I don't even... Ugh.
Meanwhile the actual killer had already fled the kingdom and disappeared with his love interest sooooo job well done.
xD
It's basically that trap from the Oglaf comic where it's just the word "overthinking" written on the wall. I love it.
If I remember correctly a vault from fallout had a similar dilemma but a bit different every few years the vault dwellers had to sacrifice someone or something bad would happen and this went on for decades until something happened (I can't remember) that left the vault abandoned when the player arrives turns out nothing happens if don't sacrifice someone.
The guys at vault tec are sadistic assholes
The remaining people decided that they didn’t want to sacrifice anyone anymore, so they decided not to, and discovered that it was all an elaborate test. Worst of all, a recorded message congratulated the people for being “morally upstanding and not sacrificing anyone.” Most of the people in the Vault decided to kill themselves out of guilt after that.
Lost TV series
@somethingotherthanmyrealname And by "most" we mean two as there were only three survivors of a blody civil war that broke out in the end as people fought to not get sacrificed, anarchy broke out, and there were only three people left who decided "whatever it wants to do to us can't be any worse".
I used a similar puzzle to mess with the heads of my players. After a short track through the sewers, they encountered a door with no handle, 5 holes filled with different gemstones. So naturaly the player moved the gems in different orders to unlock the door. However, no combination worked. Until, after 20 minutes, someone took out all the gemstones and the door opened.
Received some annoyed faces, but it we had great fun.
I think I going to use this puzzle for something down the line. It's a great unexpected solution where the players are the ones building the tension.
TheRookie121
1. Why was there a gem-encrusted door in the sewers?
2. If the door is opened by removing all of the gemstones, isn’t that kind of the worst locking mechanism ever? Someone could just want to steal the gemstones, and not even care about the door. They would accidentally open the door forever by doing so. Just seems like a design flaw.
I’m not saying this wasn’t clever or creative, but it is a very... questionable decision on the part of the door-maker.
@@chrisschoenthaler5184 1. The door led to a tunnel where the thievesguild were situated. That tunnel hides different rooms behind seamless doors. And...
2. The door lock mechanisms are indeed flawed, but serve more as a final test for new members. And as a mind boggling puzzle for the players.
What if you made it tiny sculptures of monsters and on the wall a message simply says "Make it safe"
I did a version of this years ago, only the button flipped an hourglass, we used an egg timer to represent it. Took the better part of an hour.
Oh, that's a good one. Keeps the pressure up, and in a non-abstract way that often kills tension in a tabletop RPG. Stealing that.
I work at an elementary school and decided as a fun excercise to see if I could get a group of 1-4th graders into the game. Seeing as they’re new and young I wanted to introduce them to both combat and puzzles. I started with a fight with a gargoyle to get their blood pumping, which they delt with pretty easily. Then I pulled this one on them. With their blood pumping, it took them about 15 minutes of shouting and smashing at the door, but they got it quickly comparatively. No expectations, no training, just suspense. They were talking about it for the next two hours. Thank you for helping me spread the love of these games to the next generations.
I remember seeing this same trap in that old animated series Unforgotten Realms, years before I ever played DnD. It's funny how this trap seems so nostalgic to me despite never encountering it, just because an old web show featuring it is one of the things that made me want to play DnD in the first place.
My version of this is something I will keep talking about till someone stops me.
The players are walking around and encounter a high level monster. I like to use John, a well-mannered, well dressed Mind Flayer that approaches the party in a similar manner to the G-Man from Half Life. John approaches, introduces himself and then directs the players down towards a special area he's prepared. He explains he has a task the party must undertake, overing glittering prizes if they succeed.
They can try to fight John but he is waaaaaaay too powerful for him. Experienced players will know this, hopefully telling those that haven't memorized the Monster Manual by now. Newer players are told of an uneasy air about him, if the fact that he is communicating through telepathy didn't cue them in that this is a powerful guy. If the party attacks him, he'll defend himself but not hurt the players seriously, redoubling on his claim that he only wishes for the party to take his test. If they really don't want to, he'll back off and vanish.
Accepting will take the players down into a prepared area, my usual spot so far has been a suspiciously quiet fishmongers. The party will be directed towards chairs set out for them all, around an unassuming table. John sits and clicks, a mountain of chips and playing cards appear.
And then I get out a set of poker chips and playing cards. Then we actually play Poker. Deliberately, John is very bad at Poker, being way too aggressive and overconfident, and I allow the party to cheat as much as they like. They can cast spells if they think they can get away with it. They can use their Insight and abilities to read John's face for tells (he has lots but it's difficult because squid face) to gain an upper hand. The players are never explicitly told that they're in danger but the mood and odd situation should put them a little on edge. They are also removed, suddenly vanishing once they lose all their chips and are eliminated from the game. This suggests something nefarious, raising tension nicely while the players attempt to beat John at his game, FOR THEIR LIVES (so they think).
Of course, John is terrible at Poker even though he really likes it and loses. Happy to have played a hand and lost, he then rewards the party as promised. I've used this for plot hooks where John uses this as a test of metal and thinking outside the box for his employer, such as Loki. Upon winning, he brings the party members back. It's supposed to be all verses John, tipping the favour in the players way a little more. Even if John wins, the party wakes up as if nothing happened back in the alleyway they found him in, a good chunk of change poorer as John has collected his winnings and left. But I've had it so that John grants vital information, magic items and even just a chunk of gold when he loses to show he's a reasonable guy.
The idea is to show that not everything is here to immediately kill you and introduce you fully to my DMing style. I like weird ideas and I hate the idea that just because the books say so, it has to be. I'm in charge, what I say goes so don't rely on your knowledge so much. Great, you know that Unicorns are powerful magical creatures but don't expect them to be honorable and kind because I've made one a serial killer before. I've had honourable demons serving in state armies. I've even had gods be almost as mortal as the people that worship them, just no one has ever found out. I'm going to be playing around with this stuff and I adore messing with assumptions. I also find some of the monsters in the manuals so cool and interesting, I'd rather have them as protagonists than something bland and staple like a Unicorn or a Fairy or a Human king or whatever. I've had games where humans are extremely rare and common is spoken by few. And even then, badly, forcing players to have to work together to translate for each other to get things done for a truly alien feel to a city.
I am the guy that will make Fairies into rabbid, savage and selfish creatures that attack like wasps. I would happily make a Cambion your local priest that keeps corgis. I would happily make a Mind Flayer just want to play poker with you because he gets bored easily.
It also has a lovely 'event' feel to it. It sticks in the brain nicely as 'that time I played poker with a mind flayer'. I love telling the story and I love it when my players relay their version.
... A serial killer unicorn who wants to preserve the purity of fair maidens so much, he feels the only way to ensure it is to kill them before they are 'despoiled'? Holy shit I've found my next monster of the week.
@@ChargeQM yeah, that needs to become a part of a cannon adventure.
That's perfect.
I like Kobolds a lot too.
I like the idea of a Kobold Holy Warrior. Like, only 4 foot tall and barely speaks Common but is so fast, nimble and capable that he takes the party under his wing to teach them in his retirement years that are proving to be weirdly dull.
I also enjoyed the idea I had for a Neverwinter adventure. A noble has returned on the back of a dragon. And claims they are to marry soon as the dragon transforms.
The party are jobbing adventurers assigned to the wedding planners when they find interference from those looking to disrupt the wedding or gain access to such a powerful creature as a Dragon.
I have this one player in my current, villainous, campaign who seems to be a savant of Elven lore from previous editions and a real powergamer. Any ideas to help him come around to the "it doesn't have to be like the book says" idea, or just get him to stop nattering on about "the good old days"? Preferably while not looking like *too* much of a dick?
I have this one idea for his goddess being revealed as a once-mortal elf bonded with an eldritch monstrosity, but that's late-game stuff. He currently wants to get infected with Lycanthropy, despite the risk of going feral without warning.
@@LRpaul145 let a werewolf bite him, add rabies so that he goes feral every time he transforms (or have him role Con saves to be calm), then pay the group handsomely with quests that keep them in a small city on the full moon, have him go feral and get put down by the watch. He KNEW that that was a risk of lycanthropy.
Alternatively instead of Rabies just have him roll against you to determine if he goes feral, fudge the roll and have him get killed or impounded.
Just play with the logical extensions of his choices to make it fun when he does something not powergamey, and not fun for him if he sticks to nothing but powergaming.
To add some fun to it, make sure that the more people roleplay, the lower the DCs or give them advantage for really good roleplaying (don't tell them though, just give the rewards you feel they've earned), and if he doesn't catch on quickly and just created another powergamey character, just hint to him that he might find some fun without needing to be op.
Is that Wades-in-Shadows? I wonder if he ever ended catching Wick?
*DM:* _Okay, this is the first puzzle and its simple, all you have to do is press that button and wait._
*Players:* [Video Above]
My dm springed this on my party and we hadn’t watched this video and we were all fooled
I've used this puzzle before and it always throws players. My DM used it on us, and I knew immediately what it was, I texted him, said "I know this puzzle, but I rolled an intelligence check and Demeter has no idea." He appreciated that.
Idea: puzzle of two doors.
A room where the path splits in two. There are two doors, each looking different. One is a very lovely door. It is made out of wood, very smooth and well-made. It is painted white and decorated with colourful flowers, and on it, in winding, flowery letters, it reads "danger". The other door is made out of a very gnarly type of wood, put together with rough iron nails. Across the door, scratched into the wood in very angular and angry-looking letters that have been coloured in with some blood-red liquid, it reads "safety".
My party and I pull both doors, but not going through them.
@@RaulDiaz-mp8ms I guess some would do that. I was planning to place the puzzle in a character development-centered sub-adventure for my players. The idea was based upon the Temple of a Thousand Doors from Michael Ende's _Neverending Story._ The players would find themselves in a temple consisting entirely of hexagonal rooms with three doors each (including the door they entered through). The temple exists in a demiplane between the planes, and if you choose your doors wisely, it can lead you anywhere you like. By the magic of the temple, you can only pick one door and have to commit through it. You cannot see what is on the other side until you step through, and the door magically locks behind you when you do. The first rooms would be focused on dividing the players, after which I would give each player a series of doors representing character choices in some cryptic manner. Basically, the temple forces them to consider who they really are, and in return, will lead them to where they need to go.
I like this. I'm stealing it. Thank you.
martijn van weele so like the Chinese game with money a toy and a book money meaning you desire only wealth toy meaning happiness is what guides you and a book meaning knowledge at least to you is power but like in temple form and more choices like save your hide or a bystander your life or a party member you like or you hate
@@william4996 Feel free. I'd be honoured.
My group had a fighter anxiously looking for traps and a monk felling a tree by the might of his fists simply because I said, the approached too trees whiches branches resemble somewhat the shape of a gate.
I was just trying to give the place some interesting looks. Nah, they went full paranoid.
At least they didn't attack the gazebo
Well, maybe, one day, they will XD
Twas just the magical break room.
Had a bowl of enchantment and everything. (Please only take one.)
I've seen the button room in a book of puzzles and traps I have. I hadn't considered using it b'c it's literally "Just let the clock count down". Having watched this, I see the potential of the room and I am absolutely gonna use it now
We need more traps.
The dangerous ones.
*Astolfo laughing in the background*
And the sexy ones.
Phraaaasing?
the gay ones?
Alanis Tharon there both dangerous
Animated Sword seems to be the DM-y bits. This is a DM-y thing.
The idea of drawing/painting a door with the enchanted weapon is actually really cool! Nice vid :)
I made it a 60 second countdown, with each new cycle I added some more detail; some clockwork ticking inside the walls; some murder holes opening up; sounds of crossbows being racked; sounds of swords on grindstones; sounds of necrotic moans leaking through the doors; just enough stuff to be really really tense and then they eventually got through is after 90 minutes and they were FURIOUS and it was PERFECT
My players would go crazy if I pulled such a tricky on them.
NoroNoro the Traveller It hardly even counts as a “trick”, though. It’s rather simple and straightforward. Nobody could blame you for any time lost as a result of *their* paranoia. The room simply counts down to the door opening.
@@chrisschoenthaler5184 Let me rephrase that then. Honestly if I used this room (which I probably will) my players would go apeshit crazy with paranoia, spend 2/3 hours in it and probably kill themselves trying some crazy shenanigans. It's a great room but I don't know if my current table would get the gist.
Ps: I love my little murderhobo players btw💚 hope to grow to be a good dm narrating for them
NoroNoro the Traveller I could tell what you meant. It was just a little joke. (Seriously, though, you have a pretty solid defense here. Nobody can blame you when things go south, and it will probably be hilarious.)
@@chrisschoenthaler5184 I promise to ring you the details of the chaos that unfold when I get the chance to use this amazing room!
NoroNoro the Traveller You don’t need to tell me. You just need to work on your poker face. Wouldn’t want the players getting suspicious...
I'd be down for an animated traps series. Also, WOW that puzzle was brutal. I loved it.
This is a good puzzle to throw at your players while you plan ahead. It keeps them occupied and terrified as you rummage through your notes, making them think you're looking at scenarios for that room, when you're just trying to keep the aboleth's puzzle separated from the beholder's.
I pulled a FAR less complex version on my player’s back in my teenage years. Just a steel room, a bunch of ominous looking grated & holes in the walls, and a 3-minute egg timer that started counting down the moment they were all trapped. I handed them the egg timer and let them tie themselves in knots... fun times ;)
3:36 South African accent! Represent!
Shannon Bennetts I am disappointed in myself that I did not even recognize my own country’s accent. I will now hang myself on a rope made of biltong
@@shannonbennetts A fate worse than death.
@@shannonbennetts I can still hear them. I've fled across the world but there is no escape from the phantom memory of the early morning *HEAAAAAAAH!!! *
Rob DC They are the scourge of mankind. My next D&D campaign is just going to be a dry safe to eradicate them from the face of the earth
That's fucking hilarious. The suspense, the tension, the anxiety. I love it. I could definitely see this being useful for getting your party to relax a bit. Very insightful and equally amusing. lol
This reminds of a thing they did in Dead Space. Many elevators, if not all of them had vents like enemies would normally crawl through, about halfway through the game, one would crawl out and attack the player in a jump scare, this only happened once during the entire game, but the rest of the game players would cautiously check every elevator vent
Many of the rooms in Dead Space had man-hole sized vents in them that were used as monster closets. I think you could disable some of them if you shot off the vent covers before the necromorphs started to attack you.
I put this puzzle into a homebrew. The party pressed the button and just let it countdown and then left the room. They didn't even try anything. I wish my party reacted the same way as this video. Still one of my favorites though.
What an excellent early warning system! That sort of cerebral fake-out setup could give any creatures within the rest of the dungeon SO much time to prepare for the PCs! They could have even conducted entire rituals!
Just one question -- why didn't it activate before all 4 party members were in the room?
The dm said so as he often likes to say to me
If it takes long enough for the intruders to figure out the trick, they may even be physically and psychologically weakened by prolonged confinement (and the stresses of having to baby-sit the button). It's kind of hard to put up much of a fight, if you spent so long in the room you're sleep deprived and dying of thirst.
@@hugopolishoward5375 Yup, heard that one before!
I can't be too mad at any DM who tries to keep the group together, but it's so hard to keep up suspension of disbelief when things happen just a bit too conveniently.
@@matthewshiers9038 So whatever magic or mechanism that detects people and closes the door has some kind of timer built in. Say 30 seconds or so which resets if someone else enters the door within that time. So that way a whole group can go through decontamination or whatever all at once.
@@FightingDuskstalker Sounds pretty advanced for a DnD campaign though. I get that these mechanisms are kinda standard fare in today's societies -- automatic doors are not uncommon and calibrating the timer that keeps them open would be fairly simple for the right technician -- but the DnD world just feels less fun when magic becomes a stand-in for aspects of modern technology.
DnD is a world where mages can make common dwarves sprout wings, druids can control the weather and clerics can instantly reverse wounds that would normally take days or weeks to heal. Even if magic is the theme and flavour of a particular dungeon, it still feels off when a room "magically" waits for the whole party to enter. Heck, hostile territory shouldn't even be that convenient for the players in the first place.
So the puzzle was actually a trap, making you think it's a puzzle. And when you give up solving it, you get blessed for solving the puzzle. Am I a joke to you, Zee?
I actually ran this room after seeing your video with a slight change in a "roguelike" dungeon. I knew some of my players would have seen or heard about this room before, either from this video or somewhere else. So, I took inspiration from your player who used her weapon to draw a door and altered the puzzle so that was the solution. My players naturally meta gamed the room thinking they knew how it would go and just sat there bored and waited as I counted down dramatically. When the lights reset and nothing else happened, they then realized I was, in fact, aware they would have seen this before. After several failed attempts assuming the puzzle was the same as the set up here, one of my more creative players dunked himself in the well and then walked through the door cartoon cut out style with no issues.
My favorite "puzzle" was just a pair of eyes painted on a dark ceiling in glowing paint that stare at the doorway so it looks like they're staring at you as you enter the room. Kept my players occupied for a while wondering why their ranged attacks didn't even seem to make the "creature" flinch!
Yo, is that Wades in Shadows and Poke? Oh hey, it totally is.
Man, I finally put this into my session and my party played it sooo similar. Perfect. After they went out of the room I showed them this video and we all had a laugh and continued on. Great concept, cheers!
I've heard from a number of table top players encountering this puzzle. Stories of great D&D tend to get passed around a lot, to the point where you can't use some of the best ideas in your own campaign because of how well known they are. The great thing about this puzzle is that it almost always works, at least for a little while.
"Oh, I've heard of this. It's the classic room button puzzle... but what if it isn't... I push the button again."
You’re definitely getting the hang of the new software you’re using, the coloring and shading is *_wonderful !!_*
Was that a Loxodon I see there, very happy if it was.
could be, they were introduced in the Ravnica expansion cause you know..Magic
One player in our group is a Loxodon
My old group did something similar to this a few times. The GM always insisted on perception checks so when they came to a door they spent about half an hour trying to test for magic, dispel it, pick the lock, magically unlock it. Finally my somewhat ditzy cleric walks in and opened it.
I just ran this as my very first puzzle room in my first ever homebrew campaign I'm running, an interdimensional gameshow designed to test and mess with the players and it worked amazingly. It really made them think about everything in the room and even with one of the players calling out that they might just have to let it tick down still took them 2 hours to complete as they tried every option possible before an amazing scene happened. 3 players had gotten to the other side of the door when it rose up as it got nearer to 0, they were helping to pull the other players through, when two of my players rolled horribly even with advantage, during this moment, in the darkness one of the players was going to press the reset button, effectively crushing the two people stuck halfway underneath, when another player made a miraculous roll and was able to tackle the other player to the ground, saving the stuck players and allowing the timer to hit 0, opening the door.
when your a gm and you think all that security isn't enough....just do the button trap. totally stalls the gameplay for 40 minutes. amazing. i gotta try this.....
I would probably just sit on the button.
I actually used this for a one-shot, except without the enchanted weapons. I had one new player who figured it out pretty fast that they should just let it count down, but the experienced players insisted something bad was going to happen if they let it count down. D&D has trained us to be cautious of everything.
Its amazing how such simple puzzles can take so long to figure out.
I gave my players a puzzle that was just 4 doors. Each with a pressure plate in front of it that opened the next door (#1 opens #2, which opens #3, which opens #4, which opens #1). On the other side of the door was a 20 foot long empty hallway with another door at the end. All they had to do was each pick a door and walk through at the same time. It took 2 hours for them to figure it out.
6 minutes of cool visuals and great storytelling is all I need to live thank for allowing me to see another day 🌹
Oh shit! That's Wades in Shadows and Poke!
For me, i would make the walls covered in claw marks and have small trapdoors on the bottoms of the walls with dents in them like something had tried to get out so that they would immediately see that it looks like a fight should happen, but its not.
I just used the puzzle in my campaign the other week. My countdown was from 10 and there was a statue of an ordinary looking dragon in the center of the room with the wording "I bring with me ___." and there were hundreds of objects in the room that you could put in the dragon's hand (which would change the sentence to have that object in the blank). The button would submit your answer and reset the timer when you were wrong. The lower the number got the more the statue would shake and flakes of the statue would start to fall off, once the counter got below 2 you could hear the sounds of a dragon awakening. Once the timer got to 0 the wording changed to "I bring with me courage." and the door would unlock.
The puzzle was predictable, but the animation and narration were so great, it made me shiver now and then, and wait for what the players decide to try next. I loved it very much)
It’s kind of like the difference between watching a quiz game on tv (you get all the answers because there’s no pressure) vs playing a quiz game where you have an audience, being filmed, and having thousands of dollars and your self-worth on the line. Puzzles like this seem totally predictable when you watch them in a video, but try it on a party of players and they will second-guess an entire gaming session away.
My approach: *see button with a handsymbol on it* -> *Unequip a shoe and put my bare foot on it*
Gotta know how intrecate the place is.
Also button are made for presses!
i ran this encounter for two different groups of new players. on both occasions it was at the entrance to a pretty simple dungeon. the first group discovered that they could reset the button but didn't discover the enchanting effects of the water and spent around 20 minutes on the room. my other group discovered the enchanting effect but kind of just accepted their fate and waited for it to count down without resetting the button once.
One of my first times playing D&D, the DM included a set of stepping stones hidden just under the surface of a quickly flowing river and a rope stretching above them as a way to get across it. The entire party assumed it was some sort of trap or monster and spent some time shooting at it and prodding it with 10 foot poles before we realized what it really was. Player characters can be paranoid beyond all rhyme or reason over the most innocuous of things.
Unforgotten Realms. Ultimate Tower of Wizardry.... meow
For some odd reason... I absolutely love DnD puzzle videos! :) I love the extra details you put into the classic button puzzle... and that story-telling + animation is top-notch! Well done! Oh... and loxodons. :)
I was once presented this puzzle as a player and having seen the video before. Thankfully I was playing a Barbarian who wasn't scared of no dark room so when the thing kept counting down and the other players kept resetting it I just told them to stop pressing the button. It felt like meta-gaming but it also made sense in character to just let the big numbers become small numbers.
A fun variant is to have the room emitting a detect life spell, and when the button is pressed the door back the way they came stays open, but when the countdown gets to 10 that door slams shut, trapping the party inside. Pressing the button resets the countdown and opens the door back the way they came until 10, but they can't advance. If no lifeforms are in the room, or if the detect life spell is suppressed, the room resets immediately. If a lifeform is inside the room when the countdown reaches zero, everything in the room is teleported to the next room, and a pile of bones replaces any teleported creature, the door then opens.
It's a bit more complicated, which can be good or bad, but I prefer it because it feels like the party has the option to retreat like the cowards they always are
Thanks Zee, your videos are some of the best dnd content on RUclips and watching them is a pleasure
I was kind of expecting an encounter for each time they pressed the button
I was expecting there to be a D6 on the hand pedestal which you have to successively roll up to 20 in the room but not 21 or higher (which will make it reset) for the door to unlock, can even keep the lightshow and blackout effects for "fun".
I like the three handled door. An ornately carved door with three different handles on it. Each handle opens the door just fine and each one is unlocked and not trapped. The fun part is just seeing how long it takes them to get through the door.
Ahh the old timer puzzle. My first run in with this was in the tower of ultimate wizardry in the unforgotten realms web series. Love watching the insanity of over thinking the puzzle on my players faces.
YES. BEAUTIFUL. NEVER STOP.