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Any D&D/D20

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[Cthulhu]

the correct answer to any door puzzle is to break the door down.  If the door is unbreakable, break the wall and steal the door to make armor out of

[wierd]

Spoiler: appropriate image (click to show/hide)

I would almost pay money to see the look on the DM's face on that one...

[Superdorf]

Well there's two routes a startled DM could take there. You could smile, compliment the players on their clever use of lateral thinking, and let them run off with their ill-gotten gains...

...or you could fill the room behind entirely with magma, which promptly floods out and incinerates the would-be door-snatchers. "Behind one door certain death", after all.

[Rolan7]

Amusing touch that the truth door explains the rules (or WAS it a truth door?)

[Cthulhu]

That used to be real shit.  Back when the point of thr game was amassing treasure adventurers were like dungeon locusts, they'd cut tapestries down and pull out the mummy's gold teeth, strip the dungeon bare..

That kind of thing is why i try not to overthink puzzles.   A lot of players (me included) get a kick out of finding weird ways to traverse a puzzle,  its the d&d equivalent of getting into an arra you're not supposed to by climbing over a low spot in the level geometry

Dont get attached to your puzzles, players like to smash them

[Kagus]

Spoiler: Relevant and SFW (click to show/hide)

[Iduno]

That used to be real shit.  Back when the point of thr game was amassing treasure adventurers were like dungeon locusts, they'd cut tapestries down and pull out the mummy's gold teeth, strip the dungeon bare..

That kind of thing is why i try not to overthink puzzles.   A lot of players (me included) get a kick out of finding weird ways to traverse a puzzle,  its the d&d equivalent of getting into an arra you're not supposed to by climbing over a low spot in the level geometry

Dont get attached to your puzzles, players like to smash them

Especially when they're trying to be clever. Players aren't mindreaders, but they might be assholes (and definitely are if they're stymied by "clever" puzzles for too long). Destroying the puzzles out of spite is entirely reasonable.

You may want to have the puzzles' creator meet the PCs in-game, so they can give their feedback. With swords.

[scriver]

Hey, it worked for Alexander

[Grim Portent]

I'm feeling a real pull towards making a hireling focused character atm. Part of is that I'm still finding myself trying to work out the practicalities of travelling with a band of monstrous mercenaries, part of it is that the game it'd most likely wind up in already has two necromancers* so minion based ideas are on the table and part of it is that goblinoids are getting the short stick in the group's shared setting and I kind of want to make a character who wants to change that by carving out his own goblinoid kingdom for the poor buggers.
 
Plus I like the visual of a Hobgoblin/Bugbear warlord riding a chariot pulled by worgs. Impractical but badass. 

On the other hand doing so would definitely pile onto the difficulty of running the game for the GM, and I'm worried he'd approve it in a general feeling of overconfidence. 


*And an awakened cat who will probably be some kind of social skill monkey or an enchantment magic specialist.

[delphonso]

I would discuss it with the DM and institute some sort of cap for the number of non-PC party members. The necromancers get those zombies as a class feature, so they should take priority - perhaps only your second in command gobbo joins most fights, or a small personal guard, while the rest of the squad is out in other parts of the dungeon kicking ass off screen.

Unrelated:
I'm trying to build a campaign in a much different style than usual - I railroad a bit (especially by some definitions) so I generally plan only key points and all the middle bits are improv. I'm trying to mimic the Lost Mines of Phandelver's style of a hub city with several adventures outside and in it. But, I'm also trying to make them link together instead of the sort of hap-hazard mess of combat encounters in Phandelver.

Any suggestions for intrigue and issues in a small city (4000 people, about)?

[wierd]

Where does Bob the butcher get his meat, and why is it so cheap?

Is the lady-consort of the burgermeister REALLY engaged in unsavory politics with the butler and other staff?

How can there be so many rats in the city, when eradication efforts are so stringent?

What is that odd smell coming form 5th street and park avenue?

What happens to all the orphans sent to St Bridget's?

Why is the governor so fixated on doubling this year's tribute?

Clever Schmitt, the local peddler, seems quite eager to evade the publican this year-- why?

How DOES goodie Martin keep her whites so white?

A new woman has come to town, and for some reason, all the men are acting strangely in a certain neighborhood she has moved into.

A local farm's soil has suddenly and completely lost all ability to grow crops.

The gnomish inventor has his neighbors flustered by something...

There's something "off" about the vicar at local chapter of the sun god...

Local jewelers are pleased but curious about how and where a regular trader keeps bringing them quality jewels for sale

The burgermeister looks paler than usual today...


etc..

[Cruxador]

I like how all of those could range from nefarious to mundane depending on the tone of your game or which ones you want to string together into a larger narrative.

[delphonso]

I've actually linked quite a few events to a necromancer outside the city (paying criminals for corpses, attempts to steal a spellbook, wandering undead in the nearby woods) but several of these add both to the mystery and to the strangeness of the town.

Goodie Martin's teeth especially...

Cheers wierd - keep that mind of your just as strange forever.

[Cruxador]

I've actually linked quite a few events to a necromancer outside the city (paying criminals for corpses, attempts to steal a spellbook, wandering undead in the nearby woods) but several of these add both to the mystery and to the strangeness of the town.

Goodie Martin's teeth especially...

Cheers wierd - keep that mind of your just as strange forever.

Pretty sure that's Goodie Martin's laundry, actually, but I suppose it's ambiguous. Perhaps we're both wrong and it's referring to ethnicity and in fact the UN council has sent the adventurers to investigate allegations of eugenics.

Probably not, though.

[birdy51]

I for one, think Goodie Martin must be tried at the stake.

No crimes, I mean, people cast spells all the time. She's just had it too Goodie for too long...