This chapter includes puzzles, riddles, and traps themed to the Deck of Many Things for Dungeon Masters' use.
Puzzles
This section presents two puzzles designed to invite group participation and challenge characters (and players) of any stripe. Each puzzle can be included in your campaign as presented or customized to fit the needs of a specific adventure.
The following information appears in each puzzle:
I once fixated on deciphering a puzzle for six hours straight. Euryale had to remind me to eat.
The Perfect Hand
Difficulty: Easy
This sorting puzzle can be used to indicate the presence of a hidden treasure or secret passage. It fits well in a dungeon, a haunted manor, or an abandoned gambling den.
Puzzle Features
The statue speaks whenever anyone approaches, repeating the message each time.
The card on the table is a nonmagical version of the Rogue card from a Deck of Many Things. The four other cards mentioned in the statue's message—Sage, Jester, Knight, and Fates—are each located in a different area nearby.
Grooves in the statue's palms are perfectly sized to hold the cards. Each card can fit into the palms either upright or reversed (upside down).
Solution
The characters must find the four missing cards, then return here. Using the clues in the statue's message, all five cards must be arranged in the correct order and orientation (upright or reversed) in the statue's hands. Diagram 4.1 shows the solution.
A hollow thud emanates from the statue if the cards are arranged incorrectly in its hands. Once the cards are placed in the correct arrangement, the statue slides aside, revealing a secret door.
Hint Checks
Any character can make these ability checks to receive a hint:
Intelligence (Investigation) DC 10. For the cards to face the directions indicated in the statue's instructions, some must be placed in the statue's hands upside down.
Wisdom (Insight) DC 10. The statue's message explains the proper order in which to sort the cards.
Wisdom (Perception) DC 10. Grooves in the statue's palms would perfectly fit a fanned hand of five cards.
Customizing the Puzzle
Characters must use deductive reasoning to arrange a group of objects in the correct order. It's not important that the objects be cards—they could just as easily be statuettes or paintings on the wall. As long as the characters are given enough clues to correctly arrange the objects without having to guess, this puzzle can take any number of forms.
Missing Pieces
You can choose where the missing cards are located. For example, the characters might need to decode a map or navigate a maze to find the cards. You can also make this puzzle more complex by separating the clues. For instance, have each clue come from a different statue or scrap of parchment somewhere in the dungeon.
Another way to adjust the overall difficulty of the puzzle is to make acquiring the cards more challenging once they've been found, perhaps by requiring the characters to defeat monsters or overcome a test of skill.
Starting with a Full Hand
To make this puzzle easier and quicker, place all five cards on the table in front of the statue so the characters can begin interpreting the clues right away.
Unseen Order
Difficulty: Medium
This guessing game requires characters to use deductive reasoning to determine the correct sequence of four cards. They must use a game board and six stacks of cards on a table to make their guesses. Give the players a copy of Unseen Order Handouts 1 and 2, then read the following boxed text aloud:
Puzzle Features
The cards on the table are nonmagical versions of those from the Deck of Many Things. If the characters struggle to understand the riddle, the ghost can explain the rules more clearly:
Other Materials
You don't need cards to use this puzzle; you can use paper, a red pen, and a blue pen. Write down the puzzle's solution on a piece of paper, and fold the paper so the players can't see it.
Give the players a copy of Unseen Order Handout 1 or a sheet of grid paper. Ask them to write their guess in the first row of empty boxes, writing the card names or drawing symbols like those provided in Unseen Order Handout 2, the symbol key. Secretly compare their guess with the solution. In the empty circles next to their guess, color one circle red for each correctly guessed card in the correct position, and color a circle blue for each correctly guessed card in the wrong position.
Solution
The answer to this puzzle can be determined only through logic. Diagram 4.4 illustrates one possible hand the ghost might have (Moon, Sun, Skull, and Gem, in that order) and how the game might play out. You can devise alternate solutions by selecting a different hand of four cards.
Hint Checks
Any character can make the following ability check to receive a hint:
Charisma (Persuasion) DC 10. If asked politely, the ghost provides an example of how the game might play out. Show the players diagram 4.4. Choose a different solution for the actual puzzle.
Customizing the Puzzle
As long as the basic rules of the game remain the same, the puzzle can take any number of forms, including differently shaped tokens or game figurines such as chess pieces.
Increasing the Difficulty
You can make this puzzle more difficult by increasing the number of cards in the ghost's hand or by adding more possible cards to choose from. Each new variable makes the game much harder; consider increasing the number of guesses the characters can make.
Riddles
A riddle is a verbal puzzle. Riddles can be simple or complex, brief or protracted, and low stakes or deadly. This section includes basic guidance for DMs who want to design and use riddles in adventures.
Why Use Riddles?
Riddles are a staple of the fantasy adventure genre. Used judiciously, riddles neatly illustrate the wondrous, whimsical, and often dangerous nature of a fantasy world. A good riddle can challenge all manner of adventurers—novice or veteran, weak or strong—and can make the reward at the end of the adventure feel well earned.
Riddles can be used to do any of the following:
- Provide an opportunity for the characters to engage with a creature that's too strong to defeat in combat
- Reward clever characters who overcome a challenge with brains instead of brawn
- Make a villain, an area, or an object seem more interesting or mysterious
However, using too many riddles can slow gameplay. Use them thoughtfully and sparingly. Especially tricky riddles should entail worthwhile rewards. Be wary of using riddles found online, especially if players can access the internet during the session.
Where to Use Riddles
Puzzle-loving antagonists and mischievous monsters are the most common ways to introduce a riddle. Here are some suggestions for how to incorporate riddles into adventures:
Writing Riddles
Writing new riddles for your group can be fun and satisfying—as long as the players don't guess the right answer in seconds or, conversely, rip their hair out in frustration. Here are some tips:
Twenty-Two Riddles
Here are twenty-two riddles you can use in any campaign. Each riddle's answer is the name of a card from the Deck of Many Things:
Trap Rooms
Traps can be as puzzling as any riddle or maze, but they're far deadlier! This section includes a collection of trap rooms: dungeon chambers loaded with hazards to test adventurers' wits and fortitude. A trap room is a group of traps designed to work in tandem. Taken separately, each element of a trap room might be only a minor setback for the characters, but when combined, those elements form a unique and memorable challenge.
Trap rooms aren't likely to be found in just any abandoned manor or forgotten temple; elaborate contraptions like these appear in dungeons designed to guard truly valuable treasures and to punish overcurious adventurers.
Each of the trap rooms described below includes a range of suggested character levels to match that room's difficulty. Each entry also includes information about the trap room's features and a diagram illustrating its design. You can use the 5 in the Dungeon Master's Guide to adjust these traps' severity.
- Balance and Ruin
- Surface of the Sun
- Test of the Empty Moon