How to solve it
A metal plate with a narrow channel cut through it, split into gated sections. Carry a probe from the entry gate to the far gate of each section without touching the sides. It's the board game Operation, with poison needles.
Only the section you're in is lit. The ones ahead are dark silhouettes, and their real shape stays hidden until you reach them, so you can't plan the whole route in advance.
- Lift the probe by pressing on or near the lit gate, then drag. Let go and the probe comes out with no penalty, but you start that section again from its gate.
- On the keyboard, Space or Enter lifts the probe in and out, and the arrow keys move it (hold Shift for smaller, steadier steps).
The probe doesn't jump to your cursor. It follows at a limited speed and wobbles with the trap's tremor, so slow and steady wins. As it nears an edge, a glow appears and turns red, and a tense sound gets louder and faster.
Touch an edge or a hazard and it's a strike. Sparks fly and the probe goes back to the section's gate. Strikes carry over between sections. Lose the last one and the trap springs. That costs one of the puzzle's attempts and starts the whole trap again from section 1.
Before you clear the first section, the driver can Steady your hand with a Sleight of Hand check, once per attempt. Every point over the DC widens the channel, up to a limit. A natural 20 gives the full width.
Setting it up
- Sections runs from 3 to 8. Each one is revealed to the driver only when they reach it.
- Channel width runs from 16 to 160, on a plate 1000 wide.
- Strikes is how many touches the trap allows before it springs, from 1 to 5.
- Hazards per section adds up to 3 obstacles inside the channel.
- Tremor is how much the probe wobbles, from 0 to 10.
- Grace is hidden slack past the drawn edge, so a near touch doesn't strike unfairly.
- Steady hand sets the Sleight of Hand DC, how much wider the channel gets per point of margin, and the widest bonus. Setting the DC also points the puzzle's Just roll check at Sleight of Hand with the same DC.
- Path lets you draw the channel yourself as up to 40 points when you write the solution. Leave it empty and Bookwyrm cuts a zigzag with hazards that can always be finished by following the centre line.
Choose a skin to match the trap: poison needles, a glyph ward or a pressure mechanism. Difficulty goes from 3 wide sections, no hazards and barely any tremor on Easy to 8 narrow sections, 3 hazards per section and a single strike on Deadly. This is a one-person job, so it supports a single driver or you operating it yourself. Rule out a wrong option wedges the current section safe.
Where it fits in a campaign
- The needle trap on the chest. The classic. Make it Medium, and put the treasure in the chest worth the risk.
- A glyph ward on the archmage's door. Trace a path through the ward's lines without breaking them. Hook the failure outcome to a damage roll the whole party feels.
- Disarming under fire. Run it in the middle of combat. The rogue works the probe on their turn while the fighter holds the corridor, and everyone watches the probe shake.
Running any puzzle
Every puzzle type is built and run the same way. The guide above covers what's particular to this one.
Write it once
A puzzle is a compendium entry. Create a new Puzzle in one of your compendiums and choose its type. The form has four tabs. Overview holds the type, a spoiler-free flavour line, an optional cover image and the settings below.
- Who operates it is one player driving while the party watches, everyone operating it, or you operating it while players watch. You can always operate it yourself, whatever you pick.
- Difficulty is Easy, Medium, Hard or Deadly. Changing it rewrites the settings that tier controls and leaves your solution and text alone, so pick a tier first and fine-tune afterwards.
- Solution is either written by you or generated each time the puzzle is placed. Generated is the default, so players who own the puzzle can't look up the answer. Reroll the solution each session gives a recurring puzzle a fresh answer every session.
- Limits set a maximum number of attempts, a time limit (with the option to show players the timer) and a lockout. With a lockout, running out of attempts locks the puzzle for a while. Without one, the puzzle fails.
The other three tabs are Mechanism, which holds the settings described above, Hints, where you write up to ten hints to reveal from the board when you choose, and Presentation, for the skin, the title, an intro and the text players see on success or failure.
Put it on the board
At the table, open the Puzzles tab in the dock and drag a puzzle onto the map, or click it to drop it in the middle of your view. That makes a copy for this table only. Its progress lives with the table, and the compendium entry stays untouched. Most puzzles sit on the map as an object. Pressure plates and rune sequences can also lay tiles on the scene for tokens to step on.
There's no separate step to start it. The first player to touch it starts it. In single-driver mode, that player takes the controls and everyone else watches every move live.
Run it live
Right-click a placed puzzle for the DM's controls. The most useful ones:
- Reveal a hint and Rule out a wrong option for a party that's stuck.
- Open it by magic (Knock) or Force it open when a spell or a crowbar should simply win.
- Give one more attempt, Pause the timer and Reset.
- Approve the solve or Reject the solve, with an optional reply, if you asked to approve solves first.
- Set up… to change this table's copy and choose what happens When it is solved and When it fails. Outcomes can open or unlock a door, reveal a token, object, handout or another puzzle, play an effect, post to chat, roll damage or start combat.
Skip the minigame
Not every table wants to play every puzzle. Set a placement's Just roll option to Always and the puzzle shows a single Roll to resolve button instead. Players roll the puzzle's Just roll skill against its DC, which defaults to Investigation at DC 15. A pass solves it and a fail costs an attempt. Set it to Never to make the party play it out.
