Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 19: Interview with Fire.and.Dice
13 Plays7 months ago
An interview with Fire.and.Dice or Keith! I got to pick his brain about some of the earlier editions and how he views puzzles and D&D. With years of experience in D&D he has some great insight into what players should do when they are faced with Puzzles.
Fire.and.dice on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/fire.and.dice/
Themesong by the DungeonMaestro on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thedungeonmaestro/
Recommended
Transcript
Spooky Intro and Guest Introduction
00:00:11
Speaker
Sure amounts and never grows and wins a toothless spider Darkness fills up empty halls and turns an endless spider What we're here for is mysteries, but puzzles yet unsolved Such that secrets lost to history has not your problem solved alone
00:00:34
Speaker
Dungeon zoom, problem zoom, puzzle zoom to solve them all. Dungeon zoom, problem zoom, puzzle zoom to solve them all.
00:01:13
Speaker
Hello my friends and welcome to another episode of Dungeon Problems. Today we have an interview today. Thank you all so much for your patience of the previous segment ending early because my last recordings actually had no audio from me so I apologize and now you get to listen to an interview earlier than planned with the wonderful Fire and Dice or Keith. You should check him out on Instagram. His handle is fire.
00:01:42
Speaker
and dot dice. Go check them out. And without further ado, my friends, meet Keith.
Passion for D&D Content Creation
00:01:50
Speaker
Keith, welcome. How are you doing to that?
00:01:52
Speaker
I'm doing wonderful. How are you doing? I'm doing well. This is exciting for me because I've been seeing your content for a very long time. I think, actually, you were one of probably the first people I was following when I first started this kind of journey on Instagram. And I really liked seeing a lot of your content. For those of you who don't know him, which I think probably all the people who listen to this podcast probably also follow you. What's your kind of thing on Instagram? What do you like to do there?
00:02:22
Speaker
Well, first of all, thanks for having me on the show. I appreciate it. And what do I do? I really just post just anything D&D, just my love for D&D. I'm not really like a streamer or a meme person or anything like that. It's just, I post a lot of the classic stuff from other editions, a lot of the stuff from 5E, just miniature painting, terrain building, crafting, all types of stuff.
00:02:47
Speaker
A man of many talents, a jack of all trades, as we say. I'm dabbling everything. I don't know about talent though.
00:02:56
Speaker
Well, I first of all, I really like the posts when I like how you kind of frame all the old things. I think that's whenever I see one of your posts come up, my eye just instantly jumps to it and then you write really insightful things for the captions. So if you already follow Fire and Dice, make sure you actually read the captions. Don't just scroll past and like that because of the birdie picture, like the pretty picture, but read the captions because they're really awesome.
00:03:26
Speaker
So my friend, we're going to ask the question that I ask everyone. Do you like puzzles? Do you hate puzzles? Are you blasรฉ about
Incorporating Puzzles in One-Shots
00:03:36
Speaker
puzzles? What are your thoughts on puzzles and D&D and TTRPGs? So I actually do like puzzles. Every time I run, I like to run a lot of one shots, because we always play campaigns, but you know, whenever we can't get the group together, or when I want to introduce new players, because we have a lot of local players around here.
00:03:54
Speaker
Because I play basically in person only. Every time I run a one shot, I always try and get riddles, puzzles, combat, and then verbal encounters. You know, try and give people a taste of everything. So puzzles are always there.
00:04:11
Speaker
Oh, I love that. Finally, my kind of way of doing sessions is the same exact thing. Doing a puzzle slash kind of a logic-based kind of thing, a combat encounter, and a role-play encounter. I like having all three in a session.
00:04:29
Speaker
Especially when you're introducing new players, because that way they because not everyone's a huge combat person, not everyone's huge on roleplay or this or that.
Balancing Puzzles for New Players
00:04:37
Speaker
But if you give them a little taste of everything, you can find out what new players kind of gear towards and then, you know, that helps, you know, helps you get them to enjoy
00:04:49
Speaker
a part of the game, you know, and helps you get them immersed into it. Yeah, I definitely agree with that 100% because new players don't know everything about it. And I find that they
00:05:02
Speaker
you know, don't quite know everything about D&D. They might start playing it because of like Critical Role or Adventure Zone, those great podcasts slash Twitch streams. And they aren't really puzzle-heavy or anything like that. I'm going to ask a question about something you just said, though. You said riddles, puzzles, combat. Do you consider riddles to be their own thing? Because I typically will say a riddle is a puzzle.
00:05:31
Speaker
I mean, I guess you could consider it either or because it is the group trying to figure out something together, usually to achieve something. So yeah, I mean, you could kind of combine them together, but I do make sure I have one of each. Typically in a one shot. Yeah.
00:05:50
Speaker
So you run mostly one shots, you do campaigns, he's running Descent into Avernus, posting updates about that, which is really cool to see as someone who's also running Descent into Avernus, because no two campaigns are the same. Everyone's games are very different. You've been DMing since, what, 1E about, or were you just playing back then?
00:06:12
Speaker
I was playing the first time I DM'd would have been in first edition, yeah, as well. Didn't go so well, but it was a first edition, yeah.
DMing Experiences and Sobriety's Impact
00:06:21
Speaker
It's really band-aid. You got to rip the band-aid off when you're DMing. Yeah. I used to do it for just friends. Like I told you, I would play myself and make the characters, but then I would have a couple of friends here and there too that would play, and then my first big moment was getting to DM my older sister. She was two years older than me in high school, all her friends, but it just ended up being
00:06:41
Speaker
a mess where they were basically just drinking, smoking. And I lost them literally 30 minutes in. It was just teenagers, you know, so older than me. So what are you going to do?
00:06:54
Speaker
I, oh my goodness, I, so I've been sober for about 10 years now. I've not touched alcohol or marijuana for 10 years. And I look back on the D&D games I used to run. I can, I can't remember them vividly, but I can remember the general feel of them in my friend's basement, all going outside for a quick smoke break and then just having complete chaos reign. And D&D is so much better when you're sober.
00:07:24
Speaker
So have you noticed a change in kind of how the games are being run? Cause, uh, I'm going to mention a movie, another bad fantasy movie that maybe you've seen, maybe you haven't, uh, called mazes and monsters. Uh, have you ever seen that movie? I have, I've heard of it. Definitely. It's the one with Tom Hanks, right? I never have actually sat down and watched it.
00:07:50
Speaker
Everyone I do, I just have never found the time because I know I'm probably not going to like it, but it is so bad and so good at the same time. One of the reasons I love it, though, is because it gives me they don't obviously play D&D. They play mazes and monsters.
00:08:09
Speaker
but a lot of my maybe misconceptions about how games used to be run is from that movie because you see a little bit of the gameplay and they come up against a trap slash a puzzle where they are like they see a glint down at a bottom of a pit and they're like and the DM's like you see this glint of gold deep deep down in the abyss what do you do?
00:08:37
Speaker
And Rope says, Freelik jumps into the pit. And the DM is just like, you've been skewered by poison things. You are dead. They don't obviously hit the movie. So I imagine there was some dice rolling. But have you, as you run games from first edition, second edition, hopefully third, maybe not fourth, have you seen a shift in how the games kind of played, particularly puzzles or
Evolution of D&D Editions
00:09:07
Speaker
Do you think it hasn't changed too much? I feel like, well, I know in first edition it all of a sudden, like we talked about with White Plume Mountain and some others, they started having a lot more puzzles at a certain point, which I enjoyed. I think the biggest change from what I've seen is the consequences.
00:09:30
Speaker
Like in 5e and you know, and I think a lot of people talk about this. I don't know if you're kind of in any any chat groups or anything about that talk about the different editions is 5e obviously, you know, everyone says is the easier one stuff like that. And it is it is more forgiving on stuff like that. Like in first edition, that was probably the biggest difference.
00:09:47
Speaker
is failing on puzzles, failing on traps, you literally could die. There was no, you know, constitution safe, there was no death saves. Like Spoilers, like Castle Amber, we were talking about that. There is literally a situation where you go to dinner and they have like about a 12 course meal. And there is one specific item that if you eat it, you're dead.
00:10:14
Speaker
There's no ifs ands or buts about it. You are dead. And sometimes the traps were like that too. They would be that serious to where, like you said, if you trigger the trap, boom, go draw up your new character. So that's probably the biggest difference is they're more forgiving now in the additions. It's easier to fail at a trap, fail at a puzzle, and still get around it.
00:10:38
Speaker
That's really interesting to me because on a previous interview, in the middle of the interview, I do puzzles for people to solve. One that I've created and one that I've found through other creators and stuff like that.
00:10:56
Speaker
I ran, I presented one of the puzzles for my DM from the Tomb of Horror, where essentially you have to get a key that's stuck in a glass thing above a vat of acid. And the big thing I noticed is like when you read a puzzle in modules nowadays or like in books, you know, like I have the Game Master's book of trash puzzles as dungeons, the puzzles are actually very long.
00:11:25
Speaker
written like there's a puzzle is a page long uh or half a page long whereas when i read it in the tomb of horror re recreation it was literally like maybe 10 sentences it was like there's a key there's a vat of acid the players have to get the key if they don't the acid hits them and they're dead uh so uh i i kind of wish it was still like that a little bit
00:11:53
Speaker
I mean, you as a DM could make it that way. That's very true. Nowadays, you do have to ask if your players are okay with that sort of stuff. But have you noticed that it's written differently too? I don't know if you've read a lot of puzzles in the modules that you have read and looked at.
00:12:16
Speaker
Do you find that it's, you know, back then it was very simple, very concise, and nowadays it's a little bit more in depth maybe?
00:12:25
Speaker
Yeah, I think it definitely is more in-depth nowadays, especially when thinking back to the first edition modules. I think most things in fifth edition, there's a little more writing to it and a little more information. In first edition, they would give you this stuff and they left it more up to the DM.
00:12:48
Speaker
And I think the DM's guide back then, because of that, it's kind of like a reverse. I don't think the DM guide in 5th edition is that great for a new DM. If you've never DM'd, it's not really, to me, a great tool to teach someone how to DM.
00:13:02
Speaker
If you go to the done semester guide for first edition, that actually tries to teach you how to DM. So it's like the DM guide teaches you everything and kind of guides you on how to do everything, but then the modules don't have as much information. Now it's like the DM guide doesn't do much for you in fifth edition,
One-Shots and Character Death Potential
00:13:19
Speaker
but the modules do it.
00:13:21
Speaker
They explain things more. Okay, this might be a tall ass to see if you remember this. Do you remember if the Dungeon Master's Guide back then had a section about puzzles? I want to say it does. I want to say it does, but I'm not 100% positive. I'm trying to think. I believe I'm pretty sure it does. Yeah.
00:13:47
Speaker
I'm gonna, well, unless I can't find a puzzle. The reason I asked this, and I've mentioned this a couple times on the show, is they don't mention puzzles in fifth edition until Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. It takes like eight books for it to actually be mentioned at all. And that's a crime, in my opinion.
00:14:08
Speaker
But was was watsy is our overlords and what they say goes So you mentioned that you run a lot of one shots do you design those one shots yourself or do you
00:14:24
Speaker
Yeah, I haven't I've never I don't think I've ever run a pre written one shot. I usually just try and think of a concept of what I don't want to do or miniatures. Sometimes it's just miniatures I want to use or a creature I want to use because I know certain players of mine haven't gotten to fight it. So then I'll try and build a one shot around a certain creature so that they can because that's what I like to do. One shots is variation. I usually do anywhere from fifth level to somewhere around 12th.
00:14:49
Speaker
to give them a good variety, to try out different levels and see what it's like to be higher level, some of the players that don't usually get that opportunity. So what was my train of thought? So yeah, I like to just give that whole big variety in there and just scale it kind of depending on how many players I have and what level they are.
00:15:13
Speaker
You said the magic word in my mind, minis. I just accurately. The second minis gets brought up, my heart flutters with joy. You paint all these minis, then you're like, I haven't gotten to use. How often do you get to use a beholder unless you specifically run like maybe dragon heist? You don't really get to use it. So then I did throw one at a one shot, and it did TPK him.
00:15:42
Speaker
One of my players asked me when I came back from...
00:15:47
Speaker
from PAX Unplugged two years ago. While I was there, I bought the Collectors, the pre-painted Beholders, where they had the famous, yeah, the three-pack. And my player asks me, he's like, oh, like, why would you ever buy that? You never could need three Beholders. That would just be too much. And I'm just waiting. I'm gonna make a one-shot where they have to fight three Beholders. It'll be challenge rating 50 or whatever, but.
00:16:13
Speaker
I was literally thinking the same thing because I have a painter beholder, just the base color tried to make it look like the DM guide beholder. But now I have one that I started painting, I posted I think the other day, one is like, is going to be a green based one, one is a red based one, and then I'm going to do like a darker like black like indigo type
00:16:32
Speaker
One and I do want to run one shot where they face four beholders at the same time. Oh I'm trying to give them different abilities like one beholder. There's there, you know not make all the ice I stock attacks the same for each one of them may have actual fire attacks another one like cold type of attacks and stuff like that and really just mess with
00:16:55
Speaker
God, yep, that's the way to do it. Four beholders, that's how many eye stocks? So what is it, like six eye stocks?
00:17:05
Speaker
No, no, no, it's, is it 10? It's 10, right? 10 eye stalks? 10 eye stalks? 10 eye stalks, so times 440 eye stalks just coming at you. Yeah. That's the greatest puzzle of all. How do you survive that? The big thing is figuring out what level they would need to be. Yeah, because I like to make, when I also do one shots, another thing I like to do with them is make them extremely tough.
00:17:28
Speaker
to introduce a lot of my players to character death, possibly. So I always tell them, they're always like, should I bring a second character to this one? And I'm like, yeah, you might want to try and bring a second character. And they enjoy it because, you know, it is one shot, so they're not using the character that they're in love with, that they've been playing with for a year. You know, they just draw up a character and know that there is a very serious possibility in one shot they're going to die.
00:17:51
Speaker
And if they survived, great. Like they survived, I had one one shot where it was a group of six and only one survived against a Kraken. He got the final blow. But it's because I kind of took it a little easy on him. It could have been a TPK, but... They worked hard for it. Yeah, you know, they worked hard for it. And so I, you know, he got it.
00:18:13
Speaker
So how do you design puzzles for your one shots? What's your kind of method for coming up with puzzles if you're writing these yourself?
Crafting Challenging Puzzles
00:18:22
Speaker
I may have a tough time coming up with puzzles on my own, so I will resort to resource books and online, definitely.
00:18:29
Speaker
Okay. What do you think gives you the most trouble when you're coming up with puzzles? What is it that challenges you about that? It's that fine line between trying to think of a puzzle that is challenging enough for them that they're not just going to walk right through it. And same thing with riddles, but not making it too challenging to where they just get frustrated and can't figure it out. Because then it's like,
00:18:52
Speaker
You're kind of stuck in a position where you have to somehow just give them a hint or give them the answer. So it's kind of that fine line. So I always have trouble like that. I'm always like, is this tough enough? Is this not? So then I go and I'll look online or I'll read some of the older modules and look for puzzles and stuff like that. And then maybe even tweak them if I think they are hard ones or too easy. Maybe try and tweak them. I find one of the things I struggle with is very similar to that. When I write a puzzle,
00:19:22
Speaker
by the time i'm done with it it makes perfect sense to me where i'm like this is gonna make perfect sense and then i remember distinctly i did a riddle for one of my groups and i said this riddle i'm like oh it makes perfect sense you know it's token level you know once you get it you're like oh this is the best riddle ever i just look at my players faces and they look at me with the most dumbstruck like
00:19:47
Speaker
Did you even speak English there, Ben? Like, what was that? And I was just like, ever since then, it's been, it's been challenging for me to not, I have to really take an object objective view of the puzzle and realize like, just because I wrote, of course I understand it came from my madness. Because a lot of riddles I've found, like, like I've seen riddles online and it's like,
00:20:12
Speaker
I've actually presented, I can't think of one off the top of my head, like I don't remember which one it was, but I've presented players with riddles before, and I have the answer, what the answer's supposed to be, but then the answer's something else that actually works.
00:20:27
Speaker
And I've given it to him before because I'm like, why can't not give him to him because that does make sense and it does fit all the wines, you know, the riddle. So I've noticed that before too, that some riddles can be answered, you know, in different ways really.
00:20:44
Speaker
I've had that same exact thing where like they presented an answer and I was just like, wait a second, does that work? And I was like, okay, yep, that checks off that. Yep, that's that. Yep. Oh, I guess it is egg. That makes sense. Cool. I find that it's challenging sometimes for me to let go of a puzzle when people are having trouble with it. Especially if
00:21:11
Speaker
You mentioned that fine line. I find for me, that fine line comes when they're actually trying to solve it and trying to think of on the spot, how do I make this a little bit easier for them? Because part of me just says inside my head, you can do it. I know you can just figure that one little thing, but I have to realize I do have to get them over the hump a little bit. Have you ever had some puzzles in your games that just
00:21:40
Speaker
fell completely flat? No, not off the top of my head. I can't think of one. Usually they figure out a way to get around stuff or get through it. Sometimes they may, you know, they may set off some traps in the process and take some damage and have to save someone from falling through a cracked stone, you know, and they got to make some ability checks, but usually they get through them.
00:22:04
Speaker
What do you, what do you kind of, what does it look like when you run a puzzle? Uh, how do you do like introduce it in its entirety? Do you let them explore it a little bit? How, what's the kind of look in your game? I guess that depends on the situation and, and, and what the puzzle is exactly like, I guess, for an example, I had one where, um, it was kind of, you saw Indiana Jones in the, uh, um, last crusade. Yep.
00:22:34
Speaker
where he had to walk on the stones and he had to spell Jehovah, right? And if he stepped on the wrong stone, it would break and you could fall through. I've done something similar to that with a room where they had to get across it. So it's really something like that. It's just, you know, having them roll their checks because it's in a dark room. So you don't have them roll for a, um, um,
00:22:55
Speaker
perception or investigation, whichever one they're trying to really use. And then I just describe what they see, you know, try and be as descriptive as possible, give them everything that they would see, and then let them go from there. And based off their decisions, I can give them more information, depending on what they're doing at that point, like if they start using torches, or if they get to a certain point, you know, so it really also depends on, I guess, the situation on how much information I would be able to give them.
00:23:22
Speaker
I like that just really, I kind of, I haven't tried this too much because my style has always been, you know, give them almost everything at once. But it would be interesting to see how little I can give them in the beginning and see how they grow from there. Yeah. Yeah.
Engaging Players with Puzzles
00:23:41
Speaker
Like certain ones like that when they were crossing another room at one point, there were like, um,
00:23:47
Speaker
There would be darts, if they triggered something, the darts would come out the side. So I wouldn't tell them that the holes are there unless they actually saw them. And then they could find that out. So then they might think of a different way and try and cross high, as opposed to walking across.
00:24:04
Speaker
You know, so those are things that I wouldn't tell them right off the bat. They'd have to actually find that because they are visible, but only if they're actually over there looking at them because it is a dark room. You know, it's 15 feet away when you've got even with dark vision, you know, it's still at a disadvantage, you know.
00:24:21
Speaker
So it's a really, really interesting question that I've never thought of before. In first edition, they didn't have like passive investigation, passive perception, stuff like that. How did they perceive stuff in first edition? Oh, my God, I'm trying to think. I haven't played it.
00:24:41
Speaker
I mean, I started with the first edition. I haven't played in a while. Like, I know some of the things, I mean, they'd have to just look around, really. And the DM would just have to say, well, yeah, you found this. You wouldn't really roll for it.
00:24:51
Speaker
So it would be more so, hey, I checked the desk, what do I find? So I think that's where other editions have introduced it to say, well, you have to actually be able to look for that. Character. Find an actual find with a roll using the dice. And they had tables back then too, like these with picking locks, depending on what level you were and stuff like that, you actually rolled the percentile dice.
00:25:15
Speaker
Um, like if you were 20th level thief, I think you had a 99% chance to pick the pocket of somebody. So it's like, it was like automatic, you know? Um, so they had table and charts a lot more back then it wasn't based on you rolling off your ability off your, off your ability scores. Um, with, um, with, uh, Oh my God, I'm drawing a blank on the word with your, uh,
00:25:42
Speaker
modifiers. It wasn't rolling off that it was rolling off your charts based on your character and your character level. I kind of part of me likes that a lot right now for it was pretty cool.
00:25:56
Speaker
I feel like in a dungeon crawl or like in a big like kind of like where you're specifically the players are supposed to be looking and engaging with stuff it defeats the purpose so I part of me is thinking right now that maybe next dungeon crawl I do next kind of thing where they have to go through stuff
00:26:18
Speaker
Just be like, Hey, your passive insight investigation, well, insight would still be, but like your passive perception and investigation right now are, are nothing. You actually have to be like, I'm going to look for traps over here. I'm going to, you know, I want to investigate the desk and, you know, engage with the world around it as opposed to making them roll.
00:26:42
Speaker
You know, because nowadays players are just like, oh, I want to roll for perception. See if I see any traps. And it's like, OK, you just look at the room and you're like, cool, I'm looking. There's no traps that you see as opposed to being like, I want to look at the cobblestones on the ground to see if they have sense, false bottoms and stuff like that.
00:27:03
Speaker
Yeah, that's pretty much how I always do it. Like, let's say I have a party of five, I'll be like, and they're like, okay, we're gonna go and investigate something specifically. And I'll be like, okay, what are you looking at? And they're like, Oh, I'm looking at a desk, you I'm looking at the back wall, you and then I'll have them all roll and then I'll tell them each one what they found.
00:27:21
Speaker
I think I'm going to be doing this now. My players are going to hate me after this. But I think it would really help increase, especially with puzzles too. Help them engage more if it wasn't just automatically like, oh, you made your arcana check. You made your perception check. No, you as a player need to engage. What's your best advice that you could give for a player with puzzles or D&D in general?
00:27:49
Speaker
I think one of my biggest, and it's a pet peeve of mine, is know your character. Know what they can do. And you allow them time to ease into it, especially at first level, second level, what they haven't played the character before, but mainly know your character. And I guess overall, aren't you? Just know your characters and be respectful at the table. That's the biggest thing. Yeah. And then what about puzzles? What would your advice be for players when they come up against one of your puzzles? Work together. Absolutely.
00:28:19
Speaker
you know, use everybody in the party, because it's a lot of times it's going to take everybody in the party, especially if you have those things were like we were talking about with the Baldur Gate puzzle or the one she said, my wife said Dragon Age is where it will take everybody to do something like stepping on a certain place or doing it in a certain order. Working together is obviously to me the best thing about solving puzzles. I am now
00:28:47
Speaker
And trial and error, too. Trial and error. I didn't even think about that. Don't be afraid to take small chances. My players will do that, because I guess a lot of them are familiar with me, some puzzles and stuff I do. So they will literally, if they're crossing a room sometimes, or crossing some type of cavern or a bridge, they will immediately, before they even start, oh, you're going first? OK, let's tie a rope around him and tie the rope around someone else.
00:29:15
Speaker
and then hold on to that thing and you ease out there and see what happens. That way if they drop, you know, you've already got that covered.
00:29:23
Speaker
I like the thought of the best advice is working together. And I find a lot of the puzzles that I've designed, a lot of the puzzles that I've read are not, they can be solved by one person. So it'd be interesting to create, I've talked about doing puzzles where, you know, like you build them around the players and have their skills, but I've never really thought about doing puzzles that are literally require everyone.
00:29:52
Speaker
Yeah, those are cool because then everybody's got to do something. And it may be one person that figures it out like, oh, you go there, you go there. But at least everyone still kind of has to do something. And then they'll have to roleplay their character, do whatever the case may be. And there's just a whole group will have to discuss it. But yes, I like doing that. I have one puzzle real quick that I did that's language-based.
00:30:19
Speaker
You know, because that's one thing that people don't even think about. And you could do it kind of in a couple different ways and tweak it. But it's basically like there's a door or a chest or whatever the case may be, whatever they need to get unlocked, has like, let's say 12 locks on it. Everyone's in a different language.
00:30:39
Speaker
And they all say lock or unlock, and they have to figure out which one and not all of them need to be unlocked. Not all of them need to be locked. It's a certain series like six of them have to be locked. Six of them have to be unlocked, but they have to be able to read those languages. And if they only know eight of the 12 languages or so,
00:30:54
Speaker
then they've got a trial and error with those other four and that's where you like every time they get one wrong the room fills with a foot of water or poison darts come from the side or I had one where the ceiling dropped a foot every time you know any type of things like that but I like doing that kind of stuff to make them challenge every single part of the character not just you know
00:31:15
Speaker
their perception or not just their acrobatics or athletics, but like what languages do they know and stuff like that. Those are kind of fun too. And then it does bring everybody in the party because usually everybody has at least one language they know that no one else already don't know, you know.
00:31:34
Speaker
I'm really thinking about now when I design another campaign, I'm actually going to be starting to write a new Homebrew campaign soon. Trying to make it so all my puzzles have different kind of things that they touch upon.
00:31:49
Speaker
uh just throughout the campaign like the first one will be like perception and arcana and then other ones would be a language based one that would be cool i actually um in the the finale of my last homebrew campaign i did have a puzzle that utilized everyone um and quite frankly it was a little mean
00:32:08
Speaker
I had them, there were some jugs of oil, oil of impact, and they had to take those jugs, lift them up, and pour them into a hole safely. And they had to make strength or athletics checks to pour them correctly.
00:32:26
Speaker
And there was a little riddle at the beginning when they first entered the room that was like, oh, you know, you have to pour them all at the same time.
Creative Solutions and Player Agency
00:32:34
Speaker
And then the last person, the person carrying the heaviest one, because there was a small jug, a medium sized jug and a large sized jug. And it was like the one carrying the heaviest one has to also be quick.
00:32:48
Speaker
it was a little bit more flowy than that because they had three checks, three athletics checks to pour. And each time it got a little bit easier, except for the biggest one actually had a giant
00:33:02
Speaker
metal ball in it that when they got it to the top one they had to do a sleight of hand to stop it from overpoured but the reason why it was all the players is because quite frankly there was only one strength-based character all the others were casters and so he the strength-based one had the biggest one and they all worked together to get the smaller ones and they almost failed so much
00:33:29
Speaker
They also had summoned creatures to help them too and still almost failed. Strength-based is just mean. So, I think it might be time for you to see if you can solve some of my dungeon problems.
00:33:57
Speaker
So I have two for you today. I have one from the Game Master's book of traps, puzzles, and dungeons. And I also have one that I made myself. I'm not going to name them because that gives away what they do, what they are. Which one would you like to try and tackle first? The one you created. All right. The one I created. I have a feeling like you might
00:34:23
Speaker
not to hype you up too much, but you might breeze through this one a little bit. Like I said, I don't get the opportunity to do puzzles as a player ever. We'll see. I tried a little bit because I knew we'd be talking a little bit about 1E to leave this a little open-ended, a little bit up for
00:34:47
Speaker
you know, your interpretation. So you've come to a small chamber where you see two bronze statues of valiant men wearing gladiator's garb. In one's hand you see a wooden shield ready to defend. Opposite him, the other man's hand is outstretched imploring for a weapon.
00:35:13
Speaker
Stand in between the two statues lies a small chest. Okay. Now, as any good DM knows with puzzles, you might have to repeat yourself 10 times because that's important. So there's two statues. One had the shield, right? Outstretched ready to defend. The other one had their arm outstretched. And what did you say they had? Employing for a weapon.
00:35:41
Speaker
Okay, sir. Okay. Okay. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And what am I trying to accomplish? Grabbing the chest? That's a good question. What are you trying to accomplish? I would say there would be a locked door at the opposite end, past the statues. And I'm unable to pick the lock. You are unable to pick the lock.
00:36:05
Speaker
So my assumption will be that there could possibly be a key in the chest, but the chest is also locked. Have I tried the chest? Are you going to try the chest? The first thing I would do is probably try the chest. You tried the chest, and it actually springs open for you. And inside you find a short sword, a battle axe, and a long spear. Mm-hmm. That's a big chest. Yeah, it's a really big chest.
00:36:34
Speaker
It's Mary Poppins' chest. You just continuously pull out the long spear. So the statue, I guess they're trying to reach for a weapon, right? And what is their other arm doing? Anything? Or I guess that's... Their other arm is just, you know, it's kind of like an oppose of a warrior. He's reaching for a weapon, so he's just armed and ready.
00:37:02
Speaker
And the other one with the shield, I'm assuming their other arm. They're pretty much like up ready to defend from a weapon. Vandalax, a sword and a spear. I would put, that's a good question. I would put the spear in the hand and the outreach hand. Okay.
00:37:32
Speaker
Now, one of these days I'm going to be like, bring a character. You put the spear in the outstretched hand, and as its stone grasp goes around it, it goes for the weapon. It goes to strike at the other statue with the shield, who the shield, the wooden shield gets up, blocks the spear, which snaps, and you would have to make a dexterity saving throw to avoid the splintered shards of the
00:38:02
Speaker
staff the spear before they impale you and the door oh alright nice let's see what you get roll it up here an eight terrible one of the one of the shards of this wooden speared shaft sticks into your side not killing you but it hurts oh boy it hurts and the door remains locked
00:38:34
Speaker
I mean, I guess we could try all three weapons, but I'm not sure if that's going to make a difference. I guess put the sword in its hand. You put the sword in its hand, it goes to strike and jab, but the shield instantly blocks it and causes it to fly from the grip. Make another dexterity saving throw.
00:38:58
Speaker
Oh, are there other people with me? Am I the only one in the room? That one's a 12. You dodge out of the way of this short sword. A little bit more ready on that one. For this puzzle, you're the only one here. I mean, I guess give him the battle axe. I'm not sure what to do in this situation. You give him the battle axe and it goes up for a two handed strike.
00:39:25
Speaker
and splinters the shield, causing the door to come open. Oh, okay, okay. This was, I don't know how I felt writing this puzzle. I think one of the things I did, why do you think it was the axe? Let me start off with that question. I mean, I guess probably does the most damage.
00:39:50
Speaker
When I researched a little bit about weapons and shields and stuff like that, the Romans had a special sword that could be used against shields to help batter them. Like the Gladius? I don't know if it was a Gladius. There was a different name for it. It was essentially heavier at the top a little bit to help really splinter it.
00:40:20
Speaker
Then stern pole arms were good against shields, but like long spears weren't. The preferred kind of weapon to use against shields was axes because they could splinter the shield and they could also like a bearded axe could tear it out of their hands and stuff like that. So that's why I went with axe.
00:40:43
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense because it all it does do the damage. It is a wooden shield, you said. Yeah. So yeah, I can see that making sense. Yeah. I think one of the things I really enjoyed about more than one person in the room, I was gonna say two people just hold the guy's arms down with the shield and hand him the weapon.
00:41:06
Speaker
That would be a creative solution for it. Yeah, it's one of the things I wrote in my little notebook when I designed this was, and I think it was a good question that you asked. If you were like, I'm not quite sure what to do here. And one of the things I wrote in my little notebook about this was,
00:41:27
Speaker
testing to see, since he was reaching for a weapon, would that be too indicative of what you should do? You knew kind of what you wanted to do with it. You wanted to give him a weapon, but you didn't quite figure out... Which weapon? Yeah. Yeah, I kind of figured when you said he was employing for a weapon, I mean, it kind of made me realize that he definitely needed a weapon. I just wasn't sure which one and why.
00:41:52
Speaker
It would be a specific one. That's why I started asking about the other arms that they were going to come to play. But since you didn't say that at the beginning, I wasn't, you know, I assumed it wasn't, but I wanted to make sure if the other arms had anything to do with it. Now, the question for you is the DM is what would you do if your players did immediately say. Two of you go grab the one statue with the shield and then they try and wrestle. There will be more than one person in that situation, right?
00:42:21
Speaker
Yes, I think one of the big things too that would have helped you too with this is if there were other people here There probably would have been discussion about like well, which weapon do we give? Yeah, you know like you might have been like well, let's give him the spear has the biggest reach and then someone else would have been like Let's give him the axe, you know because that will you know axe against wood very good. Oh that right To answer your question
00:42:50
Speaker
Most likely it would be an athletics check against, against, I'd probably give him like a stone golems statistics, you know, and then that would, if they can succeed in that, they would, yeah, you know, then I probably would allow it. If they were like, we're just going to hold back this arm.
00:43:18
Speaker
that if they were like, what happens if we dismantle the crap out of the statue, shatter on the statue, what happens then? Maybe that's a creative solution. You should have, if they do grab the other statue, have the attacking statue roll an attack roll, and if they get a natty one, he misses his target and actually takes out one of the players. Ooh.
00:43:41
Speaker
That's hard mode right there. I like that. That's what I love about puzzles. You mentioned this a little bit earlier, that there can be multiple answers. And I've written a fair amount of puzzles now, and I think I have the right answers. But if you had more people there, you probably would have tried that. And as a DM, I would be like, agency. Be like, yeah, player agency. You can do it. You can try. Well, if you have a spellcaster and they just
00:44:11
Speaker
Try and burn the shield, maybe. If it's made of wood. I think that's one of the things I'm...
00:44:19
Speaker
I don't know how I feel about it in D&D, where the making of this puzzle, whoever made this puzzle, used some magic to animate the statues, used some magic to lock the door. Yeah, there's clearly magic involved, yeah. Yeah, but there's no definitive, it's not like, oh yeah, here's a spell that's called Statue Door Lock, where it's immune to fire.
Magic's Influence on Puzzles
00:44:45
Speaker
So I think there's also, as a DM, sometimes you
00:44:49
Speaker
and I'm torn about this where you can say, no, that doesn't work. There's some magic at play here that makes it so you can't do this. Yeah. So I will say for this puzzle, let's pretend you're in a party where you have a rogue, a wizard, a barbarian, and whatever. What other class would you want with you? Rogue, wizard,
00:45:19
Speaker
a barbarian and a monk. I actually just made a monk character for a game that a little mini series I'm going to be in. I'm so excited. Monk Ranger. Wow. Nice. I played a centaur monk once. How did that go? It actually went well. It was actually at Gen Con. I played it in a one-shot.
00:45:50
Speaker
He did well, his name was Mickey. He was based off of, have you ever seen Snatch? No. Okay, so Snatch, Brad Pitt's character, he's like a gypsy boxer, kind of bare knuckle boxer, and he was kind of based off of that character. Have you ever watched Snatch? Has a great movie. Great movie. I'm gonna have to watch that now. Now, your party has come.
00:46:13
Speaker
In this otherwise spare space, you notice in an on an English, one of the worst problems with being a DM is trying to pronounce words. You notice an ornately carved stone table against one wall. As you approach, you can see two palm prints on the surface. So we just entered this room. Yep. There's this stone table over to the right.
00:46:42
Speaker
Or on one of the walls, I guess. Yep. And you don't see any exit down this chamber. Are there any other doing ways in this place? You don't see any other exits. And is there anything else? Or just this single stone table? The single stone table. And as you draw closer, you can see two palm prints on the surface. A left hand and a right hand, not just two left. No chairs? No chairs. Do any of the tiles on the floor look any different than any others?
00:47:11
Speaker
In front of the table or around the table. Give me a person investigation check. Can I use my wizard? Could he probably would have the highest modifier on intelligence? Oh, that.
00:47:29
Speaker
12 again no 13 sorry 13 we'll say level four characters so plus two plus plus three probably if you're using standard standard rules so at 17 total you're looking at the floors and you realize that underneath
00:47:50
Speaker
uh the table the ground can actually move to make a you think it's a secret door of stone that can be moved so it seems too straightforward to me um so i figure there has to be something more involved
00:48:08
Speaker
But in this situation, I'm one as a player who is more into taking action. So I would immediately have the group. I would have the wizard, possibly some type of spell, maybe a shield or something, depending on what they have. And I would have the rogue.
00:48:30
Speaker
and the monk ready dodge actions and be right up near the table. And then I would have the barbarian places hands into the imprints. All right. So as the barbarian places his hands into the imprints, the illusionary wall on the other side of the table will disappear, revealing a recess with an intricately carved nine inch wide arching lintel.
00:48:59
Speaker
So a large archway with seven equally spaced round gaps along its path. So there is now behind the table, there's this kind of archway that's been created in the stone. And you said the wall was illusionary, so we can just go right. Yep. So you can go right up to it now. And in this archway, there are seven,
00:49:29
Speaker
seven equally spaced round gaps. So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Okay, so three on the sides, one in the middle at the top, I'm guessing. Yep, and as the archway appears, the following phrases flare to life in one of the 12 languages that your characters can speak. In darkness, it starts, and in darkness, it ends.
00:49:59
Speaker
It burns as it rises and as it descends. The in-between places glow warmly, you know, but not like the apex, the highest it goes. Follow its path as it travels above. From start until finish, all colors thereof.
00:50:27
Speaker
And then as the words finish flashing, although as a DM, I would allow them to still be there, 11 crystal orbs appear on the table. Two dark purple, two red, two orange, two green, two blue, and one yellow. Mm-hmm.
00:50:57
Speaker
What was that saying again? It's a rainbow, right? The colors of the gems that appeared, the crystals or? The whole saying that you had. In darkness it starts and in darkness it ends. It burns as it rises and as it descends. The in between places glow warmly, you know.
00:51:28
Speaker
But not like the apex, the highest it goes. Follow its pack as it travels above. From start until finish, all colors thereof. I have no idea. I mean, I would put the yellow. You said that was the only single one. Yep.
00:51:56
Speaker
in the middle top and then I put one of each other color in the other six. So you have, so as you put the yellow one up in top, I'll describe this first, it flares to life with a shining brightness and seems to settle right into that recess perfectly. And then there are 10 other crystals
00:52:25
Speaker
Oh, it's dark purple. Two red. Two orange. Two green. And two blue. Oh.
00:52:49
Speaker
If it's in darkness, it begins darkness and ends with the dark purples be on the bottom left and the bottom right. So I would put those in those spots. As you do that, the yellow jam at the top layers to life and they seem to settle into the recess.
00:53:22
Speaker
then red on the left, the second one red. So it would be dark purple, red. Yeah. Okay. You put that one there and the yellow gem flares to life again. And then orange. All right. And same thing that yellow light flares to life.
00:53:50
Speaker
Let's talk purple, red, orange, yellow. What was the rest of the saying? The in-between places glow warmly, you know, but not like the apex, the highest it goes. Follow its path as it travels above from start until finish, all colors thereof.
00:54:17
Speaker
So you have a dark purple at the end as well. You put both up. And I guess the other two, I would be blue and green, but I have no idea which order they would go in, or why, or if they even go in a specific order. I would just throw a green and then a blue.
00:54:40
Speaker
So as you do that, the yellow gem seems to turn black for a second, and necrotic energy is going to shoot out at everyone. With the dodge actions, the monk in the road easily avoid it. The shield... I'll roll my dice now to see if it hits. The shield is going to...
00:55:06
Speaker
Completely negate this and then a barbarian on armored defense Yeah, the barbarians going to take this this black vault to its to his chest as he grunts in pain and dies Yeah, I don't know this one those two gems fall out I'm not sure what to put in the other two. I
00:55:34
Speaker
So you've used two dark purple. You've used one red, one red, one orange. You use the yellow. Wait, they're yellow. Oh yeah. You put the yellow at the top. And the green and blue. I don't know. The only other thing I would do is put orange and red again.
00:55:54
Speaker
Okay, so go yellow, what would be the next color? Orange and then red. You put those in, the yellow gem flares to life, the stone beneath your feet begins to shake and reveals a passageway out. Only the barbarian died. Okay, okay, I gotcha. I kind of see what they did with the colors there then.
00:56:20
Speaker
I guess when it said all colors, that kind of threw me. Yes. That all colors needed to be used. Especially the word thereof. All colors thereof. That seemed, how do I put it nicely? That seemed like the writer of this was just trying to make it all rhyme, which I think is that very dangerous pitfall for poets and DMs. Yeah.
00:56:49
Speaker
But, I mean, I think you once you, where do you think you understood that part? Where do you think it kind of clicked for you? Was it when the archway with the recesses appeared? Was it when the gems appeared? Well, I think the first thing that you realize is there's seven, there's an odd number, one in the center at the top and then there was only one yellow. So for me, that told me the yellow has got to be in the top.
00:57:15
Speaker
I mean, if it wasn't, I would add no clue what to do. And then you're talking about the apex, and then it burned bright as it went up. So I was like, OK, well, it's going to get lighter, so it's going to go dark purple, red, orange, yellow. And then I guess it would make sense how it finishes off, but that's what threw me. So that's why I had the dark purple at the other end, because it begins and ends in darkness. But that's what threw me was the all colors. If it didn't say all colors,
00:57:45
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if that was on purpose, or that's just a design flaw. One of these days, I'll reach out to I mean, I've used this book for like, four episodes now. So I should reach out to Jeff Ashworth and be like, Hey,
00:58:09
Speaker
And then those books are everywhere now. They're on Amazon. I saw them in Michael's. Yeah. Well, so I see noble. Quite a few. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a really had some really cool stuff in it. I do recommend it highly. Well, you solved both of the puzzles.
Recap and Puzzle Challenges
00:58:27
Speaker
And the second one, you definitely boom. Only one character that goes only one. OK. I mean, that's tough. First edition, that would have been great getting through there with only one.
00:58:39
Speaker
And then the other one, you solved with some injuries. You know? With some injuries. So congratulations on solving some puzzles. Yeah, that was good. That was fun. Now it's time for the final question. The final question.
00:59:08
Speaker
I don't know why I try to build it up so much on that one, but it's time for the final question. What has been your favorite puzzle in anything? It could be a movie, it could be a game that you've run. That's kind of easy. The one that always sticks in my mind is what I brought up earlier, the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but basically the book he's carrying and having to get through that little
00:59:33
Speaker
that little portion where he has to go through multiple things, the leap of faith, where he throws the sand out there and the bridge appears, the, you know, a penitent man and he rolls and the blade goes over his head, all that kind of stuff. I just, I love that whole sequence right there. That was a really cool sequence. So it was probably... Indiana Jones has some cool puzzles. It did. I really liked that. I think that was really well thought out, how they did that.
00:59:58
Speaker
Now, you've played a game where you kind of utilize that as well? Some of those, yeah. Not all of them together like that, because I think some of my players would know, oh, wait a minute. That was going to be my question if they caught on. Easy. But yeah, there's some things like that. That's where I get inspiration from a lot of times, just the old modules and movies where they have stuff like that. I think that's always a good place to find inspiration, any type of fantasy movie or that type of stuff.
01:00:28
Speaker
Yeah, my one of some of my favorite puzzles. It's from something very similar to that. A series of puzzles and traps. The original Dungeons and Dragons movie. The cursed thing with my favorite actor of all time, Jeremy Irons. OK, absolutely love that. The OG one. There's a series of puzzles that the main character has to overcome that are kind of actually very similar to that.
01:00:58
Speaker
Like there's a one where he has to press certain tiles on the floor. It feels, I don't want to use the word cliche, but those puzzles have just become so ingrained in our minds from, they've been used in media. And I think that's what makes people love them. Cool. Wow. If you haven't seen Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, go check it out. Cause it's got some cool puzzles in there. Yeah, absolutely.
01:01:27
Speaker
Thank you, Keith, so much for joining us today. Where can people find you if you want to plug yourself and let people know what to expect coming from you if you have anything fun in the works right now? Yep. Well, you find me on Instagram. That's the main thing. That's the only really social media I'm down to using, which is fire.an.dice on Instagram. I do have a YouTube channel. I haven't posted a video in a long time. I've thought about getting back into it, but I've got like over a hundred videos on there, but
01:01:56
Speaker
Yeah, I haven't posted anything in a couple of years. I should get back to it. But the biggest thing I have going on right now, and right now like you, I'm running Avernus, almost done with it. I can't imagine we have more than about five sessions left. Then we're going to start another campaign after that, still not sure. And I'm starting a Sunday campaign. So I'm going to run two campaigns and go that route. But the biggest thing I'm working on is
Fantasy Novel Inspired by D&D
01:02:21
Speaker
a book. I ran a homebrew campaign.
01:02:23
Speaker
that lasted about two and a half years. Long story short, my brother who taught me D&D, we had that discussion. He was the one who taught me and introduced D&D to me when I was a kid. My oldest son and my middle son all played in that. So it was kind of like this full circle where I was now D&D my mother and I was introducing both two of my three sons to it. So then that campaign lasted for like two and a half years and
01:02:48
Speaker
Um, we never didn't get to finish it because then a couple guys moved away. Um, and it just wasn't the same. We don't play online. I'm just not a big fan of that, especially when you have some people at the table and some out, but I'm writing a book on that. So I'm going to finish the story of myself on how I kind of would thought based on the characters, how it would go and stuff. Um,
01:03:07
Speaker
So is it a novelization of it? Is it a module? What is it? It's going to actually be like a fantasy novel. Like if you read it, you would have no idea it was actually based on a campaign. So it's just written as a fantasy novel, but it is inspired by that campaign. Yeah, so and it's actually started. I started writing it and I realized this is going to be like a three book series. So I'm hoping to have book one published by GenCon this year. Ooh.
01:03:33
Speaker
Yeah, that's exciting. Right now. I'm really excited to reveal that soon. I found a very talented artist who's been working on it. I love what he's doing so far. He's like, I told him the scene I wanted. And so he kind of rough sketched what it would look like. And now he's each like we he's sending me a new character, what it looks like the with the finished full color and everything. And then I just give him a couple updates, like, hey, can you switch this to change this? And he's been really good about that. So now four of the characters are done and just looks outstanding. I love it.
01:04:03
Speaker
That's one of the biggest things I love. I love making my words into art. My words are my medium. The DM describing the smell of the toxic dungeon.
01:04:19
Speaker
But then just to see something that you can picture in your head by someone who can draw or I cannot draw art for I can barely do stick figures from Anything in my life and just to see someone else take your words and bring it to life is Amazing. Yeah
01:04:37
Speaker
Looking forward to that. That's going to be, if you're listening to this, make sure you check out fire.and.dice on Instagram and look forward to that novelization. I'm sure it's going to be a killer. And I, I feel like your players are going to be so lucky to be able to read it and remember stuff and then like read the end too. That would be a cool experience. And finally getting ending out of it. Unfortunately we couldn't do it ourselves, but yeah, they'll see how, what, what the idea of it all was.
01:05:05
Speaker
Maybe they'll be like, oh, I, we missed that. I can't believe that thing was the BBG was our pet dog all along. Oh, no.
01:05:15
Speaker
But guys, thank you so much for listening today. Next two weeks from now will be another interview with D&D Tabletop Misfits. So be sure to come back. Yeah, I did his, he did a round table with me a couple, like a month ago on Twitch. So now he's coming on here to talk puzzles and such. Okay, awesome, awesome. Yeah, so. I've been getting to meet him in person, but we chat all the time. We're friends on Facebook now and on Instagram. He actually only lives a couple hours away from me.
01:05:43
Speaker
Yeah, he lives pretty close if I remember correctly. Yeah. Yeah, he's a great guy. Very nice guy, super friendly, engaging, and just wants to meet people and spread the love. And that's, that's what I love about this community. So guys, thank you so much for listening today. Have fun. Oh, wait, my theme song was done by the dungeon maestro on TikTok and Instagram. Please go check that out. I might edit this a little bit too at the end, but
01:06:13
Speaker
Thank you all so much, have fun, do your best, and remember, I believe in you.