Topic: Logic Puzzle Resolution System
Started by: chronoplasm
Started on: 7/31/2010
Board: First Thoughts
On 7/31/2010 at 1:34am, chronoplasm wrote:
Logic Puzzle Resolution System
Hey guys.
I wanted to draw your attention to this site I found:
http://www.mensus.net/brain/logic.shtml?houses=3&a0=on&a1=on&a2=on&q0=on&q1=on&q2=on&q3=on&q4=on&q5=on&q6=on&q7=on&q8=on&q9=on
I was thinking that this might make a good mechanic for an investigative game.
Here's an idea:
The GM stats up a group of NPCs on a 'character grid'.
The players have to discover some piece of discrete information, for example, "Who was sleeping with the woman in the red house?"
They do this by spending points to collect clues, which they then fill in on their own grids to narrow down their search.
There might be some little issues to work out of course (relating to the example above, "What if multiple people were sleeping with the woman in the red house?")
Any issues you know of that I should be aware of?
On 8/1/2010 at 5:47am, dugfromthearth wrote:
Re: Logic Puzzle Resolution System
the problem with these puzzles is that they are entirely artificial.
people are referred to as "the red head lives in the green house" rather than as "Cathy lives in the green house"
Only by putting together seemingly random bits of data do you force the user to figure this out with logic.
You might be fine with that - asking a bunch of eyewitnesses questions might reasonably come up with that sort of thing. Define 5 people and some physical descriptions of them. An eyewitness might say the "guy with glasses and a sweater" or the "guy with a coat and long hair" and then you piece the descriptions together.
You could probably come up with a few other scenarios where it would feel reasonable and not forced.
Thinking about it, my wife would probably love a detective game like that - she likes those logic puzzles and she likes Law & Order type shows.