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Unwritten: System Reference Document/The Art of Gamemastering
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===You are on the Players’ Side=== Like compels, puzzles should lead to interesting avenues of action. If a puzzle becomes a dead end or a source of frustration, that’s not awesome. You should rethink how you are using it. You want players to enjoy the challenge, so be aware of your players and how they are reacting to the puzzle. If they are struggling, remind them of the tools that Unwritten gives them. You can offer discover actions to the players so they have questions to use to get information they might not otherwise. Point out that excelling on a Discover action will give them a hint. If they don’t use it, then great, they get a fate point. Also, keep an eye out for situations where a few players are enjoying the puzzles while other players are bored or frustrated whenever they come up. Watching other people have fun when you aren’t is definitely not awesome. Make sure everyone has a type of puzzle that they or their character can participate in, or alternate puzzles with other activities that players find entertaining. If players are just at a complete loss, you can turn the scene around and make it a deduction. (“Okay everyone, this D’ni vault you are stuck in is really tricky. Let’s deduce how this works!”) That gives them the power in the scene. Or, you introduce a new element into the situation that may change the puzzle to something that your players can more easily handle. That might be as minor as declaring a puzzle is mechanical in nature so someone can bring their high Engineering to bear on it. Or it could change the situation entirely, such as adding in someone who has key information for getting past the puzzle. Then it becomes an issue of tracking down the person and getting the information from them.
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