The Numbered Floor Tiles

Type: Test of Disorder

Description: This trap involves a room with a square array of numbered tiles on the floor. Some of them are safe, others are trap doors that drop you into a pit of steel spikes (or activate another trap of your choosing.) The PCs must determine exactly which tiles are safe and which ones are trapped.

There are countermeasures in place to prevent smartass PCs from circumventing this puzzle including Anti-Magic Fields and other mechanisms.

The trapped tiles are identified by the following rules:

1. When there are two or more identical numbers on a single row or column of tiles, all but one of those identical numbers are trapped.

2. There are no trapped tiles adjacent to each other.

3. No safe tile or group of safe tiles will be completely surrounded by trapped tiles. All safe tiles will have at least one other safe tile adjacent to it.

4. The adjacency rules do not apply to diagonally adjacent tiles.

NOTE: This puzzle will only work with tiles arranged in a square. Such as 5x5, 6x6, 8x8, 10x10, 12x12 etc. Arrangements like 5x6 or 8x10 will not work!

Here is an example of a 5x5 arrangement:

S=Safe T=Trapped

5 4 4 3 1           S T S T S

1 4 3 5 2           S S S S S

3 5 5 3 4           S T S T S

4 1 1 3 5           S S T S S

2 4 1 4 5           S T S S T

And a 6x6 one:

1 5 6 2 4 6        T S S S S T

1 4 5 3 5 4        S T S S T S

6 4 2 1 1 3        S S S T S S

4 1 2 6 3 2        T S T S S S

2 3 1 6 5 4        S S S T S T

4 2 3 1 2 5        S T S S S S

Finally, here is an 8x8:

3 4 2 6 1 3 5 2         S S S S S T S T

4 1 7 3 8 8 1 6         S T S S T S S S

2 6 5 7 3 2 1 1         T S S S S S T S

7 5 5 2 6 6 8 2         S S T S T S S T

5 6 6 4 8 4 2 2         S T S T S S T S

4 1 8 5 1 3 7 4         T S S S T S S S

2 8 8 4 7 4 6 5         S S T S S T S S

3 3 4 2 6 5 2 6         T S S T S S S T

The minimum size possible for this puzzle to work is 3x3. It is recommended that beginners be given nothing larger the a 5x5 one. Higher or more experienced puzzle players can be given larger ones. I personally would not go over 8x8 or else it will take forever.

Also the size of the puzzle determines the numbers that can show up on the tiles. So if the puzzle is 5x5 then the numbers 1-5 will show up. If the puzzle is 6x6 then the numbers go from 1 to 6. If the puzzle is 8x8 then the numbers go from 1 to 8 etc.

The number zero never shows up on any of these puzzles.