The Sorcerer’s Conundrum

A puzzling elven labyrinth

Andy has created an even labyrinth chalk full of puzzles for The Sorcerer's Conundrum! I wanted to learn more so I spoke with Andy about it and he gave me some answers that made me even more interested. Check out our conversation and see if you've got what it takes to solve this Conundrum.

So folks can refer back to previous post about The Sorcerer’s Return if they want some backstory. But tell us about the premise for The Sorcerer’s Conundrum.

Thanks, Stefan, for including my project in your newsletter! The Sorcerer’s Conundrum is the third part in what I’ve come to call “The Saga of the Sorcerer Verrükter and the Rükstau Rejects.” It is planned as a 6-zine series, with each zine corresponding to a character level from zero to five. Judges can turn it into a short campaign, or run it as six one-shots.

If you plan to use XP, I am putting together some supplemental adventure pamphlets and mini-adventures to fill in the gaps when the XP available in a single adventure isn’t enough to level up. Aufgebläht or Bust, a DCC Day 2025 freebie and an add-on to The Sorcerer’s Conundrum, is one of these pamphlets. It can be used as a funnel-crawl or to supplement XP between Sorcerer adventures.

The next zine, slated for ZineMo/Quest/Topia 2027, is The Sorcerer’s Slumber. When it’s all said and done, it’ll all get compiled into a hardcover tentatively named “Verrükter: On the tiny village of Rükstau and its remarkable and alarming neighbor, the Grand and Glorious Sorcerer Verrükter, Supreme Practitioner of Magical Sciences.”

Tell me about the cube. The people want to know about the cube.

I’m pretty proud of the cube. It’s been well received in playtesting. The cube is a prop that Judges can assemble from paper or card stock and use at their table. I don’t want to give anything away, but the players need to place it in a square indentation in a table with the correct orientation to solve the puzzle. There are mirrors and cryptic runes to make things interesting. When I was a kid, I loved paper crafts—the “put tab A in slot A” kind of things—then in my late teens I studied design and sculpture for a minute. So, it just seemed like a fun thing to put into a game.

I recommend assembling two of them in case one is crushed by a player in a fit of frustration. Puzzles can be like that. :)

Any advice, or maybe inspirations, for designing puzzles in adventures? You seem to have quite to affinity for including them in your work.

I love puzzles. I’m terrible at them, but I love them. I especially love them in TTRPGs. You CAN solve a puzzle by coming up with the expected answer, or you can devise some insane, off-the-wall solution which technically solves the puzzle. Or you can use magic and break everything.

Not only was I obsessed with paper crafts as a kid, but I also loved puzzle books. My guess is that my puzzles are lifted from, or inspired by, these puzzles. I lived in the dark ages before portable video games, so when my parents wanted me to sit still for a minute, it usually involved a craft, puzzle, or book of some kind. Maybe I’ll find a way to include Madlibs in a future adventure to make it complete.

And you packing something like 40 illustrations into this zine? That’s gotta be like an image on every page! Since you’re the illustrator (or at least the primary one), do you have any advice for other artists who are trying to improve their own drawing skills?

This question has my imposter syndrome howling like an air raid siren. The main thing for me is practice. I just keep doing it. That’s one of the reasons I put so many pieces in my zines. I get better the more I do it. I also consume a lot of art. Old and contemporary TTPRGs, comic books, modern and classic art. When I’m working on a piece, I’ll look at what I’m making and think, “that bit is R. Crumb,” “that’s Bill Griffith,” “this has an Albrecht Dürer vibe.”

The last point is a tough one, but it is critical: don’t be too precious about your work. Even if you don’t love it, put it out and move on to the next one. Just keep creating. Some pieces I’ve done that I wasn’t super proud of turn out to be my favorites later.

Thanks for sharing! Anything else that you’d like folks to know about?

Please check out the campaign on BackerKit! It is fully funded, and we’re punching through stretch goals as you read this. I’m especially excited about the $7k stretch goal. If we cross that threshold, I’m going to work with Michael Spredemann of Magical Mishap and LiveToRole to make online versions of the puzzles for people playing on VTTs or in-person. Also, I recently decided to offer physical stretch goals even if you back at the PDF-only level, so don’t let that stand in your way!

What other things might the sorcerer Verrükter get up to? The Sorcerer's Sidequest? You tell me!

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