Yosenabe

Yosenabe is a Nikoli puzzle in which the aim of the game is to move circles on a grid into designated areas, using the clues on the numbers and in those areas.
Yosenabe can be played on any grid size. The difficulty can increase with the size of the grid, but a lot of it depends on the amount of circles, areas, and the variation of hints.

The rules are as follows:
- Move all the circles so they sit inside a designated area. These areas have thicker borders.
- The circles can only move horizontally and vertically. Each circle can only move in one direction.
- Circles cannot pass over other circles, and they cannot cross the path of another circle.
- The number in the designated areas must be equal to the sum of the numbers in the circles that enter it. So an area with the number 6 could have a circle with a 1, and a circle with a 5 for example.

Standard version

A regular Yosenabe puzzle usually isn't too difficult to solve. There are only so many moves you can make on a small grid, let alone moves that work mathematically. The areas with a number are always the best place to start. Simply look for circles that could enter it, see if any combination adds up to the number in this area, and if it's the only possible one move the circles. If it's not the only one move to another area with a number and repeat the process.

Converting it to an RPG setting.

Yosenabe can be a bit tricky to convert to an RPG setting, but there are plenty of ways to replace the numbers and areas with more themed components. Power sources and power grids, populations and countries, crops and fields, monsters and cages, and so on.

For my example I went with colors. My character is faced with a room containing 6 spheres of light. There are also 4 areas marked by slightly raised floor tiles, some of which contain a small, colored light in the floor.
All my character has to do is put the right light spheres in the right containment areas.

If she makes a mistake at any point the color spheres will all send it out an electric shock, before all returning to their original position again. If she solves the puzzle she'll cause a mechanism to switch on, which allows her to move onto the next part of the campaign.
To those of you confused by the puzzle and its answer, remember that mixing light doesn't happen in the same way as mixing inks. If your party doesn't remember this either it could make the puzzle a lot more trickier.

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