Riddle me this: How often do you use riddles?

[aco175]

I like to use them but seems like they only come up every 10 adventures. The last one is a map to a location where the PCs need to go. The map folds and has clues on it that they can get help on if they cannot figure it out. There is a red herring that leads the PCs to an orc camp before giving a few more clues if needed.

I also found that new or young players like riddles. When my son first started playing I included a door with push buttons to open. It was simple enough that all the adults knew it, but when my son figured it out (and the adults let him make the guess) he was more happy about playing and enjoyed it more.

 

[Shiroiken]

Remember that scene from the first Lord of the Rings movie? Where they had to open the door to the Mines of Moria, but had to solve a riddle? They party stopped and could only progress once they had solved it. This is boring and frustrating during game play.

This is the quintessential failure of adventure design, and happens all too often with riddles. I prefer to use riddles sparingly, and *never* require them to be solved to further the plot. I like to use them to grant a benefit if solved, usually with limited attempts to keep it short.

One adventure I ran back in 2E, the party was teleported to the center of a maze (dungeon). There were several paths to escape, and each had a riddle to be solved. The longest and hardest path had one of the most well known riddles (four legs, two legs, three legs), while the easier ones had progressively harder riddles. If any riddle was answered incorrectly (while touching the door to prevent "mistakes"), the exit would be forever sealed and the answerer would take lightning damage. Since I knew at least one of the players would know the super-easy riddle, they shouldn't be trapped forever (unless one player deliberately sabotaged it, which was a possibility). They managed to get one of the mid-level ones correct, but took some damage as they tried the harder ones first.

A fellow DM tried something similar in a 3E game that managed to kill the campaign. He trapped the party in a room with 12 doors, each with a riddle. When you answered the riddle, the door opened, revealing... something (usually a monster with treasure). Only one of the doors had the exit, which I unknowingly attempted it early on. My answer was "shadow", but was deemed incorrect. Since everyone thought my answer made the most sense, we ignored it, hoping we didn't have to answer it. We eventually got through every single other door, but could not figure out the last one. Turns out that not only was THAT the door we had to open, but the correct(?) answer was "shade." Session ended with us in total frustration, with the DM just giving us the answer, and everyone just stopped caring about the campaign.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

Not many. I'm getting sick of players saying, "Can we make a skill roll?"

 

[CleverNickName]

Is it a bubble?

Ooh, ooh, ooh!

Is it a cloud of detritus from a past meal?

Nope, it's "PHOTOGRAPH." Now you've missed the clue to look behind the family portrait in the Haunted Manor's main office. Instead, you probably went down into the basement to search the floor sink, where a black pudding has taken up residence...

But it's no big deal. You might find the locked wall safe behind the photo anyway if you search the room (and roll high enough.) Even if you miss it, you're only missing out on some jewelry, a pair of strange earmuffs, and a diary about how "Aunt Hattie never could stop screaming, she was always so angry. Daddy said she screamed herself to death."

Either way, you'll still end up fighting the banshee in the attic. You'll just be doing it without knowing what to expect, and without those earmuffs giving one of you advantage on save throws.

 

[guachi]

I like riddles and puzzles because they seem to be a part of D&D history in that old modules had them and players enjoy different things in the game, anyway.

I've only had one puzzle in 5e that the players themselves had to solve or they'd all die (eventually, of starvation). It was from B10 in the Tombs on the Ridge encounter. One player had it solved before I had even finished describing it, which was pretty funny.

Now that I think of it, my last campaign (consisting (mostly) of old modules had a number of puzzles/riddles. The Red Box Basic module had one. U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh had one. N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God had one added by me. B10 Night's Dark Terror had a puzzle of sorts regarding the tapestry. UK3 The Gauntlet has a puzzle.

Though some might be more like clues than puzzles. Depends on your definition.

I don't think any other modules I ran had anything overt like a puzzle. Though the artifact one of the PCs got at level one was a puzzle/clue that he really found cool once he found out what it was.

Personally, I've noticed players find clues really fun and a really nice 'a-ha' moment when they finally get it. Otherwise, adventures can seem like nothing more than a series of fights.

 

[Eltab]

I use a riddle (singular) once in a while. If you are exploring a tomb, use the riddle like a lock on the door to the head dead honcho's room / sarcophagus. Write it so it tells a little bit about him. Make sure you provided some description of the guy and his life and his deeds earlier, so the PCs have something to work with.

 

[Wiseblood]

I use them fairly often I guess. The last time I did there was a sphinx so it seemed apropos.

I warned them earlier that sphinxes are deadly serious when it comes to riddles. I think they thought it was a hint.

The riddle was IIRC

The sum of mortal privation is etched on my face. What am I?

The answer was a tombstone. They got it (really fast too)and didn’t have to fight the sphinx. Easiest 18,000 XP they ever earned.

 

[Li Shenron]

I use riddles now and then, from easy ones to be solved quickly in real time, to very challenging ones that can require days and obviously I don't expect them to be solved before next session, if ever.

What do you do if the players cannot solve the riddle/unlock the door/fail to find the clue?

The same thing I do when the players cannot beat a combat encounter, figure out a plot, find the way to the destination location or fail at a social encounter: we keep playing.

 

[generic]

Nope, it's "PHOTOGRAPH." Now you've missed the clue to look behind the family portrait in the Haunted Manor's main office. Instead, you probably went down into the basement to search the floor sink, where a black pudding has taken up residence...

But it's no big deal. You might find the locked wall safe behind the photo anyway if you search the room (and roll high enough.) Even if you miss it, you're only missing out on some jewelry, a pair of strange earmuffs, and a diary about how "Aunt Hattie never could stop screaming, she was always so angry. Daddy said she screamed herself to death."

Either way, you'll still end up fighting the banshee in the attic. You'll just be doing it without knowing what to expect, and without those earmuffs giving one of you advantage on save throws.

Dang...

And I thought I had it that time...

It was a perfectly reasonable riddle too...

 

[delericho]

I almost never use riddles - only when using a creature such as a sphinx. I do, however, use puzzles quite often, and usually these exist to test player skill rather than character abilities - so there's generally no "roll to get a clue" mechanic in use.

As regards the possibility of failure, there's one of two possibilities:

- If the thing gated by the riddle/puzzle is not necessary to the plot (for instance, if it's an additional treasure cache), then the party can simply fail. This is generally my preferred approach.
- If the thing gated by the riddle/puzzle is necessary to the plot, then there need to be multiple possible solutions. Solve the puzzle, or just bash down the door, or... well, whatever.

(I should note that, even in the latter case, it's still possible that the PCs might just fail. Maybe they can't solve the riddle, don't think to bash down the door, and so on. In which case, well, they just fail the adventure. It's not impossible, but it does happen. Just as they might fail due to losing a combat.)

The key piece of advice I would give, though, when considering riddles and/or puzzles: keep an eye on your players. If they're not enjoying it, it's time to move on - even if that means you need to just narrate "you scratch your head for an hour, and then the wizard realises the answer is..." And then, having discovered your players don't like this sort of challenge, maybe don't use them again?