Creating sensible riddles

[Derren]

Riddles are one of the more common elements encountered in RPGs.
Yet personally I have a lot of trouble coming up with sensible riddles which fit into the world.

You can of course always place a speaking statue in a dungeon who asks the PCs a riddle and opens a chest when the answer is correct, but why would someone create something like that? Riddles simply suck at keeping people out. Why create a lock that can be opened by anyone if he guesses right instead of using an actual lock.

Physic puzzles also face the same problem. Why use them? One explanation which often gets used is to "test if someone is worthy". But unless it is a huge mass of riddles, they are hardly any indication if someone is worthy or just lucky or has the correct items with him which makes the riddles a cakewalk.
Science riddles which requires a minimum scientific understanding would fit, but look rather out of place in a fantasy game. A minimum magical understanding would be better there, but how to write a riddle for something that only exists in the rules as a spell list without much explanation? Casting the correct spell (which often indicates a specific level or just access to scrolls) gets old very fast. And why would you hide something like that behind a riddle anyway?

 

[steenan]

While I'm not a big fan of riddles in RPGs, I use them sometimes. A few ideas of how to incorporate them in game:

1. Riddle is a part of the security system. It's not there to stop intruders; it's there to slow them down. When adventurers find a lock of similar device, they either can open it quickly, or they think of a creative way around. When faced with a riddle or a puzzle, they'll spend some time trying to figure it out - and it's the time the dungeon inhabitants need to regroup and react.

2. The riddle is asked by a living, thinking creature, as a test or competition. This may be a challenge in trying to get in its mind (the same riddle asked by very different creatures may have completely different correct answers) or in quick thinking (riddle contest, like Bilbo and Gollum in Hobbit).

3. The riddle may be aimed to teach the person answering, not to test them. For people who originally used it, it served as a reminder (of astrological relations, god's dogma, laws of geometry or whatever). Characters will have to have this knowledge, research it by themselves or try the riddle/puzzle until they learn from it.

 

[Yora]

The only kind of puzzle that makes some amount of sense is sabotaging old security systems.
One thing about securing a place or object, or really anything, is that everything can be broken if the intruder keeps working on it long enough. Which in turn leads to two approaches to securing something: Making it so difficult to get in that potential intruders won't bother with it and pick a different target, or slowing the intruder down long enough until guards/police arrives.
Since most dungeons are either abandoned or occupied by creatures who don't know how to control and maintain the securite measurements either, you can sit down and fiddle around with the mechanisms until you successfully break it open.
Such a puzzle consists of realizing that you are dealing with a security mechanism, understanding how it was meant to originally worked, and finally coming up with a way to sabotage it to remove the obstacle.
There is one good riddle lock in fiction, and the key about that one was, that nobody was supposed to know that it was a riddle in the first place. It didn't say "Figure out this trick question to proceed".

 

[GMMichael]

You can of course always place a speaking statue in a dungeon who asks the PCs a riddle and opens a chest when the answer is correct, but why would someone create something like that?

A goblin king used talking doors to harass intruders. And possibly to relay information to guards.
Doors cannot clearly relay information to intruders if they speak only in riddles.

Why create a lock that can be opened by anyone if he guesses right instead of using an actual lock.

A number code padlock does the exact same thing.

Let's remember not to use simple codes or riddles, just in case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6iW-8xPw3k

they are hardly any indication if someone is worthy or just lucky or has the correct items with him which makes the riddles a cakewalk.

Not necessarily true. It's relatively easy to be lucky when guessing a number code or, say, a five-letter Jumble. But simply increasing the number of digits or letters required by one makes the task much harder! Now imagine if the required answer isn't just one word, but a series of words that must make sense given the context of the riddle!

Science riddles which requires a minimum scientific understanding would fit, but look rather out of place in a fantasy game. A minimum magical understanding would be better there, but how to write a riddle for something that only exists in the rules as a spell list without much explanation? Casting the correct spell (which often indicates a specific level or just access to scrolls) gets old very fast. And why would you hide something like that behind a riddle anyway?

Casting the correct spell gets old. What about wearing the right outfit, at the right time of year, while casting the correct spell?

Go ahead and make science riddles/puzzles. Use enough real-world knowledge, and the players can feel a different sort of challenge than rolling a die. Use some in-game clues, and your players have a new quest to pursue (gather info to solve the puzzle!).

To me, the main riddle problem is that a riddle is best used only in certain places. Using a riddle as a door lock is not the best use. Using a riddle to conceal/reveal a location is a better use. Written riddles are (somewhat) limited to conveying information or acting as magical passwords, but spoken riddles can also determine the actions of creatures (like if a sphinx likes your riddle answer, he won't eat you).

 

[Stormonu]

Riddles are also great "password hints". Someone may set up a security system or activation sequence, then use a riddle to remind themselves how to activate it or communicate to others whom they want to have access how to properly activate or manipulate the protective measures.

 

[Derren]

A number code padlock does the exact same thing.

There is a huge difference. A code padlock does not give you hints so that you can guess the combination. A riddle usually does.

Now imagine if the required answer isn't just one word, but a series of words that must make sense given the context of the riddle!

This is called code phrase and is usually quite secure. Unless you give out hints so that everyone can guess it. That makes it useless.

Casting the correct spell gets old. What about wearing the right outfit, at the right time of year, while casting the correct spell?

Why? What is the use of something like this?

 

[GMMichael]

There is a huge difference. A code padlock does not give you hints so that you can guess the combination. A riddle usually does.

A code padlock gives hints, for those willing to listen. First and most obvious, the padlock explicitly tells you that there are X digits, and each digit is anywhere (usually) from 0 to 9. More subtly, some of the digits might have extra wear on them, or the padlock can make certain noises when placed in or near the correct combination...

Why? What is the use of something like this?

To make a riddle more interesting than just accessing a spell.

 

[Dethklok]

Why? What is the use of something like this?

I agree with you; there's really very little use for any sort of puzzle in a roleplaying game the way you're discussing them being used. In a preindustrial society, however, riddles were widely used to entertain, as well as to test one another's mental mettle.

Remember that Bilbo bested Gollum in a game of riddles (even as Odin bested Vafthrudnir, by asking an underhanded riddle). And in Dave Morris' Dragon Warriors adventure, King under the Forest, the players are confronted with a sleeping dragon, who engages the adventurers in a riddle contest for his amusement. I can also imagine someone giving away information she was sworn to withhold by couching it within a riddle. Riddles can definitely be sensible in a roleplaying game, if they are used in such ways.