A Riddle: Feedback Wanted

[Kafkonia]

Again, thanks for all the feedback! I thought as I wrote it that I could get away with the fact that I was technically misusing the intransitive verb, but now that I look at it some more it's not really fair to base a riddle around grammar and misuse said grammar in the riddle. :\ I just feel like the fact that "to cleave" has two completely opposite meanings is too good not to use somehow...

I do like some of the alternative approaches people have come up with.

My most recent exposure to riddles was taken from the Book of Challenges, I believe, and it was a letter-substitution puzzle, which I wasn't too fond of.

 

[atomn]

Regardless of whether the 'cleave' verb use was correct, I thought it was a clever puzzle. I think the main crux is whether or not your players will know that definition. I didn't know that definition of cleave, so while I could appreciate the riddle after the fact there was no way I would have figured it out.

 

[Driddle]

This was mentioned above, but it might be worth expanding and using: Set up a really nasty puzzle/riddle and leave a couple of dead bodies in the doorway. And that's it. No other clues. Let the players have a go at it. Heck, craft a brainbender so tough they can't possible figure it out -- make it totally unfair without a solution!

Then when they finally throw up their hands in disgust and try to trigger the trap, they find out that it was never reset after the first adventuring party set it off. There was never any real danger left.

Fun stuff, Maynard.

 

[Darthjaye]

Less Vorlon and more Dungeonmaster is needed here methinks

 

[AuraSeer]

I just feel like the fact that "to cleave" has two completely opposite meanings is too good not to use somehow...

I just thought of a way you could use it. Rewrite the sentence to say, "the two halves of this rock must cleave," or some equivalent language.

People who only know the common definition will probably assume this is incorrect grammar, because they think of the rock as the object of the cleaving, and anyway it is already cloven. However, to anyone who happens to think of the intransitive form of the verb, the sentence clearly implies that the halves must cleave to each other.

IMO this is a bit more clear, though that might just be because I came up with it.

 

[Darthjaye]

Or something simple like "When two become one and one is for not, all will be seen as it should be"

 

[Driddle]

Was Beaver Cleaver a joiner or a divider?

 

[Kafkonia]

Was Beaver Cleaver a joiner or a divider?

I believe the nation is split on that.

Ahhh, CNN opinion polls...

AuraSeer, I like that idea. I'll see about rephrasing it along the lines of what you suggested. And Driddle, that is totally evil!

 

[Tarek]

Okay, without reading the spoilers or the rest of the thread:

Put the two 'broken' blocks together. Then cast invisibility on the other block or see if it can be moved or hidden.

 

[PwrMnky]

The Riddle

I actually, liked it! I did.

Don't change it.