A Riddle For Ye

[sjmiller]

I like this one, though it should be no match for the people here:


My tines be long,
My tines be short
My tines end ere
My first report.
What am I?

Around these parts that would be lightning. I have an unfair advantage though, my roommates tell riddles as part of an act they do at a renaissance festival. I know more riddles than is good for me.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

Not much of a riddle, but I did use it in a game once to great effect:

Would you rather an elephant kill you or a gorilla?

 

[stevelabny]

Would you rather an elephant kill you or a gorilla?

Um, I'd rather have the elephant kill the gorilla?

 

[SWAT]

Not so much a riddle as a... well, I'm sure there's a good name for it.
It could be used in any modern or future game, as well as any fantasy game where magic is used to simulate light switches.

You are in a room with only one exit. The exit leads downs a winding path to a second room. In your room there are three light switches, all initially set to Off. One, and only one, turns on a light bulb in the second room. Due to the winding path, you cannot see the light of this bulb from the first room. Once you exit the first room, the door closes behind you, and you cannot re-enter. Your task is to determine with 100% certainty which light switch controls the bulb in the second room. How do you do it?

 

[Tuzenbach]

Around these parts that would be lightning. I have an unfair advantage though, my roommates tell riddles as part of an act they do at a renaissance festival. I know more riddles than is good for me.

I'm guessing I have to now look up the word "tines" to see why it's so easy?

 

[Whimsical]

Not so much a riddle as a... well, I'm sure there's a good name for it.
It could be used in any modern or future game, as well as any fantasy game where magic is used to simulate light switches.

You are in a room with only one exit. The exit leads downs a winding path to a second room. In your room there are three light switches, all initially set to Off. One, and only one, turns on a light bulb in the second room. Due to the winding path, you cannot see the light of this bulb from the first room. Once you exit the first room, the door closes behind you, and you cannot re-enter. Your task is to determine with 100% certainty which light switch controls the bulb in the second room. How do you do it?

With my handy toolkit and my Profession(electrician) skill, you dam plot hammering DM! "Only one right solution." S'yeah, right!

What do you mean my toolkit is slog and my skill is "mysteriously" suppressed in this room? Well, then I jam the door so that it doesn't close when I leave.

Are you serious? It's one of those guillotine "don't you dare stand in the doorway" Star Wars doors? Uh huh. With a 100 ton force closing it? Whatever. YOU SUCK!

Well, then I check for fingerprints or wear on the switches. Nothing? Big surprise there. What about the floor or wall? Yeah yeah.

I cast Augury and ask my god what.... It failed? Rolled 00, huh? Yeah. Sure you did.

Well, I'll use Mage Hand to place my small steel mirror out to the edge of the curve. I should be able to...what? What the hel do you mean there's more than one curve? There's only one curve. THERE'S ONLY ONE CURVE! BECAUSE I PEEEKED AT YOUR #*&%@* MAP WHEN YOU WENT TO THE BATHROOM SO I KNOW THERE IS ONLY ONE CURVE!!!!"

 

[Asmor]

Not so much a riddle as a... well, I'm sure there's a good name for it.
It could be used in any modern or future game, as well as any fantasy game where magic is used to simulate light switches.

You are in a room with only one exit. The exit leads downs a winding path to a second room. In your room there are three light switches, all initially set to Off. One, and only one, turns on a light bulb in the second room. Due to the winding path, you cannot see the light of this bulb from the first room. Once you exit the first room, the door closes behind you, and you cannot re-enter. Your task is to determine with 100% certainty which light switch controls the bulb in the second room. How do you do it?

Rip open the wall, rewire it so that everything that was going to the three different switches goes only to one switch.

Or... Flip two switches on. Tie a weight to one of the on switches that will slowly but surely pulled the switch down. Run to the other room. If the light is off, it's the switch you didn't pull; if it's on permanently it's the one you turned on and didn't weight, and if it goes off at some point it's the one you weighted.

 

[PugioilAudacio]

You don't really need the weight. Feeling the bulb to see if it's hot usually suffices in this riddle. As in,

Turn switch one on, wait a minute then turn it off. Then turn switch two on and run back to the other room. If it's on, great. If the bulb is warm, then it's switch one. If the bulb is cold, it's switch three.

 

[PugioilAudacio]

The answer to the previous riddle was: lightning (sjmiller got it).

Today's riddle is:

As I went over London Bridge
I met my sister Jenny
I broke her neck and drank her blood
And left her standing empty.

 

[MarauderX]

Sand is correct (and so was David).

A hundred and one
by fifty divide,
And if a cipher
is rightly applied,
The answer is one from nine.


If you get this one.... I don't know what I'll do but it will probably have to do with bowing and admitting you are a genius and master of the world.

8? The cipher is 4?