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<blockquote data-quote="mneme" data-source="post: 5528072" data-attributes="member: 59248">That actually helps a lot.&nbsp; The puzzle (even in concept) being introduced significantly before it was encountered makes it fit more into the narrative, and be much more continuation of play (and less &quot;and now the game must stop while you try to come up with an answer for my puzzle&quot;).I think I'm really conflating two things here:1. Puzzles are best when they don't force the players to go out of character to solve them -- if the players are spending half an hour working out a word puzzle, or doing practical cryptography, that means that's a half hour they're probably not roleplaying much; the game's just hit a brick wall in which play didn't happen.2. Puzzles are best when they don't cause the entire rest of the game to cease motion while they're worked on; consider how this is done in a novel or movie.&nbsp; The characters don't hit a door and sit for the next ten minutes mulling overs solutions (not usually, anyway).&nbsp; They either encounter the puzzle or riddle or whatever and then go off adventuring, getting to mull it over in the spaces between fights, chases, and revellations; or they hit it, and more or less immediately act to push through it -- achieving comparatively instant success or taking the penalty for failure.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="mneme, post: 5528072, member: 59248"] That actually helps a lot. The puzzle (even in concept) being introduced significantly before it was encountered makes it fit more into the narrative, and be much more continuation of play (and less "and now the game must stop while you try to come up with an answer for my puzzle"). I think I'm really conflating two things here: 1. Puzzles are best when they don't force the players to go out of character to solve them -- if the players are spending half an hour working out a word puzzle, or doing practical cryptography, that means that's a half hour they're probably not roleplaying much; the game's just hit a brick wall in which play didn't happen. 2. Puzzles are best when they don't cause the entire rest of the game to cease motion while they're worked on; consider how this is done in a novel or movie. The characters don't hit a door and sit for the next ten minutes mulling overs solutions (not usually, anyway). They either encounter the puzzle or riddle or whatever and then go off adventuring, getting to mull it over in the spaces between fights, chases, and revellations; or they hit it, and more or less immediately act to push through it -- achieving comparatively instant success or taking the penalty for failure. [/QUOTE]

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