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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jedi_Solo" data-source="post: 3809085" data-attributes="member: 40245">I am all for riddles of the type that are"Hey, there is motif of Blue, Red and Green in that order so maybe we need to put the colors in that order"or"There was poem about guardians back there and now we are facing a bunch of statues..."types (okay, maybe more complex than that).  Anyway...  puzzels where everything you need to know is in the module itself are fine.  The problems comes in when "players" need to know that Green can be called Emerald or Jade or that Cyan can be a name for a type of Blue.  The player may not know that but an 18 INT character likely would.  Or my character that is a cleric of god X with a +20 modifier would likley know of a major event that happened in the setting but as a player I didn't read that book so I'm unaware of this "common knowledge".It's the old "we don't make the player pick up a boulder to see if the character can" conundrum.  I don't mind puzzles; in fact I like puzzles.  But they can bring a session to a screeching halt when they require knowledge that I as a player do not have but my character withan INT score that says "super-genious" definately would.At the very least I hope printed puzzles have side bars that say something along the lines of "If the players are stuck have the characters make an INT check.  Point out the clues listed below according to the results."This will take care of multiple issues that may or may not have occured:The DM missed or misread the text box ina previous room. (DM's fault)The puzzle requires 'common knowledge' that the players aren't aware of or have forgotten. (Writer's fault - I fully believe that there should be no assumptions of common knowledge)The puzzle guru of the group is sick/distracted/just not with it that day. (Player's fault)The group just isn't good at puzzles...</blockquote>

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