I need a good riddle, and how do you handle initiative with large groups?

[Orryn Emrys]

These are great. I've used them in several games. A bonus is that you as DM have the skills that the DMG suggests you roll for the players so they don't know the result--it makes the roleplaying in my game stronger. It's also much easier to deal in new combatants with the cards; and to deal out the defeated.

I used to use these cards as well, and they were a huge aid to running clean, flowing combat scenarios. Now I use DM Genie....

 

[ender_wiggin]

About this pirate problem, I'm still having trouble understanding it 100%.

Here's how I see it:

If two guys left, 2nd-highest gets nothing.

If there are 3 guys left, 3rd guy gets 999 (by offering 2nd guy 1 pearl).

Therefore, 3rd will always vote against. 2nd and 1st will always vote for you, as long as you give them 1 pearl.

So why isn't that a solution? Or is it?

When you say majority vote, does the person who proposes the plan have an opportunity to vote? If so, then 5th should get off with 998 pearls. If not, he can only get away with 997 (by offering 1 pearl to 1st, 2nd, 3rd)

If it is narrowed to 4, then 4th will give 1 pearl to 1st and 2nd, leaving none to 3rd. 1st and 2nd are majority, and thus win. Therefore, 3rd will agree to the 5th's plan as long as he gets 1 pearl.

 

[ender_wiggin]

I would change the riddle so the question was this:

How many pearls did the 5th pirate get away with, and what was his plan?

Puts the PC on the right path.

 

[TemplarSaint]

My group has 8 PC's, so we adopted a time-saving device for initiative. The NPC's roll initiative as one group, and their result becomes the basis for the round. Any PC who beats that roll goes in Group A, any who did not at least match the NPC's goes into Group B, and any who go the same result as the NPC's (it has never been more than one so far) goes with the NPC's. So all members of Group A act in whatever order they choose, then the NPC's, then Group B. It speeds things up considerably and also eliminates most of the hassle of characters rearranging the order when they want to coordinate their actions. In the rare instances the GM feels he needs to break up the NPC's he will add one more group, so PC Group A, NPC Group A, PC Group B, NPC Group B and PC Group C.

How is this riddle?

I fill the sky on a clear winter night
I make a rapier something to be feared
A statement is useless without me
Even a riddle must have me
What am I?

 

[Psychic Warrior]

What? No one could guess the dead easy riddles I posted?

Oh I see distracted by (nin ja) pirates...

 

[ender_wiggin]

I once asked something along the lines of "How many were leaving St. Ives?"; the riddle was the solution getting out of an underground chamber trapped to fill with water.

They had exactly 60 seconds to find the answer, which entailed (a) remembering the real riddle, and (b) calculating 7^4 + 7^3 + 7^2 + 7 + 1. I didn't even get a TPK.

 

[Stormrunner]

How is this riddle?

I fill the sky on a clear winter night
I make a rapier something to be feared
A statement is useless without me
Even a riddle must have me
What am I?

A point?
Although the first line is a little iffy, since technically that would be "points" of light, plural, and the rest are singular.

Stomrunner stumped a sphinx (and a DM) with this one:

Once eagles nested in my hair,
Long time I stood on land.
Now only nests of crows I bear
Along the salty strand.
Though shorn of all my limbs, I stretch
Between the sea and sky,
All clad in robes of flowing white.
Now tell me, what am I?


And there's the classic Persian one:

A silver serpent swam within an urn,
A golden bird did in the mouth abide.
The serpent drank the water, and in turn
Was eaten by the bird, which pined and died.

What is it?

 

[taliesin15]

Fieari writes On riddles:
Unfortunately, people these days have lost the art of riddling... A riddle is just a poem

I would also say that we have lost the art of poetry, too, but I do think you're quite on the right track here...IMC, I have used some actual Old English riddles, and ones I wrote in the style of Old English riddles (usually not as difficult, certainly not as good as the original)...the really sad thing is the players generally have treated the idea of having to figure out riddles as a gimmick or with derision generally or with resentment that they can't just play the game like its a video game

but back to riddles: Tolkien of course everyone knows, but I wonder if people know of the tradition he was working in? Here's a killer website with source material for riddles, and, one would hope, DMs running campaigns might consider using some of this as source inspirational material for fleshing out NPC Bards

http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~mwh95001/riddles/riddles.html

 

[Hellefire]

I count time in circles.
I have no voice,
But my limbs allow me to whisper in the wind.
What am I?

Tree

Taller than forests,
Lighter than air,
Often do I break,
And often to I tear.
Home of the ocean, river and lake,
I spring do I give,
In summer do I take.
What am I?

Cloud

Aaron Blair
Foren Star
Seward, AK, USA
currently Poznan, Poland

 

[Slife]

Once eagles nested in my hair,
Long time I stood on land.
Now only nests of crows I bear
Along the salty strand.
Though shorn of all my limbs, I stretch
Between the sea and sky,
All clad in robes of flowing white.
Now tell me, what am I?

Driftwood

A silver serpent swam within an urn,
A golden bird did in the mouth abide.
The serpent drank the water, and in turn
Was eaten by the bird, which pined and died.

An oil lamp?