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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fieari" data-source="post: 1973912" data-attributes="member: 16221">On riddles:Unfortunately, people these days have lost the art of riddling... everyone seems to insist on using riddles made before.  "Riddle constests" tend to boil down to who has memorized the larger set of pre-written riddles.  Hardly anyone makes up new ones on the spot anymore.It used to be that way for me too, until I figured out the trick.  A riddle is just a poem, and the answer is either the title of the poem or the interpretation of the poem.  If you can think poetically, make a poem up on the spot, then you too can make a riddle!  Furthermore, you can make a riddle to go with any situation!I recently gave my players a riddle encounter.  More specifically, they were duelling a sphynx who was attacking the castle they were constructing at the time.  Now, the reason she was attacking the castle is because the construction of said castle was located in the center of her hunting grounds and territory... she was basically defending her home from invaders, much like we would probably discourage a mountain lion from sitting in your backyard, even if the cougar in question PROMISED to be a good neighbor and not eat you.At any rate, one of my players, in the middle of combat, asked the sphynx why she was attacking them.  And I knew, just knew, that I needed to answer enigmatically in riddle form.  So I told the players to give me a moment to formulate the reply, and I spent half a minute or so contructing the following poem, describing how her land was her honor and that not only was she honorbound to defend it, but that they were the ones impringing on that honor.(These aren't the exact words, I'm reconstructing this from memory)"A stone to rest the head,The fires that heal the soulOne sword of air to peirce the heart"Line 1 refers to the land, line 2 makes it clear that this land is more than just land but HOME, and line 3 presents the conflict... "One sword of air" is an attack, but not a physical attack, rather an intangible one... their presense impringed on her -honor-, not just her flesh.You could argue that perhaps this is not a very good poem, and I'd agree with you.  But it was a -riddle-, and a spontaneous one at that, which fit the scene and the mood and the character.  I'm sure you could manage something similar with a bit of practice...That's how a riddle works.  Just write -flowery- and -ornate- poetry, talking AROUND things instead of naming them outright.  Use imagry, metaphore, simile.  Put together, the clues are there, and it becomes a riddle.</blockquote>

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