Party Stumper

[F5]

Were the players close at all? Was it a case of the players spouting off synonyms for "balance" for an hour, and just not hitting on the right one? Or did they just not get it?

I think your hint about the word moderation was the way to go. Let them know they're getting close.

Very specific word puzzles like this can be tricky. I had a similar one once where the answer I gave was "emptiness", but the DM was looking for "nothing". He just told me that wasn't the answer, so I figured I got the riddle wrong, and went in a different, completely incorrect direction. If he had given a clue saying "almost, but not quite", I probably would have gotten it. Instead we sat and agonized over this riddle for much longer than was fun.

 

[wighair]

Yeah. tricky area riddles - I love 'em, but many of my players HATE them with a passion. Now I tend to use them as a back up to other clues rather than the "key" clue.

 

[F5]

Yeah, I agree. These kinds of riddles seem to work best when there's some frame of reference for the players to realte to already. Like, if they had to cross a tightrope suspended over molten lava to get to the door, the word "balance" probably would have sprung to mind right away...
Of course you run the risk of making it TOO obvious in that case, if you want the riddle to be the main challenge. Still, I love a good brain-teaser...

 

[maddman75]

My players *despise* riddles and puzzles. For some reason, when sitting at the game table my normally intelligent players lose all logical reasoning skills.

If I must use a riddle, I'll use this as a rule of thumb. "If I was really drunk, and had just fallen and hit my head on the corner of the coffee table as I was going down, could I solve this riddle?" If not, it is entirely too difficult.

 

[incognito]

I like the idea of having a 2' wide beam leading up to the door, requiring one to make a balance check, and providing a hint at the same time.

plus you could get lucky and get some PC to plummet to his death.

...Most DMs include a more difficut way for characters to "Brute Force" thier way through riddles, ebcsaue hey - let's face it, we all have blonde moments

 

[arwink]

It's threads like this that remind me why I rely on other party members to get riddles.

No way in hell would I have got that.

 

[Fenes 2]

My players *despise* riddles and puzzles. For some reason, when sitting at the game table my normally intelligent players lose all logical reasoning skills.

If I must use a riddle, I'll use this as a rule of thumb. "If I was really drunk, and had just fallen and hit my head on the corner of the coffee table as I was going down, could I solve this riddle?" If not, it is entirely too difficult.

I absolutely hate riddles. If I wanted to solve puzzles and riddles I would buy myself a weekend edition of a newspaper and sit down in the shade. Nothing worse than getting stumped for half an hour on a stupid riddle while playing a PC with a genius level intelligence.

Let me play my PC, get me some character interaction, some fascinating plots, some possibilities for long-term goals, a load of interesting NPCs, some secrets to ferret out and some intrigues to spin and unravel. Even some (ugh) tactical problems from time to time.

Just stay away with stupid riddles (and I consider any riddle stupid) if you value my fun.

 

[Sanackranib]

the answer?

it sounds like to me that the answer is a "friend", since companionship is missing here

 

[Magic Rub]

Did you take into account the PC(s) Int/Wis score(s)? Some players are NOT EVEN CLOSE to being as "smart" as the PC's they are trying to play.

 

[Sanackranib]

IQ

Did you take into account the PC(s) Int/Wis score(s)? Some players are NOT EVEN CLOSE to being as "smart" as the PC's they are trying to play.

ditto! that is sure true!