Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Shiroiken" data-source="post: 7538059" data-attributes="member: 6775477">This is the quintessential failure of adventure design, and happens all too often with riddles. I prefer to use riddles sparingly, and *never* require them to be solved to further the plot. I like to use them to grant a benefit if solved, usually with limited attempts to keep it short.One adventure I ran back in 2E, the party was teleported to the center of a maze (dungeon). There were several paths to escape, and each had a riddle to be solved. The longest and hardest path had one of the most well known riddles (four legs, two legs, three legs), while the easier ones had progressively harder riddles. If any riddle was answered incorrectly (while touching the door to prevent &quot;mistakes&quot;), the exit would be forever sealed and the answerer would take lightning damage. Since I knew at least one of the players would know the super-easy riddle, they shouldn't be trapped forever (unless one player deliberately sabotaged it, which was a possibility). They managed to get one of the mid-level ones correct, but took some damage as they tried the harder ones first.A fellow DM tried something similar in a 3E game that managed to kill the campaign. He trapped the party in a room with 12 doors, each with a riddle. When you answered the riddle, the door opened, revealing... something (usually a monster with treasure). Only one of the doors had the exit, which I unknowingly attempted it early on. My answer was &quot;shadow&quot;, but was deemed incorrect. Since everyone thought my answer made the most sense, we ignored it, hoping we didn't have to answer it. We eventually got through every single other door, but could not figure out the last one. Turns out that not only was THAT the door we had to open, but the correct(?) answer was &quot;shade.&quot; Session ended with us in total frustration, with the DM just giving us the answer, and everyone just stopped caring about the campaign.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Shiroiken, post: 7538059, member: 6775477"] This is the quintessential failure of adventure design, and happens all too often with riddles. I prefer to use riddles sparingly, and *never* require them to be solved to further the plot. I like to use them to grant a benefit if solved, usually with limited attempts to keep it short. One adventure I ran back in 2E, the party was teleported to the center of a maze (dungeon). There were several paths to escape, and each had a riddle to be solved. The longest and hardest path had one of the most well known riddles (four legs, two legs, three legs), while the easier ones had progressively harder riddles. If any riddle was answered incorrectly (while touching the door to prevent "mistakes"), the exit would be forever sealed and the answerer would take lightning damage. Since I knew at least one of the players would know the super-easy riddle, they shouldn't be trapped forever (unless one player deliberately sabotaged it, which was a possibility). They managed to get one of the mid-level ones correct, but took some damage as they tried the harder ones first. A fellow DM tried something similar in a 3E game that managed to kill the campaign. He trapped the party in a room with 12 doors, each with a riddle. When you answered the riddle, the door opened, revealing... something (usually a monster with treasure). Only one of the doors had the exit, which I unknowingly attempted it early on. My answer was "shadow", but was deemed incorrect. Since everyone thought my answer made the most sense, we ignored it, hoping we didn't have to answer it. We eventually got through every single other door, but could not figure out the last one. Turns out that not only was THAT the door we had to open, but the correct(?) answer was "shade." Session ended with us in total frustration, with the DM just giving us the answer, and everyone just stopped caring about the campaign. [/QUOTE]

Verification