Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Herpes Cineplex" data-source="post: 1801829" data-attributes="member: 16936">I hope it's not just you.  You're cool, I want more people like you around.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Echoing what you (and tarchon and Saeviomagy) said, the best question to ask is not "what riddle can I use", but "why should I use a riddle?"But hey, say your little heart is set on having the McGuffin be the reward for solving a riddle.  So apparently the Riddler decides he can't keep this thing, or maybe he'll die before someone else needs it, so he can't hand it over personally.  He won't leave it on a shelf for just anyone to pick up.  He won't put it in a secure place (in a vault, sealed in a block of iron, whatever).  He wants someone to get it, in other words.And probably the Riddler wants a specific kind of someone to get it, so if he's not a total dork, he'll make the riddle something that only that specific kind of someone will be able to solve.  If it's a religious McGuffin, then the puzzle should hinge on some abstract piece of religious lore that only a true believer would get.  If it's a magical McGuffin, then it should call upon some arcane symbology tied into whatever variation of the magical arts is "right" in the Riddler's opinion.  If it's a political McGuffin, then you should have to know the politics behind the puzzle before you can solve it.Otherwise, you're just handing it over to any bozo who's half-bright enough to work out a logic puzzle (which says nothing about their background or their intentions), or worse yet, you're handing it over to a lucky jerk who just happened to randomly choose the right one out of 36 possibilities.  And that's raising the bad idea of leaving a valuable and important McGuffin in a readily-accessible place for persons unknown to retrieve later to new and even more irresponsible heights.Riddles are tough to explain anyway: at some point someone always asks why there isn't just a key or a wall of iron or a trusted immortal servant or whatever looking after the McGuffin instead of an elaborate and often goofy riddle.  And really, there's only so many times that you can float the "well, the guy who set this up was kind of crazy" excuse before your players will call BS on it.In this specific case, I'm just baffled.  Who put the McGuffin in this tomb, and if it's the only thing keeping an evil yuan-ti vampire from escaping, WHY WOULD THE GUY WHO HID IT THERE WANT ANYONE TO EVER TAKE IT OUT?  For god's sake, seal that thing up forever, and put so many obstacles and deadly traps around it that anyone crazy enough to come after it will either give up or die before they get within fifty yards of putting a finger on it!But maybe the BBEG was trapped accidentally.  (Doubtful, if he's the ancient evil that the temple was built for the express purpose of burying, but whatever.)  In which case, if he's been there forever and is a vampire, he should already have done a lot more than just tell his PC dupes about the puzzle; he should have already solved it and given them enough clues that even the 5 Intelligence fighter can guess which statue's got it.  Hell, if he's really bright, he'll make it look like a previous treasure hunter already solved the whole thing but got eaten by a snake or something before he could leave.  Throw a bunch of money and minor magical treasures on a skeleton with the McGuffin, and trust that the PCs will gleefully snatch it all up and run out of the temple.I don't know, man.  I just can't wrap my brain around why this item would be removable in the first place, let alone why there would be a riddle to solve in order to remove it.  Adding in a BBEG who wants the item to be removed from the temple just makes me even more confused.I'm just going to guess that all (or the majority of) your players really love solving riddles, and so you're looking for any excuse to give them more of what they love.  That way, I can say "oh, Al'Kelhar and his players are just weird, so there's no point in trying to explain why they're doing this." <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />--mind you, if they don't love solving riddles, you shouldn't inflict this on themryan</blockquote>

Verification