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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5748148" data-attributes="member: 2067">I imagine players educated as metallurgists and experts in medieval combat and 16th-century English Lit are frustrated that they can't apply that knowledge, too. But they can't, because the essence of playing a role is pretending that you are that character, and that means that if the character can't figure out the puzzle, you don't get to figure out the puzzle.Well, that's speaking too harshly. Say you're an INT 3 Barbarian who couldn't solve a riddle for beans, but we're playing a table with Jeff, who is playing an INT 20 Wizard. But Jeff can't solve a riddle for beans. If you figure out the riddle, and Jeff rolls a success, you as a player solve the riddle, even if the words you say are temporarily coming out of the mouth of Jeff's Wizard.So you can figure out the riddle, but your character cannot. Jeff can't figure out the riddle, but Jeff's character can. Of course, if Jeff's roll was low and Jeff's Character can't solve the riddle, and no one else can either, it doesn't matter if you personally know the answer or not. Your characters do not. Y'know, in a horror movie, when you're watching from the monster's perspective as it advances on the vulnerable young ditz out wandering in the spooky forest, no matter how loud you yell, "TURN AROUND, DON'T GO IN THAT ABANDONED MILL, CALL THE COPS," it doesn't matter. The character doesn't do those things. It's not in her character to do them. It doesn't matter if you personally would avoid getting chopped to bits in an abandoned mill -- the character does not. That makes a good horror movie -- it builds tension, it creates its own artificial reality, it keeps things dramatic and interesting. That kind of in-character consistency is more important in my games than how particularly good Bill is at solving riddles. For me, it's a role-playing game, not a riddle-solving game. Riddle-solving games can be fun, but they are a different kind of game -- one that specifically doesn't involve pretending to be a magical elf if you want to play it. You don't have to worry if Bill's Character would know the answer, because Bill doesn't have a character, it's just Bill. Not that I'd take your style from you, of course. You don't play with such a wall between what you know and what your character knows, that's fine. Whatever makes the game fun for you, y'know? It just would ruin my fun, which comes much more from the imagination and creativity and unexpected chaos that comes from being in-character. Yeah, sorry about the lack of clarity. To be more specific, the situation would be like this.The party meets the Sphinx, who threatens to eat them if they can't answer her riddle, so she asks it. Now, let's say that Tupac and Biggie already know the answer. But Easy E and ODB do not. Players will likely talk out of character for a while, and everyone knowing the answer (or knowing that Tupac and Biggie know) is pretty inevitable. But their characters still haven't given the correct answer. Their characters try to answer the riddle, but fail their INT checks (or whatever). So regardless Tupac and Biggie (and possibly all the players) already knowing the answer, nobody's characters know the answer. The Sphinx sighs and eats them.Later, perhaps now with characters that have a robust INT score, Tupac, Biggie, Easy E, and ODB encounter the Sphinx again, and she asks a different riddle. This time, it's a riddle no one has heard before. They all make checks, roll for stink, and ODB's character succeeds.First, I try to offer a hint, to get ODB himself to get to the answer. After the hint, Easy E laughs and smiles. He's figured it out. ODB hasn't, and, after a few minutes, Easy E just tells ODB the answer. ODB goes "Ooooooh." In-character, ODB's character figured it out, period. Right away, didn't need a hint.Out of character, it was Easy E who figured it out (and then only after a hint).I'd prefer some player to figure out a puzzle or a riddle, because that helps immersion. Of course, even if they do, it doesn't mean that their characters do, since their characters are not themselves. A success is a success -- I'm not going to take it from you even if you can't figure out the riddle -- but I'm going to give the players a chance to figure it out for themselves, since that's better than me just telling you what it is. I will tell you what it is, though, if everyone remains clueless.The dice tell me what happens in the world. Sometimes you roll low, sometimes you roll high, and your own personal knowledge won't help affect the fictional reality of the world any more than your own personal knowledge that Frodo and Sam make it back to the Shire safely helps the characters as they climb Mount Doom. I don't care if you know how to drive a stick shift. Your pseudo-medieval druid likely does not. I don't care if you know kendo. Your cloistered wizard does not (though perhaps your friend's fighter does!). I don't care if you've written a book about riddles. Your halfling rogue...well, actually, maybe he did. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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