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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 2453272" data-attributes="member: 32164">Generally speaking, I find most in-game "this is a puzzle" puzzles to seriously lack credibility. I've seen it done well, oh, about 3 times. That said, I think that what was said in the following quote is totally accurate.The "word puzzles" in the last Crusade were clues to overcoming challenges. That's cool, and you could even see why someone would guard their lair with horribly lethal traps that could be bypassed by properly deciphering the clues (as Indy did). Very cool.Other than that, the riddle game in The Hobbit worked, because of the Sphinxian character of it, and the fact that riddles seem like a reasonable pasttime for many intelligent creatures, whatever language they speak. Puns, on the other hand... Finally, the scene near the end of The Fifth Element was a much better example of a "magic" puzzle than most of what I've seen in D&D. The solution is trivial - once you figure out how the things work.My own SoD dies whenever I'm reminded that the world is an imaginary construct. Things like tests designed to "challenge the players" and not their characters or in-game situations that change without an in-game reason. I like the quote about "one implausibility at a time," because I can tolerate a little pushing of the boundaries (the existence of whiskey in the Wheel of Time series for example), just not too much.I understand the Gygaxian theory on the subject, but I don't think players should be denied their character's resources. For example, I'd give the player of a "smart" character a "hint" if he makes a successful intelligence check. I hate games where the intelligence, wisdom, and charisma of the character never come up in play. Talk about killing the suspension of disbelief and reminding me that I'm NOT my character.As an addendum, I agree about boring combats. But the trick is that I agree about BORING combats. If combat can be made more exciting than "I whack him AGAIN," I tend to forget about how it's mechanically simulated (dice-rolling) and focus on the fact that the character just rolled beneath the ogre's legs and hamstrung him (even if it took an extra die roll or two to pull it off). But maybe that's me.</blockquote>

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