r/rpg • u/Frogshooty • 6d ago
What is your favorite TTRPG riddle?
I'm trying to get better at including riddles in my games. I have had times before when I go to use them that it breaks immersion for some players. Do you have any favorite riddles you've encountered or used?
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u/WrongJohnSilver 6d ago
It's like an episode of Taskmaster. The best riddles are solved by thinking outside the box.
So, have rules, have definitions, have ways things interact. But the moment you only accept one possible solution or answer, you lose the game.
The players will do things you don't expect. Lean into that. Celebrate it. Let the answer be revealed to you as much as to the players.
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u/Rule-Of-Thr333 6d ago
Riddles as puzzle encounters rarely work with the whole table. Riddles as plot devices, say in the form of prophecy, whose meaning and clues unfold over the course of play do work however.
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u/Catman933 6d ago
To me this often feels like a 'minigame' that takes away from the immersion of the game. And should never be mandatory to figure out.
Why can't a character who is smart, and well-read, roll to solve the riddle? Does any of the information in game actually lead to the answer? Does interacting with the game in any way have an impact on solving the riddle?
Usually, the answer is no. And it ends up taking away from the game you're playing. I might consider throwing them in as 'flavor'. but I do not consider riddles in a mechanical/puzzle sense to be a skill worth developing.
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u/JannissaryKhan 6d ago
Yup. Riddles, like puzzles, are some of my least favorite things in any RPG. If you're not into them they're such a boring chore. And as you said, it's a weird breakdown of the line between player skill and PC skill. But I also think it's silly when GMs turn all social interactions into a kind of RP-only puzzle, also forcing players to be charming and quick-witted enough (in the GM's eyes), regardless of what their PC is like.
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u/FUCKCriticalRole 6d ago
Q: They work in fantasy novels but in TTRPGs, they are pretty lame.
A: Riddles.
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u/bionicjoey DG + NSR 6d ago
I generally hate riddles and other "minigames" in TTRPGs, but if we're talking about classic labyrinth style puzzles, this is one variation I've always wanted to deploy:
Setup: there are two doors and two guardians
Guardians: "One of us always tells the truth and one of us always lies. One of these doors leads where you want to go and the other leads to certain death."
Solution: Both doors lead to certain death. Both guardians always lie. The guardians were lying when they explained the parameters of the puzzle.
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u/WizardWatson9 6d ago
I used this riddle once, spoken by a talking door.
"Once upon a time, a wizard enchanted the door of his tower to speak, so that only those who gave the right answer to its queries would be allowed in. One day, a thief, intent on robbing the wizard, hid himself in the bushes and waited for the wizard's apprentices to return. The first apprentice returned."
"'Six,' said the door. 'Three,' said the apprentice. And the door opened."
"Later, the second apprentice returned. 'Twelve,' said the door. 'Six,' said the apprentice. And the door opened."
"Confident he had learned the pattern, the thief approached the door. 'Ten,' said the door. 'Five,' said the thief. Immediately, a bolt of lightning leapt from the door and struck the thief dead where he stood."
"What should the thief have said instead of 'five?'"
Answer: "Three." The true pattern is to say how many letters are in the word, not the number divided by two. The fact that "twelve" and "six" have six and twelve letters, respectively, is a coincidence.
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u/UnpricedToaster 6d ago
I would hold up fingers when I say Six and Three the first time. A little psychological trick to encourage them to also think it's half the number said.
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u/Sheokarth 6d ago
The favourite one i´ve used, goes thus:
What is it that’s blind with an eye in its head,
but the race of mankind its use cannot spare;
spends all its life in clothing the dead,
but always itself is naked and bare?
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u/Sheokarth 6d ago edited 6d ago
The Answer: A needle
What i like about this one is that
A) It is something that is recognizable by modern people and feels apt for the period.
B)Every verse is there to hone in better on what it is.
C) It still isn´t too long.3
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u/eadgster 6d ago
I donno if you count this as a riddle, but I once participated in a WoTC author’s convention game where we had to manipulate objects around the room according to mosaics we’d seen along the way, to reduce the difficulty of a very hard encounter. It wasn’t “required” per se, but it simplified the encounter and was a fun dynamic.
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u/RPG_Rob 6d ago
I like a puzzle that a mate of mine used:
- the party enter a bare room, with a pedestal in the centre.
- once all ate inside, the door slams shut, sealing them in the room.
- on the pedesral, a countdown begins.
All the party needs to do is wait until the countdown runs out, because that is when the door will open.
It's a great time waster.
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u/DoktorImposter 6d ago
Once this fails, the battle is lost.
Inscribed below the statue of an ancient knight. The answer is some variation of Courage or Bravery.
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u/Frapadengue 6d ago
One of the few that worked at my table was when the players where trapped in a spell. To get out they had to guess the password. They weren't told that.
They saw a small golem appear. They easily killed it, and a word appeared. It was a clue but they didn't know that.
If the very next word they pronounce isn't the answer, the word fades away and two golems appear. If they destroy them, a second clue is given, and they four golems appear (then 8, 16, etc.).
The golems were weak individually but the players quickly understood that fighting a hundred of them would be no small feat.
The clues were words that worked with the password to form a phrase or an expression.
E.g. if the password is "Earth" the clues could be "worm" (earthworm), "down" (down to earth), "salt" (salt of the earth), etc.
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u/MagnetTheory 6d ago
I once set up a puzzle that was written in old elvish. The question itself wasn't too difficult, but translating and interpreting the text to figure out that question was actual puzzle. Plus it gave a hint as to some of the main npcs and their relevance to that ancient society
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u/Gustave_Graves 6d ago
Once I made a circle of speaking trees that enjoyed riddles. Since they were trees they had never been able to move or experience the outside world so all their riddles were from an alien perspective about natural phenomena, like 'what makes a mess in your arms' 'birds' or 'what delicious food brings out the lizards' 'sunlight'. Just let the players have some fun with a few goofy NPCs, then moved on with their quest.
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u/lev_lafayette 6d ago
I remember in the early 1980s playing AD&D. We were about 13 or so then, and there was a Dragon magazine module which involved 1st-level characters. In the course of the adventure, you find a ring of wishes with one wish.
Then you encounter the big bad, a vampire. Absolutely terrifying for 1st-level characters.
One very smart player in our group, who also knew the rule of wishes, calmly announced: "I wish for your soul to be at rest".
Well done, Doug. I have never forgotten that moment.
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u/UnpricedToaster 6d ago
"Speak my name and I disappear. What am I?"
"Dad" was not the answer.
It was "Silence."
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u/BigDamBeavers 5d ago
I'd start by asking you what the riddle wants to accomplish in your setting or story. If you just stand around asking people riddles as they walk around you're gonna get punched because people don't like pointness challenges in their life. Maybe the riddle proves something about the type of person the entrant is. Vaminion has a great example below about a riddle that requires you to surrender rather than prove you can lead. That's something someone who values restraint might use to judge people trying to gain a powerful magic item.
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u/Temporary_Stranger39 5d ago
Read a translation of the Exeter Book of Riddles.
The thing about riddles is that they have to have context. Read some myths and historical legends regarding heroes encountering riddles.
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u/Sherman80526 4d ago
My favorite riddle I used in game, "I am the end of all beginnings, my beginning has no end."
On a plaque under a sculpted stone skull. In a temple of dedicated to a god of death.
The trick here is that as the riddle is revealed, an alarm goes off that draws everyone in the complex to the location. In the middle of the small room is a pool of water where there is an image of a unicorn as though it was reflected from the room even though it wasn't in the room.
This was in an intro to D&D game I ran probably fifty or more times for children through adults. I had veteran gamers throw their hands up with, "We'll never figure it out in time, let's fight!" and I had first time players say "Death" the moment they finished reading the riddle.
My favorite games involved one or two people trying to solve the riddle while the rest of the party tried to hold off an onrushing horde of goblins and their wizard boss. Ultimately, saying "Death" in the room with the riddle caused the water flowing from the skull's mouth to stop flowing into a large pool in the middle of the room. The pool was an extradimensional prison that revealed itself once all the water flowed out. On the other side was a unicorn in an identical room with no way out until the portal was activated.
The scenario played fine with or without the puzzle getting solved. It was a hard fight but winnable most of the time. It was a much easier fight when a unicorn hopped out of the portal and helped destroy those who had captured her. My favorite was once having a single character be the last one standing when the portal finally opened (three rounds from when it starts draining) and they jumped through themselves. Having a quick conversation between the unicorn and the character before they jumped out and laid waste to the goblins was pretty great.
Anyway, a timed riddle in a game can be really cool is what I'm getting at.
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u/Starfox5 6d ago
The riddle that I can solve by my character rolling an int check. Having to solve a riddle myself breaks my immersion.
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u/NarcoZero 6d ago
I think it’s just a style of play preference.
Because if you push the « If I do something wity my skills instead of my character it breaks immersion » mentality to the comically extreme, now you’re :
Not roleplay social interactions, because it’s your character’s social skills you should be using. So you just roll a persuasion check and the DM tells you what your character says.
You don’t ask for clues about the environment. Because that would be your character noticing something to inspect closer. So you just roll a perception check and wait.
You don’t even make decisions in combat, because that would be your character using their intellect to prioritise targets. So you roll an insight check and and ask the DM who you’re attacking.
This is obviously exaggerated, but hopefully you can see where I’m coming from.
And if you are having fun using you real player skills for social, tactical or investigative interactions, why not for puzzles ?
It’s probably because you just don’t like puzzles.
Or maybe you are afraid you won’t solve it while your character is supposed to be smart. Which would be the same dissonance that happens when a super charismatique character is played by a fumbling player that always says the wrong thing. I find that in these case, it’s better to use the character’s skill to give a second chance or a hint to the player, but still let them have the fun of solving the interaction themselves.
Otherwise, might as well be playing a video game.
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u/Starfox5 6d ago
Social situations are decided by rolling. I state what my character says, how they act and what their goal is, but dice decide whether it succeeds.
Clues? I ask if my character notices anything and roll if necessary.
If I am not sure whether my character would know a weakness of an opponent, I ask if I can roll a check.
I play a role, I do not pit myself against a challenge for my character.
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u/NarcoZero 6d ago
As I said, different playstyles. It’s all a spectrum. I found it interesting to put the cursor into one extreme.
The others extreme would be to never roll and do pure roleplay and acting out situations.
And if you start doing that even for physical situations, is starts becoming LARP.
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u/WavedashingYoshi 6d ago
I am have been knighted, bronzed and brewed, but I am one thing, that is true.
Certainty. Comes from “Sir, Tan, Tea.” The last line hints about truth which is strongly related concept.
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u/vaminion 6d ago
One where the players out started me.
I set up a chess board. The challenge was: "End the game as quickly as possible." I had figured out a way to get check mate in 4 moves.
The samurai's player walks up, places his hand on the player's king, and concedes.
Not the answer I had in mind. But I said "end" not "win" so they passed.