Riddles are a classic element of adventures and fantasy works. From
cryptic clues left by an old wizard in one of their books for no-one
other than themselves, to elaborate death traps created by malicious
gods, it comes up sooner or later. However, tabletop gaming is
different than a fantasy movie or book. The game needs to keep
moving. Your players can’t spend a week straight on a riddle like a
character can. So to prevent a game from stalling, there are a few
techniques I’ve seen used, and I hope to share them today.
Roll For Success
Sometimes you can just let a character roll for a solution. They meet
the DC, they get the result. I’m generally not a fan of this
solution because it makes the riddle just another roll. That said,
it’s a trick to keep in your back pocket if everything else fails.
Research Mechanics
Often time is important for a quest. One thing you can do is allow
players to trade in-game time for hints. If you present it to the
party, and they can’t figure it out, they can spend time
researching the book, or looking over the area, and as a result they
get a hint that makes the answer easier to figure out.
Find An Alternate Solution
There are often alternate solutions to a problem. Can’t figure out
the puzzle on a tomb door? A scroll of fireball could do the trick.
One moment that stands out from my games is where the party,
including myself since I was a player, decided the best course of
action was to buy 500 gold worth of alchemists fire, and burn their
way through. It worked though we had to wait an extra couple hours
for the smoke to clear.
These solutions are often non-ideal and come with a cost. The
alchemist's fire cost money. It also cost us time since we had to go
back to the city, and back to the tomb. They might petition their
deity for help, or talk to a nearby corpse using good old necromancy
(speak with dead is a good way to get another riddle). These are
slightly different since they will end up using the ideal solution in
the end. However, they are taking some extra steps because they
couldn’t figure it out themselves. Hiring a local wizard for
consultation is another variant of this.
Failure Is Not The End
They got the combination on the chest wrong? It explodes, sending
pieces of wood throughout the room. I lost 12 hit points, and the
potion inside was destroyed, but now it’s open! A failure to a
riddle doesn’t need to block the progress of the party. That said,
there should be a cost. In this style, failure will open a new path
for the players, but it’s less than ideal.
One particularly interesting example I saw was that another group of
adventurers got into the tomb and solved the riddle. They are still
there, and they’re not friendly. And one of them fell to their
death with some of the loot, making it unreachable.
Layered Solutions
Any of the above can be combined. You can allow a roll (DC 16 arcana
check to realize it’s an arcane lock spell, but they need to
realize its magical), alternate solutions (using detect magic would
reveal magic is a foot, dispel magic would remove the obstacle, they
could still break down the door even with the DC 10 addition from
arcane lock), or they can do it as expected and solve the riddle in
the wizard’s book they found on his body. Now, I wouldn’t use
this as a puzzle outside of low level without some changes, but it’s
already sounding better than having them stuck.
Be Flexible
I’ve played and ran many a session where the players come up with a
more interesting solution to a riddle than the Dungeon Master (or
author of the published adventure). And you know what I did? I made
it the solution. It worked based on everything that was provided, and
it was even better. Why not reward cleverness? That said, you have to
be a little careful not to have every riddle end up this way. Some of
your riddles should be solvable.
Be Careful
Sometimes even seemingly easy riddles can be hard for people that
aren’t in your frame of mind. There’s nothing wrong with having a
few easy ones too. Makes players feel smart, and the game go at a
good pace. Besides, didn’t they earn it by retrieving that wizard’s
journal from those bandits? Generally, the more leaps of logic that
need to be done, the less likely that it’ll be solved. That said,
it’s very hard writing good riddles and puzzles. It also depends on
your group.
Don’t Be Afraid To Reuse
We’ve had years of tabletop RPGs and video games, and more books
than can be read in a life time. Don’t be afraid to reuse a cool
riddle you find, especially from more obscure sources. Also, remember
what’s considered obscure depends on your players. Also, don’t be
afraid of putting a slight twist on the puzzle. Instead of answering
the riddle of the sphinx, maybe they need to arrange 3 idols in three
areas. One has a sunrise design, one has a sunset design, and one has
a high noon design. Same problem, slightly different delivery.
