By Jason Campbell
I’ve been running a weekly 5e campaign in Monte Cook’s Ptolus setting since January 2022, the player characters are currently 18th level. It can be difficult to run a 5e game with higher level characters while keeping the game challenging and the players engaged. This campaign diary series features notes from my players and I about the challenges of playing high level 5e.
Puzzled
Unpopular (kind of) opinion: I’m not a big fan of puzzles in fantasy RPGs. It so often causes issues where the players can’t solve the riddle, and argue that their high intelligence characters would be able to solve it. That’s a good point, but if the epic riddle boils down to a die roll, that’s not fun. It can also happen the other way: the player playing the less intelligent wild warrior happens to be good at riddles and easily soves them all. These concerns make me avoid puzzles in most of my games.
This Session’s Puzzle
In the latest session in my campaign a god was testing the characters with physical and moral tests, so it made sense to have a mental test as well. As many game masters do, I searched the internet for a good puzzle. What I’ve found often happens is that the GM chooses a puzzle or riddle that doesn’t seem difficult, but the players struggle with it, bringing the game to a halt. During any RPG session players are juggling many things, so their attention is often splintered. When searching for a puzzle I search for “puzzles for children,” or “easy puzzles.” This isn’t because my players aren’t intelligent, but I’ve found that a puzzle that seems obvious when reading it as a GM becomes difficult when inserted into a game session. You still need to evaluate the riddle as some will be too obvious.
And… And?
OK, so here’s the puzzle I used.
You stand in a small stone room, 20’ x 20’ with an 8’ ceiling – a prison. There are three doors in the far wall: each with a painting of a different scene on it.
- A dark catacomb of tombs
- A crystal stairway into the clouds
- A long rope bridge over a deep chasm
You hear a song; My first is born but once and dies Nine Deaths. My middle is the Heart of Alarm. My last arranges locks of Golden Thread, And can be found on the Morning Caller’s head.
The players came to the correct conclusion (“catacomb”) after some deliberation. Note that once they arrived at the solution to the riddle, they debated for a bit whether the song was telling them to open the catacomb door, or avoid the catacomb door. This is why puzzles are difficult, when creating the situation you may be making assumptions that the players won’t make, which is why it’s not easy to evaluate how tough a riddle will be.
What do you think? Do you have a favorite puzzle or riddle from a RPG? Let us know in the comments.
