Challenging the Players

Here's a question: what is the place of riddles in the game world? Should such things not exist at all for purposes of realism, should they be resolved with Int checks (or similar), or should the players have to figure out the solution?

Here's another question: what is the place of role-playing encounters in the game world? Should the players have to speak for their characters, or should they be resolved with Diplomacy checks (or similar)?

Realistically, puzzles and riddles should not exist. If I'm a highly-intelligent Solar building a refuge against intruders, I don't guard it with riddles, passwords and carefully-hidden locks. No, instead I set up a system where any attempt to enter activates the traps, and I throw away the keys. Likewise, the pharoah building a treasury for his kingdom would defend it with lethal traps, but would not provide convenient keys to enable robbers to disable or bypass those traps. After all, he wants to keep his stuff, and there's absolutely no reason anyone will ever have to gain access.

However, role-playing games are not an exercise in recreating reality (at least, for the most part). Very few players would actually want to play in a real-world game, since we already live here. Instead, these games are about adventures. We can envisage fireball-throwing wizards, despite physics. So, we can accept unrealistic puzzles. (Plus, we accept jumping puzzles in our computer games - though players don't really like them - so why not a role-playing equivalent?)

However, what is the right way to include puzzles? And how do we resolve role-playing encounters?

Firstly, in both cases, the best way to handle such encounters is for the players to have a shot at it first. So, present the riddle to the players, and let them have a go. Play out the role-playing encounter, and see what the players make of it (with the caveat that they have to play this one out in character. The puzzle they do not, since the party wizard is probably much smarter than the whole group put together, and anyway the point here is to challenge the players). If the players succeed, great, the game proceeds as normal (and see XP, later).

If the players don't get anywhere, or don't want to play through the encounter/solve the puzzle (or are just getting bored trying to solve it), you move on to the backup plan. In the case of a role-playing encounter, this is handled using the appropriate role-playing skills. So, in D&D you use a Bluff or Diplomacy roll. The group may or may not qualify for an XP award as a result of this. In the case of a puzzle, there are three cases. If the puzzle must be solved or the game is dead, assume that a time passes and then the group gets the answer. The DM should assess a certain amount of resources used in determining the answer (either in the form of divinations, sage fees, or items wasted in the course of figuring it out). If the puzzle does not need to be solved for the game to proceed (for instance, if it guards a secondary treasure vault), you can either have the players make a skill or Int check to gain clues, or to solve it outright, or you can simply rule that the group cannot get through the puzzle. Regardless, the group does not qualify for an XP award for a puzzle that is not solved.

It's also worth considering that 'solving' the puzzle does not necessarily mean finding the DM's one-true-solution. If the party instead disables the trap part, and then hacks their way through the door, they have 'solved' the puzzle, and get the XP. Likewise, any solution that works, even if it's not the DM's preferred answer, should be accepted. Basically, players should be rewarded for clever thinking, never penalised.

Determining the XP award for a role-playing encounter or a puzzle can be pretty awkward. Since players don't gain levels, and so ranks in the 'puzzles' skill, the same puzzle can generally be used at 1st level and 20th level. Likewise, the typical role-playing encounter will be as 'difficult' at 1st level as at 20th.

However, the consequences of failure are likely not the same at 1st level as at 20th. And these should provide a guide as to the XP award. Typically, a puzzle should be backed up by a trap or other consequence (otherwise, the party can just hack their way through). If this trap drains the party of 20% of their resources, this constitutes a CR equal to the party level. If successfully opening the doors in the beholder's lair drains resources, this should also be factored in.

For the most part, traps, puzzles and role-playing encounters should all be at around the party's level. 'Normal' operation should drain the party of about 20% of their resources. If the party is very successfuly, or fails spectacularly, this should change, and perhaps wildly, but for the most part, that's how it should run.

There is one more thing to say about puzzles and the issue of realism. A large part of the reason for the existence of such things is to emulate the sort of treasure hunting seen in the Indiana Jones movies. What seems to be forgotten, though, is that those movies don't rely on solving the puzzles in situ. Instead, Dr Jones goes through painstaking preparation for his adventures, that largely isn't shown, gaining the tools to solve the puzzle. It's also worth noting that the puzzles he solves are not designed to hide something away so it can never be found - in all three cases the puzzles hide secrets that are meant to be found by the right people. The Holy Grail is hidden away and guarded, yes, but it is also intended to be found at some later time.

Role-playing games typically suffer in this regard. Usually, a puzzle is presented at the time it is expected to be solved. Instead, if we're emulating the genre, emphasis should be placed on building puzzles that fit the setting, on building up the character's Knowledge skills, and on finding the clues before assaulting the lost temple of doom.

For example, consider a Gnomish bardic school teaching jokes and language. The party might first learn that there are three ways in - a heavily guarded front door, a tradesman's entrance in the back (now destroyed), and a secret underground path used for testing new initiates. They can then look for the first clue - where does this underground path start? Then, having gotten in some way, they come to a hall with inscriptions on two opposite walls, and slate on the wall in between. The first wall has the start of six really bad puns in six different languages. The opposite wall has the inscription 122334455661. The key, then, is to complete each joke in the language in which the next joke is begun. And so it goes.

Conversely, if the characters are to invade a tomb designed never to be penetrated by robbers, the key here is to find those clues that do exist. For instance, the original designers might have left notes, which can be found. Previous tomb robbers might have made it a certain distance before turning back. In this instance, there shouldn't be puzzles that a smart character can get through. There shouldn't be passwords, hidden keys, or whatever. We're trying to keep everyone out, so the tomb should be built accordingly. Nonetheless, there should be clues to find, to help 'figure it out' - just not things that can be determined on the spot.

(Oh, and some clues, such as "only the penitent man shall pass", should either give a bonus to the Disable Device roll, a bonus on a save vs. the trap, or should just allow the character to bypass the trap altogether.)