How to Write Riddles for Your Players

Riddles are a classic part of TRPGs; they guide the players from point A to point B with some critical thinking on the players' part. But riddles are also a difficulty in gaming, as they create a circumstance in which the players must think through a problem with only one correct answer. Further, many players have encountered a variety of riddles in their lifetimes, and your presentation of a tried-and-true riddle may mean that the players are supposed to work through a riddle that they've already heard plenty of times. Read on for how to create your own original riddles and how to keep players on the right track. 

When I ran the National Treasure campaign, I had to include riddles. My players were tracking down powerful magical artifacts in hopes of attaining great power, and the format of the movies the campaign was based on called for riddles leading from clue to clue. I had to create a system of interconnected riddles that would guide the players across the continent. I originally wanted to place a riddle clue in each of the major cities on the island, but my players were more the type to get into shenanigans than follow a story, so I shortened the riddle count to five. The riddles the players answered described locations to find the next clue. This makes the riddle different in nature from traditional puzzles, as they are more of a scavenger hunt than a single riddle challenge. As I continue, I will break down the difference between location-based riddles and answer-based riddles. But first: what makes a good riddle? 

A strong riddle is specific enough in its clues that only one answer should be right. A strong riddle should be long enough to include specific information, but not so long that the information in the riddle gets overwhelmed. And finally, a good riddle should have a certain sound to it: it should be mystical and broad in scope, and it gets bonus points if it rhymes. Writing a riddle isn't as difficult as it may seem at first. If you work backwards, you can usually come up with something that will work well. Imagine something that exists in your fantasy world; it could be common, like grass or a spoon, or uncommon, like a wand or a beholder. Then try to come up with three descriptions of the thing that are vague enough to not give away the riddle. I'll do one common and one uncommon version by way of example. A spoon is shiny, curved, and carries things. (Not a lot of work here, just defining a spoon in a way that it would be hard to define something else.) On the other hand, a wand is long and thin, made of natural materials, and can be used to invoke energy. (These are a bit more specific, but only because a wand is something that doesn't exist in our world, so we want to make it a little clearer for players who might not be thinking in the gameworld.) Now that we have the details, we can write the actual clues. "What curves like a river and shines like a star? You use it to carry, but not very far." So in three short steps, we've gone from our answer to clues to the final form of the riddle. The wand example now: "Built of the wilds, long and thin like a road; using this right or wrong may cause stuff to explode." [If the rhyming element of the writing process is giving you a hard time, might I offer to pieces of advice: (1) play around with word choice until you have a common word ending, and (2) use RhymeZone to find good matches for what you need.]

With riddles like these, there is always the possibility that your players will name something that does fit the description but wasn't your intended answer. For instance, I tried the spoon riddle on a friend, and they came up with "shovel." A shovel is curved, and it shines as much as a spoon does; it also doesn't usually carry things very far. If I posed this riddle and my players answered "shovel," I would have the riddle-giver grant them correct and disclose the intended answer as well. There's no point in holding players to an exact answer if they're successfully being clever and playing the game by the rules. 

These are examples of answer riddles, riddles in which solving the riddle is the endgame of the riddle process. By this I mean, you are likely to have instituted answer riddles as part of a challenge with a powerful enemy or in a dungeon. We're thinking of the classic Lord of the Rings "speak friend and enter" kind of riddles, where solving the riddle allows a story mechanism to advance the players because of their completing the riddle. But you can also write interconnected riddles which lead to one another as part of a larger "scavenger hunt" style series of riddles. This means that instead of crafting a riddle that has an answer like we did above, we need to indicate another location. This can be slightly more challenging because the riddle must indicate an exact place on the planet rather than simply having a broad answer. But it's still very doable. Let's say we have players who need to solve two riddles to go from where they've begun (a noble's estate) to another riddle location (a mausoleum in the countryside) to the final location (an abandoned temple in the forest). To do so, we'll need two riddles to get them there. 

Our first riddle appears at the estate and directs the party toward the mausoleum. So we treat this specific mausoleum as the answer to our riddle. We need three details about the mausoleum: it belongs to the Orrin family, it has a large griffin carved into the roof, and it lies 50 paces from the meeting of several roads. It's worth noting that unless the party has been to this mausoleum before, this clue still won't mean anything to them, really. They'll have to ask around for a place matching this description, or do some research at a library, or simply start checking out mausoleums across the countryside. But the important thing is that when the players do encounter this specific mausoleum, they'll have everything they need to identify it as the correct one. But let's go ahead and convert these details into a riddle: "Of Orrin clan and griffin-defended, this is where the journey ended; step away from the meeting of paths, and go 50 paces toward the aftermath." This riddle is a little longer than the ones above because we need more details to make the place specific enough. 

Then we'll follow up with the second riddle for this example: going from the mausoleum to the abandoned temple in the forest. Let's decide that the temple is a shrine of Ehlonna, fallen into disrepair and overgrown by plant life. It lies at the heart of the forest, where no light can filter through the treetops. And it is marked by a carving of a unicorn into the elaborate floor of the temple. Again, this temple would only be an obvious answer if the party is returning to it, so you may need to have them investigate to find it. Our riddle will again be longer than our first examples. "The woods' defender overgrown, and draped in vines, to light unknown; a unicorn carved on the floor, and nothing like what came before." This riddle is specific enough to indicate this temple in particular, and as they players enter the temple, they will be excitedly pointing out the details that match the riddle. It will be a confirmation they'll solved the riddle correctly, which will be exciting for your players. 

In general, you want to err on the side of being more simple and direct with your riddles. Think about it this way: if your players solve a too-easy riddle, then the game continues a little quicker than anticipated. But if the players can't solve a too-difficult riddle, then the whole game grinds to a halt while the players, more frustrated and delicate now that they can't progress, reach evermore desperately at possible answers. Don't let this happen. You can prevent it from ever being an issue if you just tune your difficulty down a bit. 

Even with your best efforts, though, your players may run into difficulties. Even a well-designed riddle can stump players who are simply thinking in different ways than your riddle requires. It's useful in that case to have a backup plan. If you have an NPC hanging out with the player characters, have them offer a "hint," by which I mean have the NPC take a guess that's along the right lines but still wrong. It may jumpstart the players to consider similar options and get them closer. If you can't do that, you can always opt for out-of-game hints, which I dispense based on the result of Intelligence checks: get a 15 or higher (depending on the riddle, this DC goes up or down) and receive an out-of-game hint. Let's provide an example from the spoon riddle. The players just aren't getting it; the curved shiny idea has them thinking about weapons like scimitars rather than spoons. So you allow an Intelligence roll, and one of your characters meets the DC, so now you offer a hint: "It is much smaller than a sword, but it is gripped the same way." Or "It is not meant to carry very much, but its entire purpose is to carry things." These bonus clues are very minor; they more add one extra detail to the big picture, and that's what you want. Try to add one more detail every time you use this strategy, giving the players a chance to solve the riddle without your completely giving it away. 

There are lots of ways to use riddles in your game. As mentioned previously, you can have riddles be a part of dealing with certain NPCs for moving through a dungeon; you can have a series of interconnected riddles which move the players through a story; you can have your players solve riddles as part of a narrative that focuses on player ingenuity. But a well-placed riddle can be a great challenge to your players in other circumstances as well. When your players meet a wise but slippery NPC who they need help from, that NPC can refuse to help the players until they solve a riddle. When dealing with the gods, the players may be forced to solve a riddle before speaking with the powerful entities. You can even use riddles as a traveling game, having NPCs the players are traveling with spout riddles for the players to solve as they go. Whatever way you want to insert riddles in your game, the actual writing of them can be simple and add a good deal of excitement to your game. 

Maybe the riddle-writing concept is still intimidating, or maybe you want more examples of riddles to work off of. Here are ten more riddles with their answers:

1. Round as the sun which marks the day, it keeps what eludes all else as it inches away. (Clock)
2. What speaks any language but cannot make a sound? What can fold up and be carried around? (Book)
3. What feeds villages that doesn't grow from the earth? It is a thing created from birth. (Milk)
4. These small things can simulate fate; with a flick of the wrist, the stakes they dictate. (Dice)
5. What blocks out the sun and locks out the cold? What has a way to block the threshold? (House)
6. From stock of soaring wings, you wouldn't think | that its greatest journey would be ink. (Quill)
7. What language can excite you without your comprehension? Its voice is made by changing patterns of tension. (Music)
8. Silent and stealthy, it hides from all; it comes naturally since it is so small. (Mouse)
9. Metal and curved is this tool for the poacher; it's often employed with an attached floater. (Fish Hook)
10. What is sized for people, but always larger than they? It is where people go for hours to stay. (Bed)

That's all for now. Coming soon: a list of custom magic items, how to balance your game's economy, and how to manage a boss fight. Until next time, happy gaming!

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