I wrote a riddle for a magic door, the answer to the riddle is what the door needs to open. I'm curious if it is too easy or difficult and what others think of my riddle.
The riddle,
Show me true,
to be let through,
what follows the darkest dark,
split by wit for me to hark,
and if I should not catch sight,
the truth which is right,
you won't live out the tonight.
One potential problem is the busyness of the riddle. It seems like a lot of the riddle is just framing to make things look pretty, which can really confuse would-be riddle solvers. I'm assuming that the last four lines are all relevant to the answer.
Dawn: Certainly follows the "darkest dark", and I guess some connection could be made between "split" and the break of dawn.
Spider/Spy: Spiders prefer darkness, and the word "spider" split is "spy"—a person preoccupied with truth and "catching sight" of (i.e. spying) things. I initially saw this as a totally nonsensical theory, but it's sort of growing on me.
Idle Notioning:
"Split by wit for me to hark" is a funky line. I take it to indicate something (a word, or an actual thing) being separated or halved. "For me to hark" has me mostly stumped—I can't tell if it's part of the riddle or just there to rhyme. Alternatively, "split by wit" could mean a word or phrase actually split down the middle with the word "wit", but that's stretching things.
"And if I should not catch sight" seems like it might just be framing, but I'll take it at face value for now. This is something that must be seen. That supports "dawn" as a theory: It is something you must encounter in order to get past the night.
"The truth which is right" could be literally referring to the direction "right". Facing sunrise, "right" would be "south". But, again, stretching things pretty far. It's probably just more framing.
"The tonight" is a very weird choice of words. Assuming that this is deliberate, it might be a hint of some kind, but I'm too tired to theorize on that.
I recommend small riddles for games, by the way. One or two lines, or something like the riddles from a kids' story (Mouse hunter/Closer than friend/Wind dancer/At the bough's end is a favorite of mine: You just put the first two clues together to form the last two lines' answer).
A short, simple riddle minimizes the number of times you have to repeat yourself. Also, don't use weird distinctive phrasings unless they're significant. "Clever" rhyming can get in the way of a good riddle in a very serious way.
Lol, the last word should be "night" not "tonight." Must have been autocorrected. No idea how I missed that when read it. :)
The presence of the door is merely implied, thus I wanted the riddle to reinforce that suspicion. I also wanted to indicate the bad consequences of giving an incorrect answer.
As for the word "hark," I just didn't find a better word, regardless of ryming ability.
Is the word "hark" even necessary? You reference the riddlegiver way more than you need to.
I did just have a fairly obvious revelation, though—"show me true" and "catch sight" are literal, indicating that there is an object or action that needs to be employed, not a word (for instance, holding up a torch, or a goblin head, or whatever). "Split by wit" still has me stumped, though.
I'm trying to decide, should give the answer in a spoiler, or should I leave this here till someone figures it out?
I will say that it is a world of magic, and the door is magic and can magically detect the answer.
I'd say provide the answer. At first glance this riddle is very "busy". It looks like you were trying to go for a riddle that was both wordplay and has that sort of poetic allusion feel at the same time, but they're fouling each other up.
If it can't e worked backward to the source, then it's not really a "fair" riddle.
My initial thought, based on the last 3 lines, was that they needed to cast True Seeing. You could probably cut the last three lines and have a better chance of the players figuring it out.
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Yeah, not even close.
How about something like:
Hue the rock
To break the lock
The seven forms
The wake of storms
Three clues, and a pun for good measure.
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Yeah, I wasn't even on the right track. I see where you're going with the second and third lines: "what follows the darkest dark" should be light, which is then "split." That's really the riddle - the rest is poetry.
One thing I note that actually interests me is that you either accidentally or intentionally created seven lines. I would give a second clue in that. For example:
"Reveal to me,
To open the way,
That which you note follows the darkest dark,
Split and then given upon my face.
And if I should be shorted,
From the truth which is right,
Then you shall join my eternal vigil."
The riddle now also hides a second clue - the first letter of the first word in the first line is an R, the first letter of the second word on the second line is an O, and so on. ROYGBIV is a classic giveaway, but it's hidden pretty well, so they might not cotton to it immediately.
I had to read the answer. This riddle is a game wrecker. The game session will grind to a halt. They won't come back for another session till you give them the answer.
After the third time they say "Dawn" and you say that's wrong, they might attack the door out of frustration. You should have the answer somewhere on the other side of the door just to make them feel stupid.
Hmm, clearly I wasn't cut out for writing riddles, particularly not ones that are supposed to scare away intruders and confirm the presence of a hidden door in addition to describing the way to get through the door.
:/
Nice to know I can stump people at least. :)
Spoiler:"Reveal to me, To open the way,
That which you note follows the darkest dark,
Split and then given upon my face.
And if I should be shorted,
(1)From (2)the (3)truth (4)which (5)is right,
Then you shall join my eternal vigil."(numbers and bolding mine)
Shouldn't "is" be the sixth word here?
Riddles are usually harder than the riddler expects. Either that or completely trivial.
So, if we're lucky the players will figure out the actual clue is:
"what follows the darkest dark
split by wit for me to hark"
The first line implies dawn specifically - not light in general. I could make a case for light, but it could equally be 'hope' or something like that.
If they somehow guess light, to think of a rainbow as split light requires some physics knowledge, not something RPG characters should be expected to have.
The word "wit" is distracting - people may think jokes are in some way relevant. "Hark" means "listen", which works better with jokes than light.
Also, showing someone a rainbow is impossible in normal circumstances since they're natural phenomena.
If there was a prism or a scroll of Prismatic Ray lying around, that might be enough of a clue to send people in the right direction.
I especially thought of "dawn" because of the saying, It always seems darkest just before the dawn. It's a natural assumption.
Dawn felt like an obvious answer, but then the riddle went on too much longer and lost me.
Yeah, not even close.
** spoiler omitted **
How about something like:
Three clues, and a pun for good measure.Hue the rock
To break the lock
The seven forms
The wake of storms
If written by a race with low-light vision it would be 8 forms. Just to further complicate the issue. :)
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** spoiler omitted **
Rxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Oxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Gxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bxxxxxxxxxx
Ixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Vxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
And then it's a dead giveaway. I thought about capitalizing the hint words, but that's pretty much the same thing, only shifted. I agree, the "hint" is a bit esoteric, really. This is one of the reasons I rarely go in for riddles in games - they're either solved instantly (and therefore not fun), or they take forever (and therefore not fun). And I have players that love puzzles!
** spoiler omitted **** spoiler omitted **
Depends on how much time you want players trying to figure it out, and how many players you actually think will be involved with it. Personally, I wouldn't want players to spend more than 5 minutes on it, as half my party would hate if it took any longer, so hiding it as much as you did I think would be problematic for my games.
Well, I figured,
That dawn was light, so I thought that fit well. Dawn is the coming of light and you split the light. seemed a natural fit to me.
Well, I figured,
** spoiler omitted **
My initial guess at the riddle had me thinking along the lines of light. It fit as something following the darkest dark and the "-ight" endings of the final three lines actually helped channel my thoughts in that direction.
One problem with riddles is that it may have more than one answer, if the clues are too ambiguous. Most were thinking of "dawn", and clues would also support that answer.
It is also a fairly high physics concept that light can be split into different colors.
My advice; be prepared to give added clues in exchange for intelligence or wisdom checks, since high intelligence or wisdom stats should be rewarded somehow. (The argument of "my PC is way smarter or wiser than I am, let the PC figure this out"). This may cut down frustration a bit.
Alternatively, give clues by having tools in the room that they could use to split light. When describing the room, if there is a window ornament that creates a prism it can both get them thinking about it and serve as a tool for them to use to solve the riddle.
I would never in a million years have solved this riddle.
Here's how I approached it...
The first two lines are simply a call that this is a riddle to be solved.
The next line, "What follows the darkest dark," is clearly a reference to 'Dawn.'
The next line, "split by wit for me to hark" convinced me that you were going for word-play: "split by wit" made me think that I needed to break this up and be clever, and then "for me to hark" made me think that I would then need to speak the answer aloud.
I assumed the last three lines were simply a flourish that one needed to solve this riddle or there would be dire consequences.
So, I really concentrated on the middle lines:
what follows the darkest dark,
split by wit for me to hark,
What follows the darkest dark is "Dawn".
The "Split" word made me think of the phrase "dawn breaks," and then I thought the double-use of "split by wit" meant that I should try to anagram the phrase 'dawn breaks' somehow. After about ten minutes, the best anagram I could come up with is "wand bakers."
For a while, I thought about what "wand bakers" might be, but then I concluded I was barking up the wrong tree and revealed the spoiler.
I would have been quite vexed at my GM if she had used this riddle in a dungeon. Frankly, after about three minutes, I would have tried to use skill checks to solve it instead of solving it "for real" as a player.
Rewarding intelligence and wisdom checks is something I do already, but still a great suggestion thanks.
In the area is a stool with clue objects on it, though no one looked around the area (it is a large dark cave so they would need to illuminate more of the area, most of which is still dark, but they didn't bother strangely, they just stopped at the riddle and the only looking around was to search the skeletons of previously dead adventurers who failed the riddle, of course, there were no skeletons, it was just assumed that skeletons would be there.) note to self, next time have the clues discovered before the riddle.
Interestingly, my players thought the darkness was the thing that needed split, never considering (except silently in their mind perhaps) that the thing that followed the dark would be what was to be split.
I'm still not sure what word to use in place of hark.
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Rewarding intelligence and wisdom checks is something I do already, but still a great suggestion thanks.
In the area is a stool with clue objects on it, though no one looked around the area (it is a large dark cave so they would need to illuminate more of the area, most of which is still dark, but they didn't bother strangely, they just stopped at the riddle and the only looking around was to search the skeletons of previously dead adventurers who failed the riddle, of course, there were no skeletons, it was just assumed that skeletons would be there.) note to self, next time have the clues discovered before the riddle.
Interestingly, my players thought the darkness was the thing that needed split, never considering (except silently in their mind perhaps) that the thing that followed the dark would be what was to be split.
I'm still not sure what word to use in place of hark.
Don't worry about making it rhyme until you've done a few riddles. Throw down the riddle in Draconic (or some other language that the party has, like Elvish), and provide them with the Common translation. Say the original was in a rather stylized poetic form used by whoever it was that wrote it. You can also provide them with "alternate translations" for words you want to clarify.
That is an interesting and good idea.
Put the word "dawn" in as part of a clue. It removes a red herring, but it's one that is pulling a bit too strongly.
An obvious clue could be "bridge of light", a less obvious one "bridge to far away", or some derivation.
Put the word "dawn" in as part of a clue. It removes a red herring, but it's one that is pulling a bit too strongly.
An obvious clue could be "bridge of light", a less obvious one "bridge to far away", or some derivation.
The first thing I thought with "bridge of light" was the oracle "moonlight bridge" ability. Which also plays with "light after deepest dark"
A knowledge nature check might steer them back on course.
A 10 will mean they realize it's something to do with light.
A 20 might mean they suspect it has something to do with the colors of the rainbow.
What kind of PCs haven't searched the room for traps and treasures?
If my character found a prism I would be forever trying to get it to cast color spray. OOOOOh, I so want the command word to be Rainbow Dash. Color spray up to 7 times a day but Prismatic spray only once a week. It's going to be the key to a very special door in The Cleaves. Thank you for inspiring me.
Interestingly, it is a pony game, three of the characters are from the remnants of Rainbow Dash's ministry (Fallout Equestria thing) and rainbows on the walls (different walls) were mentioned. :)
I don't use PF spells though. Don't quite fit the setting very well in my opinion.
Rainbow based spells show up on MLPFIM in 3, 2, 1...
These and glitterdust are possibly the only spells you should convert over.
Hasbro probably has people working on a way to bring Narwhale Blast into both their products. Perhaps a feat, supercharged summons. The summoned creature is fired as a projectile and gets their full attack as an instant. Then they vanish home. Adds 2 spell levels.
This is the second Fallout Equestria game I have heard of. What was the common inspiration I wonder.
Yeah, not even close.
** spoiler omitted **
How about something like:
Three clues, and a pun for good measure.Hue the rock
To break the lock
The seven forms
The wake of storms
I would definitely use this riddle instead. It's less complex (only 4 lines), and like the quote says, it has a pun and 3 clues.
This is the second Fallout Equestria game I have heard of. What was the common inspiration I wonder.
The inspiration is only the best book I've read in a very long time (and I had a college reading level when I was seven, so I've done lots of reading).
Fallout Equestria by Kkat.
The link to the full story as a pdf,
Linkified