At least until you figure out the solution. Because, honestly, everything is a puzzle under that context. The problem is, that definition is a bit too broad. We agreed last time – which I still can’t get over – we agreed that a puzzle is a test of ingenuity or cleverness in which a question must be answered or a goal must be achieved, but the way to achieve the goal or answer the question isn’t obvious. Okay, I guess I should start by explaining the difference between a puzzle and a problem. Math Versus… I Don’t Know… Psychology or Something? How does one right an article like this without anyone to yell at? It’s too undirected. But, frankly, without any sort of anger to drive me, I’m not sure I can get through an entire article.
The word was ‘problem.’ I was going to explain the difference between solving puzzles and solving problems. A word that starts with ‘p.’ And I’m sure people would pissed off at me if I didn’t provide a pertinent payoff. I mean, I did leave a sequel hook there suggesting that people who DON’T want to use puzzles should consider using something else instead. Hell, I’m not even sure if I NEED a follow up. I honestly expected to spend this entire Long, Rambling Introduction™ here in the follow-up screaming at morons who thought I was justifying their own stupidity. And if YOU and YOUR GROUP can’t handle the inherent limitations and HATE puzzles anyway, there’s no good, fun way to put them. That if YOU and YOUR GROUP like puzzles and ACCEPT the inherent limitations, you can have fun with puzzles. But they were tiny, easily ignored little comments and quiet voices that no one bothered to argue with. I barely had any morons screaming at me for declaring puzzles terrible or any other morons pointing at my article and saying “see, this is PROOF all puzzles in RPGs are bad.” Oh, sure, there were a few. And if your players – or some of your players – aren’t willing to come along for that particular ride, they aren’t going to have any fun solving your latest cryptogram puzzle or trying to figure out to get the bulette, the halfling, and the potatoes across the river in a boat that can only hold one of those things at a time.Īnd for the first f$&%ing time ever, people actually MOSTLY understood what I was getting at. Puzzles – the sorts of things that people understand as puzzles – really don’t work in the context of tabletop RPGs unless you’re willing to suspend a lot of disbelief and break some of the important bits of the game to fit them in. A couple weeks ago – I can’t be bothered to remember when – I addressed the question of puzzles in RPGs by just stating, outright, that puzzles suck.
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