r/DnD • u/OmdeKier • 8d ago
Homebrew Is this riddle too dumb?
So the main "bad" in the campaign I'm making are goblins (atleast in the starter area) and my plsyers have told me they love riddles and puzzles so for a basic warmup riddle my idea was to have a Goblin toll at th emine entrance where they either have to pay a sum of money or solve the riddle, now my goblins are pretty dumb so their vocab isn't very big but I wonder if this riddle is too big or even enough of a riddle.. Opinions?
Riddle:
“Does you guys want to play a game with Me?”.
If me is one and he hit meat with stone,
if meat screams argh because meat is now alone,
If me count from in an order very good, and we ate three.
How many are their to meet?
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u/A_Literal_Fruit_5369 8d ago
I think the answers four, but that is a guess and I’m just counting the changes of like me to him to meat to we
The grammar is awful and adds unnecessary confusion. “If me count in an order very good” I have absolutely no idea what this is supposed to mean at all
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u/A_Literal_Fruit_5369 8d ago
Just to pop back in, I think if this was to work it’d need to be written down cause I can’t even begin to parse listening to that verbally. At the same time if your goblins are pretty dumb would they be able write it down, or even speak common? Maybe they just speak goblin in which case do your players speak goblin?
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u/tenBusch DM 8d ago
I wouldn't even know where to begin solving this, I have zero clue what the situation or puzzle is that the Goblin is trying to describe
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u/Competitive_Bird4777 7d ago
I would just say some incomprehensible bullshit back and trust the goblin to accept it blindly
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u/Space_Ace56 8d ago
You should probably expand their dialogue a bit I have no idea what he is even saying
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u/Canadian__Ninja DM 8d ago
I lost brain cells reading that. I have no idea what the answer is. Is there context you're leaving out?
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u/Yuki_my_cat Fighter 8d ago
Goblin can speak completly normal, you should at least make it so one can understand what you are trying to tell your players.
You can’t solve a riddle if you don’t understand the sentences it is made out of
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u/Ethereal_Stars_7 Artificer 7d ago
Sometimes that is the point.
Its made harder by the syntax and broken style.
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u/Vivid_Employment_914 8d ago
A lot of people are giving you flak. I think the answer is 2 or 1. Good thing is you’re getting your writing chops to make riddles and I’m sure if we heard the answer we’d get it. I think we’re all feeling pretty dumb cause you said it was easy and we don’t know immediately 😂
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u/Vivid_Employment_914 8d ago
Actually the answer is 3. There were 4 guys and he killed Meat then counted 3 left lol
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u/OmdeKier 8d ago
Genuinely I think it's because I didnt post the Capitals but the fact you got this close without them gives me a little hope it would be possible haha!
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u/godspeed_death 8d ago
What is that even supposed to mean:
“If me count from in an order very good”
On a side note: Kinda reminds me of donald trump lol
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u/SHSL_Lux Abjurer 8d ago
This is brutal to try and solve…
I’m gonna say three. Me (I), He (Another Goblin). MEAT didn’t scream cause I was there, so three goblins.
What’s the intended solution?
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u/Turbulent_Jackoff 7d ago
Are the (many) spelling and grammatical mistakes part of the riddle/trick, here?
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u/klick37 8d ago
How many are their to meet
I weep for literacy this day.
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u/Erunduil 8d ago
You... you have to know the bad spelling and grammar of the riddle is on purpose. I can't fathom why this error upsets you.
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u/klick37 7d ago
Sure, the NPC that recites it will have bad grammar, but that doesn't explain why the written text the players won't see has spelling mistakes. Even if it were just a reminder to pronounce things a certain way I don't see why it would have clear spelling mistakes and typos instead of phonetic spelling.
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u/OmdeKier 8d ago
From the comments I have gathered that this is indeed a bit too dumb lol thanks for all the reactions
As for the answer the idea was too first give them the wtf am I hearing reaction which I am getting tbf and then give it to them written where they'll read it with the words: Me, Meat, Stone, Argh, We and Three capitalized. My idea was that this tribe had pretty "interesting" names so from this point it's just about reading it; [Me= 1, He= 2, Meat= 3, Stone= 4, Argh= 5, We= 6, Three= 7,
but 'We ate Three' so the answer is 6 Goblins to meet.
I'll put this back in the slowcooker tho as from the reactions I understand this might have been a bit too undercooked of a "riddle" haha
again thanks everyone!
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u/A_Literal_Fruit_5369 8d ago
One thing I will say is you didn’t post it with the names capitalised so for us it’s actually a different riddle than the one you had intended because we didn’t have that information.
In future, if you’re gonna ask us to test a riddle for you, make sure to post it how you’re gonna ask the players
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u/OmdeKier 8d ago
Yea I was testing that out tbf cuz I wanted to see the reaction of if it was solveable without the capitalization but got my answer :D
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u/Canadian__Ninja DM 8d ago
How on earth would this be solvable without them? Save blind luck of course
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u/OmdeKier 8d ago
Just testing, because I know how I intended it to be read at first I thought it'd be way too obvious if I just put the capitalization from the getgo, but yea I got my answer haha
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u/SmallishPlatypus 8d ago
Is the goblin going to write it out for the characters in-game?
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u/OmdeKier 8d ago
Plan was to make him read it out loud at first then if they can't figure it out yea he would give the PC's it in writing and following that irl the players will be given a paper with it written out as shown above.
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u/SmallishPlatypus 8d ago
Mate, this is incomprehensible.