Myth: A New Age CYOA

[Baltika9]

B
B- Nine o'clock.
B
A

 

[Fangshi]

Hey, could you hit me up with some of those please? I won't vote on any of the riddles that you do use, it'd just be nice to use when I run a PnP game. Also consider that when you're dealing with 10+ players, someone's probably going to work out the riddle no matter what it is, given time.

Sure, I will have to dig through my resources but I will see what I can do.

I have stacks of old compendiums, riddle books and the like and I tend to write down traps, tricks, puzzles, plot hooks and character concepts I find in works I read or watch so there is a fair amount of material to sift through. But I should be able to find a few easy to access resources for you. (It may take a day or two though to find the time to do some digging.)


As for the larger groups making puzzles easier, that is undoubtedly true but I wanted to see how well it would go in a CYOA format.

Also not all of the puzzles I have are riddles. There are some with physical components where you would have to figure out the right answer and then determine if Derryth can pull it off or not, so that could add a further wrinkle to things.

I just see it as a fundamental part of dungeon running so I would like to include them when possible (if the voters figure it out then they deserve to be rewarded after all), I may just have to break out the difficult ones...

 

[Absinthe]

You need but ask, this is one I use to benchmark groups as it is admittedly not too difficult.

If there is demand for more then I will break out some of my more specialized books and pdfs and see what I can come up with.

Can't speak for the others, but I'm a sucker for a strong riddle.

 

[Kz3r0]

1. Do you try and solve the puzzle?
A) Yes - You want whatever treasure is hidden in the statue.

2. If you chose to solve the puzzle then how do you want to go about it?
B) The voters will provide Derryth's answer.
Nine o'clock.



3. Ari and Bari offered to give you their wedding bands to pay for the mandrake roots you used to save their comrades. What did you tell them?

A) You took the wedding bands, they will more than pay for the roots.

4. The tiles are worth a lot if you want to take them, or you could respect the importance of the tiles and leave them.

A) You take them.

 

[Azira]

A
B, 9 o'clock
B
B

 

[Zero Credibility]

A
B - 9 o'clock
B - eh, what would be the point. While the rings might pay for new roots back in the city, they sure as hell can't cover their value down here.
B - going with B because it just seems like a waste to me to take something like that only for it to be melted down for gold. Now, if we can outright sell these things to the new Heron guard or someone else... Plus I'm not sure how wise it is to hack off dead people in a setting where ghosts are real.

 

[Nevill]

Trying not to look at treave's solution above.

The riddle

The ones we can place right away are the Shadow and the Peasant, at 1 and 12 respectively. To be trapped between a shadowy sword and the Knight's sword, the Dragon needs to be at 2 and the Knight at 3. That automatically places the Merchant an 8. The Gypsy should be right next to the Merchant, and the Cock right next to her, so the Cock is either 10 or 6. But the place right across the Cock should be empty to fit the Hydra, so it has to be placed at 10, which places the Gypsy at 9 and the Hydra at 4.

For now, the only unoccupied places are 5, 6, 7, and 11. 5 and 11 have to belong to the Castle and the Giant, as they are opposite to each other. It is impossible to determine which is which, but this is not relevant to the solution. That leaves only 6 or 7, and we are out of characters.

The characters are capitalized in the verses, so it might be the one that coincides with the first word that one of the verses starts with. In that case, only the Wagon fits. For some reason, the word 'crouches' starts with a capital letter, too.

If the Wagon is one of the characters, that places it next to the Merchant as 8 and the only place left is 6, which becomes the solution.

Looking at treave's.

Spoiler

Ah, I see. If the Wagon is one of the characters, then 'steadying his wares' places the Gypsy not next to the Merchant, but next to the Wagon instead. That means that the Cock has to be at 5 and the Hydra at 11, with the Wagon at 7, the Gypsy at 6, and the Giant and the Castle at 4 and 10. The empty space thus becomes 9.

Still, are we sure that our initial assumption in regards to the Wagon being a character is true? If it isn't, we are one character short to fill the entire clock, but maybe the missing clue lies outside of the board? Or the beast of scales and crimson tongue does not refer to the Dragon (though that one fits, so I doubt it).

Fangshi, English is not my native language, so I have to ask this one: shouldn't the word 'wagon' require an article to be placed before it? If it does, and if it still starts with a capital letter after that, it would clear my doubts as to what the answer to the riddle is. It's funny how a grammar can affect a decision and become a question of life and death for a character.

Edit: Ah, I got it. The verses should have read:

His wares beside him in (?) Wagon
Crouches as far away as he can
From the infamous Dragon

Then it rhymes, and it becomes clear that the Wagon is supposed to be capitalized. So the answer is nine o'clock.

 

[Jester]

A
B, 9 o'clock
B
B

this

 

[tuluse]

1) A
2) B 9 O'clock
3) freeform
"I don't want your gold, I want something more valuable. You dwarves owe me a favor. Someday I'll come ask for help, and you will be honor compelled not to refuse me"

I'm not sure exactly how dorfs work in Myth, but I don't think a couple gold rings are worth much when we're surrounded by magical artifacts. On the otherhand, being owed a favor is always good.

4) I'll leave this one to others.

 

[Fangshi]

Current Vote:
1.
A) 9 votes
B) 1 vote
C)

2.
A)
B) 11 votes; all 9 o'clock
C)

3.
A) 1 vote
B) 7 (8) votes
C) 2 vote

4.
A) 4 votes
B) 5 votes

I imagine this vote won't take too terribly long so I will probably close it within 24 hrs and get out another update soon after.

 

[Grimgravy]

AB(9)BB

 

[Anabanana]

1. A
2. B - Nine o'clock
3. C > B
4. B

 

[Smashing Axe]

Why are you guys voting 4 B? How does it benefit us in any way?

 

[Azira]

Ghosts mang. We're here for artifacts, not simple grave-robbing. No. It's gotta be high-profile grave-robbing.

 

[Nevill]

I don't know. Of all the valuables we can potentially carry out of this place, it seems wrong to me to take the one that says "I killed/robbed a dead Journeyman". It is the same reason we refuse the bands. Why take the last shirt off your teammates when you are standing in a treasure vault?

I'd rather leave the looting until we have fulfilled our primary goal here. Unless we are talking artefacts, of course.

4B.

 

[Smashing Axe]

While we're here for artifacts, many of our team mates certainly aren't. They're going to want to have something for their troubles down here in the deep. Heavy golden journeyman plates are a good beginning.

Ghosts are just speculation. We've received no information so far that'd indicate looting this guy would result in a haunting.

 

[Nevill]

Well, Derryth and Miosguinn are not interested. Fangshi, would Serpent want to take the plates? I don't really know his motivations for joining us... he went with the idea because he had nowhere else to go, but what he expects would come out of it? What's in it for him? Riches? Knowledge? Entertainment?

If he wants to take them, I am not going to stop him, if he doesn't, we'll leave the plates where they are.

 

[Smashing Axe]

We have more companions than those in our immediate surroundings Nevill. If we just go claiming artifacts, then we'll need to share more of them with our companions, especially with the companions interested in powerless treasure. We ought to claim things the others find useful when the opportunity presents itself, so when we find the artifacts that we want, we don't have to give them away.

 

[Nevill]

I don't think the rest of our party would be interested in artefacts for mages. Not Tyrward and Gareth, obviously. Well, Thais would want them, but she is going to be our partner anyway.

I would not worry too much about having to give those away.

 

[Smashing Axe]

I don't think the rest of our party would be interested in artefacts for mages. Not Tyrward and Gareth, obviously. Well, Thais would want them, but she is going to be our partner anyway.

I would not worry too much about having to give those away.

My point is that they will want some form of renumeration. Which we currently don't have. We're trying to obtain artifacts, but that doesn't necessarily lead to the mundane variety of treasure. Right now we've the perfect opportunity to claim such, but are backing off because we're scared that ghosts might jump us. (Which incidentally, the light runes would probably make us impervious to, if such a thing even happens)

 

[Nevill]

Look, tiles of solid gold is not what I want to carry in a tunnel where you can't even stand up. There are lots of stories about adventurers who never made it out alive because they got greedy. Hell, why do you think these people lie dead here? Isn't it because they tried to take the treasure hidden in the statue, or, in other words, greed?

For some reason, it strikes me as a not safe thing to do.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Look, tiles of solid gold is not what I want to carry in a tunnel where you can't even stand up. There are lots of stories about adventurers who never made it out alive because they got greedy. Hell, why do you think these people lie dead here? Isn't it because they tried to take the treasure hidden in the statue, or, in other words, greed?

For some reason, it strikes me as a not safe thing to do.

Well, they're not dead because of the journeyman's plates. It will be a bit of a struggle leaving, but we should be able to accomplish it without issue.

Greed is good. Greed is why we're here. Greed is why we're going to try to solve the riddle.

 

[Erebus]

It would be best to simply ask Serpent his opinion about the plates.

 

[Kz3r0]

It would be best to simply ask Serpent his opinion about the plates.

This.

 

[Zero Credibility]

I'm not sure if we can get anything useful out of him either. It's not as if he's a member of the Heron guard or anything, so what is he going to say? Personally, while I see the value of gold I'm inclined to agree with Azira here - we're high profile grave robbers adventurer archaeologists, so let's concentrate on really, really expensive magical artefacts and leave the less portable and maybe even haunted stuff for amateurs. We got the roots (which is what we came here for), quite likely also an interesting artefact as a bonus, and I fear that by looting the corpses we may be pushing our luck. Rule number three of dungeon delving and all that.