Pathfinder 1E Einstein's Riddle for Fantasy Games

[Dragonsbane]

This is a conversion of the famous "Einstein Riddle" converted for fantasy RPG stuff. Took my group almost an hour to figure it out, so I thought I would share.

Answer posted tomorrow!

Einstein said only 2% of the population could solve it. *shameless troll*
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There are 5 wizards sitting in a row who wear five different colored cloaks. Each wizard is a different race. The five wizards drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain type of plant, and have a different familiar. No wizard has the same familar, smokes the same plant, or drinks the same beverage.

A sixth wizard wants to sit with them, but wants to be safe.

The question is: Who owns the scorpion familiar?

The Dwarf wears a red cloak
The Hin has a Bat as a familiar
The Human drinks Tea


The wizard with the green cloak is on the left of the wizard with the white cloak.
The wizard with the green cloak drinks coffee.
The wizard who smokes cannabis has an owl as a familiar.


The wizard with the yellow cloak smokes tobacco.
The wizard sitting in the center seat drinks milk.
The Elf sits in the first seat.


The wizard who smokes saliva sits next to the one who has a toad as a familiar.
The wizard who has a cat as a familiar sits next to the wizard who smokes tobacco.
The wizard who smokes Bidi drinks beer.


The gnome smokes cloves.
The Elf sits next to the wizard with a blue robe.
The wizard who smokes saliva sits next to a wizard who drinks water.


Good luck!

 

[GMMichael]

Answer:
[sblock]The gnome owns the scorpion.[/sblock]

Amount of time required:
[sblock]Way too much.[/sblock]

 

[Wiseblood]

I got the same answer as DMMike. Wow that was hard. It's late so maybe my brain is laggy and I was half watching TV but it took about 2 and 1/2 hours.

 

[Dragonsbane]

Correct!

Now, make your players suffer. Make them solve it IG!

 

[GMMichael]

XP for promoting puzzle use, Dragonsbane. I don't know about everyone else, but the games I see need to take a step or two away from combat-focus.
[MENTION=42437]Wiseblood[/MENTION], I'm really hoping our groups can solve them faster than we did! I'd like to remove the "no two people have the same features" requirement while streamlining the rest, but that might complicate things into the "hopeless" realm.

 

[Starfox]

My players are much better at riddle-solving that I am.

 

[Riley37]

Variant scenario:

Tiamat has five heads, each doing a different damage type.
You get resistance to one damage type, and you must put your head in the jaws of one of Tiamat's heads.
The other clues follow, solvable by chained deductions...

 

[N'raac]

It took about half an hour, however only after

Spoiler

I intuited "The wizard with the green cloak is on the left of the wizard with the white cloak." means that the Wizard with the green cloak is to the immediate left of the wizard with the green cloak. Otherwise, the Elf could be wearing the green cloak, as he is to the left of all other wizards. Similarly, one must intuit that "first seat" is "leftmost seat", not "rightmost seat"

Often, the issue with puzzles is phrasing - if the puzzle phrasing is not sufficiently precise that the players cannot interpret them differently from the GM, the puzzle becomes unfair.

Of course, the other issue with in-game puzzles is that the 24 INT wizard should be pretty god at logic puzzles, even if his player is not, so we get into the question of whether we are playing our characters, or breaking the fourth wall.

 

[RangerWickett]

Let's see, the page says it's 1:37, but it's 2:31 now. I'm at work, but it's a slow rainy Sunday, so we'll say sure, half an hour.

I also was uncertain whether 'first' meant 'most left,' and whether 'left of' meant 'immediately left of.' Still, nice brain-teaser.

 

[Lwaxy]

Such riddles are pretty much standard in German riddle magazines