Game Master's Handbook
What is Riddle Rooms #2?
Riddle Rooms#2 is a fantasy role-playing sourcebook which can be used to enhance any campaign. Each encounter in Riddle Rooms #2 contains a riddle, puzzle or challenge which your players must overcome in order to solve the encounter and earn treasure. Because the obstacles presented in these encounters require thinking and problem solving, characters of any ability or skill level will be equally challenged.
Wilderness Puzzles and Perils is the second in the Riddle Rooms series. The encounters here take place in forests, mountains, jungles, towns and other outdoor settings. If you are designing a dungeon adventure or want to fill up rooms in an old decaying castle, barrow mound, dank cave or other indoor setting, Riddle Rooms #1 – Dungeon Dilemmas has twenty encounters that fit into any dungeon.
Components
- Game Master's Handbook: This has all the information which you, the Game Master, need to know. Each Riddle Room is described along with its solution, plus ideas for monsters, treasure and traps.
- 20 Illustration Tear-outs: These sheets show your players the encounter. Give these to your players when they reach a place in your adventure where you've put a Riddle Room. The Illustration tear-outs are bound into the Game Master's handbook. Remove them by tearing along the perforations. Some encounters require more than one sheet; this is noted in the Game Master information for those encounters. A few of the illustrations need to be cut before being used. Feel free to photocopy these pages.
- 5 Bonus Riddles: These are individual riddles not contained in any Riddle Room. The ones we present here are designed so that you may have a mystic or seer give them to your players. These riddles will lead them to far away places. A great way to start a new chapter of your adventure!
- A Riddle Item. Riddle Items are magic items that have a riddle associated with them. Solving the riddle will give the players clues about what the item can do and how to use it. Riddle Items may take many components to be useful and so give players a long term riddle to solve as part of a campaign
How To Use Riddle Rooms In Your Game
Riddle Rooms will fit into any adventure and any gaming system. You can place a Riddle Room encounter almost anywhere. When your players come to an encounter, give them the corresponding Illustration tear-out sheets. As the party tries to solve the puzzle, refer to the Handbook for all the details.
The Game Master's Handbook explains how each encounter should be solved. Every encounter contains enough information for even the weakest party to succeed. No special abilities or spells are required and you may choose to have magic not work in some places to encourage your players to triumph with their wits, not by brute force.
In the top corner of each encounter's page in the Handbook are one or more symbols. These symbols make it easy for you to see what your players can get from the encounter.
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Doorway : The solution to the puzzle will give the players access to a new pathway, an opening to a dungeon, or the beginning of a new quest or adventure.
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Treasure : When the players solve this puzzle they will get treasure. You may reward them with whatever treasure is appropriate to your campaign. The Handbook lists some suggestions for treasures that relate to the theme of the encounter.
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Person : When the players solve the puzzle, they will meet a person or creature who may accompany the party. You can give this creature whatever capabilities or statistics you consider appropriate.
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Deadly Danger : This encounter, if done incorrectly, will spring a deadly trap or unleash a terrible monster.
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The first part of each encounter contains a description of what the players see. You may choose to read this to the party or let them work solely from the Illustration.
The next section is Game Master's Information. This tells you how the encounter is to be solved and what happens if the players fall for any of the encounter's traps.
In encounters where the players may fight a monster or where a trap may spring, there are three types of damage:
Minor A player should be able to take minor damage up to ten times without dying.
Moderate Players should be able to take moderate damage no more than three or four times.
Deadly Deadly damage should have a chance of either killing or seriously wounding a player.
If our description of trap or monster damage disagrees with your system, go ahead and change it.
The Suggested Treasure section gives some ideas for interesting treasures that are appropriate to the encounter. The approximate value of the treasures are:  - small, - moderate, - very valuable.
The Players Need section tells you what items or abilities a party will need. These are generally common things like a rope or a bucket. Be sure your party can get these somewhere before arriving at the encounter.
Remember - these Riddle Rooms are here for you to put into your adventure! Feel free to change the contents, monsters and treasures as you like to fit into your role-playing system. Have fun!
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