Welcome to Riddle & Rook! I’ve created this website to share my love of adventure and mystery storytelling through puzzles and tabletop role-playing games (RPGs). I want to use it to share puzzles that I’ve created that can be easily incorporated by other RPG game masters (GMs) into their games. I also plan to use it to refine my ideas about what makes a puzzle fun in an RPG context, and how to create good storytelling in tabletop RPGs in general.

To give you some context about me: I love role playing games (RPGs). I discovered Dungeons & Dragons in sixth grade, when my mom bought me the red box set, and have been hooked ever since. I love telling incredible, exciting, hilarious, collaborative stories of adventure with my friends and family. I’m a (mostly) forever DM, and to improve my craft, I’ve practiced a lot, and I’ve branched out into oral storytelling and improv theater.

I also love puzzles. Growing up, my favorite stories involved kids solving ancient mysteries (The Dark is Rising series, anyone?). I made my first “real” treasure hunt in grad school, using decorations, riddles, a hand-drawn map, and a bit of Adobe Freehand magic to turn my home into a pirate island full of buried treasure. Since then, I’ve designed dozens of treasure hunts and hundreds of puzzles for holidays, birthdays, and just for fun. Mostly, these worked; and when they didn’t, I paid attention to why not so that my next puzzle would be even better.

I think that I’ve learned a lot in the process, both about puzzle design and about how to incorporate puzzles into the shared storytelling environment of a tabletop RPG. While RPG puzzles can use most of the same mechanics as puzzles in other media, fun RPG puzzles are unique in important ways. Figuring out these differences has helped me create better puzzle experiences for my players and myself. 

So I hope you’ll come along with me on this journey. If you like RPGs, puzzles, or collaborative storytelling, or if you just want a bunch of free puzzles that you can drop into your RPG campaigns, click the “Subscribe” button so that you’ll get my latest updates by email. And if you disagree with me or have anything you want to add to my posts, please comment! I’m looking forward to discussing this with you!

Until we next meet, stay cryptic!