Riddles
| No. of Players: | 1+ |
| Type of Game: | written or spoken |
| What you need: | pen & paper or nothing |
Goal
To compose or solve a verbal puzzle.
How to play
A player challenges himself to compose a question or write a statement in such a way that it puzzles other people as to its meaning. This verbal puzzle is then presented to other players to solve. The first player to correctly solve the riddle is the winner.
A more complex version of this game is Poetic Riddles.
Example
Andre poses a series of riddles for other players to solve:
| Andre: | Subtracting a letter from this odd number makes it even. What's the number? |
| Barrett: | Seven |
| Andre: | Correct! What room is a no-go zone for ghosts? |
| Callie: | The living room. |
| Andre: | Yup. Now a few harder ones. What's in the middle of March and April not seen at the beginning or end of either month? |
| Dario: | The letter R. |
| Andre: | Excellent! What word in the dictionary is always spelled wrong? |
| Callie: | Wrong. Thought you said these were hard! |
| Andre: | Ok, then. In some countries, people still use this ancient invention to see through walls. What is it? |
(After a minute, it becomes clear to Andre no one can get this.)
| Andre: | A window! |
And so on.
Did you know?
The villainous character of "The Riddler" in Batman Forever was actually written with Robin Williams in mind. Williams reportedly loved the script, but a deal was unable to be reached and the role went to Jim Carrey.
This wasn't the first time the comic-actor was passed up to play a Batman villian – something he very much wanted to do. In 1989 Williams was offered the role of "The Joker," only to have it yanked out from under him when Warner Bros. made a successful deal with Jack Nicholson. It turns out that was the movie studio's intent all along, to use Williams to get to Nicholson.
Poor Robin! But evidently not as poor as Michael Jackson who lobbied hard for the role. According to studio insiders, the pop star was never seriously considered.
