Yes, but you’re not asking him what his brother likes, you’re asking him what he would say he likes, which is what flips it. You’re basically making sure the answer is a lie regardless of which brother you ask.
The truth is that the whole setup is moot if it’s one of the door-guards that tells you the rules, since they might be lying about the whole thing. There needs to be a trusted third-party involved, who knows about the guards but doesn’t know which one’s lying and which one’s telling the truth.
True. It seems there are different versions of the puzzle, but from a quick search it was popularized by the movie Labyrinth, and there they get around it by having a second set of guards who don’t know the answer explain the setup.
I really like this idea, and now I want to put it in a session. Like, we go through the whole 2-brothers riddle, but it turns out that the one explaining the rules is the one lying.
Maybe both doors lead to “death”/encounters, maybe the players are free to just walk past the brothers without consequence, maybe a third more interesting thing happens.
I feel like the truthful brother would say his brother likes small butts, because that’s the truth.
Yes, but you’re not asking him what his brother likes, you’re asking him what he would say he likes, which is what flips it. You’re basically making sure the answer is a lie regardless of which brother you ask.
The truth is that the whole setup is moot if it’s one of the door-guards that tells you the rules, since they might be lying about the whole thing. There needs to be a trusted third-party involved, who knows about the guards but doesn’t know which one’s lying and which one’s telling the truth.
True. It seems there are different versions of the puzzle, but from a quick search it was popularized by the movie Labyrinth, and there they get around it by having a second set of guards who don’t know the answer explain the setup.
I really like this idea, and now I want to put it in a session. Like, we go through the whole 2-brothers riddle, but it turns out that the one explaining the rules is the one lying.
Maybe both doors lead to “death”/encounters, maybe the players are free to just walk past the brothers without consequence, maybe a third more interesting thing happens.
Got it! That makes sense. Thanks for explaining.
Glad to help!