What do I do if my players are just too dumb to solve a mystery in a plot? Should I just dumb it down for them...

What do I do if my players are just too dumb to solve a mystery in a plot? Should I just dumb it down for them? Throw them another bone?

Let them roll.

you gotta realize they, maybe, picked up 60% of the plot data you came up with. Thats just how it works. You, the author, remember every detail intimately, but the audience isnt as invested.

Depends on the mystery. Tell us OP, what "clever" puzzle did you think to throw at your players?

That's the thing it's not even that clever and this is literally the first hour of their investigation.

Then tell us what it is. Let us solve it.

Start throwing consequences at them. And get increasingly harsh until they get it together. Some people need to be put under pressure to perform.

Many times the answer is to listen to your guesses and change the solution to one of those.

Listen to the players discuss the mystery, and at some point, if something sounds plausible and doesn't contradict any previous clues, just go ahead and make whatever they're thinking the right answer.

It's like old fashioned dice notation. You might have wanted 3-12 to be performed with 3d4, but if a player realized 1d10+2 also works, just go ahead and run with it.

This. I had a DM who clearly overthought one of his puzzles (an eternally repeating set of 6 rooms with traps). The only clue we got was that various mirrors in the room reflected an empty black room with the word 'Faith' written somewhere in the distance. My deeply religious Paladin took this as a sign that he had to show faith in the Gods (the quest was partly to find some holy relics). So he walked blindly back through all the traps, which eventually left him at 1 hp, and poisoned.

Apparently the DM thought that was too good to let me fail, so he changed the solution to that, since he realized we had missed the "real" answer: walk backwards and open the invisible door by miming a 'door-opening' gesture.

I hated the fucker.

>3-12 to be performed with 3d4
>1d10+2 also works

That's actually fuckin' deep, man...

>Apparently the DM thought that was too good to let me fail, so he changed the solution to that, since he realized we had missed the "real" answer: walk backwards and open the invisible door by miming a 'door-opening' gesture.
Oh my god what a fucking retard.

Give them subtle hints till they get “it”

>What do I do if my players are just too dumb to solve a mystery in a plot? Should I just dumb it down for them? Throw them another bone?

>My players haven't put together the obvious clues

You are literally their eyes and ears. They see nothing and hear nothing you haven't told them. And they're used to you telling them a lot of bullshit that isn't plot relevant.

They haven't put together your clues because they haven't *received* those clues.

Just fail them. They're too stupid, so they lose.

Don't give in to playercucks, they are a dime a dozen. If it ever feels like you're better off getting rid of one, just do it. You can have a replacement in minutes.

>what are friends

Not everyone plays with lierally whos from flgs, user. And even then, there's no need to be such a enormous cunt to people. Sometimes your puzzles can seem random to players, because, well, we are all different people and think differently, so they can see the same thing that you see and come to completely different conclusions.

>gaming in meatspace
>gaming in a fucking store
What are you, 60? There's no need to settle with shitty players anymore.

>tfw the same thing that ruined online gaming is starting to ruin tabletop gaming
Fuck all this instant gratification culture.
"No, don't bond with players, just dump those suckas as soon as they trigger you, you can find a new game in no time at all!"
The world is getting more antisocial by the second.

What the hell did the word "faith" have to do with the solution?

Good. It means people don't have to waste time coddling uninteresting and uninterested freeloaders. You want to play? Make yourself a player the GM wants in his game.

Or fuck off and run your own game, lazy parasite.