I mean, the Barbarian asked the one question and didn’t gain anything from it. Knowing which one is the liar doesn’t… help anymore.
Ah. Normally I see this with no limit on questions. You’re right. It’d only work with at least two questions.
That’s why it’s funny.
My favorite take on this:
Ask either guard: “If I asked the other guard which door led to the castle, what would they say?” The answer is always the door that leads to instant death; enter the other door.
The third guard stabs people who ask tricky questions.
I feel like this is an XKCD…
It is
But they gained no information on which door to choose ='(
The Barbarian got what they wanted, which is to have an excuse to rip another head off.
Barb could simply kill Death-itself if choice was certain death room.
Opening the certain death door reveals a guy in a dark robe with a scythe: “Hey, what’s up?”
I think you mean
HEY, WHAT'S UP?
This still doesn’t accomplish the goal of knowing which door will kill you. All you’ve done is determine which guard is the liar.
That is why it is better for the barbarian to snap the wrist of the one guard, so that you can ask them a question still or you ask the first guard which way to the castle then rip his head off followed by asking the second guard if the first guard is dead. You will get the question from each guard and know which one tells the truth.
That’s funny! but if you want to know how to solve this problem every time, even when asking one single question, just ask this question:
“If I ask the other guy which is the correct path, which path will he tell me?”
No matter who you ask, both of them will point to the WRONG path, meaning the correct one is the one they DIDN’T point to. Here is the logic.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume the correct path is the right path. When you ask that question, if the person is the truthful one, he will be honest and say the left path. Because if you ask the liar what the correct path is, he will say it is the left path (which is false). Now if you ask the liar what the other guy will say the correct path is, he will lie to you and say it is the left path (which is also false, the truthful one will tell you it is the right path and not the left).
The liar responds “I don’t know”
Truth teller: “He’ll point you towards the door that leads to certain death”
Removed by mod
This doesn’t help the party decide which door to go through at all
The first time I encountered a version of this riddle it actually wasn’t Labyrinth. It was an old black and white episode of Dr Who aired on PBS when I was a little kid. Same scenario but if I recall, robots instead of guardsmen. I think the good doctor solved the riddle in the typical way of asking one robot what the other would say. I’m looking for it now but I can’t find the scene.
Do you think it would suck to be one of the bottom heads? 🤔
