The next rules

This is the game as designed on 2026-09-27 and not yet built. The live game follows Rules and payouts. Read this to know where it is going, and argue with it.

Why change

The live game gives every riddle a deadline, usually a day. With few players, a riddle closes unsolved, the author’s stake is gone, and nobody is paid. That punishes the people we most want: writers. v2 lets a riddle stand, brings back the original Riddlen idea that the riddle and the right to attempt it are things you own, and keeps everything v1 got right: riddles written by people, the machines going first and gating the payout, sealed answers, reputation, burns.

The riddle is a thing you own

You write a riddle, list up to eight accepted answers (sealed), pick a difficulty, and pick how long it stands: 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, or until solved (180 days at most). Submitting mints the riddle NFT to you. It carries the riddle text and, later, the machines’ guesses and the names of the people who beat them. It is transferable: whoever holds it when the riddle settles is paid the author’s share.

The stake is unchanged: 1 RDLN for your first riddle, 2 for the next, 3 for the next, burned through the token’s game protocol, never returned.

The machines go first

Unchanged. Claude, GPT and Gemini each try the riddle twice; every distinct guess is sealed on chain before the riddle opens. If any of them had it, the author earns nothing.

Seats: the right to attempt

When the riddle opens, the contract rolls how many seats exist, from 10 to 1,000, weighted so most riddles are scarce:

Seats Share of riddles
10 to 50 50%
50 to 200 25%
200 to 600 20%
600 to 1,000 5%

A seat is an NFT. You buy it for the difficulty’s seat price (10, 25, 50 or 100 RDLN). Half of every seat sale goes into that riddle’s pot; the other half goes through the game burn. Seats are transferable: if a riddle stands unsolved for months, a seat on it is worth what someone will pay for one of forty remaining chances at something the machines provably failed.

Your first attempt comes with the seat. Each further attempt on the same seat costs 1 RDLN, then 2, then 3, and so on, burned. A bot spraying guesses pays a rising price on a capped number of seats. A person who thinks hard rarely needs a third try.

Pots: random, with jackpots

The difficulty sets the base pot: 10,000 / 25,000 / 60,000 / 150,000 RDLN. When the riddle opens, a multiplier is rolled:

Multiplier Share of riddles
×1 70%
×2 20%
×5 8%
×20 (jackpot) 2%

A Legendary jackpot is 3,000,000 RDLN. If the treasury can’t cover the roll, it steps down until it can, so a pot is never promised that isn’t held. The pot then grows with every seat sold. The roll is seeded from the sealed panel and the block it opened in, so the author can’t steer it; on mainnet it moves to Chainlink VRF so nobody can.

How a riddle stands without revealing its answer

Each attempt is sealed, then revealed by the solver within two days. Revealed attempts are public: the riddle page shows every guess anyone has tried. The author then judges each one, without giving the answer away:

Three rules keep this honest:

  1. Lying is caught and slashed. If any attempt the author dismissed turns out to match the revealed answer, the author lied. Their 40% goes to the solvers they wronged, and they earn no reputation. Because confirming always reveals the truth about every earlier dismissal, there is no profitable lie.
  2. Silence pauses the riddle. If a revealed attempt gets no response for two days, seat sales and new attempts stop until the author responds. An author can’t sit on a correct guess while seats keep selling. Paused for 14 days, the riddle retires.
  3. Copying doesn’t count. A correct guess is public between its reveal and the author’s confirmation. Only attempts sealed before the first reveal of any matching guess count as solves. Someone who saw the reveal and then sealed the same words gets nothing; someone who sealed it earlier and revealed later still counts.

Minimum solvers. Small pots need one correct solver. Pots over twice the base need two; over five times, three. The author holds correct attempts until the count is met. This is what stops one friend who was told the answer from taking a jackpot.

Settlement

Case Author (riddle NFT holder) Solvers who counted Rest of pot
Machines missed, humans solved 40% split 60%, plus RON —
A machine had it nothing split 25% back to treasury
Timer ran out, or paused 14 days nothing — back to treasury
Author lied nothing; their 40% goes to the wronged solvers as above —

Winning seats become achievement seats. Every other seat on that riddle becomes a dead collectible: proof you held a chance. Winnings collect on the Winnings page and are withdrawn in one transaction.

What is burned, and when

Event RDLN
Author submits Stake 1, 2, 3… per wallet: 50% burned, 25% grand prize wallet, 25% operations. Never returned, even if declined or never solved.
Someone buys a seat 50% into the riddle’s pot. 50% through the game burn: 25% of the price burned, 12.5% grand prize, 12.5% operations. Never refunded.
Extra attempt on a seat 1, 2, 3… RDLN, all through the game burn.
Riddle stands The pot grows with seat sales. Nothing is burned by time.
Solved Payouts as above. Withdrawals may carry the token’s 1% transfer burn.
Retired unsolved Nothing refunded. Pot back to the treasury. Seats and the riddle NFT remain.

Burning is always tied to something someone did: writing, buying a seat, guessing again. Never to waiting.

Riddles no stranger could solve

“What’s my dog’s favourite hike” is not a riddle, it’s a secret. Submissions are screened before opening and declined when the text shows private knowledge; the stake stays burned. If one slips through, it stands, sells few seats because the guess ledger is public, and retires with its pot back to the treasury. The author paid a stake and earned nothing. Collusion on big pots is bounded by the minimum-solvers rule and the copy rule.

Open questions