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Boy Molly you hit the nail on the head there. Make a puzzle *possible* to find through actual effort, maybe some skill or stat checks (a higher perception stat would allow a character to find something that someone with a very low perception can't find), make it require some kind of group effort... maybe a guard who is wearing armor that makes him impervious to magic, so a weaponuser has to kill it, and the next room would have an orb that requires a mage to cast on it to get the next clue...and maybe find some hermit in the middle of the puzzle who demands a specific type of armor that only a crafter can create.
Make them work like dawgs to get that quest solved. But make it completely solvable without "luck" being part of the actual plan. Luck in noticing something that is actually there, isn't luck. It's research and effort. And the tougher it is, the less likely people will want to give that info out to their buddies.
I also would add, there shouldn't need to be a "prize" at the end of the quest. No special Vorpal Enchanted Deathsword of Doom, no Magic Sphinx Statue of Permanent Defenses. How about just a few extra skill points (training points, builds, whatever your game calls them) upon completion? That way, EVERYONE can get the "prize," and everyone can feel the sense of accomplishment.
Or maybe the prize can be that hermit in the middle of the puzzle, who tells the story of part of the world's history that all believed to be lost forever. In a game that stresses roleplay (wtihout getting into semantics on RPI vs. RP-enforced vs RP-supported vs. RP-coded or whatever)...a "prize" of monumental significance shouldn't ever be necessary. The journey should be as much fun as the final outcome, and the completion should be prize enough for any adventurer.
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