2.03 Invalid Permit

Status

::FINAL-READY::

Location

(See Sign In Act II)

Type

Mandatory Puzzle

Plot Setup

• All evidence of Trenchwood Institute and its timeline has mysteriously disappeared.
• Peach Frontier Laboratories has taken its place
• Iconoclast scientist Prof. Chronos has attempted to demonstrate her time machine before an audience of VIPs.
• But it malfunctioned due to faulty key components--quantum chronomentometers.
• The malfunction is causing the Professor to bounce around randomly in time from era to era, facing untold dangers!

Props

• Multiple copies of staff instructions for the multiple staffers?
• 16 or 17 collections of permit applications
• Lab coat (should already have)
• Peach Frontier name badge and lanyard (should already have)
• Government official outfit? for the inspector?
• 32 or 34 View-O-Scope Computer Remote Access Program diskettes
• 16 or 17 contact information sheets for Peach Frontier Laboratories

Plot Point to Convey

Prof. Chronos is willing to be a bit sneaky if needed.

Short Description

A government regulator threatens to shut down the lab unless a seemingly impossible series of forms are filled out correctly.

Open Time Period

Sunday, midnight - till all teams (16 in Game 1, 17 in Game 2) have completed (estimated 1:40 AM)

Staff Instructions

Your Role: Lab Assistants at Peach Frontier Laboratories + one "dickless" government regulator

What To Wear: lab coats + Peach Frontier Laboratories name badges; something else for the regulator

What Your Character Knows: everything in "Plot Setup"; the government regulator knows that Peach Frontier's operating permit application has not been properly filled out, he knows nothing about why the previous regulator signed off on this improper application

Puzzles At This Site: Several, but this sheet only covers Invalid Permits (plus the lead in to Chronomentometer 1).

Where To Get Materials: GC HQ

Setup Instructions: n/a

Handout Instructions: Lab assistant says words to the effect of,

You’ve got to help! See that guy over there? He’s the new government inspector and he says he’s going to shut us down because we don’t have a valid operating permit. We can’t shut down—we need to keep operating so we can save Prof. Chronos!

I thought we took care of this permit long ago. First I tried to fill out the eight required forms myself…but you know how impossible government forms are to fill out.

So Prof. Chronos took the forms from me, filled them out, and met with the old inspector. She assured me everything was all taken care of…and if there was ever any problem to just refer to the forms she filed.

Now this new guy shows up…says he doesn’t know anything about what the old guy did...and that our forms aren’t valid! I looked at them and he’s right: the Professor filled out the top part!

Will you please look at the forms and fix this mess? This is the order these permits were in our file cabinet. I don't know if that order is important but I suggest you make a note of it.

You can submit forms to the inspector for his approval. After you've solved this mess see any lab assistant.

Hand them the collection of permit application forms (usher them outside?) and then have a GC member with computer enter team's start time in the tracking database.

Answers: There is no "answer" to this puzzle. The team just has to roleplay bribing the staffer playing the role of the regulator to that staffer's satisfaction.

After bribing the regulator, the team speaks with a lab assistant who leads them into Chronomentometer 1 with words to the effect of

Phew! Now that you've got that taken care of, it turns out that Doctor When could use your help with the chronomentometers. We blew four of the modules--numbers 50, 87, 104, and 134. So we need a new design for each. Unfortunately his expertise is mainly in the theoretical realm. Only Prof. Chronos was truly driven to implement a working device.

But luckily there are nearby experts in applied chronodynamics who just may be able to help you. Please go to the Clocksmith Technologies at 806 El Camino Real, San Carlos. There you will be able to get the initial specifications for the new modules, which you can use to design new ones.

Please upload your four designs on our web site once you're done. The address is peachfrontier.com/cmm/. Here--I've written it all down for you. After you enter the design please email the lab to let us know you're done. If you have any trouble with your design call (650) 395-TIME and one of the lab assistants may be able to help.

Oh...and take this disk with you. It contains software for remote access to the time machine's View-O-Scope...if we ever get that working again. [sigh] In fact, here are two identical disks in case you want to run it on two computers.

Have a GC member with a computer enter team's start time in the online tracking database.

Site Close Down:

• Once the last team leaves the set can be converted back to Trenchwood Institute.
• Return your name badge(s) and lanyard to GC HQ at the end of your shift

Other Instructions:

• Stay in character.
• Except ... if a team says "time out," break character and help them.

How To Give To Teams

Done in person--see Staff Instructions

Puzzle Answer

The puzzle solves to the phrase:

Forms IMPOSSIBLE; use CREATIVE bribery!

For teams to successfully solve the puzzle, they must roleplay bribing the GC member playing "Dick, Les," the government regulator.

Puzzle Solution

The puzzle has a BIG red herring -- it looks like a puzzle that is about solving WPC-style logical constraint-satisfaction puzzles, but it is actually a Game-style decoding puzzle.

Incidentally, each form appears to come from one of the government teams that are playing. It will be ironic that a team can't solve its own form.

A very astute team that is paying attention to the story (not that we expect any teams to get this immediately, but we can hope) will realize Catherine had absolutely no control over the contents of the forms, and only pay attention to the bit that Catherine did have control over, which is the section at the top where she filled in the name and address.

She has sneakily hidden an important message in how she writes her letters and numerals -- read across the forms, the variants spell out a message in 8-bit ASCII. She also tried to hint at this by underlining one word in each form -- the first letters of those words spell out "USE ASCII". The forms are actually given in order, but they can be sorted by their form number. The form number can be decoded to make a puzzle name, but that is part of the red herring.

Bit value	Form number	Decodes to
128	B12020125-S8916	BATTLE-SHIP
64	F212015-S89119	FUTO-SHIKI
32	H11989	HASHI
16	KA11211815	KAKURO
8	KE14-K514	KEN-KEN
4	M9145-S235516518	MINE-SWEEPER
2	N151415-G18113	NONO-GRAM
1	S129208518-L91411	SLITHER-LINK

As 8-bit ASCII always has the first bit as zero for standard messages, the first form indicates a value of "0" for all bits. The decoding mixes uppercase, lowercase, and even punctuation marks and one numeral.

Chr	Decimal	128	64	32	16	8	4	2	1		What the "1" looks like
F	70	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	C	tilts towards left, bigger on top
o	111	0	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	a	two-storied instead of one
r	114	0	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	t	has a tail
m	109	0	1	1	0	1	1	0	1	h	tail curls up
s	115	0	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	e	horizontal bar
	32	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	r	stronger rise up
I	73	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	i	star instead of dot
M	77	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	n	tail curls up
P	80	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	e	horizontal bar
O	79	0	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	C	tilts towards left, bigger on top
S	83	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	1	h	tail curls up
S	83	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	1	r	stronger rise up
I	73	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	o	closes "counter-clockwise"
B	66	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	n	tail curls up
L	76	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	o	closes "counter-clockwise"
E	69	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	s	bigger on bottom
;	59	0	0	1	1	1	0	1	1	2	curl at lower-left
	32	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	bigger on top
u	117	0	1	1	1	0	1	0	1	2	curl at lower-left
s	115	0	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	slashed
e	101	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	N	diagonal meets center of right edge
	32	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	e	horizontal bar
C	67	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	w	rounded
R	82	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	p	looks like a rho
E	69	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	o	closes "counter-clockwise"
A	65	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	r	stronger rise up
T	84	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	t	has a tail
I	73	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	S	bigger on bottom
V	86	0	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	t	has a tail
E	69	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	S	bigger on bottom
	32	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	a	two-storied instead of one
b	98	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	n	tail curls up
r	114	0	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	M	middle dips only half-way
i	105	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	1	a	two-storied instead of one
b	98	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	t	has a tail
e	101	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	e	horizontal bar
r	114	0	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	o	closes "counter-clockwise"
y	121	0	1	1	1	1	0	0	1	C	tilts towards left, bigger on top
!	33	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	A	rounded at top

The hidden message is:

Forms IMPOSSIBLE; use CREATIVE bribery!

This tells the teams that they must bribe the official, creatively.

Making Progress on the Decoy Puzzle

Each form describes a "classic" logic constraint-satisfaction puzzle.

The form numbers decode using a simple code that is hinted at with an example in the second form -- A is 1, B is 2, and so on, with all the numbers concatenated together. The code decodes to the name of the puzzle type, which will help confirm the teams that they are indeed solving a puzzle of that type and giving them a second copy of the rules that may be easier to read than the "government form" version.

Each puzzle is intended so that a solver can make significant progress before they should figure out that the puzzle is possible. Here we describe some of the progress that can be made.

WHOMP: B12020125-S8916 = Battleship

A solver should be able to quickly place a four, a three, and a one in the left side of the grid. They will then be at this point:

From here, they can notice that the top row needs to have two workstations of size 1, and the fifth row needs three more workstations filled in four possible spaces -- but two ways of doing so will lead to three workstations of size 1, which combined with the two workstations of size 1 in the first row is too many small size-1 workstations. So, this means that there must be a workstation of size 2 at the right side of row 5, resulting in:

Now the bottom row has only four spaces left, so we fill them in:

Now we have a contradiction in the ninth row (which needs one more workstation component) and the tenth column (which needs no more workstation components).

REDTaPE: F212015-S89119 = Futoshiki

There's a chain of five increasing boxes that go along the second row and down the fifth column. The given 3 restricts the two smallest numbers in the chain, which in turn restricts another chain that curls in the lower-left:

The next insight is to realize that cell A can only be 3 or 4. This means that the other two cells in the row must be 5 or 6, and that in turn lets us place all the 6s, which then uniquely determines the top chain, second row, and third column:

Cell B can only contain a 1, which lets us put more numbers in:

From here we're stuck. Column 1 makes row 5 need a 4, then we have problems with the other cells in row 5.

Laotian Coast Guard: H11989 = Hashi

Here's a basic guide on solving Hashi puzzles: [[1]]

Using those techniques, this is as far as you can get with this puzzle:

At this point, I would expect most teams to have to bifurcate (make a guess, prove it's impossible, do the opposite, prove it's impossible again). But there is a quicker way to see a contradiction:

Look at the two clouded areas. Each area adds to an even number, which means it must connect out of its "cloud" by an even number of patrol lines. But the only ways out of the cloud are via the two areas marked A and B. If one cloud uses both areas, then the other cloud is isolated. So, at least one cloud must use only "A" to get out -- but it's impossible to have an even number of connections through "A".

The Laundry: KA11211815 = Kakuro

This is as far as you get with basic Kakuro techniques (well, sort of -- the lower-right is kind of tricky):

At this point, there's a big chain of "2 or 3" and "7 or 8" cells in the lower-left, but they all end up having a 7 and an 8 in the bottom half of the center clue:

Unfortunately the upper-right area only has three possible solutions, and they each involve having a 7 or an 8 in the top half of the center clue. So that's a contradiction.

BATSHIT: KE14-K514 = Ken-ken

It's a bit easier if we make this look like a traditional Ken-Ken:

The product and quotient box allow for us to place some of the 5s easily:

The "7+" box at the bottom can then be determined:

Now look at the 5th row. The 3rd cell can't be 3, so the 3 must be in the "13+" group. So we can't put the 1 in that group as then the other number in that group would be 9. So:

We now have a problem -- the last two cells in the "25+" group need to add up to 6, but one of them is either a 3 or a 6.

X-Comm: M9145-S235516518 = Minesweeper

Using normal Minesweeper techniques, we end up finding a long alternating chain of 12 cells, where the mines must be alternating on and off in each link of the chain:

In other words, either cell A is filled and both cell Bs are black, or both cell Bs are filled and cell A is blank. Both choices cause problems with the number of mines in the two cells marked C.

GEE: N151415-G18113 = Nonogram

You can only make a little bit of strong progress on this Nonogram:

Inspecting the clues and ramifications creates a weird checkerboard situation in 2x3 blocks -- either all the cells marked A are filled, or all the cells marked B are filled. In either case, we have a problem in the bottom row.

UMMM: S129208518-L91411 = Slitherlink

Standard Slitherlink techniques get you to this point:

At this point, the center pattern is rather funky. There are six ways to satisfy all the 2s, but all the ways leave two loops. One way to convince yourself of this is to look at any point on the octagon and convince yourself that it has to connect to another point on the octagon next to it, since it can't cross over without closing the loop prematurely.

Credits

• Allen & Dwight: concept, prototype
• Wei-Hwa: revision, development

Manager

Wei-Hwa

Hints

Ask teams what they have done, probing details if necessary (often this will get a team unstuck by themselves).

This is a tricky puzzle to hint well. The intended discovery path is:

1. Teams notice that the forms are representations of puzzle types they've seen before
2. Teams work on the puzzle types, possibly also discovering the form code that confirms that these are indeed types they know about or can search on
3. Teams work on the puzzles enough to convince themselves that the puzzles are impossible
4. Teams get the "Aha" that Chronos couldn't possibly have any control over the puzzles (and that government is evil), and that if there's any message there must be something in her writing.
5. Teams decode the writing and get the message.

The biggest barrier is the third step, which is teams convincing themselves that the puzzles are impossible. It is very easy for a team, when faced with an impossibility, to convince themselves that they made a mistake and that the puzzle is working.

Do not (except in extreme circumstances) confirm with teams that a puzzle is impossible. It's fine if teams get the "Aha" on their own, but you flat-out tell them that a puzzle is impossible, you've deprived them of that "aha". However, to decrease frustration, it's important to guide them towards discovering that on their own as much as possible.

Therefore, for a team that appears to be struggling, play the role of a lab assistant who is trying to also help them with the forms, but also doesn't realize that the puzzle is impossible. Guide them through solving the puzzle and be thorough (as per the notes above), letting them convince themselves that the puzzle is impossible.

Only then should you guide them towards the next step by saying something like "Gosh, maybe the forms are impossible to fill out. I wonder if Professor Chronos realized that and maybe that's why they aren't filled out?"

Response to Correct Answer

n/a; they submit "answer" (bribe) in person.