Inventory

PRE-CLUES

Trenchwood Web Site

NICKNAME: Trenchwood Web Site

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Before game

LOCATION: Game Web site

PLOT SETUP: tabula rosa

PROPS: web site

PUZZLE THEME: n/a

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: In character: a corporate web site that introduces players to the look and feel of Doctor When's high tech startup as well as invites worthy scientists, investors, members of the press, etc. to see his mysterious invention. Out of character: Introduces players to the game and its tongue-in-cheek tone, builds excitement, and sets expectations that the game will be more theatrical and less competitive than many games; also introduces the creators of the game (us!) in the lab's "staff" section.

SOLUTION: n/a

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: n/a

TO DO: ?

Pre-Clue

NICKNAME: Pre-Clue

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Before game/application

LOCATION: Game Web site

PLOT SETUP: A major scientific breakthrough will be demonstrated at an invitation-only event.

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY:

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: Not clear whether we want to do this or what purpose it would serve (other than providing entertainment value for all).

Science Fair Projects

NICKNAME: Science Fair Projects

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Before game/application

LOCATION: Game web site

PLOT SETUP: Only those of appropriate (pseudo) scientific bent will be able to appreciate this demonstration.

PROPS: none

PUZZLE THEME: Mad science

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY:

SOLUTION: Applicant teams must submit a science fair project. We will reuse their projects in the science fair set.

BUDGET: n/a

CREDITS: teams

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: n/a

TO DO: ?

NOTES: Hopefully this will both be fun for the applicant teams and get them in a participatory frame of mind.

Part 1

Introductory Lecture 1

NICKNAME: Introductory Lecture 1

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity 1

LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Players have all come to see the unveiling of Doctor When's life's achievement

PROPS: PowerPoint presentation, projector, screen, PA system, time machine with sound/light/smoke special effects.

PUZZLE THEME: n/a

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The Doctor's creation is a time machine. Tongue-in-cheek tone of game through homologous survey of others' failed time travel efforts (lots of references to time travel in pop culture). Doctor When has been working on this problem since high school and is about to demonstrate. The Doctor's high school friend, Prof. Catherine Chronus, has flown in to assist. Two of the key components of the time machine are the "tachyon aether pep ring" [probably now called the "midi ether co-keypad ring"] and the "quantum chronomentometer," which the Professor and the Doctor were specialists in respectively. Doctor admonishes audience to "Never use time travel for petty personal gain." Dr. When is carrying an overly-conspicuous and highly recognizable envelope but makes no overt reference to it. When he enters the time machine and activates it, the machine goes haywire.

SOLUTION: n/a

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

Core Dump

NICKNAME: Core Dump

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity 3

LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Machine is malfunctioning, but no one knows why. Prof. Chronus knows that the time machine can do a core dump for diagnostic purposes. Unfortunately, when she checks it it has been corrupted (turned into a puzzle!) by the very same malfunction. So she needs the players to decode the core dump so she knows what to fix.

PROPS: Physical core boards, one for each team.

PUZZLE THEME: Something that looks like a stream of data (error log?) from the time machine. Or...we might set up a gag that the time machine runs on pineapples and they have to examine pineapple cores. (Or maybe some other "core" homonym pun.)

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The "midi ether co-keypad ring(s)" is/are broken. Luckily, Prof. Chronus is an expert in such matters--she did her dissertation on the topic! Moreover, she's not surprised that Doctor When screwed it up; he never was any good at tachyon aether peppitry, going all the way back to high school.

SOLUTION: Solve phrase should refer to "midi ether co-keypad ring." Perhaps it could be "REPAIRBROKENRING" or "REPLACEMIDIRINGS".

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: Dwight

HINTS: ?

TO DO: Gone through one round of playtesting. Solution phrase needs to be updated. We need to decide whether a second message should be encoded within for use in Part III.

NOTES: Need at least one "help debug/fix the machine" puzzle/activity, but could have many more...and not all teams need to do all activities. Spongebob, Pineapple juice? This puzzle justifies getting the teams out of the building. (Erik's opinion: should be only one "core dump" puzzle. Optional puzzles fit better in Pep Ring sequence and Retrieve Letter sequence.)

Midi Ether Co-Keypad Ring A

NICKNAME: Midi Ether Co-Keypad Ring A

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity 4

LOCATION: Teams will probably have to leave the lab to find midi ring components or old midi rings. Geeky places like the Computer History Museum, Exploratorium, or the clock-fixing shop in SF seem like appropriate locations. Note that those repaired/replaced rings have to get back to the time machine somehow. So plot continuity may require the teams to return to the lab to hand over the rings. Or maybe the teams could hand off their handiwork to designated couriers (GC in disguise). Or maybe they only need to send information back to Prof. Chronus. Or maybe there's some sort of remote scanner/duplicater out in the field. (Erik's opinion: better to not have them return to lab; handing to "courier" (GC) sounds best.)

PLOT SETUP: The solution to the previous puzzle tells Prof. Chronus to examine the machine's Midi Ether Co-Keypad Ring(s), which turn out to be defective. ("Wesley never was any good at midi rings...luckily I did my dissertation on them!") She needs 20 replacements...and luckily there are 20 teams! (Or maybe she needs 100 replacements and all the teams need to work together to collectively get that many done, though some teams may be faster than others.)

PROPS: The physical ring puzzles.

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The machine is partially fixed after rings are installed.

SOLUTION: May simply be the correctle assembled device, images of the correct configurations, or something similar.

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: Probably Wei-Hwa

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: Though the "there are 100 configurations and we need all of them" has the benefit of teams feeling like they're collaborating, this is actually a place where we may need to _spread_ the teams (since we've got them going to outside locations. In particular, if the next location is Dr. When's childhood bedroom, having all 20 teams go there at once is logistically bad. Perhaps there should be a "spreading" puzzle in between Midi Ring A and Midi Ring B.

Password Puzzle (Doctor When)/Choose Your Own Adventure Path

NICKNAME: Password Puzzle (Doctor When)/Choose Your Own Adventure Path

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity 5

LOCATION: Probably outside the lab, perhaps in the "home where Doctor When grew up" (room in some GC member's house, appropriately set-dressed).

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus needs access to the Doctor's super secure Brain-O-Matic 2000 supercomputer, which contains key data needed to finish installing the midi ring. But she doesn't have the password. Over their years of friendship he's hinted that he always uses the same password and stored it for himself in puzzle format in case he forgot it himself.

PROPS: Childhood memoribilia for set dressing and foreshadowing.

PUZZLE THEME: Choose your own adventure path games, such as "Caves Of Time."

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: While rumaging through the Doctor's childhood memoribilia, the players will see references to the childhood friendship with the Professor. They'll also find a large, empty picture frame...clearly something was in until recently (the high school newspaper clipping showing him being slimed--see the "Retrieve The Envelop" puzzle below), but now there's nothing to be found except Post-Its saying "not this time!" [We might also have a scale model of the science fair visible on site with weird trajectory calculations that don't make sense to the players--yet.] The solution of this puzzle will also foreshadow the Doctor's lifelong love for Buffy.

We might include some Buffy/cheerleader pictures in his "shrine"...not sure...

Might also (just for fun) include a poster board or notebook of Wesley's really big invention ideas. These will all be things that turned out to be big hits (Twitter, Google, etc.), but each is crossed out with some derisive comment ("144 characters messages?--too short!"). The only one that remains is enthusiastically circled at the bottom, "time machine!"

SOLUTION: Password = "BUFFYROCKS"

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

Calibration

NICKNAME: Calibration/Forrest Gump

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity 6

LOCATION: Over the Internet (we'll store the video on Youtube or somesuch). Likely out of the lab. (Erik's note: any Internet-based can also be implemented via some app, similar to what Ghost Patrol did.)

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus nearly has the machine working properly with the new pep rings, the password, etc. But it still needs to be "calibrated." The remote viewscreen of the machine (accessible over the Internet! Let's think of a funnier name for it. View-O-Scope? Quad-oculator?) lets her show the players the different times and places the Doctor has bounced to. (Players are seeing where the Dr. has been while they were doing the previous puzzles, by the way - it's not supposed to be "live".)

PROPS: see Puzzle Theme.

PUZZLE THEME: Make a movie that consists of clips of other movies (Ben Hur, Land That Time Forgot, Zardoz...you get the idea) and then use blue screen to superimpose Doctor When. The funnier the situation the better. In some he could be running for his life and others he could be the King of Siam. Prof. tells the players that if they could just predict the next place he's going to bounce to she'll be able to calibrate the machine and make it fully functional.

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: General time hijinx.

SOLUTION: "BeginningOfTime"

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: For foreshadowing purposes, it may be useful to show something like the following - Doctor When briefly "spinning in a time vortex" in between each movie, and in one of these vortices, the envelope flies out of his coat pocket and is lost in the vortex.

Send Me Back

NICKNAME: Send Me Back

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity 7

LOCATION: Probably out of the lab.

PLOT SETUP: With the players' help, Prof. Chronus has repaired and re-calibrated the time machine. But Doctor When is still stuck at the very beginning of time. Prof. Chronus will focus the remote viewfinder on Doctor When. But all they see is a dark screen. "Hello? Is anyone there? It's totally dark here. Oops...I think I knocked something over. Hold it...there's some light now.... Whoa. It's getting bigger. Fast. You better get me out of here. Now! Send me to these time and space coordinates: garble." Unfortunately because of the intensity of the Big Bang or the long time gap, the message is garbled. (Erik's note: I like the above, but any concern about disconnect between "get me out of here NOW!" and the fact that players will take X minutes to solve the puzzle? Another option that we've discussed is to have the audio not work because of the huge time distance/Big Bang static, so the Dr. does a funny dance or something that needs to be decoded.)

PROPS: Short movie of Doctor When running away from the Big Bang that he just caused..

PUZZLE THEME: Paper puzzle with garbled transmission from Doctor When? Or, as mentioned in the 2nd option above, a wacky dance on video?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Solution conveys the point that Doctor When is trying to get to the mid-80's, which is when he was in high school.

SOLUTION: The time, date, and possibly location of the morning before the "Science Fair Incident". (Any time/date format is probably okay.)

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: Prof. Chronos notes the time/date and says something like "That's odd, that's when we were both in high school. Wonder what he's up to. Oh well!" ... and pushes the button to send Doctor When there.

Retrieve the Letter

NICKNAME: Retrieve the letter

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity 8

LOCATION: Any (if via video) or some local place identifiable in one of the movie clips from the Calibration puzzle (see two options below).

PLOT SETUP: With the players' help, Doctor When has been sent to the right time & place: his high school right before the science fair. Neither Prof. Chronus nor the players know why he chose this time and place.

Somehow the Doctor communicates that he lost "vital instructions" during his turbulent travels through time (see notes to previous puzzle). He asks the players to find the "instructions" and have it sent to him back in time.

PROPS: The "vital instructions" will turn out to be an ancient newspaper clipping--page 1 of the the school paper from the day after the science fair (timeline 1). The headline is "Wesley When Makes Splash At Sciene Fair." The picture shows Wesley covered in slime and all the kids, including Buffy, laughing at him (Catherine looks sympathetic in the background). A hand-written note on it says, "At precisely 3:02 PM step two feet to the right and you'll win the girl of your dreams! If you don't, THIS will happen to you!"

Additionally we'll need two videos: The first will show the present-day Doctor When waiting in the empty school hallway, the recovered letter materializing in front of him, and then him slipping it into the young Doctor When's locker.

The second will show the second timeline of the Science Fair Incident (although we may never have to film the first timeline). In it, we see the young When standing in front of his science fair exhibit, reading the newspaper clipping (and Catherine noticing him doing so), intently looking at his watch, suddenly taking a measured step to the right, the stream of slime shooting towards his former position (and thus missing him). [It might be fun if there was a way we could choreograph it so that as he steps out of slime's way he accidentally knocks over Buffy. She's mad at first, but then realizes that he saved her from slime, and thus is grateful...paving the way for their improbable romance.]

PUZZLE THEME: TBD. As mentioned in the notes to the previous puzzle, the time machine's video might have indicated that there was a "loss of mass" and spit out some garbled data that gives the time/place where the letter was lost. Instead, the solution might tell players to look closely at the Calibration movie and find the exact spot where the letter gets lost (which is a scene from a movie in SF - maybe Vertigo?)

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: When the players retrieve the "vital instructions" they should somehow be able to read them. Perhaps the envelop is torn or someone else framed the article.

SOLUTION: The time & location of the letter - or a reference to look at the Calibration movie, if we use that option above.

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: Do the players get the physical letter or merely find the time/place where it was lost? It might be more dramatic to postpone the actual finding of the _physical_ letter until Act III. If that's the case, then we _might_ make the time/place answer a little less transparent - e.g., the place is described by abstract coordinates, but in Act III they discover that the place is actually a Bay Area location. ALSO: this puzzle could be a series of puzzles that's shorter for teams that are behind; there's a puzzle for each "bounce" the letter takes through time.

Conclusion

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity last

LOCATION: Not in the lab

PLOT SETUP: Doctor When wants to fix his past.

PROPS: Video of time stream 2 of "the science fair incident"

PUZZLE THEME: N/A (not a puzzle)

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: With the players’ help the Doctor changes the past...but not in quite the say the Doctor intended. In some bizarre, unintended, Rube Goldberg way it actually works and Buffy takes a shine to Doctor When. Also, the Doctor will rematerialize at XX PM. Be back in the lab by then.

SOLUTION: N/A

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: N/A

TO DO: ?

NOTES: We see young When saving Buffy from being slimed, and she embraces him, says "you know, you're kind of cute!", etc. We probably do NOT see Chronos getting slimed.

Also, we may not need this entry now that we've spelled out more details in the last two puzzles above.

PART 1--OPTIONAL PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES

Optional Pep Ring

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity optional

LOCATION: TBD

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus needs a piece of information or hardware to continue the pep-ring-fixing process.

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The machine is closer to being fixed.

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: This is one of two areas in Act I where we can easily insert extra puzzles for faster teams (the other being the Retrieve the Letter sequence).

Optional Retrieve the Letter

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity optional

LOCATION: Probably none/

PLOT SETUP: Doctor When's letter has been lost and is bouncing through time. The players need to follow it step-by-step to find its final location and where it's waiting for them today.

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The players are closer to finding the letter.

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: This is one of two areas in Act I where we can easily insert extra puzzles for faster teams (the other being the Pep Ring sequence).

PART 2--MANDATORY PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES

Introductory Lecture 2

NICKNAME: Introductory Lecture 2

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity 1

LOCATION: Prof. Chronus's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Players think they've returned to the Doctor When's laboratory to see him rematerialize

PROPS: PowerPoint presentation, projector, screen, PA system, time machine with sound/light/smoke special effects.

PUZZLE THEME: n/a

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The time stream has been altered. But only the players know this. The actors will deny it--from their perspective in this timeline this is the very first time this has happened. At most they'll say that the time machine emits a low-level (almost certainly not dangerous) of chronoton radiation. Sometimes the eminations confuse people.

Prof. Chronus's high school friend, Doctor When has flown in to assist with the unveiling of Chronos' time machine. Two of the key components of the time machine are the "tachyon aether pep ring" [probably now called the "midi ether co-keypad ring"] and the "quantum chronomentometer." Prof. Chronus admonishes audience to "Never use time travel for petty personal gain." Players see that she's secretly carrying a pair of bolt cutters. Machine goes haywire (maybe she drops it at some point during the lecture and tries to be descreet about picking them up).

Note that Doctor When't wife, Buffy, traveled with him to the demo. She must be a shrew and no longer the cheerleader hottie she was in high school. Maybe have a reference to Chronus's sliming (if we can't show it elsewhere).

After the machine goes haywire, Doctor When explains that Prof. Chronus is bouncing around the timeline and needs help to return.

SOLUTION: n/a

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

Core Dump 2

NICKNAME: Core Dump 2

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity 2

LOCATION: Prof. Chronus's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus is bouncing around the timeline and needs help to return. Machine is malfunctioning. Doctor When suggests reading the core dump (as in Part 1).

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: Like in Part 1, some sort of data stream (error log?) seems appropriate here. Maybe the same category of puzzle as Core Dump I, but solves to a different phrase (see below).

On the other hand, it might be fun if the core dump this time is completely different, like pineapple cores or something else completely unexpected. This would both be funny--and point out that Prof. Chronus's technology reflects her personality and is thus different.

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The problem with the machine is that the "quantum chronomentometer" is all screwed up. Luckily Doctor When is an expert in such matters--he did his dissertation on the topic. Moreover, he's not surprised that Prof. Chronus screwed it up; she never was any good at memtometry, going all the way back to high school.

SOLUTION: ... should be the phrase "quantum chronomentometer" or some similar pseudo-tech phrase including a subtle Mentos reference.

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: Although this puzzle should launch the process of time machine repair, it does not have to be another core dump puzzle. For example, the Doctor could open up the machine and find that the core dump was damaged. Luckily they can instead "reflange the flux capacitor's ergo tabs" (or some other BS).

Mentometer Repair A

NICKNAME: Mentometer Repair A

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity 3

LOCATION: A suitable geeky location (Exploratorium, Computer History Museum, clock repair shop, etc.)

PLOT SETUP: The previous activitiy revealed that the time machine's chrono mentometer is malfunctioning. Luckily Doctor When is an expert on such matters--he did his dissertation on the topic.

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: Possibly another physical device, or maybe a big blinking electric thing (need to get the "staging mentometer" working first, then Chronos will duplicate it on the one in the actual time machine.

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The machine is closer to being fixed.

SOLUTION: A correctly configured mentomenter. Maybe the key is figuring out the configuration, which is identified by a word/phrase/number.

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

Password In Mix Tape Puzzle

NICKNAME: Password In Mix Tape Puzzle

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity 4

LOCATION: Maybe in Chronos's childhood home - or maybe Chronos gave When the mix tape a long time ago, and he passes it to the players via courier.

PLOT SETUP: Machine is still not fixed. As in Part I, Doctor When needs Chronos' password to her supercomputer. He doesn't know it, but she gave him this mix tape long ago and hinted that she had hidden her most important secrets in it. (Or he could just suggest they visit her home and let the players discover the tape.)

PROPS: If players go to Chronos' childhood home, they could see 1) a shrine to Wesley, with the mix tape in the middle, and also find an altered version of the school newspaper they saw in Act I (instead of "Wesley Makes Splash" with picture of him slimed, it says "Shower Time For Chronus" and shows everyone laughing at her and Wesley and Buffy making out, etc.

We might want to include in the set dressing foreshadowing of Buffy's love of art, perhaps old textbooks.

PUZZLE THEME: It might be cool if the puzzle was based on the timing of the songs or the release dates...something time-related. In general, though, we need a sequence of classic mid-80's songs. (Cyndi Lauper "Time After Time" [she'd also make a good/horrible fashion icon for Catherine], Morris Day And The Time, etc.]

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Chronos loves When, and she got slimed at the science fair. Plus, the machine is fixed now.

SOLUTION: ILOVEWESLEY

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: Erik

HINTS: ?

TO DO: One round of playtesting done.

Send Me Back B--Art History

NICKNAME: Art History

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity 5

LOCATION: Not in the lab - perhaps the Palace of the Legion of Honor?

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus has bounced through time; the machine is mostly fixed but the View-O-Scope is still broken, so they can't communicate with her directly to learn where she wants to go. However, the time machine has sensed significant temporal disturbances in the vicinity of [Location]. (Interpreting time machine data to find the Location can be an optional puzzle.) Doctor When will tell the players that she probably tried to find some alternate way to communicate her request...but in a way that was likely to withstand the passage of time. And she'd want to be very subtle so as to not alter the timeline.

That location might turn out to be the Louvre. Or a series of locations that are famous around the world for works of art.

PROPS: Books of famous paintings altered to include Chronos (American Gothic, Mona Lisa, etc.)

PUZZLE THEME: See Props. Chronos has, while bouncing through time, managed to insert herself into famous works of art as a message to players.

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Chronos wants to go back to... the same date & place as When did in Act I (perhaps 1 hour later).

SOLUTION: time/space coordinates almost identical to those in Fix the Time Coordinates from Act I.

BUDGET:

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: Justin

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: Some of the art might show her with her bolt-cutters, and some without. Also, instead of having pointers to locations, we could just have Doctor When point to a particular art history coffeetable book and say that it was her favorite--she practically memorized it.

Fix The View Finder (Optional)

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity (optional)

LOCATION: Unclear. Do they need to be in the lab to fix the viewoscope?

PLOT SETUP: Viewoscope is broken; When refuses to send Chronos anywhere until they've fixed the viewoscope so he can keep an eye on her & make sure she's safe.

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: ? ... something appropriate to fixing a viewoscope.

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: ?

SOLUTION: Viewoscope is fixed.

BUDGET:

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

Pre-Locker Combo/Overheard Conversations

NICKNAME: Overheard Conversations

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity 6

LOCATION:

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus has lost her bolt cutters and so can't get into Wesley's locker. She needs the locker combo. At a certain location a tachyonic vortex allows players to overhear snipets of conversation from the teacher's lounge.

PROPS: Audio tape(s)

PUZZLE THEME: Logic puzzle: by piecing together the snippets of conversation the players can figure out that the combinations are stored in the principle's office.

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY:

SOLUTION:

BUDGET:

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: Dave

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES:

Locker Combo

NICKNAME: Locker Combo

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity 7

LOCATION: Somewhere that we dress up as a "principal's office". Alternatively, they hack into the school computer remotely.

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus lost her bolt cutter, and so can't get into Wesley's locker (to retrieve the cursed letter!). But she knows that principal might have a master combo for all locks. It turns out that the principal indeed has a master combo for 2010, 2009, 2008, etc. - all the way back to 1986. Unfortunately, Chronos is in 1985. Players need to decode pattern to figure out the master combo to send to Chronos.

PROPS: After the players send back the combo info to Chronus, they should be rewarded with a video of present-day Doctor When putting a letting into young When's locker. And then after he sneaks off, Chronos sneaks in and steals the letter out of young When's locker before he can read it.

We may also need a video of the time stream 1 version of the "Science Fair Incident." This one would show that they've eliminated Prof. Chronus's science fair trauma (but not quite tipping the hand that they've returned everything to time stream 1--although that may be obvious).

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: With the players’ help Prof. Chronus fixes the past. Prof. Chronus will rematerialize at XX AM. Be back in the lab by then (need radiation levels to drop).

SOLUTION: ?

BUDGET:

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: Sean

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: We have a time loop problem here - in this version of the world, how does the letter get into the locker in the first place? Does this matter?

PART 2--OPTIONAL PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES

Quantum Time Vibrations

NICKNAME: ?

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity optional

LOCATION: ?

PLOT SETUP: Doctor When needs a piece of information or hardware to fix the time machine.

PROPS: ?

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The machine is closer to being fixed.

SOLUTION: Points players to look in art history. Should come before Art History puzzle.

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

PART 3

Introductory Lecture 1, Reprise

NICKNAME: Introductory Lecture 1, Reprise

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity 1

LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Players have just fixed Prof. Chronus's time machine and are returning to see her rematerialize.

PROPS: PowerPoint presentation (the same one used in Part 1), projector, screen, PA system, time machine with sound/light/smoke special effects.

PUZZLE THEME: n/a

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The time stream has been returned to the same condition as at the start of the game and only the players realize they're in an infinite time loop. As before, characters will deny that this has happened before. Doctor admonishes audience to "Never use time travel for petty personal gain." Machine goes haywire.

SOLUTION: n/a

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

Jiffy Pop Solve

NICKNAME: Jiffy Pop Solve

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity 2

LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Machine has gone haywire. Instead of Doctor When returning, a bunch of gadgets returned. Each one is labeled with the name of a team.

PROPS: One physical puzzle (gadget?) for each team, the same one as in Part 1.

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The players are caught in a time loop--of their own creation! To fix it they need to do something different than in Part 1. They need to take matters into their own hands, not necessarily doing what Doctor When and Prof. Chronus want--but they may need to be secretive about it.

SOLUTION: CAUSALITYLOOPSECRETLYCHANGELETTER (or something like that)

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: The prop will be reused at the end of the Game.

Also, Prof. Chronus will probably be very curious about what all these gadgets are... We'll have to find some way to justify not giving her the message or a fake message.

Core Dump Redux

NICKNAME: Core Dump Redux

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity 3

LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory

PLOT SETUP: Machine has malfunctioned, just as in Part 1. Only the players know this has happened before. Prof. Chronus doesn't know where to start repairs. But the players have been through this all before and so can give her directions.

Hopefully the players will suggest she check the core dump. (She'll be amazed at their expertise!)

As before, when she checks it it has been corrupted (turned into a puzzle!) by the very same malfunction.

PROPS: Some output as in Part 1.

PUZZLE THEME: Same as in Part 1: Something that looks like a stream of data (error log?) from the time machine. Or...we might set up a gag that the time machine runs on pineapples and they have to examine pineapple cores. (Or maybe some other "core" homonym pun.)

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: As before, the tachyon aether pep ring(s) is/are broken. Prof. Chronus will be amazed at how quickly the teams decode the core dump!

SOLUTION: Exact same as in Part 1--a pep ring reference.

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

Pep Ring A Redux

NICKNAME: Pep Ring A Redux

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity 4

LOCATION: Same as in Part 1?

PLOT SETUP: The players were able to (surprisingly quickly) tell Prof. Chronus to examine the machine's tachyon aether pep rings [probably now called the "midi ether co-keypad rings"], which (as before) turn out to be defective. She needs replacements as before.

PROPS: The physical ring puzzles.

PUZZLE THEME: ?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The machine is partially fixed after rings are installed.

SOLUTION: May simply be the correctly assembled device, images of the correct configurations, or something similar.

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: There may be a way to make this puzzle fresh in Part 3. Or perhaps there's an alternate way of getting pep rings this time.

Password Puzzle (Doctor When) Redux

NICKNAME: Password Puzzle (Doctor When) Redux

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity 5

LOCATION: Probably outside the lab, perhaps in the "home where Doctor When grew up" (room in some GC member's house, appropriately set-dressed).

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus needs access to the Doctor's super secure Brain-O-Matic 2000 supercomputer, which contains key data needed to finish installing the pep ring. But she doesn't have the password. Over their years of friendship he's hinted that he always uses the same password and stored it for himself in puzzle format in case he forgot it himself.

PROPS: Childhood memoribilia for set dressing and foreshadowing.

PUZZLE THEME: Ideally something with an 80's reference (since he's been using the same password since the 80's). Perhaps a Rubik's Cube?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: While rumaging through the Doctor's childhood memoribilia, the players will see references to the childhood friendship with the Professor. They'll also find a large, empty picture frame...clearly something was in until recently (the high school newspaper clipping showing him being slimed--see the "Retrieve The Envelop" puzzle below), but now there's nothing to be found except Post-Its saying "not this time!" [We might also have a scale model of the science fair visible on site with weird trajectory calculations that don't make sense to the players--yet.] The solution of this puzzle will also foreshadow the Doctor's lifelong love for Buffy.

We might include some Buffy/cheerleader pictures in his "shrine"...not sure...

SOLUTION: Password = "BUFFYROCKS"

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

NOTES: We may not even have to "really" run this puzzle again. Perhaps Prof. Chronus asks for the password and they simply tell it to her (much to her surprise--"are you all industrial spies? How do you know so much? Are you from the future?!")

Calibration Redux

NICKNAME: Calibration/Forrest Gump Redux

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity 6

LOCATION: Over the Internet (we'll store the video on Youtube or somesuch). Likely out of the lab. (Erik's note: any Internet-based can also be implemented via some app, similar to what Ghost Patrol did.)

PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus nearly has the machine working properly with the new pep rings, the password, etc. But it still needs to be "calibrated." The remote viewscreen of the machine (accessible over the Internet! Let's think of a funnier name for it. View-O-Scope?) lets her show the players the different times and places the Doctor has bounced to. (Players are seeing where the Dr. has been while they were doing the previous puzzles, by the way - it's not supposed to be "live".)

PROPS: see Puzzle Theme.

PUZZLE THEME: Make a movie that consists of clips of other movies (Ben Hur, Land That Time Forgot, Zardoz...you get the idea) and then use blue screen to superimpose Doctor When. The funnier the situation the better. In some he could be running for his life and others he could be the King of Siam. Prof. tells the players that if they could just predict the next place he's going to bounce to she'll be able to calibrate the machine and make it fully functional.

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: General time hijinx.

SOLUTION: "BeginningOfTime"

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: For foreshadowing purposes, it may be useful to show something like the following - Dr. When briefly "spinning in a time vortex" in between each movie, and in one of these vortices, the envelope flies out of his coat pocket and is lost in the vortex.

Furthermore, we may not even have to "really" run this puzzle again. Perhaps Prof. Chronus asks for the location and they simply tell it to her (much to her surprise--"are you all industrial spies? How do you know so much? Are you from the future?!")

Send Me Back Redux

NICKNAME: Send Me Back Redux

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity 7

LOCATION: Probably out of the lab.

PLOT SETUP: With the players' help, Prof. Chronus has repaired and re-calibrated the time machine. But Doctor When is still stuck at the very beginning of time. Prof. Chronus will focus the remote viewfinder on Doctor When. But all they see is a dark screen. "Hello? Is anyone there? It's totally dark here. Oops...I think I knocked something over. Hold it...there's some light now.... Whoa. It's getting bigger. Fast. You better get me out of here. Now! Send me to these time and space coordinates: garble." Unfortunately because of the intensity of the Big Bang or the long time gap, the message is garbled. (Erik's note: I like the above, but any concern about disconnect between "get me out of here NOW!" and the fact that players will take X minutes to solve the puzzle? Another option that we've discussed is to have the audio not work because of the huge time distance/Big Bang static, so the Dr. does a funny dance or something that needs to be decoded.)

PROPS: Short movie of Doctor When running away from the Big Bang that he just caused..

PUZZLE THEME: Paper puzzle with garbled transmission from Dr. When? Or, as mentioned in the 2nd option above, a wacky dance on video?

PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Solution conveys the point that Dr. When is trying to get to the mid-80's, which is when he was in high school.

SOLUTION: The time, date, and possibly location of the morning before the "Science Fair Incident". (Any time/date format is probably okay.)

BUDGET: ?

CREDITS: ?

MANAGER: ?

HINTS: ?

TO DO: ?

NOTES: Prof. Chronos notes the time/date and says something like "That's odd, that's when we were both in high school. Wonder what he's up to. Oh well!" ... and pushes the button to send Doctor When there.

We may not even have to "really" run this puzzle again. Perhaps Prof. Chronus asks for the date/time/coordinates and they simply tell it to her (much to her surprise--"are you all industrial spies? How do you know so much? Are you from the future?!")

Retrieve the Letter Redux

NICKNAME: Retrieve the Letter Redux

POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity 8