Brainstorming

This is a page for initial brainstorming... "a sort of free-form, judgment free repository of ideas that anyone can add to".

AD: One idea being, props in the laboratory could change in between teams' visits, so that you'd get the sense that you were going backwards or forwards in time (the most obvious - a wall clock).

AC: Wow...what an interesting idea. Maybe when they return to the lab they could discover that it is seven hours earlier than when they left (just change the clocks)...or what about seven days earlier? We could put fake newspapers in the rack, etc. Or maybe seven years later...it's now a Quickie Mart or something. Then each time they return it's a different time. Maybe the backstory is that the radiation in the lab is making the building swap with older or younger versions of itself. Or maybe the players have somehow infected themselves with time instability...or their purposely jumping around...

AC: It would be really cool if the players could somehow meet themselves. Maybe we could simulate it secretly video taping each team and then later have them somehow see themselves on the security cameras as they're doing something else.

AC: Be a temporal mechanic! Earn big bucks! [some sort of parody of those ads for being schools teaching one to be a airplane mechanic.

AC: Perhaps in our funny Doctor When web site (having a web site for each game seems to be standard operating procedures these days) we'll all be listed as lab assistants to Doctor When and we can list a brief CV for each of us including things like "Ph.D. in Temporal Mechanics from the University of Meat Machine" (or some other sly reference to each person's primary Game team) as well as listings of our fictitious papers we've published in fictitious journals.

AD: Location ideas--There's Squid Labs at the old Alameda Naval Air Station, which would allow excursions into clue sites in Oakland and Alameda, they have a lot of space, are very creative, and might really enjoy hosting us:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2007/09/fast-kites-from/

There's also this place:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/29/BU86190CQU.DTL

DS: On making puzzles solve for location names--Might there be some room for creativity here? For example (this is on 30 seconds thought, so surely more thought can do much better) -- a map that has, say, A-M on top and N-Z on bottom, and A-M on both sides. Then, with instructions like: "The next location is at the intersection of line segments given by the first and last bigrams of the answer -- bigrams always coding one top-to-bottom line and one left-to-right line." With lettering as given above, there is no overlap in top-bottom and left-right lines, so a word can uniquely specify an intersection. (Of course, not all words can be used with the lettering given above). Letters do not have to be evenly spaced, so we can get the intersections we want, and there are enough of them that people are not likely to try them at random (and they are not likely to be fruitful if they do -- and we can still require the solution word in order to get credit). And sure, there are no doubt logistics to work out with this idea.

AC: Maybe a musical puzzle that dealt with time signatures, or maybe the pieces of the music are out of correct time sequence. Maybe the pitches and note durations are Caesar shifted from each other. Perhaps the puzzlers are told they need to find a "key," but it turns out to be the key of the tune, not a physical key.

AC: Maybe a musical puzzle with backwards masking.

AC: Making time travel affordable: a time-share time machine.

AC: For Doctor When's intro lecture on the history of time travel he should show pictures of all the pop culture depictions (as though they were real ideas and not movies) and explain (with derision) why they didn't work. (phone booths, the Time Tunnel, the chair in H.G. Wells "Time Machine"; having naked robots from the future hunt you down).

AC: Perhaps we could make a sundial puzzle in which the sun has to be in a certain position for them to solve it. Of course, that would be very limiting because of the timing. Maybe instead they can discover that the sundial can be rotated so that they can adjust its "readout." Or maybe they can use one (or more!) artificial light sources...or adjust mirrors. Maybe they sort of have to enter a "combination" (sequentially or simultaneously).

AC: A time machine for dumb people could be called a RETARDIS (or an idiot proof one).

AC: Maybe at some point we could tell them that the time machine works well enough that they can travel *through* time, but only observe...they can't get out. They have to make a "loop" through time, i.e., visit some space-time coordinates and then return to the present. We can't control the precise movements through time, but we can set it to sort of trace the path that Doctor When has been bouncing through time.

We'll shove them in the time machine and they can only "look out" through a monitor we've installed inside. (And we'll tell the players that we'll record all the imagery so they don't have to take notes during the actual "journey.") During their "journey" we make them watch a video we created in advance. It will show Doctor When in all kinds of famous moments in history and other weird situations: in the background as Caesar has his triumph through Rome, being chased by dinosaurs (we can also show him accidentally step on a butterfly and say "oops!"--an homage to the classic "butterfly effect"), watching the Declaration of Independence be signed, at the San Francisco earthquake, in the future, etc. [We can do this with a blue screen and then inject Doctor When into stolen footage from various movies; I think it will be OK if it looks hokey; if the players recognize the films we've ripped off even better.] We may or may not have Doctor When frantically trying to communicate something to the time travelers.

In between each time jump we can have the screen display some techno babble, like "re-establishing temporal cohesion." We should also have all sorts of lights, sound effects...and maybe even shake the floor like an amusement park ride.

Once they pop out of the machine, Rodney will ask them what they saw. He'll then ask them to figure out the next time and place that Doctor When would appear in the series because that will help him calibrate the time machine--that's the puzzle! (We hand them a DVD of their journey to analyze in depth.)

Concerning the details of the actual puzzle, we can encode the data either directly into the scenes we show them or in the actions that Doctor When is performing (that would be cool!) or we can "cheat" by having techno babble "readouts" overlayed onto the screen at all time and that's the puzzle data.

AC: Could we somehow use the relativity "twin paradox" as a puzzle?

AC: Alexandra suggested we explore corporate sponsorship to fatten our production budget.

AC: We could have lots of "prototype" devices in the lab. That way not all of the tasks would have to use the actual time machine...some could be performed on the prototypes...thus relieving some of the scheduling bottleneck issues.

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Original Message-----

From: DoctorWhen@googlegroups.com [1] On Behalf Of A. Dixon Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 5:32 PM To: DoctorWhen@googlegroups.com Subject: Idea

Early days yet so at this point I think it's OK if we just throw out wacky ideas... until Allen says "enough, time to start focusing."

I was driving along yesterday thinking about manipulating time, and I thought - what if teams had the power to actually change the time on the clock? What would that mean?

In terms of scoring (if we score at all - and that's a debate we've barely started), it could mean that we could fold time travel or time changes into the actual scoring algorithm.

Maybe, we just give teams credit for "positive or minus minutes" when they solve a clue, depending on how long they took, so that everybody's score is really an adjusted finish time. Some teams could even finish before the game began...which would be weird, but fun.

In any event, if we do score, I definitely think that the scoring mechanism should involve some sort of time shifting.

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Original Message-----

From: DoctorWhen@googlegroups.com [2] On Behalf Of Justin Graham Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 7:49 PM To: DoctorWhen@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Idea

I love the idea of incorporating time travel into just about every aspect of the game. Teams should be able to finish in the Stone Age or the Renaissance if they move quickly (or slowly, I guess) enough. They should be able to meet future or past versions of themselves, or members of Game Control while they are still planning the Game. I'm not entirely sure how to accomplish this, but I have ideas (mostly involving bad acting and/or videotape).

I have a couple of specific time-related clue ideas, but I'm saving them for when we get to talking clues...

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Original Message-----

From: DoctorWhen@googlegroups.com [3] On Behalf Of Melissa Wilson Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 10:17 AM To: DoctorWhen@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Idea

Erik and I would love to host here at 1976 Ticonderoga Drive in San Mateo. We are just off 280 and 92 and also a short drive on 92 from 101. We bought this house in part because it is a great commute location. Is this right Erik? I think he said yes.

I would be pleased to locate costumes. I have done this in the past when I costume designed for theatrical productions and Stanford University's costume shop knows me well. AMT in San Jose has been another resource for me. I recall that the cost wasn't exorbitant. I would need game control measurements before going. Just an offer.

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AC: Speaking of ideas, here's mine (which was actually inspired by a call from my father!). As always, "I'm sure this has been done before but..." Dad reminded me that the number of weeks in a year is twice the number of letters in the alphabet. So perhaps one of our puzzles could involve a mapping to/from ordinal week in the year (see, it's time related!) from/to the alphabet.

Joe: These seem quite useable for lots of time-encodings: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/59e0/

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Original Message-----

From: DoctorWhen@googlegroups.com [4] On Behalf Of David Shukan Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 3:07 PM To: DoctorWhen@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Time toy

As long as we're doing this, I note that the board game Thebes has a device called a Chronocle that is a dial that you set to the "knowledge" you currently have, then select the number of "weeks" you want to spend digging, and it tells you how many digs you get. A picture is here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/198307

Perhaps we could incorporate something vaguely similar in some way.

At this point, I had written that it might be nice to incorporate a time-based bureaucracy maze somewhere, and searched for a link to show a bit of what I meant for those who didn't know. And, lo and behold, I learned that Wei-Hwa did a bureaucracy maze at the beginning of BANG 7: http://www.logicmazes.com/bur.html. Since it's been done, perhaps it's not worth trying to do something along those lines again. But what I had in mind was something where certain things had to be done before other things in a way that was impossible except for those having access to a time machine (since there would be loops where, say, A had to be done before B which had to be done before C which had to be done "before" A, but using the time machine will allow this -- or maybe send away for something that ships in 48 hours, so go forward in time to retrieve it now). This would be presented so that it doesn't really look like other Bureaucracy mazes (it wouldn't be shuttling forms around -- I envision artifacts that are needed to get other artifacts that are need to accomplish some task, like in an adventure game), but if this seems too close to Wei-Hwa's idea to want to do it again, I certainly won't push the point.

Dave

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Original Message-----

From: DoctorWhen@googlegroups.com [5] On Behalf Of Wei-Hwa Huang Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 4:03 PM To: DoctorWhen@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Time toy

There are a bunch of board games that represent time in interesting ways; Thebes is one of those that is a bit easier to wrap one's head around. Around the World in 80 Days has a strange one where the time is a bit like a resource and isn't actually used chronologically.

I'm happy to bring either or both of these games to the next meeting. I also have other time-based games (Chrononauts, Time Agent, Time Control, Time Pirates) that might be useful for ideas. Chrononauts especially.

WH: My favorite calendar-based puzzle was this one:

http://www.gooooogol.com/puzzles/scheduler.pdf

Alexandra, you might like it if you haven't seen it.

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AC: Perhaps along the way the puzzlers learn that as the Doctor was bouncing around through time he went all the way back to the beginning of time where/when he accidentally knocked something over [jiggled a singularity?] and caused the Big Bang. There, that's one mystery solved--the creation of the universe.

ES: Random puzzle theme thoughts- - Possibly obvious ones that we've mentioned during meetings that I don't see noted otherwise here: sundial, Long Now Foundation clock, famous works of art, "historical" movies, works of literature Other ideas: - something w/ the Antikythera mechanism (oldest machine in the world, it's a fancy Greek calendar) - using the Roman numerals on a grandfather clock (as letters?) - audio clue w/ tick-tock sounds, quarter-hour bell chimes - song Time after Time (very 80's, assuming that's when our high school events are set) - the Armageddon Clock

JG: puzzle concept: puzzle requiring data as you travel through the decades presented on era-appropriate media:

  1. Computer punch cards
  2. 8 Track Tape
  3. Cassette
  4. LP?!?
  5. 8 inch diskette
  6. Atari 2600 Cartridge
  7. BetaMax
  8. CD
  9. Infrared signal
 10. Zip Disk
 11. USB drive
 12. Bluetooth signal  (teams get a real tooth painted blue with some 4 digit pairing code -- have to pair their phone with a locally broadcasting headset)

We can have appropriate devices set up at the penultimate clue site, in case you couldn't find an 8 Track Tape reader in the previous 32 hours . Teams that can decode their media earlier would get a head start.

ES: more random puzzle thoughts: there's a large, cool-looking four-faced clock outside The Dead Fish restaurant in Vallejo, just south of the Carquinez Bridge. Also, the Computer History museum in Mountain View would be a great location to pick up a clue - e.g., when they get the answer "transfibulator", Prof. Chronos says "they haven't made one of those in 30 years! Where could we possibly get one? ... I know... the Computer History museum". In general, geeky places like the Exploratorium, Lawrence Hall of Science, maybe the zoo... would be locations that a high-school aged Dr. When or Prof. Chronos might have frequented - and left a message, perhaps:? (E.g., the 1st day he sees Buffy, he "carves his initials" into the base of a tree outside the Exploratorium - but does so in code, so that if someone else sees the message, they won't know he has a crush on Buffy? ... and later on, it becomes important to figure out the exact date, 'cause that becomes his locker combo, and it's in the message, etc.)

AC: Maybe we could dig up a few "classic" computers of the 80s (TRS-80s, Apple II, Compaq, Mac, IBM PC). As part of the puzzle the players have to remember how to start up/use/install software on these "ancient" computers. Or make them use a dial up 300 baud modem.

AC: Speaking of tree puzzles: maybe one of the protagonists carved their names in a tree back in '85...but now the tree has grown and the message is high in the sky. Not sure how this fits into a puzzle, but it would be a cool aha for the players.

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from freund@ecs.csus.edu

3. Puzzle idea. The science fair brochure, with a map of the gym layout, names of the other exhibits, names of the judges, prizes, etc. could make a good format for a puzzle in one of the acts. Y'all know this is a touchy point with me, but surely this idea is 'organic'!

4. Multi-puzzle idea. I think it would be cute, and provide a mechanism to introduce several 'non-organic' puzzles, to have W. or C. in one of the acts be revealed to have become (in the present) a devotee of 'Games', and have developed a BANG, scheduled for that very weekend in, say, San Carlos. Players could go there, play a short BANG-style event, eat, and deduce as a 'meta' message some plot-relavant point.

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Playing games backwards -- i.e., given the final state of some game or event, try to figure out what happened. (See Boggle)

JG: Get a whole bunch of those iron tavern puzzles (http://tavernpuzzles.stores.yahoo.net/puzzle.html) and make teams have to solve a certain number of them before moving to the next stage. The number of puzzles required to be solved would be proportional to how much we want to slow the team down (fast teams have to do more, slower teams do fewer, based on arrival time). It feels very mechanical to me, like repairing a time machine. Perhaps instead of purchasing these, we can create them or somehow weld them onto some kind of machine?