1.12 Consolidation 1

Order

1.10

Status

::REVISE::

Location

Name And Address: Schroeder's Restaurant (posing as "Laboratory of Herr Doktor Heinrich Schroeder")

Parking: Free street parking after 6 PM

Bathroom: Yes

Food: Yes--and buy yourself dinner on GC!

GC PoC: (650) 395-8463, lab@trenchwood.com

Site PoC: Reservation made with Stephan

Type

Mandatory Puzzle followed by Mandatory Presentation

Plot Setup

• Iconoclast scientist Doctor When has attempted to demonstrate his time machine before an audience of VIPs.
• But it malfunctioned due to a faulty key component. The players have helped fix that.
• The malfunction is causing the Doctor to bounce around randomly in time from era to era, facing untold dangers!
• Repairs also required access to the Doctor's supercomputer, but the team successfully hacked the password.
• Along the way they learned someone named "Buffy" was important to him back in high school.
• The players helped the Institute rescue the Doctor from the Big Bang
• The Doctor has asked not to be returned to 2012, but rather sent to Paine Memorial High School on May 31, 1986 at 2 PM
• Once there, the Doctor discovered he had lost an envelop containing "information vital to restoring the timeline" somewhere during his random bounces through time
• The players discovered the envelope was lost at Fort Point in San Francisco
• Players have retrieved the ancient envelope (and discovered that its contents are not "vital technical information")

Props

• 200 blank co-keypad grids (3 per team + 152 spares)
• Wei-Hwa + his computer + his phone + USB cable
  • Video in W-H's computer
  • Puzzle software
• Any leftover sets of keypad kits
• Screen
• Projector (perhaps we can use the projector at the location)
  • Projector-to-PC cable
  • Projector remote
• Sound system (including microphone)
• 2 Lab coats (should already have from prior locations)
• 2 Trenchwood Institute name badges and lanyards (should already have from prior locations)
• 2 copies of Act I lab assistant skit

How To Give To Teams

Conversation with lab assistant over the phone should go something like,

Team:

Hello, Trenchwood? We found the envelope.

Lab Assistant:

You didn't just locate the envelope...you retrieved it?! That's fantastic. We need you to get it to one of our lab assistants out in the field so that they can rush it back to the Institute. From here we can use the time machine to send it to the Doctor in 1986.

I know: we have some lab assistants nearby collaborating with Herr Doktor Professor Heinrich Schroeder. Please go to his lab at 240 Front Street. Once there, the lab assistants will rush the envelope back to the Institute.

The lab is also on a very convenient temporal flux line, so you will be able to watch the live feed from the View-O-Scope as we finally rescue Doctor When. Success is in our grasp!

SUPPLEMENTAL EMAIL

Research Project Title: View The Rescue Of Doctor When
Objective: Deliver the envelope to a Trenchwood lab assistant in the field so they can rush it to the time machine (after which they'll use the View-O-Scope Computer Remote Access Program to let you watch Doctor When finally being returned to 2012)
Location: Laboratory of Herr Doctor Heinrich Schroeder, 240 Front Street San Francisco, CA 94111
Upon Completion: n/a
Parking: Street, free after 6 PM
Need To Park: Yes
Personnel Required: Yes
Bathrooms At Location: Yes
Food At Location: Yes

Note: This location will be a good place to have dinner.

Plot Point to Convey

With the players help the Doctor has successfully changed 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 10 PM. Be back in the Institute by then.

Short Description

Final fix before Doctor can be returned to the present.

Open Time Period

Saturday, 6 PM - 9 PM

Staff Instructions

Your Role: Trenchwood Institute lab assistants

What To Wear:

• Lab coat
• Trenchwood Institute name badge

What Your Character Knows: Everything in Plot Setup except the content of the envelope

Puzzles At This Site:

• All four role puzzles...but each team will get at most one
• Additional co-keypads

Where To Get Materials: GC HQ

Setup Instructions:

• Set up screen, projector, and sound
• Initialize display of G.R.O.S.S. progress
• Call GC when you are ready for teams

Handout Instructions:

Initial Greeting Upon Arrival

Lab assistant says words to the effect of

Welcome, welcome. You have the envelope? Fantastic. We'll have a courier rush it to the Institute so that they can use the time machine to send it to the Doctor in 1986.

The visitors hand off the envelope.

What Puzzle To Give Teams Next

'Before ___'

Give them a role puzzle, starting with the one for their role. Continue with the onsite handout staff instructions for that puzzle (attached).

Be sure to discreetly check off the appropriate cell in the online "Team Vs. Role Puzzle Grid."

'After ____ But Before ____'

Conversation should go something like:

LAB ASSISTANT:

Thanks! That was such a weird problem--I don't know what we would have done if we didn't happen to have [science, journalism, finance, government] experts like you around!

I think that the only thing we have left before we can get the time machine restarted is these darned co-keypads. But we're making good progress. You can see the overall progress on the screen. At the rate we're going, I think we'll have enough of them fixed by 8:45 PM to finally rescue Doctor When, especially if you help.

No pressure, though, you've already done so much for us. So, feel free to grab some food if you haven't already done so, or grab another piece of CRAP from the online G.R.O.S.S. system and design some more co-keypads, or just chat with the other attendees here. If you do design a new co-keypad, just see a lab assistant with a workstation so they can check in your design. Whatever you do, make sure you're here at 8:45 when we restart the time machine and send that envelope to Doctor When.

Answer: When a teams submits a co-keypad design

• Go to the following URL to see an image of what their design should look like. (Swap out the actual CRAP number for "NNN" in the URL.)

http://trenchwood.com/blahNNN

• If the design is incorrect, inform the team and ask if they want to continue working or "release" the CRAP.
• If the design is correct, go to the following URL and enter the data that they completed that particular co-keypad.

http://trenchwood.com/blahNNN

If the team wants to work on more co-keypads, they can get more pieces of CRAP themselves online.

At 8:45 PM

By now hopefully all the teams have arrived and at least finished their role puzzle. The lab assistants act out the skit on the attached script excerpt.

Then they show videos of Act I Scenes 3 & 4 on the big screen. Then lab assistant announces:

Hooray, you've rescued Doctor When! Now it's time to return to the lab for debriefing.

Lab assistant's phone seems to get a message.

Hold it...there's a bit of residual tachyonic radiation at the lab...probably wouldn't cause sterility.

Well, those darn government regulators might object. Why don't you just let it die down a bit. We'll resume the presentation at 10...so wait to check in till at least 9:45 PM. If you haven't eaten yet Perhaps you could get yourself some dinner between now and then. Here is a good place, but there are also many other restaurants around. But definitely don't go back before 9:45 PM. We really, really, do not want to get into any trouble with government regulators; I’ve heard that filling out their forms is impossible!

Site Close Down:

• Pack up
• call GC
• Save the Team Vs. Role Puzzle grid for use during Consolidator 2

Other Instructions:

• Stay in character.
• Except...if a team says "time out," then break character.

Detailed Description

Co-Keypad puzzles must be collectively solved by the teams. They work together in mild competition until all teams have arrived.

There are a maximum of 16 puzzles per team (256 puzzles in week 1, 272 puzzles in week 2) available. Initially, only 4 puzzles per team are "broken" (64 puzzles in week 1, 68puzzles in week 2). A GC member should be pacing the release of new "broken" puzzles so that teams are on track to have everything solved at the end of the consolidation.

GROSS is available at: http://trenchwood.com/keypad

The admin console is at: http://trenchwood.com/keypad/nimda.html

The display dashboard is at: http://trenchwood.com/keypad/dashboard.php

GROSS should display properly on smartphones and Internet-enabled tablets.

It'll be blindingly obvious once you log in and when you see the display dashboard that individual team information is anonymized and only role information is shared. At least, that's my hope.

Here's my thoughts on logistics.

We have on-hand: ACT1:

• 400 blank co-keypad submission sheets (in B&W)
• When a team arrives, we hand them, 5 blank co-keypad submission sheets. They also get two TASCs that were automatically assigned to them.

Requesting a TASC: ACT1:

 When a team requests a TASC, it takes them to a page that tells them to
 come to the GC's desk to pick up the specs.  The system also notifies
 the GC staffer that the team is coming so they can find the sheet (out of 256).
 GC staffer gives them the sheet and assigns the TASC in the system.

Abandoning a TASC: ACT1:

 When a team abandons a TASC, it takes them to a page that tells them to
 RETURN the TASC sheet to the GC's desk.  The system also notifies
 the GC staffer that the team is coming so they can put the sheet back.

Viewing/Fixing an assigned TASC: ACT1:

 When a team views a TASC, they see an on-line duplicate of what is already
 on their TASC sheet (a backup in case the sheet gets lost).  They fix the TASC
 by submitting a filled-in sheet to GC.  They don't have to return the TASC.
 GC checks the sheet against a master solution key, and if it is correct, the
 TASC is marked fixed; otherwise, GC logs that the team was incorrect and
 notifies the team.

Other logistics: ACT1:

 Teams will run out of blank co-keypad sheets as they are used up for submission.
 We'll have a bin where teams can grab extras.

Undecided issues:

• In Act 1, how does GC notify the team that their solution was incorrect? Some

ideas:
 ** E-mail (needs GC effort)
 ** In-system notification (needs more programming :( )
 ** Go find the team and talk to them (needs time/volunteers)
 ** Throw it in the logs on the big display dashboard

Other notes:

There are five "fake teams" -- the "Lab" and one team from each faction. The "fake teams" solve TASCs periodically -- namely, the system makes suggestions and the human GC member approves them. The goal is to keep the five total SCOREs close. Yes, it's not fair. Neither is Mario Kart.

Technical Setup

USE trenchwood;

• Clean out the solved puzzle table
  • Log in to mysql on wei-Hwa's server (username: laboratory, password: forscience), then run:

TRUNCATE TABLE solves;
TRUNCATE TABLE requests;
TRUNCATE TABLE released;
TRUNCATE TABLE assignments;

• Clean out the log

rm /home/www/doctorwhen/trenchwood.com/public_html/keypad/log/*

• If you need to regenerate the team information:
  • Make sure /home/whuang/public_html/nodir/doctorwhen/gross/teams.csv is correct
  • run this SQL:

TRUNCATE TABLE solvers;
LOAD DATA INFILE '/home/whuang/public_html/nodir/doctorwhen/gross/teams.csv'
 INTO TABLE solvers
 FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
 OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
 LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
  IGNORE 1 LINES (solver_id, name, role_id, passcode, present, fake);

• If you need to regenerate the puzzle information (god I hope not), this will recreate the release_info and scores tables:

 mysql -Dpeachfrontier -u laboratory --password=forscience < /home/whuang/prog/keypad/puzinfo.sql

Puzzle Answer

The event is over when all co-keypads are designed. GC will regulate the pace by having imaginary "lab assistants" artificially solve some puzzles, timing it to end shortly after the last team arrives.

Puzzle Solution

Same as Co-Keypad A event.

Manager

Wei-Hwa

Response to Correct Answer

n/a--there's no call or email into the Institute

To Do

• Test deployment with LAN.