Inventory
Contents
PRE-CLUES
Web Site
NICKNAME: 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" 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." Machine goes haywire.
SOLUTION: n/a
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
Jiffy Pop Solve In Part 1
NICKNAME: Jiffy Pop Solve In Part 1
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, 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
PUZZLE THEME: ?
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Doctor When is bouncing around in time and needs help to fix the machine/rescue him. Check the machine's "core dump" to figure out what's wrong.
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
NOTES: The prop will be reused in at least one other puzzle.
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. The mysterious message inside the Jiffy Pop puzzle directed to check the time machine's "core dump." (And it might be that the malfunction partially corrupts the core dump, thus making it a puzzle.)
PROPS: ?
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" hominem pun.)
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The problem with the machine is that the "tachyon aether pep ring" is all screwed up. Luckily Prof. Chronus is an expert in such matters.
SOLUTION: "Tachyon aether pep ring", or some similar pseudo-tech phrase that includes a subtle Pepsi reference.
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
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.
Pep Ring A
NICKNAME: Pep Ring A
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity m
LOCATION: May require returning to the lab at the end turn in the rings. Or the teams could hand off their handiwork to messengers (GC in disguise).
PLOT SETUP: The decoded core dump tells Prof. Chronus to examine the machine's tachyon aether pep rings, which turn out to be defective. 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.
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
NOTES: ?
Password Puzzle (Childhood Home)
NICKNAME: Password Puzzle (Childhood Home)
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity m
LOCATION: Probably outside the lab, perhaps in the home where Doctor When grew up
PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus needs access to the Doctor's super secret Brain-O-Matic 2000 supercomputer. But she doesn't have the password. Over their years of friendship he's hinted that his password has something to do with his past. Or maybe he's said 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: ?
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: While rumaging through the Doctor's childhood memoribilia, the players will see references to the childhood friendship with the Prof., maybe a picture or schoolnewspaper article about how the Doctor was slimed during the science fair, etc. The solution will also foreshadow the Doctor's lifelong love for Buffy.
SOLUTION: Password = "BUFFYROCKS"
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
Calibration
NICKNAME: Calibration/Forrest Gump
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity m
LOCATION: Over the Internet (we'll store the video on Youtube or somesuch). Likely out of the lab.
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.) lets her show the players the different times and places the Doctor has bounced to.
PROPS: 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.
PUZZLE THEME: 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: ?
SOLUTION: "BeginningOfTime"
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
NOTES:
Send Me Back
NICKNAME: Send Me Back
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity m
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.
PROPS: Short movie of Doctor When running away from the Big Bang that he just caused..
PUZZLE THEME: Maybe teams have to guess the next place where he's going to be?
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: ?
SOLUTION: The time, date, and location of the morning before the "Science Fair Incident"
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
NOTES:
High School A
NICKNAME: High School A
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity m
LOCATION: ?
PLOT SETUP: Machine has been repaired to enough functionality that it can be used to view the past.
PROPS: Video of time stream 1 of "the science fair incident"
PUZZLE THEME: ?
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Doctor When’s real goal was to fix his childhood trauma: he had a crush on Buffy the cheerleader and thought he could win her heart with his science fair project. But some sort of interaction with Prof. Chronus's project made his contraption go awry and the cheerleader laughed at him instead of falling in love.
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
Puzzle suggestion (from ES): I like the "I need my locker combo!" puzzle, and the motivation could be that a geeky Dr. When actually created some sort of puzzle back in his high school daya that would remind him of his locker combo (he was absent-minded, even then!) but not let someone else easily figure it out. Since he created it as a geek in the 80's, this seems like an opportunity for a puzzle-y 80's reference - like, say, some sort of Rubik's Cube assembling puzzle, with the answer being a locker combo. (Oh, and if we can have actual locks that open "lockers" with those combos, that would be ideal.)
Jiffy Pop Puzzle, Closing the Loop in Part 1
NICKNAME: Jiffy Pop Puzzle, Closing the Loop in Part 1
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity m
LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory
PLOT SETUP: With the time machine now working, each team needs to reassemble its Jiffy Pop gadget and send it back in time to itself. [not sure how they figure that out...]
PROPS: Each teams' original Jiffy Pop gadget
PUZZLE THEME: Causality loops
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY:
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
?
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: ?
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: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
PART 1--OPTIONAL PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES
PART 1--OPTIONAL PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES
?
NICKNAME: ?
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 1, Activity optional
LOCATION: ?
PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus needs a piece of information or hardware to fix
PROPS: ?
PUZZLE THEME: ?
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The machine is closer to being fixed.
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
PART 2--MANDATORY PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES
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. Prof. Chronus's high school friend, Doctor When has flown in to assist. Two of the key components of the time machine are the "tachyon aether pep ring" and the "quantum chronomentometer." Prof. Chronus admonishes audience to "Never use time travel for petty personal gain." Machine goes haywire. 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, but no one knows why.
PROPS: ?
PUZZLE THEME: Like in Part 1, some sort of data stream (error log?) seems appropriate here. Of course, we want to avoid the actual _puzzle_ being similar to the one in Act I...
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Prof. Chronus is leaving subtle notes in the historical record to help. The problem with the machine is that the "quantum chronomentometer" is all screwed up. Luckily Doctor When is an expert in such matters.
SOLUTION: ... should be the phrase "quantum chronomentometer" or some similar pseudo-tech phrase including a subtle Mentos reference.
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
?
NICKNAME: ?
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity m
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 fixed.
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
?
NICKNAME: ?
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity m
LOCATION: ?
PLOT SETUP: Machine has been repaired to enough functionality that it can be used to view the past.
PROPS: Expanded video of time stream 2 of "the science fair incident" showing how the previous fix caused a trauma for Prof. Chronus.
PUZZLE THEME: ?
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Prof. Chronus’s real goal was to fix her childhood trauma: she had a crush on Doctor When and thought she could win his heart with her science fair project. But the fix from Part 1 caused it all to go awry.
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
Puzzle suggestion (from ES): as with Act I, perhaps Prof. Chronus needs some information from her past, and this seems like a place where a geeky 80's reference could go over well. If Dr. When was a Rubik's Cube to encode his locker combo, Prof. Chronus is... a secret message included in her diary? An audio clue contained in a mix tape she made for Dr. When (never delivered)? What would be a geeky, gender-stereotyping, puzzle-accomodating thing that a 80's girl would use? The solution could be another locker combo, but that's boring. Maybe the solution is the name of a popular 80's book (Melissa suggests "How to be a Valley Girl" that she used as a one-time pad to decode her diary, which then reveals her whole science fair plan?
?
NICKNAME: ?
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 2, Activity last
LOCATION: Not in the lab
PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus wants to fix her past
PROPS: Video 2 of time stream 1 "science fair incident" showing 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)
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.
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET:
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
PART 2--OPTIONAL PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES
?
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: ?
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, 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. 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 In Part 3
NICKNAME: Jiffy Pop Solve In Part 3
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
PUZZLE THEME: ?
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Players have to take charge/do something different this time to break the causality loop
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
NOTES: The prop will be reused in at least one other puzzle.
?
NICKNAME: ?
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity 3
LOCATION: ?
PLOT SETUP: Machine is malfunctioning.
PROPS: ?
PUZZLE THEME: ?
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The players know more than the in-character actors; they can fix the machine (solve the required puzzles very quickly this time...much to the surprise of Prof. Chronus).
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
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.
?
NICKNAME: ?
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity m
LOCATION: ?
PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus needs a piece of information or hardware to fix
PROPS: ?
PUZZLE THEME: ?
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Prof. Chronus is amazed at how quickly the players solve the puzzles. The machine is fixed. Yay!
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
?
NICKNAME: ?
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity m
LOCATION: ?
PLOT SETUP: Machine has been repaired to enough functionality that it can be used to view the past.
PROPS: Video of time stream 1 of "the science fair incident."
PUZZLE THEME: ?
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: There is a way to hook up Prof. Chronus and Doctor When back in high school, thus breaking the time loop.
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
Jiffy Pop Puzzle, Closing the Loop in Part 3
NICKNAME: Jiffy Pop Puzzle, Closing the Loop in Part 3
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity m
LOCATION: Doctor When's laboratory
PLOT SETUP: With the time machine now working, each team needs to reassemble its Jiffy Pop gadget and send it back in time to itself. [not sure how they figure that out...]
PROPS: Each teams' original Jiffy Pop gadget
PUZZLE THEME: Causality loops
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY:
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
?
NICKNAME: ?
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity next-to-last
LOCATION: ?
PLOT SETUP: Doctor When wants to fix his past, but doesn't realize he's causing his own problem (nor that Prof. Chronus is a better romantic match).
PROPS: Video of time stream 3 of "the science fair incident"
PUZZLE THEME: ?
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Players change the past in a manner different from what Doctor When intended...but it has the happy result of pairing Doctor When + Prof. Chronus (and unintentionally "sliming" Buffy).
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
Dénouement
NICKNAME: Dénouement
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity last
LOCATION: Doctor When & Prof. Chronus's laboratory
PLOT SETUP: Players have done something different to the timeline.
PROPS:
PUZZLE THEME: Wrap-up lecture, not puzzle
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: Prof. Chronus and Doctor When are now a professional and romantic pair. Working together they accomplished what neither could do separately: build a functional time machine. "Never use time travel for petty personal gain." Buffy is now a time travel expert (and perhaps she's bent on fixing her past, too...).
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
PART 3--OPTIONAL PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES
PART 3--OPTIONAL PUZZLES/ACTIVITIES
?
NICKNAME: ?
POSITION IN GAME FLOW: Part 3, Activity optional
LOCATION: ?
PLOT SETUP: Prof. Chronus needs a piece of information or hardware to fix
PROPS: ?
PUZZLE THEME: ?
PLOT POINT TO CONVEY: The machine is closer to being fixed.
SOLUTION: ?
BUDGET: ?
CREDITS: ?
MANAGER: ?
HINTS: ?
TO DO: ?
