Pre-Game FAQ
From DoctorWhen
Subject: Re: Conveying our conceit to the players
The week before the game, we would send the teams an out-of-character email, where we would say things like (this is a super-brief summary) * make sure all the players (not just the captains) read this!! * safety is really important, especially in an immersive game like this * stuff about role-playing - we'll try to be immersive, but call "time out" if you want to step out-of-character, are getting frustrated, etc. * Understanding the story as it unfolds and thinking through its internal logic may help you with various challenges. And we hope that following the story is fun for you, too * Also, there's no intro. This is the intro. The moment you arrive, the in-character event is running. * this is mainly a non-competitive game; we encourage you to enjoy the flavor elements (and sometimes they'll be important for the puzzles too!) STUFF ABOUT PUZZLES, in which we would say things like: We are experimenting with many things, and most puzzles won't follow a mechanism of "GC member hands you an envelope with your team's name on it and the title Puzzle #4". We're trying to make our puzzles flow with the story, which has many possible implications, such as * We have "puzzles" that don't solve to simple words or directions. * There is no standard "end" to a puzzle in this game - it will depend on * context. A puzzle may be "accomplish task X" or "find out information Y" * We have flavor text and preamble text that is purely used to drive the * story and doesn't contain elements useful for solving the next challenge. * We have a variety of delivery mechanisms, both for teams getting puzzles * and submitting answers. * Puzzles are not all "self-contained". Information from previous puzzles or * previous flavor elements may be secondary hints or even primary information * for solving a later challenge. I believe that being direct about this is the best approach because it's likely to lead to the least confusion. (There will still be some, but we want to minimize it.) I think the "let players figure it out" path is too dangerous. I vote for making it clear up-front that we have a free-flow, immersive, unorthodox, non-standardized approach to puzzles and answers.
this is not a race; there is no prize; your pace will sometimes be controlled by GC; the story IS the experience, advanced step-wise by puzzles; and it will be clear when you've been given a goal, and what that goal is.
We will always make it clear when you have a challenge to overcome. How to overcome it may be less clear, but the goal itself will be clearly motivated ("help us do X"). Example: after players have solved a challenge and are watching a plot video, there aren't puzzles hidden in the video (because there's no outstanding challenge at that point).