Pre-Game FAQ

Subject: Final Notes Before The Doctor When Game

Hello, gamers! We of Doctor When Game Control team are delighted that you will be joining us for this unique puzzling experience.

This email is the last "out-of-character" communication we'll send to you, so we want to clearly give you a few final pieces of information and advice to help you have fun & stay safe. PLEASE MAKE SURE ALL MEMBERS OF THE TEAM READ AND UNDERSTAND THIS EMAIL (not just the team captain).

SAFETY FIRST

As always with a Game, safety is of the utmost importance (especially in an immersive Game like this). Please be careful and don't let the excitement of the moment ever cause you to take risks. If it ever appears that you're heading in a risky direction, you're almost certainly doing something we didn't intend. Contact Game Control, say "time out" (to step out of character), and check with us before doing anything remotely dangerous.

• In keeping with our desire to create an immersive experience, we will not do a "safety intro" when you arrive. This is the safety message - please make sure all team members read and understand it.
• As with any overnight Game, please make sure that the driver(s) of your vehicle takes naps, trades off with other drivers, and otherwise does anything necessary to be able to drive the vehicle safely.
• Each team member must sign a liability waiver, which we have attached to this email. Please read this waiver carefully, sign it, and bring it to the beginning of the event. We will refer to this as your "non-disclosure agreement and liability waiver" in future emails and at the event.
• There will be strobe lights a couple of times during the event. If this poses a problem for any players, please let us know ASAP.

ROLEPLAYING DURING THE GAME

• From the moment you arrive both you and we will be in character. There is *no* onsite intro. This is the intro!
• However, if at any point you want a GC member to step out of character (perhaps to answer a question) just say, clearly, "time out" (it may help to use the accompanying two-handed "T" gesture from American sports) and we'll gladly oblige.
  • GC members may also call for a "time out", if it seems necessary that we need to tell you something out-of-character. We will try to avoid this unless absolutely necessary, however.
• This is a very story-based Game; understanding the story as it unfolds and thinking through its internal logic will help you with various challenges. Therefore, we advise that all members of the team "keep up" with the story (and even talk about it within your team, to increase everyone's understanding). We hope that following the story is fun, too!
  • This point has a corollary. Although you are here to solve puzzles that we are providing, your characters are encountering actual challenges that make sense in this fictional world we have created. If you find that a puzzle seems too unconstrained or impossible, try to think in terms of the characters' knowledge -- what would they have access to? What would they be able to do, expected to do, or willing to do in their situation? Thinking along those lines may help the puzzle-solver in you home in on the actual information needed to solve the puzzles.
• This is a non-competitive game, with some deliberate pacing management. (There will be a few competitive activities, but they'll be self-contained). We encourage you to "stop and smell the roses" - enjoy some of the "flavor" elements that we've created for you, interact with GC and each other "in-character," and so on. By all means solve puzzles quickly if you wish, but make sure not to miss the story elements and flavor while you do so.

PUZZLES AND ACTIVITIES

We hope our puzzles are great all by themselves - but we also labored to make them not just integrate well into our story, but actually move the story along. (Put another way: you, as the players, will be protagonists, "making the story happen" through the challenges you overcome.) Because of that:

• Many "puzzles" don't solve to simple words or directions; many don't include "hidden messages" at all. A "puzzle" may be "accomplish task X" or "find out information Y." We recognize that "finding the hidden message" is often a satisfying part of a puzzle, but we have, in some cases, traded this for integration with our story.
• There will be a variety of ways you receive your puzzles and submit your "answers." There is no standard format, data entry device, or way that all the puzzles will end--it will depend on context.
• But don't worry--we will always try to make it clear when you have a challenge to overcome and what that challenge is. (On the other hand, how you overcome it may be less clear at first.) If you're ever unsure exactly what you're supposed to be trying to accomplish, ask GC.
  • Don't forget that you can call for a "time out" if you are really confused. We'll drop character and help you as best as we can.
• Some story text and theatrics are purely used to drive the story and don't contain elements useful for solving challenges.
• On the other hand, some story text and theatrics (and previous puzzles) do contain elements useful for solving later challenges.
• Challenges are not always "serial." One challenge may be nested inside a larger challenge, or information from earlier in the game may be relevant to the current challenge.
• You DON'T need to furiously record everything you see and hear - as long as you pay attention to the story, you should be fine.
• Some puzzles and activities may include software, web sites, disks, videos, etc. Please do not "hack" any of it. Hacking, examining source code, looking at disk directories, etc. are not the intended solution paths for any events. If you do hack you will only spoil parts of the game for yourself. We have not added any security to any of it--you're on the honor system.

MEALS

• We will only be providing lunch on Sunday, plus some snacks and beverages at other times
• We will tell you when to stop for other meals; Saturday's lunch break will be around noon, Saturday's dinner break will be around 7 PM, and Sunday's breakfast break will be around 7:30 AM
• Please do not stop for these major meals until we tell you; if you do you'll get out of sync with the game
• However, many locations will have snack vendors nearby; and please stock your vans with plenty of treats to tide you over

THINGS TO BRING

In addition to the standard Game/puzzling gear, we highly recommend bringing:

• warm clothes sufficient to keep you comfortable outside at 3 AM
• a way to play a cassette tape (preferably so that the whole team can listen); an in-dash car unit would be fine
• a method to access e-mail while on the road (such as a smartphone with a data connection)
• at least one laptop that can play videos & sound (bright enough and loud enough that the whole team can view & hear), with wifi internet capability
• a phone with a good speaker, so that GC can talk to the entire team at once
• at least one Android-enabled device that can run apps and play audio, preferably with headphones
• maps or other navigational devices - we will not provide directions to most locations, only addresses and/or cross streets
• money for parking (quarters!)

and, of course,

• your brilliant, brainy, adventurous, creative, playful spirits!

THINGS NOT TO BRING

• Our first venue - the location of Trenchwood Institute - has one strong requirement: don't bring any peanuts or peanut-containing substances into the location (some of their regular users have severe peanut allergies).

THINGS TO DO BEFORE THE GAME

• Print out the attached waiver and completely fill it out before the game
• Fill out the online Trenchwood Security Badge form if you have not already done so

Thanks from the Doctor When GC!

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).