Debrief from Game Week 1

Loose collection of amusing anecdotes, hitches to fix, etc.

Pre-game Setup

Silly Hat Brigade: "we felt there wasn't a lot of tie back to our role as journalists while acting. This doesn't need to be a puzzle tie-in. Maybe during the presentations have a press seating section in front and take some questions (possibly prompted) while waiting for teams to setup? Maybe take the financiers aside around the same time and calmly explain to them why you still need more money. I felt some dissonance that you were asking our journalist crew to solve science problem after science problem, and we had to drop our characters to go along with it, rather than asking for someone to interview, pressing for backstory, or doing something more in-character."

Wei-Hwa: Folders say "ACT I", "ACT II", etc. This spoiled the Judean GNUs, if not other teams.

Solution: New labeling codes agreed by GC core: "Trench", "Peach", "Wood".

Act 1 Registration

We definitely need photos of each team, for the Apple II payoff at the very end. It worked great for week 1, we weren't missing any photos, and the teams that got to see it loved it. Traffic flow in getting the photos was a problem, especially when it had to be repeated for Act 3. If we collect them later, like after they solve Core Dump1, we'll need to think up a justification that feels as natural as registration. Maybe, "before sending you out, we'll need a photograph so we can prep our field agents for your arrival." -Sean

Agreed. After Core Dump 1 would be ideal as there's some reasonable spread there, and it happens differently in Act III. The trickiness is that this requires a script change from Kristina, or a guard at the door. I have updated the Mission Dossier handout (for a "pull"), but we should decide which of the two "push" systems we want. -- Wei-Hwa

Solution: do it both Act 1 and Act 3, just streamlined.

Co-Keypad 1

Wei-Hwa: One team asked if it was possible to have USB sticks with the CD contents on them, because they didn't listen to us and forgot to bring a machine with a CD-ROM drive (!).

Solution: Wei-Hwa will email equipment reminder, and Sean may provide USB sticks also.

Wei-Hwa: Silly Hat Brigade said "Our team was told that the co-keypads would be a good time to get lunch. I was waiting in the car, so this is second hand, but the other three of the Hats all got that impression from something said verbally."

Solution: rephrase mission directives to say "snack" instead of "food.

Wei-Hwa: One team said that they only got one copy of the blank co-keypad sheet. WTF? The Staff Instructions say clearly to give out three. Possibly we should just fold the sheets and stuff them into the keypad baggies.

CYOA

Wei-Hwa: "suggest strongly that people going to the Haight park in that lot rather than circling around hoping for a miracle that would get them street parking"

Wormhole

Silly Hat Brigade felt they were "still working on the same puzzle for an hour after the fun was gone" on this one. -- Wei-Hwa

Fabric of Time

Did we give them all out? did we have enough, or run out too soon? did the strips stay glued well enough, or do we need better glue for next week? -Sean

Wei-Hwa: Team sez: There were a few historical events in Time Fabric that didn't seem to be 100% true when they were treated as such. The one that sticks out is the one about "When You Wish Upon A Star" winning an Oscar in 1940. While the song did win, and was written for a 1940 film, the award was presented in 1941.

Sean: Darn, I guess that's my ignorance about awards ceremonies. All web sources I found stated "the 1940 Academy Awards", does that mean they were given out the following year? Maybe there's a way to rephrase it. For puzzle logic, this item has to remain 1940.

Fetch The Letter Part 1

Wei-Hwa: One team reported that the archeologists sent them to Crazy Tracy, and Crazy Tracy sent them to the archeologists -- apparently they never got the voucher until they had bounced back a couple of times.

How did it go? was anyone confused or frustrated about what they were supposed to do? did they enjoy the grabber challenge? -Sean

Dwight: The teams seemed to enjoy the grabber challenge. I was quite lenient about how they accomplished it.

Wei-Hwa: One team reported getting confused about the flavor text saying that Crazy Tracy was "one block over". If there's such a line there, it needs to be changed.

The script only said "over there" -- I'll amend it to be clearer they should give specific directions. -Sean

Dwight: there was some confusion between Crazy Tracy's script and the physical layout. C.T. has two possible interactions: for teams without coupon, he quotes crazy prices and won't sell anything; after determining that the teams want an envelope, he sends them to the archaeologists. For teams with a coupon, he lets them grab what they want. In the setup as it was at the sports store, essentially all teams encounter the archaeologists first, and get a coupon. Hence there is no opportunity for price haggling. If this is considered to be a desirable component of the site, then C.T. should be placed where he is accosted first.

The price haggling was a fail-safe if they showed up in reverse order, I'm actually glad you didn't need to employ it. -Sean

Role Puzzles

Wei-Hwa: I needed more information on the spreadsheet than just "given puzzle, solved puzzle." Specifically, timing information would have been very useful. New version is updated to my desired specs, but documentation still needs to be changed.

Wei-Hwa: Based on our week 1 data, I'd like to give out up to two Role Puzzles at this location. No team really ran out of role puzzles in week 1 so I think the risk is low that they'll run out in week 2. This requires a bit of a paradigm shift -- teams will get puzzles that they won't actually finish before the end of the act. Is that okay?

Solution: Yes.

Wei-Hwa: Teams in the back had a hard time hearing the presentation. We'll need to remind everyone to stand up and crowd a little bit closer.

Advipper: We felt the time-zone puzzle at Schroeders was backwards in terms of how we converted to Pacific time. It ended up being just a giant "here's 3 things, {#,time-zone,Pacific-time-modifier which we thought should be -8} and do random plus/minus on these terms until you get something meaningful". In particular I felt like we wanted to add all the things but instead subtracted the Pacific modifier which felt random.

Solution: That team misinterpreted the instructions and hints.

Act 1 Finale

Wei-Hwa: One team suggested that we remove all the driving around, just have puzzles at the lab, and eliminate Act II entirely, just give them time to sleep between Saturday night and Sunday morning. I recommend we completely ignore this feedback, but, you know, I'm logging it here anyway.

Act 2 Setup

Wei-Hwa: I need to figure out a cleaner way to reset the websites from the school because of proxy issues. Unfortunately that means I need to hang around and diddle with configurations while at the school.

Registration Maze

Wei-Hwa: Having people start over because someone else screwed up really sucks. Hopefully I'll be on hand this time so that I can "roll-back" the forms that are invalid.

Solution: policy change in staff instructions, don't require starting over. Staffers who don't know how it works should bring it to someone else on site who does. Wei-Hwa, as team lead, responsible to train them in this.

Allen: even more encouragement to teams who already solved to help out others who are slower.

Invalid Permits

Wei-Hwa: Two teams were grumpy at not having noticed the handwriting earlier. (This makes me happy, I expected more teams to be outright grumpy.) One suggested more hints when the packets were given out; another wanted hints to be a bit earlier or the puzzle to be earlier. Shrug. I can be a bit more aggressive with hinting the slower teams, I guess -- depends on how the bunching happened at Art History?

Chronomentometer 1

This is really a comment on the Optional Chronomentometers:

Judean GNUs: "The Act II optional tasks weren't in their own email, as they were in Act I, and we missed them entirely. This made us sad in retrospect, because the first four of those puzzles were really fun. Our team members who were not super gung ho about heavy logic puzzles liked the difficulty level and style of solving. More of them would have made us happier."

Mix Tape

No troubles here. Both tape decks got loaned out, glad we had them and that they worked fine. Also had 2 CDs on hand, just in case, but didn't need them. Might burn a couple more for extra safety next weekend. -Sean

Art History

Heard from Crissy that the owner was kinda grumpy, but didn't show up until the very end, so players only saw his very pleasant staff. Crissy buttered him up by telling him most of these people live locally, and how they had commented on what a great find it was, never knew it was here, etc. Seemed to mollify him. -Sean

Apparently Judean GNUs were NOT given the transcript -- bad mistake! Staff members need to give out printed transcript! -- Wei-Hwa

Fix the View-O-Scope

From Sharkbait: Try to improve internal GC communication. More than once early on, we'd call in an answer and get sent to the next location, only to have another staff member call us a short time later asking for an update on what we were doing. It made us feel like we were doing something wrong, taking too much time, or something similar. Also, after the pretentious art show, we were directed to the third clock shop, found some teams there, and were told that GC has just left. It took us several minutes of waiting and multiple phone calls with GC to get us redirected to the subsequent puzzle. I assume this was just issues with the phone or team tracking systems you were using, but anything you could do to improve that would make it appear to go much more smoothly from the teams' standpoint.

Locker Combo

Hitch during setup, players beat me to the site. Someone else should be assigned to set up the gym banner and clock, so I can go straight to principal's office. -Sean

Locate the missing Kobe Bryant poster. Might be at the bottom of the bin, I was expecting a poster roll and didn't dig under stuff that looked like playtest remnants. -Sean

Handled wide variety of expectations with creative role-play. Bottlenecked a couple times, kicked out teams after 5 minutes if someone was waiting. No more than 2 teams ever waiting at a time. Had to nerf it for final 5 teams, wrote the missing combo right on the sheet -- they didn't seem to mind. Too tired to think straight anyway, and still enjoyed hunting around the room, with incremental prodding from me as needed. Next week, need a more solid plan of what time to begin nerfing. -Sean

Transition to 1986 had hitches. No time for me to tear it down before Act 2 conclusion, and Deanna needed my help setting it up for Act 3 at the last minute. Let's get this more clearly assigned and spelled out in the instructions; post-its on the materials weren't sufficient alone. -Sean

DavidG: I got several calls at GC asking for specific hints, but the wiki has no info about the solution. I also tried to uphold that the lab isn't supposed to know about this mission, though some players wanted confirmation that it was in fact the mission. This led to some difficult calls. For example:

• Team: "Hi, we're trying to figure out the locker combination from the school, and we've tried a lot of things, but we were wondering if you could point us in the right direction."
• Me: [Goes to the wiki, no info! Can't have any "insights".] "Hmm, I don't know anything about locker combinations, but what do you have so far?"
• "Well, we have a list of old master locker combinations that only go back to 1987, and we think we're supposed to find some kind of pattern that will tell us what the one from 1986 is, but we're not sure. Does that sound right?"
• "From what you've said, that sounds reasonable. Where are you now?" [trying to figure out if I can send them to Sean]
• "In the parking lot."
• "Of the school? What school is it?"
• "Um, what was it... Something Memorial... Paine Memorial High School"
• "And where did you get the locker combinations?"
• "The principal's office."
• "Well, maybe if you went back there, you might run into a janitor who would know something."
• "We actually got the list from the janitor, and he said he didn't know anything."
• "I think you should head back to the principal's office and see if he does."

Another team called and immediately said, "Time out. We have a list of locker combinations, and we think it's the puzzle -- is it the puzzle?"

I think I fielded at least 5 calls about Locker Combo, from different teams working from the parking lot, so there should be hints, a solution on the wiki, and/or a protocol for when a team calls. I could feign total ignorance so that they are forced to seek out the janitor, but that doesn't work if they aren't sure they're doing the right thing in the first place.

Sean: AH, right! I will update the wiki, with both lab roleplay instructions and puzzle details. Thanks for the reminder, David.

Role Puzzle(s)

DavidG: I took a call from a team that solved a role puzzle, and it was a challenge to handle. Someone else in my place might not have figured out what to say. This was at 6am Sunday morning and I was the only phone-answerer on duty.

• Team: "Doctor When needs to check his Fermi decouplers!"
• Me: [completely perplexed] "Um, why do you say that?"
• "We found this story called..." [I forget the title, and it is NOT on the wiki! But since I play-tested Pulp Fiction, I guessed this was it. I frantically pulled up the event page.]
• [reading from the script] "Gosh, you're right! I just checked them, and they were blown out. I'm so glad you called..." [etc etc]

Sean: I just renamed that wiki page to "Intense Secrets", to help with this specific one.

Role puzzles are comparatively obscure, so ideally there would be a cheat-sheet of them or something.

Also, with the tracking spreadsheet, I don't think a team working on role puzzle X was ever listed as working on puzzle X.

Chronomentometer 2

The lab assistants had the highest score at the end. I thought they were supposed to make an early showing, then get trounced by the teams, for victory morale. Sod the total count, let the machine start working at 50% capacity or something -- let the teams feel triumph! -Sean

We should discuss more of the display and psychology at the meeting. The problem is that (at least in week 1) teams were not nearly solving as many optional keypads/chronomentometers for the competition to be even close to meaningful. -- Wei-Hwa

Timing

Wei-Hwa: There's some different sorts of timing information and issues regarding this area. Team Briny Deep seemed grumpy that they had two short naptime breaks with a video in between and would have preferred one long break and a private video. GEE felt that they weren't informed well as to how long they'd be at this location. The concept of skipping the breakfast break and jumping straight to Act III has been bandied about on the Facebook group. I have sent out an e-mail poll asking the teams in general.

Act 2 Finale

Big complaints (via Facebook) about double-stall. Best proposed solution I've heard so far is to inform early teams there will be a break between acts, and ask if they'd prefer to wait and see it together or watch it independently on DVD and take a longer uninterrupted break. -Sean

Act 3 Setup

One player (from Futility Investment) commented how much he enjoyed seeing Tiresias demoted back to the "corded cordless vacuum" (as Thomas dubbed it) after such close interaction during act II. -Sean

Calibration Redux

There were three teams that were told to go directly to the school from mission training, instead of going through the time machine. Nobody should skip the time machine! -Ellen

Wei-Hwa: The mission dossier and the pamphlet at the same time is a bit too overwhelming, especially right before the fast-paced board game. Not sure what to do about that.

Wei-Hwa: Mission dossier needs a MAP to PMHS!

Wei-Hwa: There was a crapload of miscommunication and bunched-up teams and missing stuff that happened here. I think what we really need is that the GC members who are handling this need not just a staff instruction sheet, but also a checklist where they can actually make sure every single thing is done. We also need a LOT more GC staff members to do this because of bunching issues (I think 5 is barely enough and 6 is ideal). Here's a quick draft of what I'd put in the checklist:

• Make sure that teams have the entire Yearbook 1 message.
• Tell the teams that the Machine needs to be recalibrated.
• Go with them through the video until they answer "Before the French Revolution".
• Play the video of Doctor When in 1986.
• Lead them through the skit of them convincing you that they have to go back to 1986. Don't rush this, because part of the process is that they have to realize the location of the envelope and newspaper.
• Make sure they know about the archway colors.
• Make sure they know about what to bring back (no heavy stuff like tape players, but absolutely do bring the Yearbook pieces). Make them give a list of what they're going to bring.
• Make sure they know about the ban on communication devices (photographs are okay, just no Internet).
• Give them the mission dossier and the pamphlet.
• Ask for the CD back if you lent it to them.
• Tell them to go through Chrononaut Rapid Acclimation Protocol...
• ... and then go to the time machine! Emphasize this.

Mission Training

Should we allow cameras in 1986? It would alleviate congestion at the dumpster, and also Presidents and lunch. -Sean

See note above. -- Wei-Hwa

Time Machine/Tunnel Experience

Are we going to do the tunnel in the classroom the same way this weekend? I thought it worked pretty well, though it would be nice to have the door into the classroom closed, if possible. - Ellen

When one team, I think it was the Judean GNUs, went into the time machine, we closed the door and started the effects sequence, and they all started screaming like they were on a rollercoaster. Pretty funny :) -Ellen

Detention

Wei-Hwa: Lots of feedback from teams who were totally fooled by the SAT test and didn't realize it was a puzzle and not an actual SAT test -- hence teams throwing paper airplanes and spitballs. Need to find some way to indicate to teams that this isn't just "Invalid Permits" all over again. Post-It notes on page 2 from Tiresias?

Wei-Hwa: One team pointed out that the spacing on the Dance sheet matched up with the SAT answer sheet extremely nicely -- but that's a total red herring, of course.

Wei-Hwa: Some feedback from teams about detention being demoralizing and a momentum hit.

Wei-Hwa: Awful lot of crowding at three locations -- Detention, TRASH, and Yearbook. But not all at the same time. I'd like to make these three tasks more non-linear, if we can make that happen.

Dance

GEE: "Please be sure to hand out dance cards (seems Coach and Buffy thought the other was doing this)."

T.R.A.S.H.

This puzzle made a lot of teams rather grumpy. Part of the problem was the crowding, so that not enough teams could see the rules at the same time. Apparently Debbie wasn't immediately handing out the copy of the poster? Another part is that it's not exactly a great "tired hours" puzzle. I am not sure what we can do about that; possibly simplify the maze a bit so that there's fewer branch points? One idea I had was to make another poster or two, would that help? -- Wei-Hwa

Yearbook 2

Wei-Hwa: Too many teams, not enough copies of the poster. One team had a suggestion which was to give out copies of it. I remember that Thomas stopped giving out the workbook because he felt that teams were trying to turn that into another layer of puzzle. I'm now thinking that perhaps we can have workbooks with a small copy of the top part on it, and have the answers FILLED IN.

From Judean GNUs: "actually, if you're okay with people not really solving it, we proved the final state more than an hour after we gave up on the maze. And the final state was all we were asked for. You could make it clear (if not in the instructions, perhaps in Volume I or Volume II) that all that is needed is the final state."

Lunch puzzle

Teams were confused when this puzzle showed up at the science fair instead of lunch. Not sure what we can really do about that. -- Wei-Hwa

Science Fair

Advipper: "We did not get any verbal communication from Tiresias at all, which was a shame."

Wash them sheets! They're filthy with diet coke. -Sean

Need an additional staffer to replace Sean as Ken's assistant, setting up coke/mentos rig. -Sean

Put the Apple II on the left wall, more easily visible from front door. Stay attentive to players entering, make sure they get plot closure. See if I can repair my other Apple II in time, and set them both up so the fortune teller can get twice the traffic. -Sean

Denoument

Don't send them out of the room after Buffy's last line, just start the party. Best suggestion I heard yet is to have Wesley and Catherine step outside and Buffy step into the machine, briefly turn off the lights to signal end of show, then have cast and crew line up for a quick bow / curtain call at the front. Then it's party and cake time. -Sean

Sean's suggestion sounds good to me! Maybe they can say "Get some cake and ice cream then join us out on the patio." -Ellen

Post-game Clean Up

Judean GNUs: " if teams could get the puzzles they missed at the endgame, that would be cool."