2.13 Consolidation 2

Status

::FINAL-READY::

Location

Name And Address: Paine Memorial High School Gymnasium, actually gymnasium, Highlands Rec Center, 1851 Lexington Ave. San Mateo

Parking: Free lot

Bathroom: Yes

Food: No

GC PoC: Erik & Melissa

Type

Mandatory Puzzle

Plot Setup

• All evidence of Trenchwood Institute and its timeline has mysteriously disappeared.
• Peach Frontier Laboratories has taken its place
• Iconoclast scientist Prof. Chronos has attempted to demonstrate her time machine before an audience of VIPs.
• But it malfunctioned causing Prof. Chronos to bounce randomly through time
• The players have fixed the time machine
• The players have figured out that she wanted to be sent to 5/31/1986 at 2:15 PM. Doctor When chose to send her to Paine Memorial High School.
• For some unknown reason, Prof. Chronos needs the combination to a school locker sent to her; the players have uncovered this combination and given it to Doctor When back in the Lab to send to her
• Doctor When has sent the visitors to the school gym to watch Prof. Chronos finally get rescued. Apparently it's the location of some sort of chronotonic nexus where many different timelines intersect...which means it gets excellent View-O-Scope reception.

Props

• 19 copies of the "arrive early" note: http://www.weihwa.com/~whuang/nodir/doctorwhen/consolidator-2-notes.pdf
• 16 or 17 copies of the Peach Frontier versions of each role puzzle
• Staff instructions for role puzzles overall and each role puzzle (from Act I)
• Sound system (including microphones)
• Videos of Act II, Scenes 4 & 5
• 16 or 17 copies of local restaurant suggestions
• Lab coat (should already have from previous site)
• Peach Frontier Laboratories name badge and lanyard (should already have from previous site)
• 90 blank Chronomentometer grids (approximately 5 per team)
• Any leftover Chronomentometer design kits
• Projector
• Screen
• Wei-Hwa and his laptop and his phone and a USB cable for tethering Assistant for Wei-Hwa (if possible)
• 2 copies of Act II lab assistant skit

Plot Point to Convey

Once all the chronomentometers are fixed, Prof. Chronos can safely be returned to the present-day lab.

Short Description

Final fixes before Prof. Chronos can be returned to the present.

Open Time Period

Sunday, approximately 5:24 AM - 7:30 AM

Staff Instructions

Your Role: Lab assistants at Peach Frontier Laboratories.

What To Wear: lab coat + Peach Frontier Laboratories name badge

What Your Character Knows:

• The Gym is a chronotonic nexus.
• Everything in Plot Setup, except
  • You do not know the stuff about Trenchwood Institute
  • You do not know that the numbers the visitors asked Doctor When to Prof. Chronos are a locker combination

Puzzles At This Site:

• Restaurant Coupon
• All role puzzles
• Extra chronomentometers

Where To Get Materials: GC HQ

Setup Instructions:

• Call GC when you arrive (so we know you are setting up)
• Set up props
• Set up G.R.O.S.S. display
• Set up A/V system for skit and showing the video
• Call GC when you are ready for teams

Handout Instructions: The main activity at the gym is to watch the remaining Act II videos at 8:30 AM. Teams that arrive before then (should be all of them!) have a choice -- they can either stick around and work on optional puzzles, or they can take a break and (if they wish) come back at 8:30 to watch the videos. If they don't come back at 8:30, we'll e-mail them the View-O-Scope code. Regardless all teams should reconvene at 9 AM at the lab.

If team arrives before 8:15 AM then say something like:

Great to see you. Unfortunately although we got the View-O-Scope working well enough for you to watch Prof. Chronos in 1986, the rest of the machine isn't yet able to send that strange series of numbers back to her. If you're up to it, you can help us with the final repairs. But you also look sort of tired, so you're welcome to take a break and do whatever you want until we have it fixed. At our current rate we expect to have the machine fixed at 8:30am; at that point, if you're here, we'll send back those numbers and we can all watch the View-O-Scope. Here's a message from Doctor When about that.

Hand them the "explanation" letter.

Restaurant Coupon cut-off time is (approximately) 7:10 AM -- if a team arrives before then, give them the Restaurant Coupon puzzle. Otherwise, give them remaining role puzzles.

There is no role puzzle cut-off time.

If they're out of role puzzles, say:

Thanks so much for doing that. I think the only thing left is to get all those chronomentometers fixed. But you've done so much already, I hesitate to ask you to fix more of them... but then again, you're so talented at doing that and we still have a lot left to repair, and the lab boys are getting better at fixing them. So, if you want, you can take a break, or you can help us fix the remaining ones. There are more Chronomentometer Restricted Arrangement Particulars available on the G.R.O.S.S. system.

• Do lab assistant skit (see attached script)
• Show videos

Then say words to the effect of

Hooray, you've rescued Professor Chronos! Unfortunately we've had to cancel the reception at the museum because of our...technical difficulties. Instead please just return to the lab for debriefing.

Hold it...there's a bit of residual tachyonic radiation at the lab...probably wouldn't cause cranial warts. Why don't you just let it die down a bit. Give the lab about 10 minutes, then head over there.

Site Close Down:

• Pack up A/V equipment
• Return your name badge(s) and lanyard to GC HQ at the end of your shift

Other Instructions:

• Stay in character.
• Except ... if a team says "time out," break character and help them.

Detailed Description

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

There are a maximum of 40 puzzles per team (640 puzzles in week 1, 680 puzzles in week 2) available. Initially, only 10 puzzles per team are "broken" (160 puzzles in week 1, 170 puzzles 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://peachfrontier.com/cmm/gross.html

The admin console is at: http://peachfrontier.com/cmm/nimda.html

The display dashboard is at: http://peachfrontier.com/cmm/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.

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.

How To Give To Teams

(No longer using this script...see Staff Instructions for in-person dialog.)

Thank God you're here. Just a few hours ago we discovered that the damage to the chronomentometers was much more extensive than we thought; apparently while the four chronomentometers were out of commission (thank you for repairing that, by the way) the extra load on the time machine translated to extra stress and soon more of the chronomentometers blew up. And of course that created a positive feedback loop so soon...

(early teams) ...things are going to get really out of hand if we don’t enough help soon. (later teams) …things got really out of hand, so we need as much help as we can get.

So we’re calling in all the stops. We’ve got you, all the other guests you saw at the Grand Unveiling, as well as teams from all over the country -- Journalists, Scientists, Government Officials, Investors. And of course the lab assistants back at Trenchwood are working on this heavily as well.

I don’t have any experience managing groups this large, so we did a quick web search for “gross repair operations,” and the first thing we found was this management software called “Gross Repair Operations Supervision System,” so I’m trying to learn how to use that. Since you’ve been so excellent at repairing things, consider yourself a repair crew now!

Let’s see... I’m supposed to give you this User’s Manual, this login sheet, and, ah yes, you’ve been assigned to a bunch of TASCs. You know, you are totally looking like you've used this software before, so I'm just going to let you get to it.

I have a very good feeling that if we can just get all the chronomentometers working again, we’ll finally be able to get the Professor back. Thanks again for all your help.

Manager

Wei-Hwa

Hints

Ask teams what they have done, probing details if necessary (often this will get a team unstuck by themselves).

Response to Correct Answer

n/a; see Staff Instructions