3.05 Yearbook (Jiffy Pop) Solve

Order

3.02

Status

::MOCKUP::

Location Status

Reserved

GC Point of Contact

Erik & Melissa

Location Notes

Doctor When's laboratory

Type

Mandatory Puzzle

Plot Setup

Deviation from the exact timeline of Act I causes Prof. Chronos to remember an old mystery that didn't occur to her last time. She presents the mystery for the players to solve.

Props

One physical puzzle baggie for each team.

Plot Point to Convey

The players are caught in a time loop -- of their own creation! To fix it they need to do something different than in Act 1. They need to take matters into their own hands, instead of merely waiting for Doctor When to return. They enlist Prof. Chronus help to carry out their mission.

Short Description

A puzzle that is a [Bootstrap Paradox]: The teams solve it, and then later have a hand in its creation.

Detailed Description

The basic concept behind this puzzle is that it needs to be a [Bootstrap paradox]: we call it the "Jiffy Pop" because the slogan for that brand of popcorn was "as fun to make as it is to eat." The team has to first solve the puzzle, and then later on in the Game realize that they need to help create it, sending it to the point in time when they received it. Hence, the puzzle has two stages -- "Stage A": Solving the puzzle, and "Stage B": Creating the puzzle. Ideally there is a lot of time (real-life-time, not story-time) between "Stage A" and "Stage B" for best dramatic effect.

Specifically, Catherine is reminded of an oddity she saw in the 1986 yearbook. It was a poem written on peculiar shapes. Thinking it might be a jigsaw, she and Wesley cut it up, but got nowhere with it. She offers it to the players to solve, and it yields an imperative message from the past to interfere with Wesley's letter.

Puzzle Answer

The "answer" is a series of messages, reading:

1) You're trapped in infinite loops unable to help them finally unite in happiness 2) To create a new future ending go back in time and revise the writing on the newspaper 3) The unused words will show you what to change

... with the "unused words" giving the message "Replace right with its opposite".

Players should therefore realize that they need to go back in time and change the word "right" to "left" on the newspaper that Doctor When put in his younger self's locker.

Puzzle Solution

Each piece has one or more times on it - 12:00, 2:05, 4:10, and so on.

There are two keys to assembling the pieces correctly. Note that words always read right-side-up.

1) Pieces with the same _minute_ reading form a rough circle, with their _hour_ components arranged like a clockface - 12:XX at the top, 2:XX in the upper right, 4:XX in the lower right, 6:XX at the bottom, 8:XX in the lower left, and 10:XX in the upper left.

2) Groups of pieces go in order of their _minute_ readings - :00, :05, :10, and so on up to :55 - from left to right, then top to bottom (just like a normal English printed page).

The resulting shape forms an hourglass pattern, with yellow "sand" trickling through the neck. (Note that a down triangle above an up triangle forms an hourglass as well.)

Having formed the correct pattern, you use the number pairs (x,y) on the pieces to find the three messages. Each message is associated with one orientation of the (x,y) pairs - one is oriented normally, one is slanted to the left, and one is slanted to the right.

"Read" the pieces from left to right and top to bottom until you find a number pair with the correct orientation, then find the word indicated: a number pair (x,y) says to take the xth word in the yth row in the hourglass shape. Now continue reading the pieces until you find another number pair with the correct orientation, and find that pair's indicated word.

The left-slanted number pairs give the message YOU'RE TRAPPED IN INFINITE LOOPS UNABLE TO HELP THEM FINALLY UNITE IN HAPPINESS. The non-slanted number pairs give the message TO CREATE A NEW FUTURE ENDING GO BACK IN TIME AND REVISE THE WRITING ON THE NEWSPAPER. The right-slanted number pairs give the message THE UNUSED WORDS WILL SHOW YOU WHAT TO CHANGE.

The only words that are not found in the above steps (i.e., the "unused words") are RIGHT, OPPOSITE, ITS, WITH, REPLACE, and these words have numbers 1-5 on them. Putting them in order gives REPLACE RIGHT WITH ITS OPPOSITE.

Manager

Eric L

Hints

- The pieces look like they fit together. (In fact, they do! This is a jigsaw puzzle.)

- The clock times look important. Try seeing how they might go together.

- The words have a consistent orientation (either up or down relative to the triangle), but the clock times are often slanted. However, 12:XX and 6:xx are never slanted. Does this mean anything?

- On a normal clockface, 12:00 and 6:00 aren't slanted either. Maybe the times mirror a clock somehow.

- Pick a minute reading (e.g., 12:15, 2:15, 4:15, etc.) and try to "assemble the clock", going in a circle.

- Some of your pieces will have other clock times. Assemble those too, and keep going until you're done.

- (Does the pattern look like anything? Maybe an hourglass?)

- The words don't make any sense read straight across. Maybe those number pairs mean something.

- Number pairs have different orientations. All the pairs with one orientation go together.

- The number pairs (x,y) have x from 1-7 and y from 1-8. The puzzle has up to 7 "columns" and 8 "rows".

- Reading number pairs in order (left to right, then top to bottom), take the Xth word in the Yth row.

- Note that X refers to the Xth "word". If a row only has three words in it, then (1,3) selects the 1st word in the row, even though that row is in the same "column" as the 3rd word in the top or bottom row.

- Common other ways to try to use the pairs to get messages: 1) trying to make a loop from one word to another (e.g., if the pair is (1,5), go to word (1,5), then find the number pair on that word, etc.) and 2) trying to reorient the coordinate system to match the orientation of the number pair. Good ideas, but not correct.

- The "unused words" are clearly those that haven't already been "used" by the messages.

- Once they get the correct messages, it's just a matter of making sure the players know what to do - go back in time and change the word "right" to "left" on Doctor When's envelope.

- If players think the messages seem slightly cryptic - remember that these messages had to be hidden in a yearbook entry. Something like GO BACK IN TIME AND CHANGE RIGHT TO LEFT ON DOCTOR WHEN'S ENVELOPE would have been far too obvious! (Though how the message got there in the first place is a mystery...)

Response to Correct Answer

See script, but: crucial to make sure teams understand what they need to do -

1) go back in time 2) get the envelope 3) change "right" to "left"

It's also crucial to make sure that teams take important things with them - recommended items include:

- Field equipment (codebooks, etc.) - Stuff relevant to 1986 that they've picked up along the way (the yearbook puzzle pieces; the mixtape and their cassette player couldn't hurt, either)

To Do

• Revise messages, reconstruct new puzzle grid

Other Notes

Players must retain the puzzle pieces to reuse at the end of the Game.

Early discussion

(preserved for reference; no longer relevant)

Other than the Jiffy Pop concept, we seem to have disagreements as to what form this puzzle should take. Part of the difficulty is that nobody has a specific idea for a prototype. There are currently three models being considered: the "Trick-Opening Box", the "Music Box", and the "Coded Time Capsule Message".

Right now the core team is mildly preferring the "Music Box" scenario, mostly as a compromise between coolness and feasibility. If someone can come up with an idea that actually can lead to a feasible puzzle, though, the other models would be fine, too.

"Trick-Opening Box"

The puzzle takes the form of a device. When the team first receives the puzzle, the message is hidden inside the device and "Stage A" is to get that message out of the device. For example, the device might be a trick-opening box, where you have to slide panels and tilt the box in certain ways before a secret drawer unlocks. The device has the property that even when one knows the method to opening it, one does not know how it is constructed or what the internal mechanisms of the puzzle are. Hence, when the team gets to Stage B, they now need to figure out how the device was constructed and construct it based on what they knew about the device.

"Music Box"

This puzzle is a mechanical device that emits a message. For example, a music box might emit a melody, or this device might emit a sequence of blinking lights, or a text message, or something else. The message is in code in some way, meaning that "Stage A" is a more traditional Game puzzle where the team just has to decode that message. In "Stage B", the team needs to assemble the device, which may include hunting for the parts, etc. This is different from the "Trick-Opening Box" scenario in that the way the device is assembled is not particularly hidden in "Stage A", it's just that it doesn't seem relevant to the teams, since they're focusing on solving the code.

"Coded Time Capsule Message"

Unlike the other two models, this puzzle does not take physical form. Instead, there is some sort of code "hidden in plain sight" on the time machine, where it is not obvious there is a code until the teams have certain knowledge. This code is visible to all the teams in Act I and Act III, but it is not visible in Act II. The "certain knowledge" is given to the teams in Act II. Hence, the idea is that an observant team might notice something odd in Act I, in Act II realize that they know how to decipher the code now but now don't have access to it, and in Act III they will be able to decode it ("Stage A"). When teams travel back in time to 1986, they insert the code onto an early prototype, ensuring that the code will be visible for their past selves to see in Act I.