Rules

APP4: Auburn Puzzle Patrol Rules

Competition Date and Times

• The competition will take place on Saturday, October 30, 2010.
• Check-in takes place at City Hall (also known as Parker Hall on Auburn University’s Campus) from 9:30-9:45am.
• Orientation will begin at 10:00am in City Hall.  After Orientation, Teams will be dismissed to begin the competition.
• The competition ends at 8:00pm.  After that point no more challenges will be allowed to be completed, and no more points can be earned.
• A reception will be held at City Hall at 8:15pm, at which point the winning Team will be announced.

Contact

Contact information for the Commissioner’s Staff will be available here on the day of competition.

• (contact for the APP4 characters is no longer available)

Locations

• City Hall (Parker Hall – http://auburn.edu/map/?id=89)
• Commissioner’s Headquarters (Mell Hall – http://auburn.edu/map/?id=78)

Objective

The City of Auburn is looking for a talented group of superheroes to become the first ever Auburn Puzzle Patrol! To find out which team is worthy, a Commissioner has been appointed to organize a competition taking place on October 30, 2010. By completing certain challenges that the Commissioner has set out, each team will earn points. At the end of the day, the team with the most points will become the Auburn Puzzle Patrol and win the game!

Teams

See the Teams page for team-building rules.

The Puzzle Patrol Console

Central to APP4 is the new Puzzle Party Console, or rather, the Puzzle Patrol Console. The Console is an online system which organizes all the challenges your team needs to overcome during the day. Your puzzles are displayed in a grid format. Typically, a team can attempt to solve an unlocked puzzle, which will either have as its final solution a location where a Puzzle Patrol Badge can be found, or a six-character alphanumeric (non-case sensitive) Puzzle Patrol Badge Code itself. Either way, the code from the Puzzle Patrol Badge should be entered into the console, which typically “solves” that puzzle and unlocks all adjacent puzzles. In addition, for entering a correct code, a team will usually earn points, in addition to certain meta information pertinent to the story.

There are 16 “main” puzzles in APP4: four Easy puzzles worth 100 points each, eight Medium puzzles worth 250 points each, and four Hard puzzles worth 500 points each. In addition, there are four “Boss” puzzles which are worth a whopping 1000 points apiece. Needless to say, teams will want to solve these Boss puzzles, but what that entails waits to be seen… There are a few other challenges which award points throughout the day as well.

It’s important to know that all time limits and rewards for puzzles are displayed in the Console from the beginning of the day, even for puzzles which are currently locked. Teams can see what paths they can take to reach a puzzle, and even what category each puzzle falls in. Only the name and description of a particular puzzle is hidden until it is unlocked by a team. Team Captains are advised to manage their Team’s efforts well in order to maximize the amount of points earned throughout the day.

It’s important to note that you should not attempt to game the system by entering in random Codes or “guesses” in order to solve puzzles.  A 9-point penalty will be assessed for every incorrect entry. Some special fake badges will penalize teams for even more points. In addition, a Puzzle Patrol Badge Code will only be considered valid if the appropriate puzzle is unlocked. So if you happen across a Puzzle Patrol Badge by chance during your journeys… make a note of it, but wait until you know you’ve unlocked its appropriate puzzle before you try to enter it into the Console.

Chain of Evidence

In order to keep any possible crime scenes preserved, it’s important that all Heroes do not take any evidence from a location during the competition.  You’ll need to take down notes yourself, take photographs, etc.  This includes the Puzzle Patrol Badges.

Unless, of course, there is some sign which says “Take One” on the scene, in which case there should be copies of the evidence for each team, and you may take one item for your own team.

Hints

In addition to the Commissioner, a mysterious character only known as the Butler will be there to guide you through the competition. Unlike the Commissioner, the Butler is only there to help the Teams in solving Puzzles by offering Hints when asked. For a few points, typically half of the puzzle’s value, the Butler will give you his input on a particular challenge. There’s no shame in getting help now and again, but remember, this is a competition! The more Hints you take, the further behind in the rankings you risk falling to.

Hints are requested from and sent by contacting the Butler via Google Talk. His email address will be revealed during Orientation and will then be made available here.  Once you enlist the Butler’s help on a particular puzzle, your Team’s score will be deducted by half of that puzzle’s worth.

You’ll need to describe the puzzle to the Butler so he can catch up to where you are.  You may then either ask for a confirmation of a guess or an original hint.  If Butler realizes you have an incorrect assumption about a puzzle, Butler may be able to help set your team straight as well.

Whenever Butler provides input helping your team solve a puzzle, he’ll be stumped and have to think over the puzzle more before he can help you again.  You may contact him again after 15 minutes, at which point he’ll help you further (at no further cost).

Butler can only help your team with one puzzle at a time, so you can spend points to get his help on another puzzle; however, he will not help you with the older puzzle any further.

Errata/Vandalism/Clarifications

We hope that there will be absolutely no mistakes whatsoever in Auburn Puzzle Party 4. However, if your team ever suspects that there is a game-breaking mistake in a puzzle, or that a clue in the field has been vandalized, your Captain should contact Steven Clontz at the phone number given to you at Orientation and he’ll make it right.  In addition, contact Steven in the case of any emergency.

You may also ask the Commissioner for clarifications if you feel it stems from an error in the puzzle or some unintended ambiguity, but otherwise you’ll likely need to enlist the help of the Butler for hints.  You may also always contact the Commissioner for any clarifications on these rules.

Puzzle Rumble

Of course, this is just a friendly competition between superheroes to see who will become the first Auburn Puzzle Patrol. That said, you never know what unexpected twists might arrive come the day of the event. It’s safe to say that only Teams who are talented in the ways of Puzzle Rumble will be victorious in this competition. While the official rules of Puzzle Rumble won’t be revealed until the day of the competition, we will tell you that it’s similar to Superhero Rumble.

For more information on Puzzle Rumble, the Informant is your best source.  Informant will be available later during the day of competition to assist teams in preparing for any Rumble they’ll need to take part in.

Tiebreaker

In the unlikely event of a tie, the decision goes to the Commissioner.  Teams are asked to photograph/video their adventures and send them to the Commissioner at commissioner@auburnpuzzlepatrol.com throughout the day.  The team that takes the best photos of all teams tied for the most amount of points will win the competition.

Team Requirements and Recommendations

Each Team is required to take care of the following:

• Each Team must have a Headquarters somewhere in Auburn to serve as a home base for the competition.
• Your Headquarters needs to have at least one computer with internet in order to access the Puzzle Patrol Console.  (Testing was done with Firefox on both Windows and Mac.)
• The Team must have access to a Google Talk (Gmail) account to contact the Commissioner, Butler, and Informant.
• The Team must have transportation to and from Auburn University’s campus from their Headquarters (if their HQ is off-campus) and around Auburn city.

Of course, we have a few recommendations to add to these:

• When planning your Team, make sure you have at least one Hero familiar with Auburn’s campus and surrounding area. Many of the puzzles (but not all) require some knowledge of the local area, so out-of-town Heroes might have trouble with some puzzles.
• In addition, grabbing a teammate who is a student or employee of Auburn University may come in useful, although we are doing our best to ensure it’s not required.  For example, on-campus internet is available only to those with a University ID.
• Teams whose Headquarters are on campus will have a slight advantage in some puzzles, as well as improving access to City Hall and the Commissioner’s Headquarters. We recommend teams with connections to campus find a headquarters on campus, and other teams look into restaurants/businesses with a decent internet connection nearby.
• The following technological gadgets are incredibly helpful for a team to have for the competition:
  • Wi-Fi Internet
    • Most locations on campus have Wi-Fi for AU students and employees.
  • Laptops
    • All websites are tested in Firefox and Chrome, which are available for any OS worth using. No programs in particular are required to be run for this Puzzlehunt. Macs and PCs were used in planning this event.
  • Cell phones
    • Teams with access to smart phones like the iPhone and Android-based phones have a distinct advantage in the field over their feature phone counterparts.
  • Digital cameras
  • Printers/Scanners
• Some puzzles will send you out into the field. You will never leave the Auburn city limits; however, the Commissioner and staff cannot give any further clues as to whether the location you’re scouting out is correct or not. Teams who can split up in multiple vehicles will find they have an advantage.
• Some more useful items that are commonly recommended include:
  • A directional compass
  • Common office supply items
  • Graph paper
• Feel free to prepare any lists of codes or other resources you think might come in handy before the day of the event too! Maybe we won’t use Semaphor, or maybe EVERY PUZZLE will require Semaphor. Who knows?!
• Finally, be sure to keep checking these rules for updates up until the day of the event.