Quick Info

START: 10am, 4 April 2009 (Sat)
END: Noon, 5 April 2009 (Sun)

START LOCATION: To Be Announced
END LOCATION: My House
Past Puzzle Parties

EPP 8 (= 2 + 6)

Well, I'm afraid I won't have a spectacularly thematic Puzzle Party as the pageant-themed one Mike & Kelly put together in Fall of 2008, but I'll try to make up for it with sheer volume. Actually, there will be a bit of a theme. Last Spring I latched onto an "egg" motif for some inexplicable reason... this time around I've settled on a rather Seasame Streetish idea:

My Eighth Puzzle Party will be brought to us by the number "26"!

You'll find this number crop up in several ways, the most obvious being that this Puzzle Hunt will be 26 hours long. That's right, 26 hours long. Several players have requested that I design a longer Party/Hunt, and I figure that for those people who drive in from out of town for these shindigs, why not keep 'em busy the whole time?
Name Value
Any 1st-timer 2
Zac Aldewereld 4
Daniel Auchenpaugh 3
Katie Baldwin 3
Cayce Bean 3
Danny Belu 4
Edward Boudreaux 5
Mark Brady 7
Leshay Brannan 3
Leah Brannan 3
Scott Brown 4
Tracy Cobbs 7
Carmen Coleman 3
Josh Coleman 3
Rachael Counselman 3
Chad Counselman 3
Abby Creel 3
John Creel 3
Harry David 3
Blake Dayton 3
Deborah Few 3
Robert Ford 5
Jimmy Fordham 3
Michael Francis 4
Bob Gillis 5
Marsha Gillis 5
Dan Gillis 3
Megan Grace 4
Gina Greiwe 3
Adam Gullatte 3
Adam Hajari 4
Katie Hammond 4
Audrey Hammonds 4
Tim Hardwick 5
Eric Harshbarger 4
Linda Harshbarger 3
Dean Hoffman 3
Sarah Holiday 3
Kelly Hollingsworth 5
Blane Hollingsworth 5
Mike Hollingsworth 5
Heath Hopkins 4
Scott Ingram 4
Christy Jansen 3
Marshall Jansen 3
Trent Kinnucan 4
Sarah Kraynak 3
Eric Larsen 4
Jason Lewis 3
Jennifer Lewis 3
Henry Lim 4
Sean Lowery 3
Joe Mantler 5
David Mason 4
Kristie Mason 4
Tracy McClure 3
Naomi McCormick 3
Paul McCormick 3
Morgan McElwee 3
John Middleton 3
Big Al Miller 3
Harry Newburn 3
Emily Norman 4
Kimberly Nunes-Bufford 3
David Plaxco 3
Mitch Plaxco 3
Scott Richardson 3
Steve Rowe 3
Chip Self 3
Christine Senger 3
Betty Senger 3
Dane Seward 3
Bill Sherling 5
Dorothy Sherling 4
Miller Sherling 3
Mark Spencer 3
Billy Symon 3
Andrew Thomas 3
Jenny Thomas 3
Courtney Tytler 3
Megan Vaughn 3
Bill Vascocu 3
Robert Voitle 3
Lee Warshaw 3
Will Whatley 3
Sharon Yarborough 4
Kishan Yerubandi 4
Jimmy Yeung 4

So, this Puzzle Hunt will start at 10 AM on Saturday, 4 April 2009, and "time" will be called at noon the next day, Sunday, 5 April.

Teams will be on their own the whole time... responsible for their own meals, any sleep they may want to catch, and where to establish their "headquarters". The Hunt will not start at my house as has been tradition in the past. Closer to the Puzzle-Day, instructions will be given to teams as to where they should be at 10 o'clock on Saturday morning. This will be a "hunt" variety of party, meaning that teams should be prepared to travel about Auburn looking for more puzzles and clues. All typical resources will be allowed (Internet access, code sheets, laptops, cellphones, and such).

Teams

Team formation rules will be similar to ones most recently used (they seem to be doing a good job of encouraging teams to find new members while still allowing veteran players to form core groups). Basically, a team member will be worth a number of Points toward team formation (the player's worth is based upon past participation and whether or not he or she has won past parties or hunts). New players are worth 2 Points, and anyone else (who has already been to a past party) is worth 3 Points plus the number of wins or trophies he or she has accumulated. A summary of players' values is given to the right. I am basing it upon this spreadsheet which I have been trying to maintain accurately for all parties (if you notice something wrong about the information, please let me know). Players who are traveling to Auburn from outside the Auburn/Opelika area have their cost reduced by 1 Point (this reduction is not reflected in the chart at right).

The total number of Points that a team may accommodate for players is, you guessed it, 26. This total should allow for slightly larger teams than in the past. This is purposeful as I expect there will be many teammates who will not be willing or able to stay awake for twenty-six hours straight working on puzzles.

Names which are crossed out on the list to the right indicate that those people are helping to organize or play-test the Puzzle Marathon, so they should not be considered as potential teammates.

I will design the Puzzle Marathon anticipating six teams (and use color-coding as I have in past), but I will try to accommodate more teams if needed. Team color assignment is on a first-come-first-served basis. Each team will need to have a team captain designated by Puzzle-Day (they will be my point of contact for their teams throughout the day).

Team rosters will be listed here as I receive information.

BLACK BLUE GREEN RED WHITE YELLOW
Robert Ford (4)
Tim Hardwick (5)
Emily Norman (4)
Sean O'Neill (2)
Scott Varagona (2)
 Amanda Kaye Bain (2)
Tanner Bain (2)
Leah Brannan (2)
Jaye Herrod (2)
Kelly Hollingsworth (5)
Allison Miller (2)
Anne Norton (2)		 Levon Gharagyozyan (1)
Bob Gillis (4)
Marsha Gillis (4)
Katie Hammond (4)
Trent Kinnucan (4)
 Anne Daniels (2)
Todd Daniels (2)
Kyle Fritz (1)
Mike Kunze (1)
 Katie Daniels (2)
Heath Hopkins (4)
David Mason (4)
 Edward Boudreaux (4)
Sharon Yarbrough (3)
Abby Peterson (1)
Steven Garcia (1)
Total Points: 17 Total Points: 17 Total Points: 17 Total Points: 6 Total Points: 10 Total Points: 9

The Puzzles

As I always do, I will try to challenge the teams with a variety of different styles of puzzles: word puzzles, number puzzles, manipulative/physical puzzles, codes, environmental puzzles, and so forth. The difficulty will range from fairly easy, to very cryptic and difficult (I've got to keep you busy somehow for 26 hours!). The answers to particular puzzles will usually lead teams to other locations where the next puzzles can be found. Some puzzles will have slightly different formats, but will be fully explained as necessary. The plan is to design 26 different puzzles.

The winning team will be determined in the following way: each location where puzzles are stashed will have large envelopes containing the next puzzles. When a team arrives, they are allowed to take one of the envelopes from the group. All of the envelopes at a particular locatin will contain the same puzzle (to be solved next), but the outsides of the envelopes will have differences. Randomly distributed amongst all of the envelopes at all of the locations throughout the Marathon will be letters of the alphabet printed on the outside (for example, the first team to get to a location may find six envelopes with the following letters printed: A, D, R, R, T, and X).

A team should decide which envelope/letter they wish to take (again, only one envelope may be taken by a team, but teams arriving first will have more choices as to which ones to take -- but, remember, the same puzzle will be inside all the envelopes at the same location). Once an envelope has been removed from the location (and certainly once it has been opened by a team), it should not be returned to that location (in other words, pick your envelope carefully... don't later change your mind). At the end of the Marathon, the team which has accumulated the longest unbroken, alphabetical sequence of letters will win.

There will also be a meta-puzzle of sorts which could lead teams to a single buried prize (possibly another decorate egg like last time). If a team finds that hidden egg before noon on Sunday, they will automatically win the Marathon, regardless of envelope/letters collected.

As usual, teams may call me, the referee, and ask for hints if they get stuck. I will ask them to discuss all of the information about a particular puzzle they think they know, and then I will offer to given them an appropriately helpful hint. If the hint is accepted, I will record it as being divulged to that team (number of hints given out may help to break tying scores).

Finally, teams will be allowed to trade envelopes with other teams throughout the competition. Only the empty envelopes should be traded (teams should remove the puzzles that came from within). They may trade any combination of envelopes for information about other puzzles or whatever.

At the end of the Marathon, the team captains will present me with the envelopes their teams have collected, and I will determined the winning team as described above (longest uninterrupted sequence of letters -- and, yes, cyclic sequences may wrap around from Z to A). In the case of a tie, the team who has called in for the fewest hints will win. If still a tie, then the team whose members first names have the most different letters of the alphabet will win. If still a tie, then gladitorial combat to the death will take place...

Recommendations

The usual recommendations are made for teams: