MetaTerminal Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 (edited) Ash falls from the sky, and ruins your perfectly good jacket. It’s happening! For the uninitiated: The Rules: Spoiler In the Sanderson Puzzlehunt, participants are organised into teams who try to complete puzzles in order to gain points and move up the leaderboard in a given round. The puzzles will be released in waves to all participants at once, and further waves will be released once certain conditions are met. The Hunt Moderator is MetaTerminal. ORGANISATION Each team has received a group PM and a Google Doc for them to work in. The Doc is for collaboration about solving a puzzle, including listing information that may be useful or identifying elements. The puzzles are designed to be completed in teams - we recommend against going it alone. The Team PM is your main avenue for communication with the Hunt Moderator. You should submit answers, hint requests, clarifications, and possible errors through the Team PM. Do NOT submit any of these things through the thread. PUZZLES A puzzle can be anything with encoded or hidden information - a series of images, seemingly random letters, or a group of playing cards or game instructions. Solving a puzzle will require noticing, deciphering, and extracting this information. The answer to each puzzle is an English word or phrase, usually between 3 and 20 characters. When a team thinks they have the answer to a puzzle, they should submit it in their Team PM (NOT the thread), and will receive confirmation as to whether or not they are correct. If they are correct, they will receive points for solving that puzzle, and no further points can be received for working on it. If incorrect, they are free to continue to work on the puzzle. Puzzles will be based on books by Brandon Sanderson, although they may incorporate elements from other areas (such as simple arithmetic or codes). As a general rule, knowledge about yet-unpublished works will not be required for solving. POINTS The Hunt Leaderboard lists each team and how many points they have received. Each team starts with 0 points. In the Earth round, a puzzle grants 15 points. Completing a round by solving a metapuzzle grants 25 points. Puzzles can still be solved and points can still be received after a team solves the metapuzzle for a round. In addition, points can be deducted for serious rule infractions. There are no point deductions for incorrect answer submissions, unless those submissions break other rules. HINTS At any time in the Hunt, teams can use a hint to aid them in their solving. All teams start with 2 hints, and receive 1 more for every two puzzles they complete, or for a long period where they are actively working in the Hunt but make no progress on any puzzle. Exceptions may be made under the Hunt Moderator’s discretion. In addition, hints may be more or less stringent depending on where the team is placed on the leaderboard. A team which is in the running for a first or second place will receive very stringent rules for hints (yes/no questions only, and nothing that grants excess or meta information) and hints that are deemed outside these rules will be rejected. A team in last place (depending on the spread of other teams) may be able to request a general and stronger hint to help them get unstuck. A rejected hint is not used, and you are free to rephrase the question to fit the breached rules. PROBLEMS AND BUGS If you find an issue or error in a puzzle, please report it to the Hunt Moderator. If there is a sizable bug, and the team who found it is the first to do so, the identifying team may receive a reward of an extra hint or a Good Samaritan bonus. MISCELLANEOUS Do NOT submit hint requests, answers, puzzle clarifications or found errors in the thread. Submit them in the Team PM. Do NOT try to brute force puzzle answers. If you’ve narrowed it down to three possibilities, trying each of them is a valid strategy. Submitting every word in the English dictionary until you get the right one is not. DO be sensible about answer submissions. Don't try anything that you wouldn't be willing to put in a public post. DO be very kind to fellow competitors and teammates. Especially in the latter case: you're all in it together. DO read the spoiler on How Do I Solve a Puzzle? These puzzles will most likely be unlike anything you've seen before. If it wasn't helpful I wouldn't have written it. DO ask for hints and help if you need it. The competition is designed to be fun. If you're not having fun, let me know. Answer submissions, hint requests and error reports should take the following rough format (in the Team PM): Puzzle Solver: @MetaTerminal We're submitting the answer ANSWER for the puzzle THIS IS AN EXAMPLE PUZZLE. MetaTerminal: Your submission of ANSWER was correct! THIS IS AN EXAMPLE PUZZLE has been solved. The Leaderboard will be updated shortly. How do I solve puzzles? Spoiler Congratulations. You're looking at a puzzle and have no idea what to do. It's a rite of passage - at some point in their lives, every puzzle-solver will experience it.However, there are a number of foolproof tricks to fix this situation.1) Don't panic! These are puzzles. It's okay if you're puzzled by them.2) Are there things in the puzzle you haven't identified yet? Like a set of pictures? Audio clips? Quotes or phrases? If so, identify them and see what comes up.3) Read the title and flavour text again. Do they suggest a course of action (maybe looking at things from a certain angle, or sorting data in a certain way) you haven't taken yet? If so, try that.4) If you've tried something that you think the puzzle is hinting at, but it didn't work, check your work. There will be at least one team that is held up because they mistranscribed a letter. I've been on that team, on multiple occasions. (Curse you, Poetic Licence!) Check your work.5) Work with other people. Someone else might notice the way forward where you have not - you can also identify things twice as fast. Two heads are always better than one. (Google Docs are great for this.)6) Finally, if you're completely stuck: ask for a hint. They aren't free candy - you'll only ever get a limited number - but if you can't see a way forward, then a hint is always helpful. The last round (for looking at sample puzzles): The round will begin at midnight (or shortly after) EST on Sunday. I expect this round to take roughly twice as long to finish, which means that the winning team will likely solve all the puzzles at some time on Thursday. I am aware some people have already signed up/dropped out, so I will deal with that later today. Please refrain from posting in the Earth Round from now on. Edited February 11, 2019 by MetaTerminal 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiToRo94 Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 Oh ohh! Pick me! I would like to sign up!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavier Iriarte Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I'm in! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xinoehp512 Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 In, I'm in. Although you might want to @ people.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RShara Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I'm in 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blessed peace Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I'm out. Sorry 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karnatheon Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I'm in for sure! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Doomstick Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I’m in 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babilarian Darkeyes Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 In. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exalted Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I'm back for more. Go Team 5! (Or whatever the name was that we decided on!) Also, does midnight Sunday mean we'll have all of Sunday to solve puzzles, or is it Monday onward? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaywalk Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 Due to conflict that arose during the last round, I wasn’t able to participate as much as I probably should’ve. I’m out for this round, but I’ll hopefully be able to next time! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle373 Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I'm in, team Voidapple forever!!!!!!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotarySojac Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I would be up for this! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shqueeves Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I'll join 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I’d love to participate again! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MountainKing Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I'm in Team Puzzler all the way 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rasarr Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I'm in! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetaTerminal Posted February 8, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 Thanks to everyone who’s joined for the first time! I’ll sort out teams when I get more responses, but right now I’m thinking that at least one team will be split up among the others (although I will do my best to accommodate people who have indicated preferences of who they want to work with). People who expressed interest: @Kidpen @ElephantEarwax @Podman @Firerust People who I haven’t heard from: @Silva @luckat @MostLikelyHuman @Silverblade5 (and others that I’ve contacted elsewhere) If I don’t hear from people, I will unfortunately have to assume that they are dropping out. For people who are dropping out, would you be interested in a spectator doc? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidpen Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I'd be interested in a spec doc, but I think it's a bad idea to join due to new developments. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ElephantEarwax Posted February 8, 2019 Report Share Posted February 8, 2019 I will join. Hey to my future team. Throw me a ping on discord. I'll hear it better. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Podman Posted February 9, 2019 Report Share Posted February 9, 2019 Oh, yeah. I forgot about this. A bunch of stuff I didn't expect has come up recently, and I'm much more busy than I thought I was. I'd love a spectator doc, though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devotary of Spontaneity Posted February 9, 2019 Report Share Posted February 9, 2019 I believe that I now have time to participate in this. I'll sign up for this round, with no particular preference for team. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckat Posted February 9, 2019 Report Share Posted February 9, 2019 I’m in for next round. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Doomstick Posted February 9, 2019 Report Share Posted February 9, 2019 (edited) wow that was extremely random! too random to exist for long or else it would destroy the universe Edited February 9, 2019 by DoomStick 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beantheboy12 Posted February 9, 2019 Report Share Posted February 9, 2019 I'm in! I'm in! Can i get in?! Please let me in! I'll join any team! Can I be in! Please?! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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