unforum

Scott

[Ghosts of a Chance] 25-OCT-08 Puzzle Creation

**Posted:** Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:10 am

_________________
Perplex City is a game whose only rule is: There must be a party.
Balance of Powers is a game whose only rule is: There must be a political party.

Scott

The original request fFor puzzle is this:

**Posted:** Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:17 am

_________________
Perplex City is a game whose only rule is: There must be a party.
Balance of Powers is a game whose only rule is: There must be a political party.

Rogi Ocnorb

I may be misinterpreting the request...
But, I see it more as a task to develop a code method than to actually encrypt a message.

I think they want to do the encryption using the method we come up with.

**Posted:** Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:49 pm

_________________
I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"

MrToasty

I can immediately see one method, shamelessly ripped from the Dorito's Quest. Counting the number of triangles in a column on the Geese quilt square, you will notice that there are exactly 26 triangles in a column...

**Posted:** Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:35 pm

Scott

Oh, hm, you may be right, Rogi. I hadn't considered it fFrom that angle. Well, perhaps they are open to suggestions? I guess maybe we should use some message, at least fFor demonstration purposes.

I was thinking about the code. I think we should consider the audience. People will probably come fFrom a variety of skill levels, so we probably shouldn't make it too annoyingly hard. Also, the solve will probably need to be achievable while standing there in the museum, with the assumption of no other aids. So like, something which can be solved with a little thought and no computer or anything.

One method which comes to mind is: alternating colors to represent letters, based on the length of a string of symbols.

X = A
XX = B
XXX = C

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX = HELLO

**Posted:** Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:56 pm

_________________
Perplex City is a game whose only rule is: There must be a party.
Balance of Powers is a game whose only rule is: There must be a political party.

MrToasty

The one I'm suggesting should be doable in the museum. To encode a letter, simply use some method to highlight one of the 26 triangles in each column (a color that stands out or stitch a small x or dot on a triangle) - A is the triangle at the top down to Z at the bottom. The quilt square shown on the Luce site could encode at least a 6-letter word, more if there is a method for marking more than one triangle per column (different color thread for each pass through).

**Posted:** Mon Oct 20, 2008 6:25 pm

Scott

Probably easier fFor the museum to assemble, yes Smile

Good idea, Toasty.

If the message is longer than one 6-letter word, I would suggest keeping each word in the same string.

**Posted:** Mon Oct 20, 2008 6:47 pm

_________________
Perplex City is a game whose only rule is: There must be a party.
Balance of Powers is a game whose only rule is: There must be a political party.

MrToasty

Has anyone made a recommendation on this to the Luce folks yet?

**Posted:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:43 pm

jungledrum · Guest

The code

**Posted:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:06 pm

Scott

Okay, this might be too simple, not sure. I added a letter "A" at the top left to give a sort of starting place.

This sample code should read:

**Posted:** Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:19 am

_________________
Perplex City is a game whose only rule is: There must be a party.
Balance of Powers is a game whose only rule is: There must be a political party.

MrToasty

That looks to be exactly what I had in mind. I'd say you've had about the most contact with Georgina, so I think that's cool if you send it along.

**Posted:** Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:23 am

Scott

It is done.

**Posted:** Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:08 pm

_________________
Perplex City is a game whose only rule is: There must be a party.
Balance of Powers is a game whose only rule is: There must be a political party.

johnmaccabee · Guest

The code

**Posted:** Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:50 pm

Scott

Awesome!!! Thank you, sir, fFor crafting a terrific game!!!

WIN!!!

**Posted:** Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:55 pm

_________________
Perplex City is a game whose only rule is: There must be a party.
Balance of Powers is a game whose only rule is: There must be a political party.