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Forum index » Meta » Puppetmaster Help

Local Short-ARG for a School Project
Moderators: imbri

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MindTool
Kilroy

Joined: 11 Sep 2011
Posts: 2

Local Short-ARG for a School Project
Watch as the events unfold (I may also need some assistance on this)

So, for my Computer Studies project, I've chosen to make a local ARG (you probably won't hear about it, even if I succeed) and I may need some help. I've got a fair bit of it planned already, but I still need to work on a lot more, and it would be great if I had some experts to ask questions in the event that I get stuck.

Basically, the plan so far is as follows (if you notice this happening in your town, please don't spoil it for others):

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

A poem is found on a noticeboard at the local library, directing readers to a website. The last line is encoded in ROT-13 (the second-to-last tells the reader to apply it to the last line) and basically says "Watch me make that website mine". The website is for a local poetry society which has just started up. The founder of the group has a few posts on his blog giving a bit of backstory (in the fine old tradition of ARGs on a low budget using blogs to save money).
The poem is noticed by the local newspaper who make a small mention of it the next day, directing potential players to find the first clue. The founder of the poetry society posts about how his son told him about a poem in the library and that one of the lines is in ROT-13 (linking to the Wikipedia article on ROT-13). He hasn't bothered to decode the ROT-13, but would like to thank whoever wrote the poem for the free advertising.
Soon, the person who wrote the poem puts up more poems and makes his move: he hacks the website and starts making minor changes, posting under the name "The Puppetmaster" (I'll be making some references to ARGs throughout the game, hoping to lead the readers to find places like this).
The founder is annoyed, and soon fixes the changes and posts saying that his son has helped him increase the security of the site (the founder doesn't know much about technology). Also, he announces that he's talked to a local bookstore, asking them to hand out information packs to all of their customers, hoping to advertise for the site. It turns out "The Puppetmaster" has hacked the founder's computer to alter the information packs so that they all contain a clue hinting to a date (in the form of a poem, naturally). The founder is outraged and posts pictures of the additions to the blog, asking for anyone who knows anything about them to contact him at his email address.
This is the last thing the founder posts about as his account is kicked off of the blog's writers and the entire website is altered with clues (hinting to a place) scattered all over the place. The founder's email address is still there, but it is encoded (still to work out how best to hide this one) and the players will need to decode all three parts (the time, the place and the email address) to help the founder.
If they succeed, the time and place will be announced in the local paper (which has been following the whole thing) so that there's a crowd. At the time and place specified, the founder finds his son waiting for him. It turns out he was "The Puppetmaster", angry at his father because when he started working on setting up the Poetry Society, he started spending less and less time with him. The founder appologises and agress to spend more quality time with his son, and everyone in the crowd goes "Awww...."

Sounds like fun, eh?
I would like to know what you guys think of it, and who I can ask for help. I have the storyline sorted, and I have a few ideas on how to make the puzzles, but I may need a few suggestions for simple yet interesting encoding methods.

Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 8:14 pm

MindTool
Kilroy

Joined: 11 Sep 2011
Posts: 2

Update 1
Starting the website coding

Okay, I've been putting this off for far too long, but I've finally started working on the website for it. There will have to be three different versions, but they can all be modified versions of the original.

First thing I've noticed is that Dreamweaver has certainly changed a lot since the last time I used it (2008!). Most notably, it's now "Adobe Dreamweaver" and not "Macromedia Dreamweaver" like I have at home. It's gonna take a fair bit of time to do it all, but I feel like I have enough for what I want to do.

Quick question: What ciphers and puzzles can I use that won't be too hard for beginners? I already plan on using and directly referencing ROT-13, but I don't want them all to be exactly the same.

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 5:33 pm

catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA

Re: Update 1
Starting the website coding

MindTool wrote:

Quick question: What ciphers and puzzles can I use that won't be too hard for beginners?

"Beginner" beginners? Depending on your target audience, you could find a children's book on "codes and secret writing"* and still stump some people.

I personally enjoy the "phone pad" number substitution cipher, but younger people are more likely to pick up on using numbers on a phone to type text messages. The difference for your difficulty level is having 5 = {J or K or L} versus {5=J, 55=K, 555=L}

*(I have a book with this very title, from the Scholastic Books series they sold in elementary schools)

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:11 pm

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