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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jlhorner1974" data-source="post: 1987774" data-attributes="member: 8628">I have been thinking about having a D&D themed puzzle contest for some time now. The reason for this post is to try to determine how much interest there would be for something like this. I don't have all of the details worked out at the moment, but I can tell you a little bit about what I am planning. The contest would be held sometime over the weekend of March 25-27, 2005. The contest format would be similar to the annual MIT Mystery Hunt held every January (but shorter).  For those unfamiliar with the MIT Mystery Hunt, it involves solving a number of puzzles that lead to a coin or other object hidden on the MIT campus. Traditionally, the contest consists of a number of rounds, each with several puzzles to solve, and all of the puzzle answers for the round are used in a final puzzle (a metapuzzle). Similarly, all of the metapuzzle answers for each round are used in another puzzle (a metametapuzzle). The solution to the metametapuzzle allows the contestants to begin a final puzzle which leads them to the location of the hidden object. From start to finish, the hunt often occupies most of the weekend. The variety of puzzles in the Mystery Hunt is huge. I have posted a sample puzzle below. The puzzles require knowledge of many different subject areas to be successful. Some people that would not normally consider themselves excellent puzzle solvers may have a skill or expert knowledge in some area that could be very helpful to solving a puzzle. Also, many puzzles are given without instructions on what to do. Thus, figuring out *what you need to do* to solve a puzzle is often more difficult than *actually doing it*. Therefore, in many of the hunts, the teams which compete often have a large number of members, and the teams often call friends and family to help with the puzzles.  I have wanted to be involved in an event like this, and so I ran a short puzzle solving competition adventure for my D&D group. My players really enjoyed it, and I think I would like to take the next step and run a contest via the internet. * The contest will happen sometime on the weekend of March 25-27, 2005, if there is enough interest. A typical MIT puzzle contest usually involves about 50-100 puzzles, and lasts about 50-70 hours. I am shooting for something significantly smaller than that, probably around 20-50 puzzles.  The exact format has not been set.  I would prefer to do it all in one weekend (possibly starting early Saturday morning and lasting all day Saturday) -- but someone has suggested having qualifying preliminary "rounds" earlier that week to break up the time commitment into smaller chunks.  I will make a final determination on the format once I see how many teams are interested.  This will though require a significant time commitment at least on Saturday either way.  * The contest will be administered via the internet, so it is possible that "teams" can be made up of people that are not geographically near each other, although teams assembled in the same location will have a cooperative advantage. (I had originally had the idea in mind to ask gaming groups to compete.)* Players will form teams to compete. A team size has not yet been determined.* The contest will consist of several rounds, loosely based on the MIT Mystery Hunt format.* The puzzle difficulty will be a little easier than the MIT puzzles. * A copy of each of the core D&D 3.5 books will be required per team.  Having multiple copies of each may help speed up solving times. Other reference materials may be helpful, but not needed.* All puzzles will have some connection to D&D, which will help limit the scope of things. Knowledge of the core books and D&D in general will be helpful, but even being able to cite all three books from memory will only help so much. * Teams may use whatever resources they want to in order to solve the puzzles (internet search engines, asking friends, the library...), but cannot interfere with other teams.  I don't know about prizes yet -- I hope if there is enough interest that maybe some prizes could be donated or something, as I'm not fabulously wealthy. ^_^ In any case, the prizes (if any) will probably not be sufficient motivation to participate. This contest is for people who enjoy puzzles. There will be no entry fee, as I am only doing this for my own enjoyment. If you are interested and have a team of people that would like to compete, please respond to this thread. Also, it is possible that I may need a volunteer or two to help me with the contest (I don’t know exactly what I will need yet.). Since I don’t know how much interest there will be, I've intentionally been vague about details. Once I can better judge the interest, I can start to give more specific information.</blockquote>

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