[d20] What don't you know? (free pdf books)

[TheLe]

quiz: The Necromancer's Trap

[imager]http://www.thele.com/thelegames/images/html/quiz.gif[/imager] Time for a new What Don't You Know quiz! Prize is one (d20) PDF book of your choice from my library, which can be found HERE.

Everyone is eligeable for this quiz, which should be pretty darned difficult

Riddle:

The Necromancer's Trap

You and your 9 fellow adventurers wander into a cave with a mighty Necromancer that entraps you all, strips you of all your equipment, powers & abilities.

He locks you in a room and says, "I will return in one hour. When I do, I will line all ten of you up, facing forward. You will be unable to view behind you, only forward (and therefore see the people in front of you). I will then place flames over all of your heads (at the same time), either a Green flame or a Red flame.

"Starting with the last person (the one who can see nine other people) and moving up the line, you each will be allowed to say one word: Red or Green. If that color matches the flame on your head, you will live and be released with all your equipment and abilities. If the color you speak does not match the flame above your head, you will die a horrible death. Really, it's pretty horrible."

You are allowed to talk for an hour before the Necromancer comes back, but once he begins, you will be unable to communicate with each other in ANY WAY. The only thing you can say is "Green" or "Red", and all your teammates will know what color you say, although they will not actually hear you say it. Remember, you can only see the flames of teammates that are in front of you, not behind. And you can only say "Green" or "Red". You cannot not answer, nor can you say anything else.

How can you assure that at least 9 people are guaranteed to guess the correct color?

Hint: The answer lies in what you say, that is all.

Edited:
clarification: you can clearly see each flame color that is in front of you. so the first person can see all 9 of his teammates and each flame color that is on their heads, but never his own. The second person can only see the 8 in front of him, but never his own and never the one behind him. etc.

clarification:
Assume each person has exactly 30 seconds to answer, and the Necromancer always mentally tells the others what color was chosen on the 30th second, in the same tone, therefor offering no hints.

Good luck. You will need it.



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[Richards]

In the hour before they get lined up, everybody decides that when the time comes and they've got the flames over their heads, the last guy in line (the one who goes first), will state the color of the flame of the person in front of him. If it so happens to match his own color, then he gets to live; otherwise, he's the sacrificial lamb. However, the ninth guy in line now knows what color his own flame is, so he knows what his answer will have to be in order to live.

Here's where it gets tricky. If his own flame is the same as the guy immediately in front of him, he can answer truthfully, save his own skin, and also let the guy ahead of him know what color his flame is. If, however, his flame is green and the guy in front of him has a red flame, he needs to let him know that when he says "green" (to save his own life), he also needs to convey the information "but your flame is red."

How to do so? Fortunately, everyone agreed ahead of time that if you talk normally, you're passing on the true color of the guy immediately ahead of you, but if you say your "green" or "red" in a really low tone (or in a high squeaky voice, or whatever you've all decided amongst yourselves the code for "your color is the opposite of what I'm saying my color is"), the guy ahead of you knows that his own color is the opposite of what was just said.

In this way, you can move on down the line, and everybody will be able to save the life of the guy in front of him. It just sucks to be the last guy in line (the guy who spoke first), because he's only got a 50-50 shot at guessing correctly.

Does that do it?

Johnathan

 

[BvS]

This was my initial answer as well, although it seems wrong given that the question says:

The only thing you can say is "Green" or "Red", and all your teammates will know what color you say, although they will not actually hear you say it.

I'm really stumped on this one, it'll be interesting to see if this is right.

 

[Richards]

Hmm, I missed that "even though they won't hear you say it" deal. How does that work? You'd think you'd be able to hear the guy immediately in back of you talk, wouldn't you?

Johnathan

 

[Kae'Yoss]

The test that stumped them all

I'd have said something like "tap your foreman on the right shoulder if you speak his colour, tap him left if you say the wrong colour", but that would be communicating, would it?

When they don't hear you, you cannot put meaning in the words, either. Unless they hear the word as you say it repeated by a monotonous voice or something. In that case, you could drawl if you speak truth or something like this. But this sounds like they would hear a message from tape, saying "red" or "green" without any of your speech patterns, since "and all your teammates will know what color you say".

Maybe you can correct yourself? If so, you say the right colour if it is not only yours, but that of the man before you as well. "Green". So you are right, and the guy in front of you knows about green. If the colours are different, you say the wrong one and immediately "correct" yourself. He will know that even his final answer was green - because it was his colour - he meant that you have red.

 

[BvS]

Perhaps you could pause for a brief period before saying your answer. Since your friends cannot hear your answer until you have said it, the amount of time you pause before saying something could provide the communication needed to notify to the person in front of you whether you are also speaking their colour or not. This still does not help our honourable friend whom has to speak first, but then, that's why the world has clerics

 

[BvS]

So basically, the first person to speak says the colour of the person directly in front of him (it may or may not also be his colour) The second person then either says that colour right away if it is also the colour of the torch above the person's head directly in front of them, or waits for a 5-count before speaking to notify the person in front that their colour is not the one they are speaking. And so on down the line. This way, the first person may or may not guess right, but everyone else knows the answer.

This is the best I can come up with!

 

[reveal]

Colored flames put out colored light. If the person in front of you has a solid red flame or a solid green flame, then you have the same colored flame.

If the person in front of you has a red or green flame that has yellow tinges on the side facing you, then you have the opposite color because red + green = yellow.

 

[TheLe]

clarification: you can clearly see each flame color that is in front of you. so the first person can see all 9 of his teammates and each flame color that is on their heads, but never his own. The second person can only see the 8 in front of him, but never his own and never the one behind him. etc.

clarification: the flames above your head do not illuminate. It's magical thing. So no, you cannot tell the colors based on your flame illumination.

~Le

 

[BvS]

This idea might work! Except that Red Light + Green Light = Yellow Light

Then everyone could survive except the guy at the front of the line (the last one to speak).