Chain Puzzles

msh210

5:28 AM

@Stiv I don't think it's unfair to tell you this was my intention. (Search the Web for images of Tropicana carton.)

Stiv

6:51 AM

@msh210 oh, so I was right! Surprised 4 is wrong - thought that was an amazing shout! :)

Stiv

7:47 AM

@msh210 Some more guesses: 12 RIFT (Great Rift Valley) 18 a (medicinal) TABLET? Is 4 definitely a person with a mirror, and does 9's speech bubble hold clouds or cars?

Stiv

8:18 AM

Oh, and by the way, I have an idea for the next puzzle, so I'm happy to continue the chain.

msh210

@Stiv 18, yes

@Stiv I was assuming you'd do so.

@Stiv 4 is not a mirror: it's a circled part of the picture to show which part to focus on. Those are cars.

@Stiv I figured 12 would be difficult. I'm curious to see if you (pl.) will figure it out. Otherwise, as stated in the question, I'll post another picture.

Stiv

9:20 AM

For anyone wishing to help close off the solve, still missing are 4, 9 and 12

oAlt

9:45 AM

Hmmm, is 12 rocket ship/rocket?

Stiv

@oAlt Funny enough, athin guessed that already and was told no!

oAlt

oh I didn't notice that LOL

Stiv

(It was only in comments below the answer, not here in chat...)

oAlt

yea I saw now

Stiv

12:08 PM

0

Q: Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #03 - Down and out in London

This is the third Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. The answer to this puzzle is a thematic word or phrase. The solver whose answer is awarded the green checkmark has first refusal on the opportunit...

2

PUZZLE NUMBER 3 IN THE CHAIN IS OUT

(I wanted to drop this now in a different time of day to my last, to try and involve more of our worldwide audience in the series. I am aware there are still 3 unsolved clues in the last one - do feel free to pick those up still; I'll continue to think myself...)

msh210

"'I'm sorry - I haven't a clue,' said I."

:-D

jafe

heheheh

Stiv

Had to be done! It was a really nice theme to work with actually :)

Lukas Rotter

wow

Never heard of Mornington Crescent. As far as I can tell, it's literally just saying locations until someone says Mornington Crescent and wins? Making it a game of "when to cut it in order to get maximum reward?". Like saying it on the 10th move gives you a better reward than on the 3rd move?

oAlt

12:26 PM

@Stiv h-how.. too fast!! Heh

msh210

@LukasRotter yes except that the only reward is fun/funniness

Most of the humor on the show is not in the actual stating of the station names but the lawyering and banter.

Stiv

I notice people were super on it to downvote the 'wild guess without explanation' answer into self-deletion before I even had a chance to act myself!

Lukas Rotter

1:05 PM

If we read between the lines as Stiv has suggested, it becomes obvious the board game is the well-known classic Void

(sorry)

msh210

No, it's clearly Phoystfnsmpnrp.

That's what you get when you take the numerical part of the first half of the station's postcode, and use it as an index into the name of the shop/location at that station (modulo the length of the shop name).

(That is the same length as "Photosynthesis", which is a game, and also starts with "Pho", but I'm guessing that's a coincidence.)

@LukasRotter (Note that it's meant as a joke, not an actual competitive game.)

(Neither the 7th store nor the 7th station has a Y, which makes Photosynthesis less likely though of course not impossible.)

Lukas Rotter

1:28 PM

was just about to do the same, but with the underground map

msh210

On this map it doesn't look like anything to me, but maybe on the tube map it will?

Lukas Rotter

Didn't use the best colors, sorry. Gray are "connections"

Stiv

That doesn't look like the standard TFL tube map to me...

Lukas Rotter

Maybe this then, lol. I dunno whats the standard

The first one was the one found on Wikipedia here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_London_Underground_stations

jafe

that's user-created, wikipedia can't use the official map because of copyright issues i think

Lukas Rotter

1:40 PM

ah, good to know

Looks like it could represent letters like E, L, C and I. But what to do with the shop names

jafe

the text says to look "between the lines"... hmm

Lukas Rotter

ah wait

If you're not sloppy as I was in my second picture and actually notice the connectors for the paragraphs, you can spell "Clue"

(in the order of the paragraphs)

msh210

nice

jafe

aha!

msh210

which is presumably the answer (it's a game)

Lukas Rotter

1:53 PM

Yeah I dunno the capitalized store names are still suspicious

maybe a specific variant of clue, if there is one?

msh210

they are but it's possible that they're a red herring or a secondary hint to get us to this one

jafe

would have been funny if the answer was monopoly

Lukas Rotter

lol

msh210

I think you should post this, @LukasRotter : it looks right.

@jafe :-)

jafe

i agree

Lukas Rotter

1:54 PM

@Stiv y/n? :D

Stiv

Let's just say that would be a puh-retty strange coincidence if that had been unintended ;-)

Lukas Rotter

Doesn't mean it's the answer ;)

but yeah I guess I'll post

Stiv

No variant involved. You might spot the significance of the store names if you write them out together...

jafe

the first letters spell "places, not shops" backwards

Stiv

bingo

jafe

1:59 PM

"i'm sorry, i haven't a clue - do you?"... heheh... heheheh...

msh210

@jafe brilliant

Lukas Rotter

2:18 PM

Time to re-read the rules of Cluedo and find my copy of it at home, presumably somewhere buried inside the depths of a cupboard

Also, as always, nice puzzle!

bobble

Arrived just a little too late, and the puzzle was already solved! Oh well...

Stiv

2:45 PM

@LukasRotter And thanks :) PS Just left you a comment on your Answer re a couple of Easter Eggs that could be explained...

Lukas Rotter

3:32 PM

@Stiv "each puzzle should somehow make use of the answer to the previous puzzle in its construction" - How strict is that? I don't expect a clear-cut answer, but let's say I create a puzzle that makes use of the characters/weapons/rooms of Clue, but doesn't have anything to do with the rules or logical deduction, does that count?

msh210

@LukasRotter IMO yes

Stiv

@LukasRotter That sounds to me like "somehow" :) A perfectly valid interpretation, I'd say

Lukas Rotter

6:58 PM

0

Q: Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #04 - Mansion Massacre

This is the fourth Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. The answer to this puzzle is a thematic word or phrase. The solver whose answer is awarded the green checkmark has first refusal on the opportuni...

enigmatic-puzzle visual

2

Braegh

7:10 PM

The bottle caps were the first thing I saw, even though I may not have needed to; they can be interpreted as Braille, reading "GLUTTON".

Stiv

7:38 PM

@Braegh Ooh, nice 'in'! Methinks a '7 Deadly Sins' theme then with a word as precise as that...!

(I'm going to hang back on this solve so that someone else can get in on the chain...)

EXCEPT to say that the weights and bars can be read as Morse: .-.. ..- ... - which translates as LUST. This theory is holding water!

Braegh

7:52 PM

I have to admit I've never had any intention of creating these sorts of puzzles; I'd have no idea where to begin, in fact, so I'd definitely have to pass on setting these.

And yes, that theory definitely seems to hold; the notes on Mrs. White and Mr. Black suggest Envy and Pride, respectively. And Ms. Scarlet's note suggests Sloth, too.

Stiv

The image for Mr Green translates to GREED as well - 7=G beside 1 card, K+8 = 18 (since King=10 in Blackjack) = R beside 1 coin, 2+3=5 = E beside two coins, so double it to EE, then A+3 = 4 (using A=1) beside 1 coin to get D. Cleverly A can also be 11, which would make the last letter value 14 which is N, which would spell GREEN - this victim's own name! Nice little red herring there.

@Braegh Aw, you should consider giving it a try. Stretch yourself! :) But anyway, you're still allowed to solve even if you don't want to set - we have a rule to account for that exact situation which allows a substitute to volunteer.

I've not spotted any specific weapons yet - I imagine these will show up in some cryptic fashion or within some of the notes...

Anyway, NOW I'm leaving it for a while...! :)

Braegh

They might just be Clue(do)'s weapons; of course, there are only six of those but seven victims - but we don't need to figure out how the killer offed themself.

msh210

8:11 PM

The red cards are grey and the black cards are rust.

I'm guessing that's not a clue.

Lukas Rotter

Nope, just a consequence of the filter I applied to all of the pictures

msh210

I also want to know whether any of the caps won.

:-)

Lukas Rotter

:D I don't know myself

msh210

"Oh, which weapon? The one which hasn't been used yet" sounds like it was the last killing (and thus most likely the suicide)

That's possible belied by the preceding the sentence "I always noticed her looking at me"

Stiv

Me again - another observation: Mr Black's note has some rather prominent Roman numerals... Xenophobic Vain Irritating Idiot for starters, though there are others dotted throughout the words too. Probably something of note...

Lukas Rotter

8:26 PM

Can't resist, huh? :D I mean, you can also pass it to a volunteer, in case you're the one who solves it completely

BTW I'm glad you caught the GREED/GREEN thing, I was almost afraid no one would notice :)

Stiv

It's an intriguing puzzle - I can't help myself!

bobble

Someone help Stiv before they get sucked in too far!

Stiv

(sound of vortex)

bobble

Take my hand! Take my hand!

I'll pull you out

Stiv

(swipes and misses)

Braegh

8:28 PM

Nice spot on the XVII - applying a Roman (read: Caesar) cipher with a shift of XVII on the name of the book Mr. Black was reading yields "ridp e" - this obviously anagrams to PRIDE.

Lukas Rotter

Thanks! I think I'm not going disclose anything new by saying I tried to make the "sub-puzzles" not too-hard, so we don't sit for ever on this one. Judging by the progress so far, I think I'm happy with the difficulty level

Stiv

@Braegh That's a nice spot in itself!

Braegh

Prof. Plum's note drew me on a reread because of the use of the word "monkey" - of course, it's far more relevant that the first letters of "was really enjoying nasty christmas ham" spell out WRENCH.

Stiv

Ah, so quite possibly some use of the actual Clue weapons here, hidden

Braegh

That's what I thought, too. Could the "...down the drain with guidance" bit be referring to the LEAD PIPE, then?

msh210

8:34 PM

"Take an australian piece of wool and ship it to a country in Europe." sounds like taking MERINO and shipping it to SAN MARINO... probably the wrong tack

Stiv

YES! LEAD + PIPING - nice

'Higher stakes' may imply hanging by rope for Green?

Braegh

I was thinking "a better game with higher stakes" = Russian Roulette = Revolver.

bobble

List of Clue(do) weapons, for reference: Revolver, Dagger, Lead Pipe, Rope, Candlestick, Wrench

Stiv

To summarise what we know then:

Mustard: Weights and bars Morse spell LUST.

White: 'The weapon which hasn't been used yet' may imply she was last to die and thus the murderer.

Black: XVII in text clues rot-17, book title then yields an anagram of PRIDE. Note contains clues for LEAD and PIPING.

Peacock: Presumably the 'logical conclusion' is 'the one deadly sin not yet accounted for' (process of deduction).

Scarlet: Note reads like meaning of SLOTH.

Plum: Bottle caps Braille for GLUTTON. MONKEY WRENCH clued in text.

Notably, White and Peacock's ciphers still unsolved

@Braegh Possibly even more valid - let's see if we can fit ROPE elsewhere then...

bobble

White's Xs and Os don't evenly split into groups of 8 or 7, so my idea of using ASCII is out

msh210

8:40 PM

"She died due to a logical conclusion" can mean "she was given enough rope and hung herself" which can mean she's the suicide

Stiv

51 characters splits into 17 threes

Braegh

I was looking at just that. Length of White's string is 51 characters. Ternary could work?

Stiv

But only two characters - so no 2's

(presumably)

Braegh

Sorry, 3-length binary pieces is what I meant.

bobble

also, no groups of 5 for a Bacon cipher

Stiv

8:43 PM

Meanwhile White's could be a simple substitution cipher. I've tried a Vigenere using unused weapons as codewords, but no dice.

msh210

Miss Peacock's is 26 letters long (but repeats letters)

Stiv

Only C and Y are in their correct alphabetical position

Lukas Rotter

@msh210 crap, that's a mistake on my part. only Y, right? sorry will edit right away

(repeating, that is)

msh210

@LukasRotter no, also A

Stiv

Just sussed White! ENVY Hold on...

msh210

8:46 PM

actually HAYT are all duplicated

@LukasRotter

Stiv

Arrange as 3x17 and ENVY is spelled out in X's!

bobble

that is COOL

Stiv

That makes Peacock WRATH by deduction

Braegh

I wonder if the note itself is meant to indicate something else, then.

Lukas Rotter

yep just saw it. To be completely honest though, since you guys are very close to solving it completely, I will say this: You can still solve it with the repeated letters

msh210

8:48 PM

(found that with a Perl one-liner for(split//,'IXCRAJEOUZBYFATHNSKQMHTDYV'){$h{$_}++}print grep{$h{$_}>1}keys %h )

Braegh

And yes, I had a running theory Peacock would be both WRATH and the murderer; makes sense, right?

Stiv

Of course we still have to deduce a game out of all this too

msh210

boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13935/7-deadly-sins

Lukas Rotter

oof, no

Stiv

Haha!

msh210

8:50 PM

I doubt it.

Lukas Rotter

I hope that's not a well-known board game, otherwise this is a serious unintended red herring

msh210

I'd never heard of it before, personally, but I don't know games.

bobble

^^

Braegh

Me neither, but it's rather expected for there to be some game by that name, right?

Stiv

@LukasRotter Doesn't look it from its ranking on the site

Lukas Rotter

8:52 PM

true

msh210

I like the slogan on the box: Knowledge can get you places but you've got to SIN to WIN!

I should make that my personal philosophy.

Stiv

Theory about mustard: DAGGER - DAG + GER (Germany)

bobble

> Theory about mustard: DAGGER

2

Out of context, it's quite funny

Stiv

True!

And I've only just spotted the 'excluding themselves' line, so you're right whoever said it earlier - the 6 weapons fit, without the need for a 7th

So how can we make CANDLESTICK, ROPE and REVOLVER fit among White (the one left), Scarlet and Green (likely revolver if Russian roulette)?

Scarlet is key here - we need to crack that code!

(Gosh, I'm in proper Escape Room mode here - surprised myself...!)

1 hour ago, by Stiv

(I'm going to hang back on this solve so that someone else can get in on the chain...)

Well, that didn't happen!

msh210

@Stiv probably

Stiv

9:02 PM

Is Scarlet's note merely implying hanging by rope then - doing it herself? Then Green is revolver as @Braegh suggested and White is the remaining one, CANDLESTICK?

What does Peacock's 26-character code mean?

msh210

Scarlett = rope because "but I didn't either so I made" has alternating anagram bdsm???

Stiv

Ew

Lukas Rotter

(not intended)

Braegh

Probably a coincidence.

msh210

@LukasRotter glad of that!

@LukasRotter did imply the Peacock letter was meant to be all 26 letters, each used once; if it were that, what could we do with it?

Lukas Rotter

9:07 PM

(just edited the question, fixing the note)

Stiv

26 letters, no repeats now - must be a key for something else, right? A substitution cipher somewhere?

bobble

alternative alphabet for vigenere cipher?

Stiv

Hang on. We only have the game left to find - could this note be a key for a cipher which reveals the game name?

'Which game the killer wants you to play' - it could be written in her note

matt

@bobble indeed

hey voldy!

Lukas Rotter

(dangerously close)

Braegh

9:29 PM

I'm just not sure what we're actually trying to decrypt. Did we overlook something?

Stiv

I've tried various things like WRATH, PEACOCK, CLUEDO, MURDER, etc but nothing just yet.

Lukas Rotter

I presume the very last step is a bit too unintuitive. I will say this, which will probably kick it off: You would not be able to (reasonably) deduce the name of the game without solving most of the individual cases. So the piece of text you're missing is nothing that is in the text of the puzzle or is apparent just by looking at the puzzle without having anything solved

(above comment sounds obvious, but if Wrath's not it, there's not much left which is "hidden")

Voldemort's Wrath

hi

Lukas Rotter

Hi!

bobble

why you hi-ing each other?

Voldemort's Wrath

9:44 PM

Hi bobble

matt

@bobble because they can

Stiv

9:59 PM

So maybe we're after a synonym of WRATH, like RAGE, ANGER or FURY (etc.)?

Lukas Rotter

(one last hint, since I'm dying inside and hope this puzzle gets fully solved before I go off for today): I couldn't have presented the "Greed" case before the "Sloth" case (eg). All cases must somehow be used for the final step

I mean, I could have done that, but that would've added an additional layer the reader would have to solve

Stiv

YAHTZEE!!

Lukas Rotter

YES!!

Stiv

Key is for the initial letters of the seven deadly sins in the order presented. LEPWSGG becomes YAHTZEE. Phew!

bobble

so the killer played dice with lives?

Stiv

10:07 PM

Wow, that felt like an escape room, it really did!

Lukas Rotter

well done :) Hmmmm. You and Braegh solved most parts of the puzzle, but both of you don't seem too eager to post the next one.

Stiv

I'll write this up as soon as I finish the dinner clear-up. I will happily create another puzzle, but I don't want people to get fed up of me appearing on every one! Tell you what - if anybody has a good idea for a yahtzee puzzle and would like to take part in the chain, let me know in the next 12 hours. If I haven't heard anything by 10am tomorrow (UK time) I'll do it (because I do love setting puzzles as much as I love solving...)

Braegh

Definitely not in my wheelhouse. Might have to get some inspiration for the future, though; never have actually tried setting anything, and I'm always amazed at the depth of some of the creations on here

Stiv

You know, I've not actually created a dice puzzle - this might be fun... Still, anyone super keen with a great idea, shout out or I'll make one tomorrow.

Lukas Rotter

I see the real possibility of the pattern "Stiv - someone - Stiv - someone - Stiv - someone - ...". FWIW, I wouldn't have a problem with it

(of the pattern repeating, that is. Since it already happens :D)

bobble

10:25 PM

@Stiv idea (OTS link), which I can't execute myself.

you may steal if you wish

Stiv

@LukasRotter Sounds like the basis of a sequence question to me ;-)

@bobble Thanks, I'll see if anything else comes to mind as well :)

Lukas Rotter

10:42 PM

Fun fact, btw: The only reason the caps spell out glutton instead of gluttony is because I ran out of bottle caps :)

Stiv

@LukasRotter Ha, nice - real-life puzzling limitations!

bobble

How dare you! You should have saved up more for this puzzle specifically!

Stiv

(Writing up now BTW - I think you'll like what I'm doing...)

bobble

Is it "in character" or something of the sort?

Lukas Rotter

Can't wait to see it, I am now also suspecting something along the lines of what bobble suggested

Stiv

10:47 PM

I think it deserves it - it was a great set piece of situation puzzling

Lukas Rotter

Thanks!! Are these steoretypical jokes detectives make also included? Guess I'll see soon :D

Stiv

I'll see too - only just begun!

Lukas Rotter

I was thinking of hiding some references to the movie Se7en along the way, but that's something for a potential movies series :)

What's in the box?!

Lukas Rotter

11:36 PM

Damn, I exceeded the rep cap by a margin today (doesn't happen often for me) - These chain puzzles get me and the upvoters going, I assume :P I also have to say seeing the progress made in this chat is very nice every time, especially when it's your own puzzle ;)

oAlt

Still amazed at how fast these puzzles are being made and solved

bobble

PSE: Puzzle in, Puzzle out, Repeat

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