The Sphinx's Lair

Beastly Gerbil

6:00 AM

Into the 8000s! :P

Alconja

Man, I better get to making more stuff.. all these people racing up the ranks...

grats tho :)

Beastly Gerbil

Thanks :P

Its always nice when you load in the morning and see +145 rep in the corner :P

Sid

7:38 AM

@BeastlyGerbil imagine me getting up and seeing -30 rep.. Many users are being removed

Puzzling Meta

7:50 AM

0

Q: When tags are subsets of other tags

I've noticed with the latest fortnightly challenge that the majority of the puzzles being created are actually chess puzzles that are additionally being tagged with board-games (the challenge topic)*. Now, I don't have an issue with this per se, but it was my impression that you should tag things...

Puzzling — BOUNTY!

8:40 AM

15

Q: Lions and Zebras on a Chess Board

The black knight is our lion chasing 8 white bishop zebras which can't capture. Can the zebras evade the lion forever, if team zebra positions all the pieces and has the first turn? Rules: The game is played on a standard 8x8 chess board Zebras move like bishops but can't capture Lions move li...

mathematics strategy game checkerboard pursuit-evasion

user189275

9:01 AM

@Sid: Gamow had so many sockpuppets ?

user189275

This should be surely VTC for being extremely trivial:

user189275

2

Q: 5x5 Table which number in every cell = last digit of (sum of its neighbor)

[1 . 6 . 7] [. . . 0 .] [3 . . . .] [. . . . 1] [. 7 . 8 .] fill the dots on the table above with 1 digit numbers, so: Number in every cell = last digit of (sum of its neighbors (including diagonals))or Number in every cell = The remainder of the sum of its neighbors divided by 10 ...

mathematics number-theory

Ankoganit

@ArbitraryKangaroo They maynot be Gamow's...

Gareth McCaughan

11:27 AM

I don't think we close puzzles for being too easy. We downvote them for that instead.

Sid

Apparently, there are 4 other people who share my username.. Is that weird?

Gareth McCaughan

11:56 AM

I now have the awesome power to PROTECT QUESTIONS. Fear me. Fear me, I say!

2

Puzzling Meta

2:10 PM

0

Q: Current user clear out

Recently their has been a series of user removals, and as a result, many are losing rep. It is normal for the occasional set to be removed but I have seen 10 users removed this month and have lost over 100 rep because of it I know from chat Im not the only one, so I have to beg the question to ...

discussion

Sconibulus

@PuzzlingMeta probably part of the Gamow fallout?

I haven't lost any rep at all, and I started pretty soon after that happened

user189275

@Sconibulus: What was the punctuation that you deleted ? Random ?

Sconibulus

(sorry about that delete, it was keyboard cleaning related

fixing a sticky l key

dcfyj

@Sconibulus Possibly, I've lost a little rep myself (around 10 or so) and I've been here since before that.

user189275

I lost -20

dcfyj

2:26 PM

I see this, and the literal in me thinks "So you gained 20?" I'm bad >.<

4

user189275

2:39 PM

@Alenanno: Sneaking here to mention you have posted the third puzzle ? When you'll post it ?

Alenanno

@ArbitraryKangaroo It's almost done, but I drastically changed it.

user189275

@Alenanno: Son ott oday ?

Alenanno

@ArbitraryKangaroo Probably today. It's basically "done", in the sense that I know more or less what it's going to be like, but I'm trying to make it harder to solve.

@ArbitraryKangaroo I hope within the next 6 hours (but it could be sooner).

dcfyj

He'll post his puzzle when he's done with it, no need to pressure him to release it early

Alenanno

@dcfyj Oh I think he was asking for an estimate. :D

user189275

2:44 PM

Oh ! I would be sleeping then, as I'm from +5.5 hr

Ankoganit

2:58 PM

@ArbitraryKangaroo I lost 95 on a single day. Beat that! :P

Rand al'Thor

Sep 16 at 17:17, by Rand al'Thor

0

Q: I had over 1500 reputation yesterday. Where has it all gone?

I don't see any trace of it all disappearing... I had over 1500 now it's 1200? How'd that happen? Can anybody tell me? I just realized that my answers here had been deleted, this is where I got a ton of rep! I'm assuming the number is the upvotes I got! 45: http://puzzling.stackexchange.com/que...

discussion

user189275

@Randal'Thor: Actually, this:

user189275

2

Q: Disappearing reputation

Today morning I woke up to 30 reputation disappearing, I am not worried or motivated by reputation alone, however I can reason this missing to be some sort of disappearing questions and consequently some missing answers, while I know that SE does show reputation deductions related to deleted memb...

discussion

Ankoganit

@Randal'Thor Wow :'(

Rand al'Thor

@ArbitraryKangaroo That's only 30. In the other post, warspyking lost more like 300.

user189275

3:03 PM

@Randal'Thor: Is horrible curve fit solution to a riddle allowed ?

user189275

See MFraser's answer here:

Rand al'Thor

@ArbitraryKangaroo What do you mean by "curve fit"?

Ankoganit

@ArbitraryKangaroo I thought curve fit is for polynomials :O

user189275

@Randal'Thor: Well, it should be actually clue fit, rather than curve fit. I am used to the word "curve fit" after rentlessly mocking those stupid IQ test series which could have any sane answer (With variable variables and variable degrees of course)

user189275

E.g: 1,1346,16467,96169798,9894094198949849819,9897981694198094189798419, ?

user189275

3:05 PM

(Random numbers)

Rand al'Thor

@ArbitraryKangaroo Um, what's the difference? You solve a riddle by finding something that fits all the clues.

user189275

@Randal'Thor: Well, see my comment to MFraser's answer here:

user189275

6

Q: A riddle in James Still's "River of Earth"

I'm working on paper for SAMLA 88 on riddles in James Still's novel River of Earth. There is one I can't seam to find an answer for, it goes like this: First green and then yeller, (sic. yellow) All guts and no tallow. Any help would be appreciated.

riddle english puzzle-identification literature

user189275

I may argue stupidly, too; but I think the clue fit is stupid.

user189275

Horrible curve fit. I'm showing an example nonsense curvefit, with coin: First green (Coins smooths the path of life, making it green), then yellow (but later its not so good, so yellow, trafic light symbol), all guts (Its made of sturdy metal), and no tallow (obviously, no animal fat). Seriously, with these type of nonsense curve fit, you can fit any answer to any riddle. — Arbitrary Kangaroo 9 mins ago

user189275

3:07 PM

His reply:

user189275

It’s a riddle, if you have the answer then by all means go for it, don’t however shoot someone else down for giving it an attempt. — MFraser 6 mins ago

user189275

I don't know, really, how I'm "shooting" "down" the "attempt".

Rand al'Thor

@ArbitraryKangaroo You're being rude about his answer, calling it "horrible" and "nonsense".

user189275

@Randal'Thor: I don't know, but it really feels to me actually like that, but anyway, I am deleting those comments.

Rand al'Thor

If you think it's a bad answer, downvote it. But saying "you can fit any answer to any riddle" just isn't true. Your coin explanation really does seem like nonsense; the envy/cowardice thing makes more sense.

user189275

3:13 PM

Oh okay, I was writing nonsense.

Ankoganit

BTW, I've got an interesting situation here. I posted this puzzle a few months ago, and it was closed as a dupe of this one, which is now deleted (because of plagiarism issues). Is there anything to be done now? And if it's reopened by chance, who is going to answer that ? (Since most have already seen it.)

Not that I am eager to get it reopened (at least not in it's current formulation; it's blatantly copy-pasted from the source), I'm just wondering.

Rand al'Thor

@Ankoganit Definitely should be reopened (unless you want to just delete it).

A not-deleted question shouldn't be a dupe of a deleted one.

user189275

@Ankoganit: Shouldn't it is always possible to differentiate, considering the complete stoppage of movement along a perpendicular direction happens only in a cube, not in a ball ? (BTW, the asteriod has nonzero volume, of course)

Ankoganit

@Randal'Thor Hmm, then I'll go back and edit the wording.

Sconibulus

@ArbitraryKangaroo I think it might not be obvious if the asteroid is also rotating

Ankoganit

3:20 PM

@Sconibulus You can ignore any rotation of the asteroid itself.

(I was going edit that in)

@ArbitraryKangaroo Complete stoppage of movement? What do you mean?

Sconibulus

oh, wait, it's transmitting to the spacecraft, which is also on the surface of the asteroid, so rotation doesn't matter

user189275

@Ankoganit: (Do I write in a extremely clunky way ?) Well, when you change the side in a cube, you stop moving in any direction perpendicular to the previous side.

user189275

@Ankoganit: Hey, cubical cross sections of a sphere... I completely missed that. It can be impossible to differentiate, the proof is trivial.

user189275

By "cubical cross section of a sphere", I mean paths on a sphere, which are perpendicular sectionwise, so can be surface of a cube too. I missed it previously of my regular stupidity, of course :(

Ankoganit

Okay, I am now editing it (and then I'll cast a reopen vote and see what happens).

user189275

3:27 PM

@Ankoganit: Now, what's wrong with my last comment ?

Ankoganit

@ArbitraryKangaroo When did I say it's wrong? :D

user189275

user189275

Here's an excellent picture to illustrate that. See, how excellently and beautifully I draw ?

Ankoganit

@ArbitraryKangaroo Impeccable :P

user189275

@Ankoganit: That's a vast understatement of my artwork. :)

user189275

3:34 PM

By the way, why the heck you programme your rover to go like that ? Can't it just fly over without taking the headache ?

Ankoganit

@ArbitraryKangaroo Because then you don't get the nice puzzle :P

Alright, editing and voting done

user189275

Okay, I upvoted it.

Rand al'Thor

That was quick, @Emrakul!

user189275

@Randal'Thor: What he did ? Delete it ?

Rand al'Thor

@ArbitraryKangaroo Reopened it.

Why would he delete it?

user189275

3:41 PM

@Randal'Thor: I thought he deleted it because I didn't see it on the main PSE page. BTW, it's good but trivial too.

Ankoganit

@ArbitraryKangaroo Why don't you post an answer? :-)

user189275

@Ankoganit: I posted the answer, and I have to draw some " extremely unimaginable impeccable" drawing to answer, and I am bit lazy, so I don't.

Ankoganit

@ArbitraryKangaroo I think you can get some nice images on Google

I found this:

dcfyj

@Randal'Thor I did flag it, so that may have helped

user189275

@Ankoganit: Welll, anybody may post an answer, as I don't care about it.

Ankoganit

3:54 PM

@ArbitraryKangaroo But nobody else appears to have a solution!!

(Both the answers posted so far have fallen into the trap of intuition)

dcfyj

If you look at 2012's second comment he has an image with the solution from the old post in it.

user189275

@Ankoganit: Intuition, in my opinion, is not trappy. I have posted a comment, though.

user189275

(While I was writing the comment, 2012 was posting his comment)

user61230

@Randal'Thor Not exactly my most helpful answer, which is why ;)

dcfyj

@ArbitraryKangaroo Why not use rot13 instead of Viginere?

Ankoganit

3:59 PM

And that too with a weird key

user189275

@dcfyj: Because the key, NNNNN..., in rot13 doesn't spells anything.

dcfyj

Why would that matter?

user189275

I don't know, so I deleted the comment.

Ankoganit

@ArbitraryKangaroo No offence, but you are... strange.

user189275

@Ankoganit: (Who knows ? I don't know) The chat atmosphere is now boring - know any good (math) puzzle to spice it up ?

Rand al'Thor

4:14 PM

@ArbitraryKangaroo If it's maths puzzles you want, this one is something of a favourite of mine. The beauty of it is that the practical real-world solution and the rigorous mathematical proof are essentially exactly the same, which very rarely happens.

(Oh hey, I just found this old thing while searching for my own "table" posts. That was kind of fun.)

user189275

@Randal'Thor: How does the four legged table balance in a perfectly plane and even, but very slanted, floor ?

Rand al'Thor

@ArbitraryKangaroo "Balance" = "all four feet on the surface of the floor". Don't worry about the direction of the gravitational force.

Ankoganit

@Randal'Thor Yeah, that ws something mind-blowing.

Lukas Rotter

I think I'm going to go for moderator 2k17 just so I can see removed messages in chat. :P

Well, I was quick enough for that one unfortunately... :P

Rand al'Thor

:32855846 Only mods can see deleted messages in chat - it's a blue privilege, not a rep-based one.

Oh, and room owners.

Ankoganit

4:21 PM

Me too

dcfyj

You say "unfortunately" but you want the ability to see them :P

Rand al'Thor

But this room's ROs are all mods anyway.

dcfyj

@Randal'Thor 2k17 is 2017 as in the year

user189275

@Randal'Thor:

user189275

21 hours ago, by Rand al'Thor

@ArbitraryKangaroo Yep :-)

dcfyj

4:22 PM

@ArbitraryKangaroo ok...?

Rand al'Thor

@ArbitraryKangaroo Yes?

Lukas Rotter

@dcfyj I meant it's slightly unfortunate for the roo. :P

Sconibulus

Could anyone else mysteriously see chat flags for a little while earlier today?

Ankoganit

@ArbitraryKangaroo Rand is a mod (in SFF)

Sconibulus

(Blue people excluded)

Rand al'Thor

4:23 PM

@Sconibulus That's a 10k-rep privilege.

dcfyj

@Sconibulus No idea, I wasn't on/wasn't paying attention

Rand al'Thor

Once you get 10k network-wide rep, you can see all spam/offensive flags in chat.

user189275

@Randal'Thor: So any mod in a site, can see deleted post in other ?

Sconibulus

but I don't have 10k on any site, and I've had 10K networks for weeks I think

user189275

21 hours ago, by Arbitrary Kangaroo

@Randal'Thor: You can see deleted chat psots ?

Rand al'Thor

4:23 PM

@Sconibulus Looks like you have 12.5k network-wide.

dcfyj

and I only have 2500 rep

Sconibulus

and it only seemed to be a thing very briefly

Rand al'Thor

@Sconibulus Yes, chat flags are usually dealt with very quickly.

There are a lot of people using chat at any given instant, and quite a few of them are blue or have >10k network-wide.

Alenanno

@ArbitraryKangaroo Moderators in any site are moderators in all chats.

Sconibulus

hmm.. the messages I did see were in Spanish...

dcfyj

4:24 PM

@Randal'Thor A side effect of chat being a live beast.

Rand al'Thor

@ArbitraryKangaroo Not on other sites, but in all of chat, yes.

Sconibulus

maybe that made it slow enough for me to notice

Beastly Gerbil

Hmmm slow question day today

Rand al'Thor

@Sconibulus Yep, this one:

in Estouro de Pilha, 2 hours ago, by Gumball

Por que você não alerta falando meu nome, @diegofm ? Não estou tentando causar discussão nenhuma aqui, você que se irrita muito fácil.

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil I have an idea for one, but that's all it is at the moment.

Rand al'Thor

4:25 PM

Foreign-language chat flags tend to get a lot of "unsure" flags before they're eventually validated or invalidated.

Beastly Gerbil

Ideas -> Puzzles = Puzzlemaking

dcfyj

By the way @BeastlyGerbil, did you see that chat message I sent you regarding the dancing men?

Ankoganit

@BeastlyGerbil I'm probably going to post one tomorrow.

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil I posted one last night (but in this UTC day), and I limit myself to at most one question per site per day.

Beastly Gerbil

@dcfyj oh no?

Sconibulus

4:26 PM

I'm working on one, but it's taking a really long time

Beastly Gerbil

@Randal'Thor, because 2 questions a day won't get you the Electorate badge ? :P

Sconibulus

(Socratic, I believe)

but it's probably more about not wasting rep when he inevitably goes over 200

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil You said you didn't think there was a translator online. But this is what I used to make my puzzle :P

Beastly Gerbil

Oh yeah wrong one

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil I've already got the Electorate badge.

Beastly Gerbil

4:28 PM

Meant socratic

Rand al'Thor

In that case, yes :-)

Beastly Gerbil

@dcfyj that would have made my job so much easier!

dcfyj

I know, that's why I said no pcs. You went and used one for the title anyways :P

Beastly Gerbil

I haven't posted today and I still somehow got 165 rep so far...

@dcfyj, I actually had read the Dancing men by Sherlock holmes a few days before, helped massively

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil HNQ magic?

dcfyj

4:29 PM

Did you ever get a chance to look at part 3?

Beastly Gerbil

I was asleep :P

dcfyj

You can still look at it, it hasn't gone anywhere :P

Beastly Gerbil

Oh ok, surprised I saw an answer and thought it was solved

dcfyj

It is solved. That doesn't mean you can't solve it yourself though

Beastly Gerbil

:p

Too much effort for nothing :P

Sconibulus

4:31 PM

it was fun

you should try it

Beastly Gerbil

80 views in 3 days?

dcfyj

It didn't seem to take Sconibulus too long to decode it.

@Sconibulus You didn't find this encoder by any chance did you?

@BeastlyGerbil I posted it on Friday :(

Beastly Gerbil

I gave it a view boost by making a small edit...

dcfyj

I should've waited until yesterday to post it. I saw, I didn't even notice that "Now" was in the wrong place lol

Sconibulus

@dcfyj No, I didn't, didn't think to look, you said something that made me think it was kinda like Dancing Men, so I just went with translating immediately

Beastly Gerbil

4:36 PM

It wasn't really, it was just an edit to get it to the top of the active list :P

dcfyj

The main difference between 2 and 3 was the fact that I encyphered the case as well as the letters.

user189275

Oooh. So many people chatting at once. I didn't see it since Rosie F posted the first alphanumeric cipher.

dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil You bad boy :P

Beastly Gerbil

It deserves more views :P

Its already gone up 5 :P

dcfyj

None of them have gotten over 200, sadly that's pretty common for my puzzles :(

Beastly Gerbil

4:38 PM

I think it might be to do with time of posting, posting before a weekend means few views but posting on a Monday would get more

dcfyj

I know that one, I mistakenly posted on friday and immediately realized my error

Beastly Gerbil

Also you might post when the majority of users are sleeping and other puzzles will bury your puzzle by the morning

dcfyj

No idea, all I know is it's daytime here

Beastly Gerbil

I generally post late at night (in England) so more users from the US will see it in their morning

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil Their morning is our afternoon, so you could as well post it in our morning for that.

dcfyj

4:43 PM

Afternoon is after noon :P

user189275

@Randal'Thor: When is your morning ? (You usually post "I am going to bed" "Too sleepy" etc comments when its around 7~8 in morning here)

Beastly Gerbil

@ArbitraryKangaroo 'when is your morning' - around 6 - 9 am :P

Not that helpful

dcfyj

It would be better to ask what timezone are you in, methinks

Sconibulus

@BeastlyGerbil pretty sure that's something you're not supposed to do

user189275

@dcfyj: My question is obviously that.

Lukas Rotter

4:45 PM

@ArbitraryKangaroo I think he lives in England, so around -5 hours from your timezone. :P

dcfyj

@LukasRotter That all depends on what tz he's in :P

Beastly Gerbil

@Sconibulus, I do that for posts with low views. I feel sorry for them

Sconibulus

I saw it within 20 minutes or so before I left work, started work on it, sent an email to myself with the first stanza.5 or something, and finished it when I got home

Lukas Rotter

@dcfyj He said before UTC +5, so presumably in India. :P

user189275

Yeah.

dcfyj

4:47 PM

@Sconibulus That's why I said he was bad hehe

@LukasRotter Didn't see that

Rand al'Thor

@ArbitraryKangaroo What @Lukas said.

Sconibulus

5:11 PM

can someone help me acronym better?

Right now I have PORTAL-Preventative Ordinance with Respect to Time in Accordance with the Law

goal is Time Cops, with a real word with some meaning starting with P

Rosie F

@Sconibulus According to Law saves 2 filler words.

Beastly Gerbil

How about Preventative Ordinance Respecting Time According to Law?

One filler word

Sconibulus

this makes it end up feeling more like the rule than the enforcers

but I can probably make that work...

Rand al'Thor

@Sconibulus Police Officers Regulating Time?

Sconibulus

@Randal'Thor That's way better than what I had, thanks

Ooh, gave me this recursive idea, is it terrible? PATROL Around Time Reliable Officers of Law

Beastly Gerbil

5:21 PM

Policing Around Time Reliable Offers of Law?

user189275

@BeastlyGerbil: 3 ?

user189275

I'm half sure that it's right.

Beastly Gerbil

I'll need reasoning, not saying if it is right or wrong

user189275

@BeastlyGerbil: Well, I kinda guessed it, with some heuristic. In every 3 groups, only one figure is closed, so it isn't most probably closed figure, so not 1,2 and you have neglected 4,5 in the answer comments, so it should be 3.

Beastly Gerbil

Nope sorry, see the hint

The fact that there is 9 isn't important

user189275

5:33 PM

But I think the actual answer has something to do with right angles.

Beastly Gerbil

Again no...

user189275

Overlapping ?

user189275

(Last one)

Beastly Gerbil

...

user189275

?

Beastly Gerbil

5:34 PM

You won't get the answer by guesswork, you will need to work on it

I'll put a bounty on it soon

user189275

I am not guessing now, I was asking for a hint, last one, that if it had something to do with overlapping with the neighbouring two or not

Beastly Gerbil

That is a good starting point...

So yes work on that thought

Sconibulus

I think it's either 4 or 2

user189275

Why ?

Sconibulus

Well, 3 and 5 overlap, unlike any of the picture

and 1 is a scalene triangle... the pictures all look more regular than that

I'm tempted to say 4, because most of the others look like they could maybe be various parts of the drawing of a cube? But that doesn't quite fit

user189275

5:39 PM

Well, it may be you rescale and put the middle picture somewhere in the previous picture and ommit matching parts and you get the next picture

Sconibulus

Actually, wait... these might just be geometry things...

Beastly Gerbil

Oh no no no

Focus on overlapping

Sconibulus

2 is bisecting an angle, 3 is parallel lines, via an orthoganal, 4 is parallel lines, via same-angleness 6 is a regular quadragon...

user189275

Hey, even and odd overlapping, and omitting matched one roughly produces it.

Sconibulus

I don't see it

user189275

5:48 PM

roughly

Rosie F

6:00 PM

@Sconibulus "regular quadragon" -- is that beast related to the square? :)

user189275

A GRP question !

user189275

0

Q: A Boyfriend's Mysterious Message

Imogen was dog-tired, but excited! After 3 gruelling weeks of 16-hour work days imposed by an iron-willed boss, she was finally finished all her projects. She'd been processing (figurative) wheelbarrow-loads of tax returns, and tax season had finally ended. She now had some free time to spend ...

story board-games dice

Sconibulus

@RosieF well... regular square sounded silly... and I didn't want to delete after I wrote regular... suppose I could have used rectangle :)

GentlePurpleRain

@ArbitraryKangaroo Wow! I was just coming in here to let people know I'd posted a puzzle, and you beat me to it!

Beastly Gerbil

Looks interesting, immediate thought a 1 is a full stop

user189275

6:02 PM

@GentlePurpleRain: Well, your puzzles are really beautiful, that's why I mentioned it here. I mean, the Hearken ..., is overly beautiful

GentlePurpleRain

@ArbitraryKangaroo Well, some have not been so great. But thanks for the kudos!

user189275

@GentlePurpleRain: It has something to do with "board games" ? I mean, you have to know the rules ? Or just the tag because of the domino picture ?

dcfyj

Those are dice, not dominos

Sconibulus

66 is about a quarter of all pairs

GentlePurpleRain

@ArbitraryKangaroo Yes, it has more to do with board games than just the fact that it involves dice. I will say no more than that.

Beastly Gerbil

6:09 PM

Let me guess the answer: 'Marry me' :P

dcfyj

I think it's "Let's play Monopoly!"

It is board game related after all :P

Beastly Gerbil

Wow! @dcfyj that is a big thing to do at the weekend! :P

Sconibulus

Ticket To Ride: Europe! It's a great vacation!

Beastly Gerbil

Probably something to do with Holidays

How about we stop guessing and solve it :P

Sconibulus

Don't Wake Daddy! He's pregnant!

dcfyj

6:17 PM

Unless I missed them the only pairs not used are 43 and 61

Sconibulus

@dcfyj and 25

dcfyj

right, I had crossed that out as not found, but it's the only one I did that on lol

Sconibulus

hmm... all of which sum to 7

dcfyj

That may have something to do with it, but I doubt it since 52,34 and 16 are all used

Sconibulus

34 and 16 appear once each, 52 twice

56 and 65 appear 5 and 6 times respectively...

other than 44 (and maybe 66) which seem to be outlier, it's plausible that the number 2-11 was chosen first, then the exact composition was generated randomly

user189275

6:23 PM

@GentlePurpleRain: (You may not reply too, as it's too early too) Is the backstory is just to spice it up or contains some clue ?

user189275

[One thing noted: It's probably something (a game ?) that's in America, but not in Europe, as the apparently important dashed word says so (This comment is not to ask hint from GRP)]

Beastly Gerbil

0

Q: Hnefatafl - a lost Art

Hnefatafl is a Tafl Game, though it is a lost art in the modern day. The aim of the game is either to capture the king, or get the king to a corner depending on which side you are playing on. It is played on an 11 x 11 board: Although this and the layout are the only rules that has survived t...

optimization history board-games

Anotherr board game puzzle

Lukas Rotter

@ArbitraryKangaroo If it's just there to splice it up, I really wonder why he'd put so many monopoly red herrings in there... "monopolizing", "thimble", etc. :P

dcfyj

31-7
66-34
33-3
34-1
55-5
52-2
64-1
22-4
53-3
13-5
54-2
51-4
26-3
62-4
63-5
21-2
65-6
15-2
16-1
14-3
24-6
44-13
11-1
56-5
23-1
45-2
46-2
35-3
42-4
12-2
32-3
41-2
36-1

I may have miscounted some of those, but that's the frequency

user189275

@LukasRotter: I don't know any board games except random googling to solve puzzles, but it seems to be Monopoly for sure, as it fits the italics too.

user189275

6:31 PM

US version of Monopoly, as there's a UK version of too, but it should not be taken care of.

Beastly Gerbil

BTW it is pronounced Ner-far-taff-all

user189275

Anybody pays monopoly here ?

user189275

(Except GRP, of course)

Sconibulus

I've played in the past

dcfyj

dog, iron, wheelbarrow, monopolizing , shoes, thimble, shipped, car, red dice, and hat are all mentioned in the story. That's a lot of monopoly reference, but it could be a very elaborate and mean red herring.

Lukas Rotter

6:40 PM

I only play the austrian version of it, DKT... :P

user189275

@Sconibulus: Well, how does you proceed (you've to roll two dices, right ?) with the result of the dice(s) ? Any word here seems familiar with monopoly, except I'm gone ?

Lukas Rotter

@dcfyj which would be pretty strange to include so many red herrings, IMO. :P

The fact that you land on the field "Income Tax" if you roll "31" from the start may also be a small hint, when taking the story into consideration. :P

user189275

What fields you land on, if you do the moves mentioned ?

Lukas Rotter

@ArbitraryKangaroo I'm working on that right now... This might also be the reason why so many "66" are included, because if you roll dupes, you must roll again without staying on the field. :P

Sconibulus

44 was also unusually high...

user189275

6:45 PM

@LukasRotter: Do it on the US version.

Sconibulus

66 and 44 both will move you a long way around without stopping

3 doubles in a row puts you into jail until you roll another double I think, that might be relevant

4, 25, 17, 34, 12, 7, 4, 9, 6, 8, 8, 9, 9, 8, 3, 35 is the top four rows I think

Lukas Rotter

If I didn't make a mistake, the first few fields are Income Tax, Marvin Gardens, Oriental Avenue, Collect 200 Salary As you pass (GO), Electric Company, New York Avenue :P

Sconibulus

IMOGEN

yeah, this is right

Lukas Rotter

Well, I guess now it's about whoever is faster :P

Beastly Gerbil

Wow you solved that fast

Lukas Rotter

6:53 PM

damn it, i dont work well under stress :P

Sconibulus

next is Indiana, North Carolina, Luxury Tax, Oriental, Virginia, Indiana, North Carolina, Go, Baltic, Luxury Tax

In Loving Bl...

iss..

Lukas Rotter

I actually had the same idea pretty much right of the bat, but I thought GO was supposed to be "Collect 200 Salary As you pass", and I interpreted IMOCEN as I'm Ocen for whatever reason, which didn't make much sense, so I gave up... I'll just leave it now. Another ridiculous failure that will stay stuck in my mind for a few days. :P

Sconibulus

This is very slow, and lots of you are probably already on it, so I concede the race

so I can keep working on my other puzzle

Transcript for