Croquet

Owner:

Nathan, Emily

Solution:

FLAGSHIP

GC Notes:

GC to update day-of-game.

Presentation:

Upon arriving at this puzzle's location, they will either be directed by person or map to a set of croquet courses set up for the day's event. They will then receive their team's envelope containing a few copies of the below rules and score sheet.

Machine generated alternative text: Welcome to Alice's Wonderful Land of Croquet. There are seven segments in today's game: 1. When you are ready to play a round of croquet, send one or two players to get in line at the far post. 2. Each player may optionally bring one assistant with them. 3. When a course judge is ready, he or she will select the next player from the line and lend them a flamingo and hedgehog for the round. 4. Place your hedgehog adjacent to the starting peg, and make sure the judge is ready to watch your game. 5. To play the game, swing your flamingo by its legs to hit your hedgehog through the wickets, and eventually against the end peg to score your round. 6. If at any point you break a rule, the judge will inform you and tell you that you have forfeited the round. You may then confer with your teammates on the sidelines or get back in line. 7. When you complete a round, the judge will announce your score.

Walkthrough:

The field is laid out as shown below:

Note:

  • In normal croquet, there would be two additional wickets, one at each end

  • The orientation of these wickets does NOT match traditional croquet

Play:

  1. Teams will form a line near the sidelines at the "bottom" of the course, on the same side as where teams can watch or wait their turn.

  2. When a judge is ready, they will hand the next player a flamingo and hedgehog.

  1. They will then be instructed to place their hedgehog on the ground next to the starting (bottom) peg.

  2. They will then play croquet according the following rules:

  • Every time a ball goes through a wicket, that wicket is considered as "lit-up". Going through the same wicket multiple times has no effect except for possibly violating the repeated segment or skipping strokes rule.

All penalties will result in the team forfeiting the round

Enforced by Judges keeping notes:

  1. Invalid Peg:

    1. Returning to the starting peg after going through any wickets.

  1. Skipping Strokes:

    1. If the ball goes between the starting peg and to a wicket in the top half (including center)

    2. If the ball goes from a wicket in the bottom half (including center) to the top peg

    3. If the ball goes between two wickets which don't share an end point in a 7-segment display

  1. Repeated Segment:

    1. Going through the same wicket a second time after having been through a different wicket

  1. Incorrect Peg:

    1. Returning to the starting peg after going through a wicket

  1. Illegal Formation:

    1. Going to the end peg, but not having been through a set of wickets forming the shape of an upper-case letter. (All valid letter shapes are shown in the scoring rule)

  1. Scoring (when hitting the end peg)

    1. 0 points - Correctly forming a letter, but the letter is not in the answer

    2. >= 1 points - The index of the formed letter within the answer (there are 2 acceptable forms of G and I and U is technically impossible based on the other rules)

  1. Interference:

    1. Making your animals interact with or hit the animals of any other player on the field. This should be enforced even for accidental contact so they don't think they need to get hit or anything like that.

    2. Standing in the field while not playing.

  1. Abandonment:

    1. Leaving an animal without a team member.

  1. Animal Abuse:

    1. Mistreating your animal - e.g. dropping / throwing / stepping on it

  1. Delay of Game:

    1. Taking too long between wickets

    2. Not taking a stroke for more than a reasonable amount of time.

  1. Cheating:

    1. Picking up your hedgehog while on the course.

Trick:

Looking at each of the tunnels as part of a 7-segment display, the used tunnels form letters. Letters that occur in the answer will result in a score of points equal to their position in the answer. Letters not in the answer will score 0 points.

Hinting:

  • If the teams don't recognize that it's 7-segment, have them re-read the flavor text. There are multiple clues there.

  • If teams get the 7-segment nature, but don't recognize that these are letters, check the following:

    • Orientation

    • Included vs. excluded (trying to xor passes through a wicket is incorrect), in general, if a wicket was passed through, it's in the formed shape.

  • Ask them how they think the point system works

  • Have team ask for a demonstration round from staff on site.

Data:

Practice app for judging (may have bugs): http://home.comcast.net/~nathan.s/msig/croquet/judging.htm

Click reset and then on each wicket the hedgehog goes through in order.

<<Croquet Flavor.docx>>