Gnomenclature

Owner:

Butters

Presentation:

Teams arrive at Office Park Stonehenge and are greeted by a gnome. They see five gnomes scattered around the megaliths, each with a hat of a different color. The gnome at the entrance greets them:

"Welcome to the market of the gnomes. Scattered around are representatives of the five noble gnome families. Gnomes are notoriously paranoid folks, and most of them won’t deal with anyone but members of their own families – and they have rules for knowing their families, make no mistake.. To find the Great Wizard, you may need to convince them that you’re kin. Luckily, I grabbed these name tags after a recent gnome gathering – they may be what you need to get you in the door."

After reading the greeting, the gnome hands them an envelope with:

  • 5 name tag holders

  • 30 name tags with names printed on the back

  • 5 blank name tags

Walkthrough:

Each of the five gnomes has a different criteria for accepting/rejecting a name. Each gnome acts as follows:

  • If they are wearing no name tag or more than one name tag, ask "Where’s your real identification?" and turn around

  • If their name tag has a name which doesn’t conform to your rule, frown and turn around

  • If their name tag is a computer-printed tag that matches your rule (or a handwritten copy of that name), respond with "I know <name>, and that’s not you" and turn around.

  • If their name tag is a handwritten tag that is different from the ones they’ve been given, but follows your rule, respond with "You seem like a trustworthy person.  What can I do for you?"

    • If asked about the Great Wizard, mention that the only one who is allowed to know about that is the Godfather gnome, who is trusted by all the gnome families.

    • If pressed for more information about the Godfather gnome, point them to Gnome #0 (by the door who greeted them when they entered)

    • If they claim to be the Godfather gnome, send then to Gnome #0 for verification.

    • If asked for your name or any other information, respond with "I don’t give out that information to anyone" and turn around.

  • Do not let the same person come up to the same gnome twice in a row unless they change something about their appearance (different shirt, fake mustache, whatever). If they try to rapid-fire names, say "You just told me your name was something else. Get out." Rules for what constitutes a different enough appearance are up to the individual actor.

The five gnomes and their rules are:

Gnome #1:

Rule: Names must contain all vowels

Stock names you recognize:

  • Allexiou

  • Equiano

  • Nausinoe

  • Ouilamek

  • Regularious

  • Rieumajou

Gnome #2:

Rule: Names must contain 3 letters in a row (abc, efg, etc.)

Stock names you recognize:

  • Beefgrowl

  • Bloopquist

  • Drabcloak

  • Ramno

  • Stonoplex

  • Thurston

Gnome #3:

Rule: Names must alternate between vowels and consonants, starting and ending with vowels

Stock names you recognize:

  • Areno

  • Avaseti

  • Erinule

  • Inara

  • Orabele

  • Unitoleri

Gnome #4:

Rule: Names must contain a drink name

Stock names you recognize:

  • Abeericus

  • Balefinger

  • Midwater

  • Rumplestiltskin

  • Stonejuicer

  • Tanneragin

Gnome #5:

Rule: Names must be in ascending letter order, no duplicates

Stock names you recognize:

  • Adelost

  • Aegilops

  • Befist

  • Ceilosty

  • Degilmox

  • Glory

**************

Once they determine all rules, they should have picked up from the talk about the Godfather gnome that they need to come up with a name which satisfies all of the rules. The biggest constraint there is including a drink name - the only common drink in ascending order is "gin", which is one of the provided drinks, so teams will catch onto that. If teams come up with a unique solution, the door gnome should have sheets of paper to give teams with the actual final code. If they use gin and follow the rules, their final answer is A[BCD]EGINOPU.

If they write that on a name tag and go to the gnome by the door, the gnome by the door will recognize them as the Godfather gnome and tell them about the "Great Wizard" - and reveal that this is a common misconception, and they're actually looking for the Great Lizard.