Waldorf and Statler

Owner:

Nick

Solution:

PUNDIT

Partial Answers

None

GC Notes:

GC to update day-of-game.

Presentation:

Teams arrive at an amphitheater with six staffers seated at benches in the audience and a stand with a stage manager on it. The stage manager welcomes them to the Camp Northwind improv workshop, where teams are given the opportunity to practice their improv skills and get feedback from our staff of improv experts. They're given a packet of instructions and told that if they successfully get a passing grade from 5 of the 6 experts in a single performance, there is a special prize they will receive (but that there's only one special prize per team so they'll only need to do this once). The stage is shared across all teams, so they take turns performing, but can and should watch as other teams take their turns.

Walkthrough:

There are six different stories to perform, numbered 1-6, each of which has 6 different rules that need to be followed, one rule being judged by each of the six experts. When a team completes a performance, each judge will decide whether the team successfully abided by the rule they are judging, and if so, hold up a sign that shows a filled-in or an empty circle. The six experts are seated in a 2x3 configuration, and the data they are holding up is Braille, so teams simply need to gather enough data from successful performances to figure out the six letter answer (ordered by the order of the story numbers).

In order to facilitate solving while still encouraging variety in performances, the answer and data for each team is the same, but the rule that each team has to fulfill to succeed at judging is different. This means that all six stories are the same and in the same order, and for any given story, a judge will hold up the same data if a team is successful. What the judge is watching for, however, changes from team to team.

There is one additional wrinkle - the special prize that is offered to teams that successfully fulfill at least 5 of the 6 rules in a single performance. That prize tells them that the first judge's data is reversed. This simply serves the purpose of making sure that each team gets on stage and gives a good performance at least once - beyond this, they can gather all the data they need by just watching other teams.

Beyond figuring out that they are collecting data for Braille, the puzzle is straightforward and is more about the improv performances that any serious puzzle components.

Hinting:

There are only three things that are likely to trip up teams:

  1. Braille. If teams don't see that this is Braille, asking them about the configuration of how the judges are seated can help. Also, ask them what filled and empty circles/dots might imply.

  2. Inability to get the special prize. If a team has earnestly tried a few times to act and failed to succeed at this, it's fine to just give them this information (it's possible we'll have the stage manager proactively do this depending on how further testing goes).

  3. Slow data collection. If a team complains that they're spending too much time or having to go on stage too many times, ask them if they are paying attention to when other teams are performing and their results. We're being pretty open about the data being the same across teams, but it's possible this will need to be scaled depending on how further testing goes.

Changes Since Beta/RC:

Some of the rules have changed. Otherwise, the puzzle still works the same.

Data:

Here is the seating configuration in the amphitheater: