Save Our City - Public Post - NO SPOILERS PLEASE

[essentialsaltes]

Herein is public discussion of my Save Our City puzzle rally in Los Angeles.

If you are interested in the game, you can now download a PDF of the whole shebang, so that you too can Save Our City. (Thanks, Riz!) Go out and play! Have fun! (File also mirrored here

Players, please do not spoil any of the puzzles in this thread. Comments that I consider spoilers will be deleted. So keep your comments general, using words like "diabolical", "impossible", "asshole" and "evil", rather than referring directly to puzzles and locations. So it's fair to discuss your overall impressions as well as general aspects of the experience that won't be available to those playing at home (so to speak): the soundtrack, the party, the prizes, etc.

For spoiler-laden comments, please go to this thread. For those of you who haven't played the game, but might... don't read the spoiler thread, duh.

Once again, thanks are due to all the players, who generously allowed me to torment them under trying conditions. Despite the various stumbling blocks that I intentionally and unintentionally threw under your wheels, everyone seemed to be good natured about the whole thing.

Again I thank Becca who provided insight, advice, and nachos.

And notjenschiz, who offered advice and feedback on some puzzles.

And one person I forgot to thank last night, but who deserves it is aaronjv, whose ChronoAgents road rally inspired me to run my own (including the time travel theme, though I mixed in a huge dose of 12 Monkeys).



Getting teams checked in, cameras checked and modified, and teams under way was a bit frenetic, but once things got started, all 9 teams were on the road in less than 30 minutes. Total number of players I think was 33.

After that, I sat on my ass next to the phone for about an hour, before the first team called in for a clue. It was crazy going from frantic activity, to nothing. I really wanted to be riding along with each team to see how things were going.

Fielded a couple more calls before heading to the lunch location. Operation Grab Bags had arrived by the time I got there a couple minutes late (police were blocking an exit off the 105, causing thousands of Angelenos to slow down to look at the flashing lights). I got a chance to hang out with the teams as they arrived and chat a little bit, but I was still too wired, sleep-deprived and jumpy to enjoy much. Got everyone off on the afternoon/evening session and headed back to HQ, passing by the mission #11 location to see if it was still as I remembered it (it was).

Fielded many more calls after lunch for clues. Honestly, I didn't intend those puzzles to be harder - I tried to arrange things so that the morning missions would be better for daylight hours (I failed at that too, to some extent). Team Platypus tried its hardest to turn this into a LARP after all, and I got plenty of confusing communications from them. This also had the effect of pulling Becca into LARPing mode as she fielded a lot of calls in the home office of 'Mickey's Carpet Cleaning'. [In 12 Monkeys, the number to call the future appears (at one point) to be a carpet cleaners. Teams in the game called the carpet cleaners to get hints and/or abuse me.]

Team Two Wongs Don't Make a White threw in the towel around 5. They rocked the morning session, but things went sour after lunch, it appears. Although they didn't 'finish' the game (and were thus ineligible for this particular prize) Two Wongs did post the highest average speed: 21.2 mph. They hung out for a bit at HQ before moving on to greener pastures.

The other teams poured in from 8-9 pm, and I was deluged by answer sheets to check, photos to download & judge on artistic merit, etc. Oh, and order pizzas. Everyone seemed pretty happy to chat and reminisce and bitch and moan, but I apologize if it took a long time to get the results out.

I'm also sorry that I gave everyone a little too much to do... so that no one finished the final puzzle. If you still have that sheet ( or download it when I get the game up) go do that puzzle. And follow the instructions to the letter.

But anyway, here are the main results. Items with dual numbers are raw score and penalty-adjusted score:

Stamina Prize (out the longest): The Wyrd Ones (657 minutes)
Gas Guzzer award (drove the furthest): Alpha Squad 7 (166 miles)
Tortoise award (slowest average speed): The Deloreans (10.74 mph)

Most Bonus Points: Team I Went 50 Years In the Past and All I Got was Shot in an Airport (144 points, a crushing victory)

Aesthetic Award (best photos): Shades of Glory (average 8.125/10)

Leadfoot Award (completed game with fastest average speed): Alpha Squad 7 (16.04 mph)

Efficiency Award (completed game in least distance): The Deloreans (113 miles/130 miles)

Saved Our City (completed game in least time): Operation Grab Bags (616 minutes/621 minutes)

Grand Prize (best average rank in each category): Team I Went 50 Years In the Past and All I Got was Shot in an Airport (3.2)

Comments

Soundtrack Thread Disc One

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

I spent a lot of time on the soundtrack, and I hope it was appreciated. I got several compliments, but I could always use more, hint hint.

Here are the track listings, with a few parenthetical comments.

Disc One: Driving

1 Hidden 2 0:05 (I just wanted a piece of silence before the real first track, cuz I know in my car, when you pop a CD in, the sound fades in, and I don't like it.) This one happened to come from a CD by the Misfits.
2 RallyIntro - The intro is a mix of the ChronoAgents intro (voiced by obishawn) and a scene from 12 Monkeys. This blends into the Doors' Roadhouse Blues, live in Los Angeles. Then Mix Novice Mike proceeded to smoosh together the live version, the studio version, the Crystal Method remix and Obishawn's v.o. into something that I intended to suggest slipping back and forth through time. In some ways, I wish I had it to do over again, because I did some of the trickiest parts when I was a level 1 novice, and by the time I got to the end, I was level two.
3 Los Angeles, I'm Yours 2:35 The Decemberists ("an ocean's gargled vomit on the shore, Los Angeles, I'm Yours")
4 seenyou (from 12 Monkeys)
5 Route66 6:17 Depeche Mode (I'm so glad I found this, rather than the Natalie Cole version I had here originally)
6 transport 0:06 (From Who Framed Roger Rabbit?)
7 cal 0:58 (Cal Worthington car ad)
8 Fun 2:13 Beach Boys
9 KIIS 0:12 1980's KIIS promo
10 I'm In Love With My Car (1991 Remix) 3:28 Queen
11 LaurelCanyon 0:18 (from The Big Sleep)
12 Dead Man's Curve 2:31 Jan & Dean
13 RetinalFetish 0:12 (from Strange Days)
14 Man & Machine 2:02 T.S.O.L.
15 olympic 0:14 (from Terminator)
16 Highway Star 6:09 Deep Purple
17 HearingtheStereo 0:18 (from Strange Days)
18 Bad Habit 3:43 The Offspring (STUPID! DUMBSHIT! GOD-DAMNED! MOTHERFUCKER!)
19 autobahn 0:12 (from The Big Lebowski, discussing the fictional band Autobahn, obviously based on Kraftwerk)
20 Autobahn 8:51 Kraftwerk (A song by Kraftwerk, entitled Autobahn)
21 electrical 0:11 (from Terminator 2)
22 Take California 7:21 Propellerheads
23 KEARTH promoldies 0:03 KEARTH
24 Los Angeles 3:56 Lil Menace
25 thedude 0:21 (From The Big Lebowski)
26 King Of The Surf Guitar (Vocal) 2:08 Dick Dale
27 Ivar 0:18 (from Sunset Boulevard)
28 Say Goodbye To Hollywood 3:54 Billy Joel
29 innout 0:09 (from The Big Lebowski)
30 Hollywood Babylon 2:20 The Misfits
31 TotallyPaused 0:14 (from Clueless)
32 Valley Girl 4:52 Frank and Moon Unit Zappa

Soundtrack Thread Disc Two

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Disc Two: Dystopia & Destruction

1 Earth Died Screaming 3:35 Tom Waits 12 Monkeys Soundtrack
2 Water Shortage 0:30 LA TV Weathercaster spot
3 Los Angeles is Burning 3:23 Bad Religion (This song was almost too obvious and overplayed to include. But Malibu was burning recently, so it made it in through topicality.)
4 onlyinLA 0:06 (from Chinatown)
5 Why You'd Want to Live Here 4:41 Death Cab for Cutie (sorry about the sound quality, but it's performed live in Los Angeles, and he talks to the crowd. "It's Only a Love Song")
6 Earthquake 3:20 The Used (A love song that mentions being buried alive in an earthquake) 7 sodom 0:16 (from Escape from LA)
8 California Earthquake 2:46 Cass Elliot (sorry about the sound quality - performed live on the Smothers Brothers show)
9 Going To California 3:35 Led Zeppelin ("The mountains and the canyons start to tremble and shake")
10 KEARTH promoBest 0:03 KEARTH
11 Eat All The Old People 2:58 No Time
12 tub 0:27 (from Tank Girl)
13 Jupiterman 5:21 Renfield ("Where were you when the robot attacked?")
14 Down Rodeo 5:20 Rage Against The Machine
15 fuckthis 0:14 (from Predator 2)
16 This is Los Angeles 3:10 WC ("gang capital of the nation" - song mentions Carlito's Way)
17 Trickshot 3:16 The Crystal Method (incorporates audio from Carlito's Way)
18 Los Angeles 4:07 Benjamin Biolay (Francophiles: check the lyrics: mentions a cyborg)
19 deadalready 0:24 (from Terminator 2)
20 Pure War 4:44 Funker Vogt ("This... is nuclear war")
21 Duck & Cover vs A Warm Place 3:14 Squee2012 (Duck & Cover mashed with NIN)
22 World War III 2:05 T.S.O.L.
23 KMPCUnited 0:47 (radio aircheck including United Airlines' friendly skies ad (and the 'new' United terminal at LAX)
24 L. A. International Airport 2:47 Susan Raye (raise your hand if you knew that there was a C&W song about LAX that reached #54 on the pop charts and is now the official song of LAX. Includes "friendly skies" lyric)
25 Cole's Third Dream 0:20 Paul Buckmaster 12 Monkeys Soundtrack (part of his dreams/memories of the incident in the airport)
26 Mr Helpmann 1:14 Michael Kamen Brazil ("Bad sportsmanship")
27 California über Alles 4:29 Dead Kennedys Mutiny On The Bay (Live) (OMG these alternate lyrics make me howl with rage: "That's the marines, motherfuckers, blowed up by a god-damned truck bomb. Show a little gore on TV. They want you foaming at the mouth in your living room, so they can send everyone to war.... somewhere else.)
28 Superficial Love 1:56 T.S.O.L. Live 1991 ("President Bush [41] can suck my ..."
29 5billion 0:17 (from 12 Monkeys - 5 billion people died? Bummer)
30 What A Wonderful World 3:03 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (OK, that makes me feel better)

Re: Soundtrack Thread Disc Two

[aaronjv.livejournal.com]

I was listening to disk 2 to and fro the softball game last night (Sepulveda pass to Studio City and back), and "Duck and Cover/NIN mash" came on.

Pure genius. Very frightening and touching Did you do that mix? It's inspired.

Soundtrack Thread Disc Three

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Disc Three: Divergence

1 divergent 0:50 (from 12 Monkeys)
2 Strange Days 4:23 The Doors Versions
3 12blueberryfinal 3:08 Fats Domino (mixes audio from 12 Monkeys, the studio version of Blueberry Hill, and an LA radio aircheck that intros and outros the song, introducing the 1984 countdown of the top songs of 1984 (aired on 12/31/84))
4 LA is My Lady 3:12 Frank Sinatra (Wait, did I leave this on there? Man, I apologize.)
5 threebucks 0:26 (from Strange Days. predicts 3 dollar a gallon gas a few years before it happened, and "nothing changes New Year's Day")
6 War Within A Breath 3:36 Rage Against The Machine ("Everything can change, on a New Year's Day")
7 Birthplace 0:07 (From Zorro the Gay Blade ... this starts to introduce more of the Divergence and slipping of the timestream that I set up for the afternoon session. In this case, we go into a Spanish speaking future)
8 Darkness Of Greed 3:47 Dragon Zaga Tributo A Rage Against The Machine (From RatM to RatM sung in Spanish)
9 California Dreamin 4:07 (I believe this is Jose Feliciano)
10 Hunterwasser 0:16 (from Blade Runner, "That's the hotel... where I live")
11 Hotel California 5:47 Gypsy Kings The Big Lebowski (sung in Spanish)
12 pederast 0:10 (from The Big Lebowski - if you listen carefully, you can hear Hotel California in the background)
13 Hollywood 3:44 Madonna
14 Because It's Midnite 2:12 Limozeen (If only I'd bought GHIII sooner, you'd've had Black Sunshine on the soundtrack rather than this track from a nonexistent 80's band)
15 SantaAnitaGemco 0:52 (Holiday ad from 1984)
16 Help Tha Police 1:53 Adam Buxton [From BBC3's Rush Hour] (an alternative version of NWA)
17 KRLA - Time After Time 4:59 Cindy Lauper (combines an aircheck from the 1984 countdown with the song. Sadly the aircheck was at a totally different pitch (stretching audio tape?) than the actual song, so I couldn't leave in the part where he talks over the start of the song)
18 squishnow 0:24 Simpsons (Okay, now you've Homered the past - so that familiar music has become unfamiliar... introducing the mashup section)
19 Over the Confluence of Giants 5:05 DJ Earworm w/ UTIOG, David Bowie, Steely Dan, Queen, Steve Miller, Common www.djearworm.com (OMFG, it mashes a whole lotta shit. But best of all is the bit that mashes Steely Dan's Do it Again against Steve Miller's Fly Like an Eagle:
"You go back jack do it again" x "Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin Into the future"

= "You go back ... into the future"
20 real and not 0:16 (from 12 Monkeys)
21 Stayin Alive in The Wall 3:16 Wax Audio www.waxaudio.com.au
22 whatyear 0:11 (from Terminator - originally this was going to be one of the bonus ones, but I thought it was too hard - instead a bunch of people missed #20, which was fucking from 12 Monkeys itself. That was a gimme!)
23 come closer 4:23 Beatles vs NIN
24 living in the future 0:21 (from 12 Monkeys)
25 PLay that Funky Music vs. Relax
26 Whole Lotta Pigs 3:19 Black Zeppelin (I added the announcer intro where I crudely turned Black Sabbath into Black Zeppelin)
27 KEARTH promoBest 0:03 KEARTH
28 Pinocchiohead On LSD 1:59 (Pinocchio vs. Creep vs. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ... maybe the Pinocchio part seems sorta holiday like, so this introduces the Holiday section)
29 Gary Owens Preparation H 1 0:44 (You can't listen to this and not laugh. This is a longer edit of what's on a previous Jackie&Andy Xmas disc)
30 Hanukkah in Santa Monica 1:48 tom lehrer (on the current Jackie&Andy Xmas disc, not that I knew it at the time)
31 merryxmas 0:15 (from 12 Monkeys (as she calls the carpet cleaners))
32 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night 1:59 Simon & Garfunkel (Depressing news vs. Silent Night, including: "In Los Angeles today, comedian Lenny Bruce died of what was believed to be an overdose of narcotics.")
33 It's the End of the World as we Know it 3:54 REM (An antidote to the depressing news and the death of 5 billion people. Oh, and "Lenny Bruce is not afraid.")

[gina.livejournal.com]

Everyone seemed pretty happy to chat and reminisce and bitch and moan, but I apologize if it took a long time to get the results out.

Don't apologize! You were very efficient, considering the workload and distractions.

It was all awesome.

Thanks also for posting the winners... I'd be curious to see everyone's complete scores.

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much. I know others are interested in the total scoring, so I'll get to that... eventually.

[boymaenad.livejournal.com]

agreed about the scoring. I was really impressed. on my birthday scavenger hunt, which was more of a 'do as many of these dare-style challenges as you can in the four hours of play' style, we tried to do the scoring together on a projector from 2am-5am and had to stop, only on item 42 of 100.

only Riz's team got the '50 items or more' bonus, but since different teams had done different items, and there were bonus points for best photo by item, we had to step through all 100 items. it was hilarious, but far more time consuming than I had expected, and I had expected "very".

I did manage to ride along with a team for the latter two hours, as detailed in the linked post. it helped that there were only about 8 riddle-style puzzles and I didn't offer a hint service, so I was relatively unencumbered once it got going.

and as long as I'm sharing: I really want to do a walking one someday. part puzzles/riddles and part dares/adventures. I think I want to do half of it in one area that can be walked easily and contains a lot of history, and the other half in another. if only we all had bikes.

Re: from the Shades of Glory driver (part two)

[aaronjv.livejournal.com]

Here's the wordy experience from me:
I was so excited to participate. I love road rallies, and I love Los Angeles, so it was like early Christmas. Too much so, in fact, as I couldn't sleep the night before. I dozed for about three hours (not continuous) as my mind was already in overdrive imagining driving that meaty car I rented just for this occasion. A few nights before, I was thinking of possible locations you would send us, and got two of my five picks correct (missions #1, 2). I was consciously picturing other possibilities instead of subconsciously dreaming them.

Renting the vehicle made much sense, as I would not be able to run, so staying in the car and driving (which I like to do, and am good at--seriously) was the only option. That being said, I wasn't about to drive our Honda Civic, which gets great gas mileage but is a stick shift (a little harder to use with my bum knee). So I rented the Mustang (only $80 from Hertz, INCLUDING the "here's the keys, the car's out there somewhere around a pole" insurance option). I loved that car, and had a blast driving it. It's built like a torpedo: low to the ground with small windows. It was a little too cramped, though, and K got a bruise from jumping into the back after completing a mission. Four people on our team would have been like a clown car. The tiny amount of extra space that we had, trunk included, was used to store our snacks, water bottles, red bull, WiFi-equipped laptop, GPS (which got buried and we forgot about), NFT-LA guide (unconsulted), Tommy Guide, Secrets of Los Angeles (”http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?products_id=981”) CoC supplement, Zagat guides, papers, pens, goggles, gloves, coats, crutches, etc.

Afterwards, as K and I debriefed at home, we decided that the best car for this would be a sporty European four door; a BMW, Audi, Saab, Benzo, etc. Something with GPS installed (I tried to get it on the Mustang, but Hertz doesn't have that option for the car), separate doors for the back passengers, yet has enough horses to hit 100mph on the highway, as I barely refrained myself from doing in the Mustang (95mph is close enough).

I almost used up a full tank of gas on the car, and left it full of spilled almonds, torn shreds of bonus point sheets, and leftover McDonald’s wrappers.

I liked the intimidation factor of the car. For many of the morning missions, when other teams would see the Beast rumbling at the location, they would cry out “Oh, FUCK!” as I smiled at them. Since we left last, through the Portal, anytime we saw other teams meant we were catching up to the pack.

And the Horses served us well as we left from mission #2: I believe it was Team Platypus (DebKev) started following us, as they didn’t know where to go next. I watched them in the rear view mirror, told my teammates that we had a tail, and asked them to hold on tight, I was going to lose them. That was way too easy and fun, although it had a terrible price: K got nauseated, and remained that way until the lunch break. The quick power lurch that we all felt whenever I twitched the gas didn’t do well for her stomach, and I felt bad when I’d look back to see her sitting, head back, eyes closed, not thinking about clues but willing herself not to chunder into Black Thunder (I gave her permission, but that would have made the rest of the trip unpleasant). Fortunately, no such thing happened, and I learned to tame my leadfoot as the day went by (we’d go fast, but I wouldn’t jump the gas so much). I think my edge got a little dulled when, about ¾ through the morning part, I saw the “overdrive off” warning light blinking at me, even though I kept hitting the button on the gear shift. Maybe I was a little too excited.

Re: from the Shades of Glory driver (part one)

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the skippy disc. As I burned through 30 CDs, I knew there'd be some that were sketchier than others. Oh, and did you notice that the label ink matched the sleeve? The things I do, just to please myself.

I totally forgot about my reversed writing on Divergence. I got better and better at it.

I certainly understand about not being able to pay attention to the soundtrack. I still have Day and Night in my car, and I hope lots of people give the Save Our City CDs more listens. That's part of the reason for my rather elaborate posts about them, since there are so many weird synchronicities that lead from track to track that I was so pleased about, but that probably passed under the radar during the game itself.

Kudos to hagdirt on the IDs. The Escape from LA one was definitely not an obvious one. I saw it for the first time just recently as part of the game prep, and it really is not that good a movie.

I look forward to everything and anything you have to say about the game.

whoops! I left a spoiler in part 1

[aaronjv.livejournal.com]

First to the soundtrack:
The night before, I made my own mix CD to play, and it almost included Highway Star, but instead I had Black Sunshine, for that was what I was driving, a black Mustang exploding on the highway. True death. 400 horsepower of maximum performance.

Note: Track #20 on disk three skipped for us. We kept replaying it over and over, but we couldn't hear more than every fourth word for two seconds before it would seize up and we had to go to the next track (which also skipped). The rest of the disk was fine, though.

I was probably the only one to enjoy the CDs, as my other teammates were busy figuring out puzzles. I used the music to power my drive. The cool thing about that rental was that it had a six CD changer in it. It was a bit wonky to get to work, but once it did, it was nice to have the disks playing over the hours. Our changer had the three SoC disks, my own mix, plus an old Car Wars mix CD I made for a MaxiCon game way back when (that disk had Highway Star on it as well).

I know I had this problem with ChronoAgents, and the same thing applied here, which is that for most of the hunt, the music is turned way down, as we're talking in the car while figuring things out (like directions). So giving the soundtrack our full attention (or my full attention) was spotty, even though I am pretty sure each disk got played in entiety at least twice. But I have the disks now to get a full appreciation of your work.

The movie quotes were a great addition, and hagdirt surprised me by knowing three or four that I wasn't sure on, including the Escape From LA quote, which neither of us have seen.

Oh, and a great picture would have been me reading the title for the “Divergence” disk in the rear view mirror after we got it.

[boymaenad.livejournal.com]

way more than two cents from a team somewhat on the outside:

I loved the CDs. I look forward to ripping many of the tracks. I also love having a mix to remember an event by. this was a beautifully challenging, brainstretching day for those of us who don't generally spend a lot of time on puzzles (and there was even some algebra!), but like them. I was really happy and proud to have experienced those flashes of insight where something only partly explained becomes crystal-clear, especially since I'm not a seasoned gamey type. mmm, seasoned game.

I also had never actually been to one of the locations, despite having an LA Conservancy poster of it proudly and hitherto-hypocritically on a wall here.

I'd also read about the recent events at one of the landmarks but hadn't actually seen it; it's arresting and I hope you tell the teams what happened and maybe get them interested in helping. and I had no idea that gorgeous water park area was there (not spoilery, because it was actually a wrong turn that caused us to find it). I love it and will totally be going to it in the future, and thank you for that.

I agree that it was a little too long, a little too challenging, and could have started later - but what I think would have helped all these things is if there hadn't been so much traffic. had I not been struggling through seas of cars, I could have accomplished many more of these. I would suggest starting the meetup at eleven, throwing in more random bonus factors (including stuff that interacted the CDs with the game more, perhaps in unexpectedly devious ways) as that stuff made it more fun and less of a brainstretch, and most of all, doing it on a Sunday. yes, many things would be closed, but I think (though I could be wrong) traffic would be lighter. then again, I didn't expect it to be as heavy as it was - stupid holidays. (doing this in the spring or summer makes a lot of sense anyway, as long as we're talking ideals: warm is nice, and later daylight hours too.)

also, I don't know if you knew about any of the missing clues or problems with the items during the game, but if so, it would have been useful to call all the teams and alert us. with traffic, we lost almost an hour on one.

beyond phone calls, perhaps setting up emailling to txt messages for all players, pinging us with periodic communique SMS updates could be a nice touch.

but still, it was fun, though yes we wanted to give up at a couple of points. our heads hurt, but we solved every puzzle (or were within one or two steps of solving them) except the big one, with no hints whatsoever, and that felt good. every time we had a new insight, or saw a cool landmark we hadn't seen, it was instantly fun again.

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

this was a beautifully challenging, brainstretching day

Glad to be of help on the brain-stretching. Even if it was aggravating at times. Maybe it's like they say: no pain, no gain.

Thanks for the comments. Certainly, I've had a lot of "If I knew then what I know now" thoughts.

[zorker.livejournal.com]

Cort and I had an awesome time at the game!

We were disappointed by the loss of the Stricklands from our team, but determined to do our best. A few minutes into it, we realized what a much more stressful experience doing a road rally was with 2 players instead of 3 or 4. I think on future games I'd want to put a minimum of 3 players to a team to prevent imploding. As it was, our duties roughly broke down like this: Cort drove and solved puzzles I read out to him. I navigated, solved puzzles, read puzzles to Cort, and kept an eye out for bonus pictures. This ended up being way too much. We'd end up solving a puzzle and take a minute to work out the next afterwards because we couldn't multitask much.

In fact, our biggest mistake in the game was partially due to this multitasking issue. We made an error on a morning puzzle and ended up way out of our way to get to lunch. But we hadn't even realized we were supposed to be at lunch at 1 because I hadn't had time to review all the packet's sheets! Maybe a timeline announcement at the beginning would be good for that.

I enjoyed the puzzle aspect a lot. Maybe it's because I love solving puzzles. So that was one of my favorite parts of the game. After lunch, rather than juggle everything, Cort and I just sat and solved as many of the afternoon puzzles as possible, and noted their thomas guide pages and grid numbers down for when we had to later drive to them. That said, I was bummed that the special Save the City puzzle was way out of our way when we got to the end of the puzzles. I was under the impression it was something to be done last, but by the time we knew what to do, it would have been incredibly inefficient to go to where we needed to. I almost would have preferred that it be something we could have solved entirely independently of our current location.

Overall though, it was a great time! And I liked the murky green drink that was at the finish line. Cort feels really inspired since playing and has been talking about running a road rally himself someday.

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the constructive criticism and praise.

There's now a recipe for the murky green drink on this journal entry.

I'm glad Cort feels inspired. The chain must continue!

[newtoniancat.livejournal.com]

I have to say, it was a most impressive production. I liked the fact that some of the puzzles were damned near impossible - it forced us to get creative in trying to solve them.

Kudos to Team I Went 50 Years In the Past and All I Got was Shot in an Airport for kicking our asses and almost completing the entire course. It was quite a rush to get to a location and see the competition dogging our heels - it was an extra bit of pressure that really spiced things up.

I think I've already sold several people on trying Save Our City independently when you get it out as a package - I'd personally like to take another crack at it, since we never did get to the last bit. Between the CDs, the destinations, the puzzle sheets, the overall layout, and the scoring system, it's was pretty evident that you put a lot of careful time and effort, which is much appreciated. Bravo! Bravo!

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

I think I've already sold several people on trying Save Our City independently when you get it out as a package

You are among the first to know where you can get it.

Have fun tormenting your friends.

Further Scoring Details

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

If I get really bored, I'll relearn (for the nth time) how to do tables in HTML.

Team Missions Actual Distance (miles) Scored Distance (miles) Actual Time (min) Scored Time (min) Actual Speed (mph) Bonus Aesthetic
Shades of Glory 16.5 158.7 196.7 613 685 15.53 98 8.13
Alpha Squad 7 14.5 166 197 621 682 16.04 87 7.85
Deloreans 13.75 113 130 631 662 10.74 112 7.29
Oper. Grab Bags 15.75 140 143 616 621 13.64 99 7.71
Bad Idea Bears 11 150 176 656 708 13.72 88 7.58
Team IWFYITPA… 18 149 152 614 619 14.56 144 7.47
Team Platypus 5.5 105 108 568 573 11.09 90 7.71
Two Wongs 6.75 150 156 425 435 21.2 34 7.20
The Wyrd Ones 10.75 132 168 657 729 12.05 99 8.00

Team Ranks for Grand Prize (Wongs and Platypus were considered not-complete for the distance, time, speed categories, but were in for bonus and aesthetic) [The first three on the average rank are the same order as what was on my crazy sheet on Saturday (whew!), after that, the overall rankings are a little different.]

Team IWFYITPA… 3 1 3 1 7 3
Oper. Grab Bags 2 2 5 4 5 3.6
Shades of Glory 6 5 2 5 1 3.8
Deloreans 1 3 7 2 8 4.2
Alpha Squad 7 7 4 1 8 3 4.6
The Wyrd Ones 4 7 6 4 2 4.6
Bad Idea Bears 5 6 4 7 6 5.6
Team Platypus 6 5 N/A
Two Wongs 9 9 N/A

Re: Further Scoring Details

[rizwank.livejournal.com]

* is used to delimit the < and > tags.
*table border=1*
*tr*
*td*
item 1
*td*
item 2
*/tr**tr
*td*
item 3
*td*
item 4
*/tr*
*/table*

I left out the closing td tags, but you end up with

Item1	Item2
Item 3	Item4

.45 Pardon Recipe

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

This is my vague memory of what went into the greenish swampy stuff in the jug: the ".45 Pardon". It's sort of a variation of a zombie.

First, make an abortive rum cocktail for two using Captain Morgan's Tattoo. Decide that Tattoo's 'mysterious' flavor is unsuitable, except for a drink found in a dark dystopian future. Pour the rest of the bottle into the jug.

Add about 600 mL of amber rum
Add about 375 mL of apricot brandy
Add about 250 mL of Blue Curacao

At this point the jug is about half full (or half empty, depending on your outlook on life)

Add the juice of 4 limes
Fill the jug with a mixture of about 2/3 pineapple juice to 1/3 orange juice. Stir, chill and serve.

Pulp and pineapple dust tends to settle, so stir well and often.

If you thought my puzzles were hard...

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

In planning, I looked around to see what other rallies had webpages, in order to get some ideas. One of the games I ran across was The Genome Game. Go to the puzzle page and click on a random puzzle. I guarantee it will be harder than anything in Save Our City. Some of them are pure genius, though.

Re: If you thought my puzzles were hard...

[rizwank.livejournal.com]

There's an ARG that went on with the release of a movie a few years ago that was similar in the puzzle solving.

ARGs are fun.

[edgyspice.livejournal.com]

This was agonizing fun. I saw parts of LA I never dreamed existed. Plus I got really hammered on the green drink.

[rizwank.livejournal.com]

Did I actually say that it was okay to have too much content? Wow, it sounds like something I'd say, but as a player, I think I loathe me right now.

[parkblvd.livejournal.com]

I have played THE GAME at Princeton and had four years of Ditch Day at Caltech.

The next time you do this, please send out a larger bulletin. I'd love to bring people in and partake!

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Since the afterparty was held in my modest home, I sent out bulletins in widening circles of contact until I reached or exceeded fire marshall capacity. I would've loved to invite the whole world, but it wasn't practical. I hope you still give the game a shot, even if it's just for honor. No one has yet solved the final puzzle. It's just sitting there, like Mt. Everest (if Mt. Everest had not already been climbed).

Another thing you might do is sign on to the low-traffic main email list of the UCLA sf/f/h/... club, Enigma. That's where most of my players came from, and that's where parties, LARPs and other games are generally announced. One or two of my rally participants may have been inspired to run their own. Of course, it took 3 years for me to run mine after being inspired by aaronjv's.

still listening...

[aaronjv.livejournal.com]

"California Dreamin' " from disk 3 ame on as I was driving in the fog today.

How was everyone else's driving? Aside from two teams hitting each other (THAT would be a great bonus picture), did anyone else get busted?

Other than constantly breaking the speed limit, and about four score illegal U-turns, cutting off a dozen or so people, I didn't violate many of the 21st century's traffic laws. Maybe illegal parking, but I stayed in the car, so it doesn't count.

Re: still listening...

[alex-victory.livejournal.com]

Just saw this... I'm pretty sure that both gina and someone on the team I backed into have pics of me getting lectured by the cops. I should be able to get ours posted soonish.