anonymously, and answer it as best we can. For the purposes of this page, a question asked once
is frequent enough.
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Are we allowed to come up with puzzle ideas before the event?
Absolutely! You are not only allowed but encouraged to come up with lots of ideas before the event
starts. Don't get too specific with your ideas though, as you must leave plenty of room to be able to
incorporate just about anything. Remember that fully conceiving a puzzle ahead of time, and simply
pasting a secret ingredient in on Saturday will not be allowed, but having a general direction in
mind beforehand is a sure path to success.
Could you be more specific on what qualifies as a "pasted in ingredient"? We don't want
to get disqualified when we followed all the rules.
This one is a little hard, and as such we'll end up being very lenient on it. The main violation we are
talking about is literally coming up with a puzzle that can be solved in it's entirety without seeing or
using either secret ingredient, then taking a marker or a stamp or a pencil or even the actual
ingredient, and literally writing the name of, coloring, or taping the ingredient on after the puzzle is
done. The expectation that any team would even consider this is basically zero, but we needed to
include the rule just to be clear.
You give "Popsicle sticks" as an example of a secret ingredient. Would we actually have
to physically use Popsicle sticks in our puzzle, or could we use the written phrase
"Popsicle Sticks", a picture of a frozen treat with the handle visible, or some other
creative interpretation of the ingredient?
Interpretation of the secret ingredients is left to the teams.
The Iron Puzzler equipment page states that puzzles may employ "[s]imple
mono-alphabetic cryptograms." I'd like to know if the organizers have an objective
definition of "simple."
By simple we specifically mean one to one ciphers- no vignere or any other polyalphabetic ciphers.
The type you would find in the Sunday paper, though you can use symbols other than alphabetic
ones if you so desire.
A follow-up question: are puzzles utilizing multiple encryption methods allowed? For
example, a monosymbolic substitution cipher which produces a trinary sequence which
can then be interpreted as Morse code.
Sure. You can make any sort of puzzle you like. But just be aware that if you make it too difficult,
then teams will probably not put in the time to solve it, figuring their time is better spent solving the
easier puzzles, and you won't get any points for cresting. It all depends on who you think your
competition will be, and how your puzzle will stack up.
Pocket dictionary: which specific dictionary should we use as a reference to create and
solve puzzles? I'm looking for an ISBN.
There was no ISBN in mind when we included dictionary on the equipment list, but it's not a bad
idea. We will choose one before the event and make sure all teams know which one we chose.
Snacks and/or lunch items: just for ourselves, or for everyone?
Just bring food for your team- no need to feed everyone there. If someone else forgets to bring
food, then your advantage.
A laptop and net access wasn't listed on the Equipment page. Should we expect
trivia-related items are disallowed in the puzzle, as they may require outside contact
(net, phone a friend, etc.) to solve? Also, from the Sunday side of things, will net access
be allowed during solving? How about laptops and other gadgetry?
There will be no internet connectivity at the event, and phone-a-friends will be against the rules.
You may not bring portable internet access either. Your team should be the team that you bring to
the event.
On the same note, laptops are not appropriate for this event- it's not a programming competition
(though programming can be seen as a form of puzzle solving). The only gadget that would be a
appropriate would be a calculator for addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication. (Ok roots
and exponents too).
That said- no puzzle will be disallowed for reasons other than lack of ingredients. If you want to
make a trivia based puzzle, go for it. Teams may not be able to solve it, and you may not get
cresting points for it, but you can make it. You can also request (before 4:00) that teams come to
the event with a certain knowledge that makes your puzzle doable. Be reasonable with your
requests though- you can require teams to know the signs and dates of the zodiac, but don't expect
to ask teams to know the first word of every play written in the 18th century.
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Any other questions? FAQ@ironpuzzler.com
