A Little Nugget of a Mystery to tide us over while we wait for ghagler's next game

Hello there all! It’s your favorite warlock in training, Pictoshark! While we wait for someone more qualified to take this stage, I think I’ll present a little nugget of a mystery to those who have gathered here. The rules written here assume you’ve read the first four of the standard tomes, (so they’ll be Episode 4 spoilers in the rules of this game).

Rule 1: The game will be written ahead of time by the game master, and the story will be posted in the thread. The players must aim to defeat the gamemaster, by answering all mysteries the gamemaster presents them with.

Rule 2: Everything the player’s are told happen, did happen. No catbox shenanigans here!

Rule 3: **If something is said in red text, then it is true.**

Rule 4: The players’ aim in this game is to finish the final showdown by answering all of the gamemaster’s lime questions.

Rule 5: Proper form for answering lime questions is to use blue text to propose a theory that answers the question. The blue should only be used to state theories that answer lime questions. A blue is struck down and made invalid if it contradicts any pre-existing reds, and the game master will note whenever a blue is struck down. A blue can be struck down by a red after the blue is first put forward, (obviously). A blue is valid as long as it is not struck down by a red, it does not necessarily have to be correct, it just needs to be valid.

Rule 6: When the narrative concludes, the game will move into the final showdown. In the final showdown, the players must attempt to answer the lime questions while the gamemaster tries to come up with as many unanswered limes as they can, until the gamemaster loses.

Rule 7: If the players cannot succeed in the final showdown, then the gamemaster must disclose the solution of the board to at least one trusted person (like a Moderator). This trusted person must then announce (in the red) if the solution “checks out”, or not. This trusted person may no longer participate in the game, and may not disclose the solution unless the gamemaster says they can. If they say the solution does not “check out” due to it contradicting one of the reds or a similar issue, then the gamemaster must privately ask the trusted person why it doesn’t work. If the gamemaster cannot provide a counter argument in private telling the trusted person why it makes sense, then the game is null and void. If this occurs, the bogus solution may be revealed.

Not a bad set of rules, right?

Also if people post two blues that are basically the same thing I reserve the right to combine them, noting this in the thread.

This game is more of a warm up to my later game, so don’t worry wandering voyagers, there will be no need to bet anything, we are all merely here to stave off our boredom.

The difficulty level will be easy, and the game short. Let’s just have a quick but of aerobic exercise before the next big run, okay?

3 Likes

Are a decent number of spectators gathered? Alright then, it’s game time.

The gameboard is the week following an awful terrorist attack, one September the 18th, 2001. A teenager opens his computer, and goes into his Program Files folder for the first time, as he’s having trouble getting a game working. He sees a video file at the top, named [!prediction.avi]

As you know, all files on computers in that time kept track of the date they were created, which is shown next to a file in the file browser. This particular file had a curious date on it. It said this file was made on the 4th of September, the day his parents bought this computer.

The boy thought this to be odd, why would the shop put a “prediction” on the computer he bought?

Thinking it was a joke, he double clicked on the file, and once his media player opened he saw a camera recording of a TV showing a news report of the recent terrorist attack. This new report occurred on the day of the attack.

How?

Someone else in the house, perhaps the parents themselves, have a decent enough understanding of computers to fake the Created On date, either manually or via some method with the internal calender

No one knows the boy’s login to the computer except for the boy himself

Blues eliminated:

Someone else in the house, perhaps the parents themselves, have a decent enough understanding of computers to fake the Created On date, either manually or via some method with the internal calender - @Rabla

The boy in question is young, and just to be safe, when the computer was bought the seller and parents made sure the Administator login was available on startup, and the parents know the password to that. This does not count as the boy’s login, as it is a second account on the computer. From there, my previous Blue Truth applies.

Foolish.

The boy’s account is the administrator account, and is the only account on the computer.

At some point, maybe to go to the bathroom or somewhere else, the boy left his computer logged in and unattended. His parents were able to place the file as a prank, and they had created it on another computer in the house.

The child is hyper conscious about his security, and he always locks his computer when he leaves the room, for even the slightest of reasons.

Alright, time for a more Battler-esque approach. If its clear that only the boy himself can access the computer…

The Boy has dissociative identity disorder, and two personalities. They are aware of the other, and the first created the file to prank the second. Both personalities have access to the account.

Also, please repeat the following in Red:

  • The file’s Created On date is September 4, 2001.

  • The date of the attack is September 11, 2001.

Whaaaaaat, I know I tore your game to pieces, but this is just an absurd act of vindication.

I’ll counter your absurd red in a roundabout way, despite me not needing to.

If the boy has multiple personalities none of them would play such a prank.

And a repeat request???

Oooooh…

Haha, that would have been a funny trick. But you’re way off the mark.

The file in question bears a created on date of September 4, 2001.

As for your other red, Is that really necessary? Hannnnnnngh…

The date of the attack in question is September 11, 2001.

One more obvious one then;

The source of the file is a hacker, who was able to easily enter the Boy’s system and place the file (I still subscribe the idea the Boy is young and incompetent). The hacker himself is irrelevant to the question and win condition, so I don’t need to explain how or why he did this

The File was not from the internet.

Same theory, but the file was moved over a local network. Perhaps the Boy and the Hacker use the same Wi-Fi network in an apartment building, and he was able to move the file to the Boy’s computer as he is unknowledgable in firewalls and whatnot. Since the file was moved from computer to computer directly, this does not count as coming from the internet.

The file was not uploaded over a network of any kind.

The file was programmed to reference a list of clips from another computer and either download and show them or show them on the computer via live streaming from a web archive. This program was put on the boy’s computer by someone before it was bought.

Whaaaaaaaaaat? What an absurd solution! Honestly, I’m not as incompetant as that fool the Crimson over there.

**No network based transfer of files has ever occurred on the boy’s computer without his knowledge.**

The files were actually on a USB and it was inserted into the computer without the boy’s knowledge.

The entire program was on a USB with an auto-run program that put it on his computer when he logged in without his knowledge

No such program has ever been ran on the Boy’s computer without his knowledge

Confirming definition. A program refers to an .exe file