Round 2 3 1 2002 MIT Mystery Hunt

D2: THE MIGHTY DUCK KONUNDRUM

Ready for seconds?
Please gather the following board games: Clue (the original American version), Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Chess, and Escape from Zyzzlvaria. Also assemble five players and a live duck.

Each player takes one game and has their own set of directions to follow. All players should follow each step simultaneously; i.e. don't start Step 2 until all five players have completed Step 1. Conditionals referring to other people's boards refer to those boards at the START of the turn. If a direction tells you to do something that affects someone else's board, wait and do that at the END of that turn.

At the end of each turn (and only at the end), the duck may perform various actions. The duck will know what to do, but in case you have a defective duck, we have included an index of standard duck behavior. Feel free to use it as an aid, but beware; if we find out you're not using a real duck, we'll call the Duck Police on you and they'll be pissed.

Enjoy. Your sanity will miss you.

CHESS

NOTES: Standard chess notation is used. Directions are from White's perspective, so "up" is toward the 8th rank, and "right" is toward the h-file. A piece "threatens" another piece if it can capture the piece in a single move and the pieces are different colors. Pieces cannot capture pieces of the same color.

1. Set the board up as you would for the start of a normal game. Legally move each pawn once such that no pawn is on a square that matches its color.

2. There are four legal captures on the board if you ignore that "en passant" crap. Make all four captures. Next, make a legal move with each knight; if the knight can move to multiple squares, choose the one closest to h1.

3. Remove from the board any piece that is currently threatened by a piece in the lower left quadrant of the board. Move every piece in the 6th rank down one space.

4. If one white piece is removed, the piece on c1 can move to the 8th rank in three moves without making any captures. Remove that piece and place it on f6. Then move the piece on c1 three times to take it to the 8th rank. Use the piece on h4 to capture the most powerful piece it currently threatens.

5. Castle as both black and white, one king-side and one queen-side. Legally capture a piece that cannot move diagonally with a rook. Remove every piece that is currently threatened by two pawns.

6. Perform all the possible one-move captures by bishops and knights. Move the white king to any square on the 8th rank horizontally adjacent to two black pieces.

7. Switch the black piece adjacent (orthogonally or diagonally) to two white pieces and the piece which is next to a piece which is neither black or white. If the resulting board position (apart from any non-chess pieces on the board) could occur in a legal game, move all pawns on the board to the Lounge; otherwise move all knights on the board to the Hall.

8. Remove all adjacent pairs of pieces that are the same type (not necessarily the same color.) Make the only legal move of a black piece to the 1st rank that you can make without capturing.

9. Temporarily treat any non-chess pieces on the board as black knights, if any of them can capture, they do so. Move each rook on the board up as many spaces as there are R's on the Scrabble board.

10. Move every black rook to the highest rank that contains no pieces, staying in the same file. If you can make a capture with the white queen, do so, unless she threatens a non-chess piece.

* The 1st letter of the answer is the file of the only white piece that currently threatens two black pieces.

* The 9th letter of the answer is the file of the piece on the board whose name comes last in alphabetical order.

SCRABBLE

NOTE: A legal move means that every new word you create with the move is in the Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary. If an instruction asks whether a word is "spelled" on the board, it doesn't matter if there are other letters next to it. For example, if CHATTER is on the board, HAT is considered to be spelled on the board as well.

1. Spell NORTH and SOUTH in the center column, NORTH at the top of the board, SOUTH at the bottom. Spell WEST and EAST similarly in the center row. Place an X on the center square.

2. Four tiles on the board are between pairs of DLS squares. Place tiles on each of the eight DLS squares to make four runs of three consecutive letters, reading left-to-right and/or top-to-bottom. (Treat Z then A as a consecutive pair.)

3. Spell the word TONE using a T already on the board in every place where this is a legal move. Replace each T that you cannot use in this way with a G.

4. Move every letter that is one of the first five in the alphabet one square down and one to the left. Switch the positions of the two consonants which are now one square up and one to the left of a TLS square.

5. Legally play four of the following words, placing only ten tiles: AXED, BRAIN, CROWN, SOUP, STAKE, and WASTE. Place a U in every empty square immediately to the left of an A, unless it is on the left half of the board.

6. Put an I in every empty DLS that is orthogonally adjacent to at least two tiles. Place an O four spaces to the right and one space up from the place where you could put an R and complete a 7-letter word. Put an I in every DLS that is orthogonally adjacent to at least two tiles. Yes, again. Stop complaining.

7. If we consider orthogonally adjacent letters "connected," there are five "islands" of connected letters. Move the entire 12-tile island up one square and one square to the right. Move the 1-tile island to the space above the single tile with the highest point-value. In case of a tie, use the rightmost tile.

8. If the name of a piece from Chess or Trivial Pursuit is on the board, move that piece to the upper right square of your board. If the name of a piece from Clue or Escape From Zyzzlvaria is on the board, move that piece to the lower left square of your board. If in any of these cases you have to choose a color, pick black or yellow. Play the word FAMKA the only place it fits without moving tiles or using blanks, no matter how many nonsense words it creates.

9. Note the two tiles on the board with the highest point values that aren't Q. There are two spaces which are in the same row as one of these and the same column as the other. One of these spaces has a tile on it; move this tile to the other space and replace it with a Y (unless there's a weapon on the board, in which case replace it with a P.)

10. Replace every tile with a point value divisible by 4 with an O if the upper right square of the board is empty, and an E if not. Place the replaced tiles in the top row in alphabetical order starting from the upper left corner.

* One L on the board is one square up and one square left from an empty square. The tile three squares to the right and three squares down from that L is the 6th letter of the answer.

* It is impossible to follow these instructions with a standard Scrabble set without using at least one blank. The letter represented by a blank on the final board is the 2nd letter of the answer.

ESCAPE FROM ZYZZLVARIA

NOTE: Dollarbucks are not considered pieces. Duh.

1. Place Harold (the green piece) on the Immunity Zone, Ralph (the orange piece) and Leah (the blue piece) on the Lazyr Zone, Zoe (the pink piece) on Sector J, and Captain Blastoid (the metallic piece) on the Core Reactor.

2. Put 3 dollarbucks on the same area as each character, unless there are two characters on an area, in which case place 8 dollarbucks on that area. Set the Moon Counter to Last Quarter.

3. Take every character on the area with the most dollarbucks and move it to the Astro Jail. If Captain Blastoid is less than five squares away from Zoe, move a piece which is sharing an area with Harold to Outpost 9; otherwise, move it to Sector N.

4. Move 2 dollarbucks from the area Zoe is on and 3 from the Lazyr Zone to Sector N. Move all characters on Sector N to Outpost 9.

5. Move Ralph to the northernmost area with an even non-zero number of dollarbucks. If no such area exists, move Captain Blastoid to the westernmost area which contains a character from another game. Add 4 dollarbucks on the Core Reactor.

6. Put 6 dollarbucks on the Astro Jail. Set the Moon Counter to Eclipse. Move all characters currently on the Astro Jail to Sector N. Move Zoe to the same space as Leah. Move Leah one space clockwise for every dollarbuck on Sector N.

7. If the duck has laid an egg, replace Harold with 5 dollarbucks. Otherwise, switch the positions of Leah and Captain Blastoid.

8. If there are more dollarbucks on Sector N than on the Core Reactor, move Ralph to the Reverse Dimension. Otherwise, add as many dollarbucks on the Astro Jail as there are bishops on the chessboard.

9. If the total number of dollarbucks on the board is odd, move all pieces on the board to Sector N. If it's even, move all pieces except people to Sector J.

10. Spin the Wheel of Death. If you get a skull, set the Moon Counter to Neutral; otherwise, remove Harold from the board and pat the duck.

* The 5th letter of your answer is the initial letter of the Zyzzlvarian character on the same area of the board as a chess piece.

* The 7th letter of your answer is the Nth letter of the alphabet where N is the product of the number of dollarbucks on the Astro Jail and the number of dollarbucks on the area containing a weapon.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT

NOTE: We will refer to the pies' colors as green, pink, brown, orange, blue, and yellow. No magenta or nothin'. Never place more than one wedge of a single color in the same pie.

1. Place each pie on the wedge space on the opposite side of the board from the wedge space matching the color of the pie.

2. Move each pie clockwise the same number of spaces as there are letters in the pie color. If you hit roll again, move that pie the same number of spaces again.

3. For each pie, put in a wedge of each color such that the pie is exactly five squares away from a space of that color. Two pies now contain wedges of the same color as the space the pies are on; move each of those pies to the nearest wedge space and three spaces inward.

4. Put the brown pie halfway between where it is now and where the orange pie is. Put the blue pie halfway between where it is now and where the pink pie is.

5. Move every piece on the board (regardless of what game it's from) to the closest space to the hub which is the same color as the space the piece is currently on. If a piece is already on the hub, move it to the wedge space of the color opposite the color of the piece on a standard color wheel.

6. Move each pie (4 - N) spaces, where N is the number of wedges in that pie, without passing through or landing on the hub or a Roll Again space. If a pie does not contain the wedge of the color of the space it is now on, add that wedge. And while you're at it, stick a blue wedge in the yellow pie.

7. If the hub is empty, place the piece closest to the brown wedge space on square b7. If not, place the piece closest to the orange wedge space on g2.

8. Move every piece on the board (except for pieces on the hub) nine spaces; outward if possible, otherwise clockwise if the piece contains three or more wedges, counterclockwise if it doesn't. Put a green wedge in every pie that is now on a wedge space.

9. Place a yellow wedge in every pie that is one space away from a yellow space. Switch the two pies on the board that contain the most wedges. If there is a piece on the hub, switch it with the piece furthest away from the pink wedge space.

10. If the duck has laid an egg, move the brown pie one space clockwise and remove the pink pie from the board. Otherwise, move the brown pie three spaces counterclockwise and remove the green pie from the board.

* Starting with the pink wedge space as "A" and proceeding counterclockwise, label the outer ring of the board with consecutive letters of the alphabet. The 8th letter of the answer is the letter of the space containing the brown pie.

* The 3rd letter of the answer is the letter of the space containing a weapon.

CLUE

NOTE: The center section will be referred to as the Stairway, and is not considered a room.

1. Place each character in a different room, starting from the Conservatory and proceeding clockwise, in alphabetical order by last name of the actor who played them in the movie Clue. Of the three empty rooms, place the Wrench and Gun in the smallest room, the Rope and Knife in the room that comes first alphabetically, and the Lead Pipe and Candlestick in the third room.

2. Switch the contents of each pair of rooms that are connected by secret passages. Take the two characters who are of the same gender and who are in adjacent rooms and move them to the hall.

3. Move every nonmetallic weapon one room counterclockwise. If Professor Plum is in a room with a weapon, place it in the kitchen; otherwise, place the Candlestick in the same room as Plum.

4. Place the weapon that is in the same room as the character who is a Reverend in Cluedo (the British version of Clue) on the Stairway. Move the character closest to the Billiard Room to the Dining Room.

5. Move each weapon (except the one on the Stairway) clockwise two rooms, unless the weapon's name contains a K, in which case move it two rooms counterclockwise. Move Mr. Green to the only empty room that has a secret passage.

6. If there are more black knights than white knights on the chessboard, switch the positions of Colonel Mustard and the Rope. Otherwise, switch the positions of Miss Scarlet and the Gun. Place the weapon currently in Miss Peacock's room on the hub of the Trivial Pursuit board.

7. If moving all of the weapons one room clockwise would put a weapon in a room that starts with the same letter, move all of the pieces from the Study to the Library. If moving all of the weapons one room counterclockwise would put a weapon in a room that starts with the same letter, move all of the pieces from the Stairway to the Hall.

8. Using common occupational gender stereotypes, move every male piece in the Hall to the Kitchen, move every female piece in the Hall to the Billiard Room, and move every nonliving piece in the Hall to the Lazyr Zone.

9. Place an unused Scrabble "C" tile in every empty room. Switch the positions of the Lead Pipe and the Wrench. The items in the Study and the Lounge together form a word that describes the person in the Billiard Room.

10. Place the darkest-colored piece on the board to the same space Mrs. White is on. Pick up the wrench and throw it at the nearest MIT administrator.

* The 4th letter of the answer is the initial of the last name of the suspect currently closest to the Gun.

* The 10th letter of the answer is the initial of the last name of the suspect who has been revealed as dishonest.

HOW DUCKS BEHAVE

At the end of any turn:

IF the name of a piece from Clue or Escape From Zyzzlvaria has been spelled on the Scrabble board this turn, THEN place that piece on the space immediately after the last letter of the name of the piece.

IF one color wedge is in all six Trivial Pursuit pies, THEN place the Clue piece of that color on the chessboard one square to the right of the black king (unless that Clue piece is already on the Chessboard.)

IF Colonel Mustard is on the Immunity Zone, THEN get out a copy of Risk and declare war on Germany.

IF three rooks have moved and the fourth has not, THEN place that fourth rook in the Lounge.

IF any piece is in the Reverse Dimension, THEN every black piece on the chessboard becomes white and vice versa.

IF the two kings or the two queens are on adjacent squares, THEN move the white queen to the square opposite the square it is currently on (reflected through the center of the board.)

IF Mr. Green has been moved exactly as many times as the white king, and the distance between the hub and the green pie is exactly the same as the distance between the Lazyr Zone and Leah and the total points on the Scrabble board add up to 142, THEN you really need to chill out, dude.

IF a pie is on the hub of the Trivial Pursuit, THEN place the piece from Zyzzlvaria of the same color as that pie on the hub.

IF three Clue characters are in the same room, THEN place the one whose last name comes alphabetically last on the Immunity Zone.

IF there is a 2x2 square of vowels on the Scrabble board, THEN replace the upper-left and lower-right tiles in that square with the letter L.

IF OVA has been spelled on the Scrabble board this turn, THEN lay an egg.

IF THEDAN has been spelled on the Scrabble board this turn, treat it as a sign from God, genuflect and join an appropriate cult.