pro@trwrba.UUCP (Peter R. Olpe) (03/09/86)
When I was in college I used to play a sort of 'mystery' puzzle
that goes like this: The 'narrator' gives a one or two sentence
description of a situation, and then the 'players' have to guess
the mystery by asking the narrator 'yes' or 'no' questions. (That is,
the narrator can only answer 'yes' or 'no'.)
A typical mystery is:
'A man was found dead in a desert, with no water, and wearing a backpack.'
And the questions might go something like:
Q: Did he die because he ran out of water? (no)
Q: Is there anything around him but sand? (no)
Q: Did he ride a camel to where he is? (no)
Q: Did he walk there? (no)
Q: Hmmm... Was there any footprints around? (no)
Q: Does the backpack have something in it? (yes)
Q: .......
The answer is that the guy jumped out of a plane and his parachute
(the backpack) failed to open. This particular mystery is one of the
easier ones, partly because there are a lot of clues in the opening
statement.
Other puzzles include:
'A man stopped in front of a hotel and realized he was bankrupt.'
'The music stopped and the man died.'
'A man turned on his car radio, then shot himself.'
'A man asked a bartender for a drink. The bartender pulled a gun on
him, then the man said 'thank you' and left.'
These are a lot of fun to play, both for the people trying to guess the
answer and for the 'narrator'. The questions are often very hard to
answer, even though they are yes-or-no answers, and the players often
go out on some tangent that leads them to very bizarre situations/solutions.
It is more fun with a lot of people asking questions, but if a player
guesses the answer he/she should drop out of the game so that the
rest of the players can continue.
The game often lasts 5-10 minutes per mystery, depending on the number
of people asking questions. The problem is that once the mystery
is solved the players usually ask for another one.
I have a list of about 20 mysteries, with their solutions. What I
am really interested in is NEW mysteries that I can add to my list.
If anybody knows of any of these puzzles, I would
greatly appreciate them sending me the mystery/solution. If anyone
would like a copy of my list, I would be more than happy to send it
to them. Thanks.
--
...ucbvax!\ -Pete Olpe-
\
UUCP Path: ...decwrl!decvax!trwrb!trwrba!pro
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where are we going?
Planet 10!
When?
Real Soon!
------------------------------------------------------------------------yes2@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Randy Rzasa) (03/15/86)
I am glad that someone finally started this discussion. I've been meaning to for a while, but since I hadn't seen any of these types of puzzles in the past year and a half I figured that there wasn't a lot of interest. I think that having running games on the net isn't that great of an idea due to the turnaround time of postings and the duplications that are sure to result. Instead of calling these "mystery" puzzles, a friend of mine and I have called them "infinite-question" puzzles for lack of a better name. These puzzles divide into two subclassses: 1)short, plausible scenario with terse description and terse answer 2)short, inplausible, unrealistic description and longwinded answer that must incorporate several far-fetched situations. Puzzles of the first type are generally the most interesting from my viewpoint. The solution of the problem generally combines deduction with lateral thinking; the key to these is that objects and/or words do not function in their typical fashion, e.g. the "package" in the parachute problem. Puzzles of the second type are much more arbitrary. You could essentially forget most of the details of the problem and still tell it to someone, inventing your own paramaters, e.g the "arm" puzzle was told to me with only 2 characters, the sender and the receiver, with the additional hint that the receiver had one arm and read of a murder where the victim's arm was cut off. These puzzles are generally less good due to these arbitrary paramaters. It in virtually impossible to figure these out in less than 20 questions and the process is much more tedious. Type 1 puzzles can conceivably be answered in a short time. I figured out the parachute puzzle after 1 guess, and another of this type without any guesses. Since there already seems to be interest for these puzzles, I think that it is a good idea to post directly. Those that aren't familiar with these types of puzzles will probably become quick fans of them. I propose that we post them in the following manner: 1)indication of "mystery" puzzle 2)description and answer 3)^L followed by next puzzle This way one can print the puzzles and divide them with someone else, so you tell half and figure out half. Incidentally, the "bicycles" puzzle is probably the worst one that I have heard. Meta-questions seem perfectly reasonable to me. Genereally, the only one we ask is "is such-snd-such material to the story?" In addition to the yes/no answers, we use: immaterial, and be more specific. Some questions can draw very fine distinctions and are often a matter of opinion. Puzzles follow Q:A rope breaks, a bell rings, a man dies A:The rope was attached to a buoy in the ocean. After the rope broke the buoy drifted. A blind man was taking his usual walk on a cliff near the ocean. He would judge his distance from the edge by the sound of the bell. Since the buoy drifted his reckoning was off and he walked over the edge. Q:There is a pipe, a carrot, and several pieces of coal lying in a field. A:A snowman melted. Q:A man enters a restaurant, sits down, orders albatross, takes one bite, and shoots himself. A:The man was shipwrecked and wounded very badly. He was immobile. Another survivor tended him until they were rescued. He fed him albatross. After the man eats albatrosss in the restaurant he realizes that the man who fed him was lying, and that he must have eaten the flesh of the deceased since there was no other source of food on the island. He then kills himself because of his religious convctions. Q:A man is going home. A masked man jumps in front of him, and the first man goes back to where he was before. A:The two men are baseball players; the masked man is the catcher; home is home plate. -- Randy Rzasa ...ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!yes2
holloway@drivax.UUCP (Bruce Holloway) (03/19/86)
In article <1804@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> yes2@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Randy Rzasa) writes: >Q:A rope breaks, a bell rings, a man dies Alternate answer: Crook climbs to top of church (a tall church) and starts climbing down to a window using the bell rope. The rope breaks, releasing the bell which rings, and the crook falls to the ground and dies. > >Q:A man enters a restaurant, sits down, orders albatross, takes one bite, > and shoots himself. Alternate answer: Man is sophisticated spy, and notices that he has just been poisoned by an enemy spy in the kitchen. Instead of dying a certain painful death, he shoots himself. >Q:A man is going home. A masked man jumps in front of him, and the first man > goes back to where he was before. Alternate answer: Man is Batman returning from the Bat Cave. The Riddler jumps in front of him, and Batman returns to the Bat Cave to load up on Bat devices. -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Whatever I write are not the opinions or policies of Digital Research, Inc.,| |and probably won't be in the foreseeable future. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Bruce Holloway ....!ucbvax!hplabs!amdahl!drivax!holloway (I'm not THAT Bruce Holloway, I'm the other one.)
brianu@inmet.UUCP (03/20/86)
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