(Since there were no other entries besides mine last time, I'll just go ahead and start a new thread. Any objections?)
UPDATE: VOTE BY COMMENTING BELOW. CRITERIA BELOW.
Welcome again to Puzzle-Making Practice: Where you design the solution!
Last time we had a situation where you had to break yourself out of an asylum. Now we need to break into a museum!
The background:
You're a crook who steals valuable art to sell on the black market. One of the most prestigious museums in your area now displays a priceless painting. The good news: You've broken into this museum before, so you know the security systems. The bad news: this new priceless painting is displayed in an extra-protected case!
The situation:
It's nighttime. You're on the roof of the museum. There's a security camera but you've already disabled it without being caught. It looks a little weathered and is slightly falling loose from its pole. Next to you is a glass skylight through which you can look down into the display room and see the display case with your prize.
The display case is bulletproof glass. It has a digital pad requiring a pin and a fingerprint to open the case.
You can see apertures in the walls of the room that likely send invisible lasers across the area. A night watchman stands in the corner, eyes on the case at all times. There are more security cameras, one in each corner of the room. Other priceless paintings hang on the walls. You know from past experience that each has a motion sensor behind it that will trip an alarm system.
The roof also has plenty of possible anchors for ropes or hooks, and you can also see down two other skylights into adjacent rooms. One has more alarm-rigged paintings on the walls, but only one video camera, no lasers, and no night watchman. Unfortunately, its only exit leads to a hallway with more cameras--and, more importantly, the front exit, but not to the room with your prize. The two rooms do share a wall, however.
The third skylight leads to the restroom, where there are no security devices of any kind. Outside the restroom is a hall that does lead to the room with the prize, but there is another night watchman posted outside the door, and another fingerprint and pin pad to get in.
There is also a fire escape leading off the roof of the museum, and an adjacent building with a roof close enough to jump to.
In your thief's kit you carry the following:
-A long sturdy rope
-Another rope with a grappling hook
-A set of traditional lock-picking tools
-A list of people whose fingerprints will be accepted by the pin pads
-A single smoke bomb
-Goggles to protect your eyes from smoke (but they are not night-vision goggles)
-A sack to protect and hide the painting once you steal it
-A bad copy of the painting you mean to steal--it might fool an amateur for a minute, but even a fool would know it was fake after looking at it for longer than that.
-A set of screwdrivers
-A hacksaw strong enough to cut metal
-Wire cutters
-A truncheon for self-defense
-A powerful flashlight with multiple brightness settings
-A smart phone with a good camera
The goal:
-Get into the museum, get the painting, and get out, without getting captured.
The Rules!
Participants respond to the set-up by writing entries that must do the following:
1. Use at least 3 of the provided elements (inventory, NPCs, a piece of the room like a cabinet or faucet etc.)
2. Give a step-by-step walkthrough of your puzzle solution.
3. Don't add new elements. For example, if the room is a forest, breaking a thin branch off a tree makes sense unless the host said the trees were huge and tall. But adding a hollowed-out stump with a bear sleeping in it is too specific. Assume all important elements have been mentioned by the host.
4. Keep any dialog elements summarized rather than typing out the whole conversation (for example, "threaten the mailman", "ask the child for advice", and so on, instead of giving every spoken line).
Each contest runs for two weeks to allow for a good number of entries, and then it switches to voting for one week. The participant whose solution gets the most votes gets to come up with the next scenario! (Please also provide a link to these rules).
Voters use the criteria of:
a) how logical the puzzle seems
b) how creative or unexpected (but still sensible) is the use of elements
c) how satisfying is the solution (Is it too simple? Way too complicated? Or just right?)
Entries accepted through the end of February.
Have fun!
Anyone want to give it a go? :)
I might give it a go.
OK GOOGLE, can you draw me a summary of the situation on a school notebook?
Spoiler
(https://i.imgur.com/ZZB9sE8.jpeg)
-- T H E H E I S T --
Tonight's the big night.
You've always wanted a Modigliani in your pantry and here's your chance to get one (nah, you just wanna sell it on the black market).
From the roof of the museum, you can see the exhibition room through its glass skylight.
Careful inspection reveals - as expected - that the glass is bulletproof and the frame cannot be opened.
Another skylight leads to another display room near the front exit. It's shut tight.
Plus, this room doesn't offer any access to the main exhibition so you decide to forget about it.
However, there's a last skylight leading to the restroom.
The security seems looser in this part of the building so you decide to come through there.
With the help of your trusty LOCK-PICKING TOOLS, you crack the lock on one panel.
Then with one of your SCREWDRIVERS, you force the latch open.
You take your ROPE WITH A GRAPPLING HOOK and secure it in one of the ANCHORS on the roof.
You rappel down slowly as silently as you can, remembering that a watchman patrols in the adjacent room.
Now that you're in the restroom, you put your PHONE in the last toilet compartment and play a cat video at normal volume, then quickly conceals behind the washroom door. Soon enough comes the watchman, looking for a stranded cat. Before he can spot your phone, you send him to sleep with a TRUNCHEON hit at the back of the head. You stop the video and pick up your phone. Then you tie the watchman with your LONG ROPE, put on his CAP and grab a roll of TOILET PAPER before accessing the hall. It leads to various display rooms and offices. They are mostly closed and dark at this late hour. Yet you can hear some meditative music coming from an office and spot a ray of light under its door.
The tag on the front reads:
"Dr. Archibald Carrington VII"
You smirk and pull out your LIST OF PEOPLE WHOSE FINGERPRINTS WILL BE ACCEPTED BY THE PIN PADS. You've done your homework. Dr Archie is one of the few people who can open the display case of the precious painting.
You bet he'd be working late with the impending exhibition. Seems you were right.
The hall also leads to the display room with its glittering prize.
You won't be able to access it just yet because its door is locked with a fingerprint and PIN pad. But from the roof, you've spotted a small ventilation shaft near the door in the display room. As you hoped, this shaft emerges into the hall. Although it's way to small for your passage, you unscrew the lid of the shaft with one of your SCREWDRIVERS. You cut a couple of wires inside with your WIRE CUTTERS and remove the small ventilation system. Then you trigger your SMOKE BOMB, slip it inside the shaft and clog it with TOILET PAPER to make sure all the smoke goes inside. Soon enough, a suffocating watchman comes out of the display room coughing. Good thing he didn't take the time to trigger the alarm. You knock him out with your TRUNCHEON, quickly blocking the door open with your foot. Then you use his body to keep the door open.
A quick look in the direction of Dr Archie's office shows no sign of agitation. They didn't lie when they said that the good doctor's a little deaf.
Now, a little staging. You put on your SMOKE GOGGLES before entering the display room and drop the FAKE PAINTING on the floor near the case.
Then you grasp your FLASHLIGHT. It's not a regular one. You bought it in your teenage years when you were a street artist because a section of the handle can accommodate a small aerosol paint can. With it, you generously spray scribbles on the case of the Modigliani, with the aim of hiding the masterpiece.
Soon enough, the smoke detectors trigger the fire alarm.
This time, Archie crashes out of his office. From the hall, he sees the smoke coming out of the display room and utters a cry. He tries to wake up the guard near the door, to no avail.
He gathers his courage and enters the display room with a handkerchief on his nose, then trips over the fake painting. In the panic, with all the smoke, he mistakes it for the real one.
Money time! From the corner of the room, you see him walk towards the exit with the painting in hand, but you don't move a muscle.
The words of his last interview resonate in both your heads: "this case is bulletproof and fireproof. Nothing can happen to the painting as long as it remains here."
Close to the exit, he turns around and comes back near the case.
Then he puts his thumb on the digital pad and input his PIN.
The case slowly lifts. BINGO!
Only now, in full view of the original work, does he realize his mistake.
Too late. A last hit of the TRUNCHEON sends him in the arms of Morpheus before he can reseal the case.
you carefully wrap the Modigliani painting in your SACK, secure it on your back and climb on the roof through the restroom.
As you jump from roof to roof, you can hear the police and fire truck sirens cut through the darkness in the distance.
A couple days left still - any other entries? If you were playing this game, what would you want the solution to be?
The Quite Unrealistic Approach
Spoiler
USE PHONE on the skylight looking down on the door that leads into the main room.
START RECORDING with the phone.
CLIMB DOWN into the empty room with less security
DISABLE CAMERA
USE EQUIPMENT to DRILL HOLE in the wall, leading into the main room
USE SMOKE BOMB on hole, probably plugging the hole on your end
The main room fills up with smoke. The guard calls the other guard, telling him to come.
CLIMB TO ROOF
GET PHONE
CHECK RECORDING Aha, the guard uses a pin code to enter the main room
CLIMB DOWN INTO RESTROOM
EXIT
SNEAK INTO PARTIALLY SMOKE-FILLED ROOM
The smoke renders the cameras and lasers useless for a little while.
DROP COPY OF PAINTING UNDETECTED
SNEAK TO EXIT
THROW SCREWDRIVER IN THE DIRECTION OF THE COPY
The guards now approach the copy from opposite directions. They spot it and assume the other guard is stealing the painting. They fight.
SNEAK BACK IN
USE TRUNCHEON ON GUARDS
DRAG GUARD TO DISPLAY CASE
ENTER PIN AND USE GUARD'S FINGERPRINT
GET PAINTING
RUN TO RESTROOM
ESCAPE
I guess this would not work in the real world...
Time to vote! We have two entries:
CREAMY
HELTENJON
Whose entry provided the more logical, creative, and/or satisfying solution?
Voting open until March 16.
Well, I didn't read Creamy's entry before writing my own, but I had no good plan for getting that painting, and I guess it shows. I just wanted there to be a contest. I vote for Creamy, as should everyone - his scenario is far better thought out than mine. (nod) And the drawings, too!
Quote from: heltenjon on Sun 02/03/2025 20:58:33Well, I didn't read Creamy's entry before writing my own, but I had no good plan for getting that painting, and I guess it shows. I just wanted there to be a contest. I vote for Creamy, as should everyone - his scenario is far better thought out than mine. (nod) And the drawings, too!
I don't see what's wrong with your scenario - which gets my vote.
Creative use of the fake painting.
We both used the smoke bomb in the same way, which is probably the most logical thing to do. When the room fills up with fumes, it's funny how my guard flee the treasure room, while yours rush in :-D
Well, I fell behind on this. Right now we have votes only from the two contestants themselves. Someone want to cast a tiebreaker vote?
I like both entries.
Creamy's is more complex and elaborate but introduces a bit too much new material and persons. I love the drawing of the setup.
heltenjon's could have been a bit more detailed but only relies on stuff that was mentioned in the scenario description.
Both have clever usage of the fake painting.
I give one point each ;)
Ok, well I am officially declaring this contest a tie between
@Creamy and
@heltenjon so the two of you have the esteemed honor of designing the next scenario. Thanks for both of your participation!