The general setup of the game is much the same as the Justice Killer case, as Mandle did a great job coming up with a fair system for everyone. The criminal will send messages, and within those messages will be clues about their crimes. It is up to you to put the pieces together, and request the chief to take action. There is a quasi-real-time clock in action, so if it takes too long to solve a clue then the case will develop differently than if you figure things out straight away. If you get the chief to make the right moves in time, you might be able to save some lives. When you think you have solved a clue, please put "POTENTIAL SOLUTION" in bold before your post so I don't miss it.
There are a couple of important details that are specific to this case, which I will go through now.
Firstly, this criminal has many crimes lined up, but a big finale planned. To stop the finale, you need to do one of two things. You either need to figure out who the final target is and get them into protective custody, or you can track the criminal to their home town and arrest them. However, if you arrest the criminal without identifying who the final target is, the criminal may have had time to put their final plan in motion and you won't be able to save the target. On the other hand, if you manage to get the target to safety without identifying where the criminal is, then they might be able to escape.
Secondly, no use of Google or any knowledge of the outside world will be required of you to solve the criminal's riddles. Everything you need to solve each individual crime will be contained in the messages sent to the police department. However, to get to the bottom of the overarching mystery, there is a very small amount of outside knowledge necessary. I promise that it is all extremely easy to find by using even vague Google searches, and there will be enough clues placed throughout the adventure for you to work out what to search, if you happen to not have the knowledge already. In short, if you just want to solve puzzles without any research, then you will be able to have a crack at the crime riddles. If you are interested in a little bit of extra research, then maybe the big-picture mystery is for you!
Thirdly, not every message from the criminal will point directly to a place on the map. For example, solving the code in the first message doesn't correspond with any location, but it WILL directly tell you what your next move should be.
Fourthly, to add an extra element of tension, the little town that the crimes are about to take place in has a very small staff of local officers. There are FIVE and ONLY FIVE members of the town's force.
- Sergeant Pangborn
- Officer White
- Officer Collins
- Officer Leland
- Officer Ullman
Be very careful that you don't go after any obvious red herrings, as they might be traps laid by the maniac... Needless to say, if you fall for too many traps, there will be no police left, and the criminal will have free rein until new officers can be put in place. If you want, you can request a specific officer to search an area, or request a specific number of officers, and this may have an effect on the outcome. (This is just an optional extra aspect people can take part in if they like. If you don't specify an amount of officers or a particular officer to send then I'll choose something I think is appropriate.)
If you have any questions about the game's rules or setup, feel free to ask them and I will answer in a spoiler section like this. Happy hunting!
