Orientation Orienteering
This hasn't happened yet, but the basic idea is, for Fall 2011 orientation, put a puzzle around campus for freshmen to solve. There would be one starting clue in each of the freshmen dorms, and then other clues scattered about campus. Help plan it this summer!
Contents
Stickers/Recognizable Emblem
We're thinking of using a circular symbol with the words "Chaos Reigns" (a mannerism of Bubbles and eforney which was made popular during Booth) to reassure the freshmen that they are in the right place or direct them in vaguer parts of the orienteering. The emblem sadly cannot be directly related to the KGB (Student Activities frowns on orgs advertising a lot to freshmen; we already break that rule of thumb with Scav Hunt). We're thinking some sort of circular thing with "Chaos Reigns!" (a mannerism used by Bubbles a lot during Booth) printed, inspired by the Discordian Society's "Hail Eris" logo used on these posters.
The emblem will be printed or stuck...
- (printed) on the poster in 1a
- (stickers) on the stairwell in 1b
- (printed) on the trifolds in 2
- sadly, not directly relevant to the KGB (student orgs are discouraged from advertising to freshmen very publicly)
- inspired by the Discordian Society's "Hail Eris" logo (this stuff)
- placed on stuff to reassure freshmen they are going the correct way
- also appears on any flyer/printed material they encounter
Checking In by E-mail
Participants will receive bits of an e-mail in the first couple of clues
- Orient_________________@gmail.com
- ______ationOri_________@gmail.com
- ______________enteering@gmail.com
They will be asked to e-mail OrientationOrienteering@gmail.com (or similar) when they've made progress so we can see if people are playing and reassure them that we are real/not rapists
Helpful Tips
It's important to be nice to freshmen! We're never trolling them during this orienteering (even though that's super fun). Instead, we hope to teach them some cool things about our campus and Pittsburgh.
Like...
- the student ID is a bus pass
- don't take the 28X unless it's to the airport
- any other bus from the Morewood stop will go past Pitt along Forbes and then Fifth
- take a 61* to get from Oakland to the Maggie Mo end of campus
Route (walked and plotted by Bubbles, Broman, and eforney)
- Clue 1a: freshman dorms
- a poster with the game logo will be posted in every freshmen dorm
- will have "Orient_________________@gmail.com"
- will say something like: ".Ascend .there Go .word thirteenth the note and sentence backwards the Read"
- the backwards sentence refers to the Eddington quote prominently displayed in...
- Clue 1b (1b instead of 2 since we don't leave any notes here): the Number Garden (Kraus Campo)
- the thirteenth word in the backwards sentence is "Entropy"...
- Club 1c: Entropy
- maybe leave a poster here with a small emblem reminding freshmen that Dinex is spent here and that extra Dinex is a good way to donate canned food to charities
- there will be some stickers on the stairwell nearby, leading them to...
- Clue 2: the UC study area overlooking the pool
- here there will be little paper trifolds on tables (with our emblem), some sort of mock advertisement for free parking for Playfair
- trifolds will have "______ationOri_________@gmail.com"
- something about applying for free parking on the roof of the parking garage near Gesling...
- Clue 3: the roof of East Parking Garage
- stickers mark two lamp posts (visible above cars)
- stickers also mark the midpoint of these two lamp posts
- here we can tape a slip of paper with "______________enteering@gmail.com"
- also tape an arrow pointing across Forbes to...
- Clue 4a: the swing/picnic table/pavilion area near Doherty Apartments
- this is a low-traffic area since no freshmen live in Doherty Apartments
- we'll probably just have a plain old sign taped up "GJ so far. E-mail us so we know how awesome you are! And then head to the Cathedral of Learning. You can use your student ID to take any bus (except the 28X) going toward that really tall phallic building over there. Just get off at Fifth/Atwood (or whatever that is). Don't forget to take the cipher to the fountain!"
- the cipher is some mechanism using the text on the plaque next to the fountain at Bigelow entrance to the Cathedral
- we'll also have a folder with sheets with this picture and cipher stuff for them to take to...
- Clue 4b: the Cathedral of Learning's front fountain
- the cipher uses the text in the plaque to say something like "forbes and schenley dr dino bus stop"
- that should be enough for them to find...
- Clue 5: the "Forbes/Schenley dino bus stop" near Dippy the Diplodicus
- (my memory is fuzzy) but I think we decided to leave another poster (with our handy emblem) telling them to take a 61 anything to...
- Clue 6: the Margaret Morrison/Forbes bus stop
- another poster greets them, this one slightly more cryptic: "Take a break and smell the Roselawns. The seventh one is the best."
- from this busstop you can see the sign saying "Roselawn Apartments" so they'll head to...
- Clue 7: Roselawn 7
- since KGB folk live here, they can put KGB stuff in their windows or whatever :)
- we're thinking of getting a huge sheet/banner with our emblem to hand from the tree outside Roselawn 7
- some sort of device (haven't decided what yet) tells them to go to the Compass Rose near Resnik Cafe, and follow it whatever direction (North West?) as far as they can
- the direction leads along the Corridor, the large sidewalk past Resnik/West Wing/UC/The Cut/Purnell and onto the Pausch bridge to Gates
- stickers should be put at Purnell implying that they should pass Purnell, not go into Purnell
- Clue 8: Compass Rose to Gates-Hillman, floor 5 bridge entrance
- inside they are greeted by another poster or something saying something about "winding down" or a "downward spiral"
- down the Helix they go to...
- ???
