Rules of Mystery Manor’s 2011 Halloween Adventure Games Tournament
WELCOME!
It's good to see you here, dear victims! Whether you’re a returning player or a newbie to our tournaments, we hope you're ready to be tortured with 5 weeks of brain-melting puzzles! Please take the time to familiarize yourself with these rules before participating, or I’ll send you straight to the dungeon without supper!
If you’re new to Mystery Manor, all you have to do is register to play. Please note that the registration process involves responding to an email from an administrator, so don’t wait until the last minute to join us. Feel free to introduce yourself in our Guest Book forum and to participate in any other topics that catch your interest.
TOURNAMENT DATES & GENERAL INFO
The tournament will run for 5 weeks beginning on Sunday, September 25, 2011 and ending on Sunday, October 30, 2011. Each week you will have 2 regular puzzles to solve, plus there may be another special puzzle for you to figure out during the course of tournament. You’ll get more details about this on the starting day.
Each week's new puzzles will be posted on Sunday around 7:00 PM Central Daylight Time (CDT), which is Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) minus 5 hrs. (GMT is also known as UTC.) Guesses for the week’s puzzles will be accepted until 7:00 PM CDT the following Sunday. The answers to the puzzles and the scores will be posted soon after. For those who wish to syncronize their timepieces, the timezone can be set to CDT under preferences in your user control panel.
Although it doesn't happen very often, if our website's server goes down, the puzzle time limit may be extended, especially if it affects the end of any week of the tournament.
All puzzle threads will be locked to avoid the accidental posting of answers for all to see. There will be a thread for general questions and comments in the tournament section, but please be careful not to post any hints there or anywhere else in the forums. If you do, you will be disqualified from playing for that week. When in doubt, direct your questions to me or one of my hard-working slaves (aka mods or administrators) via PM.
QUIZMASTER
Your guesses during the tournament must be sent by Private Message (PM) to me, Quizmaster. Please don’t send any answers to anyone else on the staff, unless you are specifically directed to do so in the individual puzzle rules. You should receive an answer within 24 hours. If not, please let me know.
PUZZLES
There are many different types of puzzles in our tournament, and a variety of scoring methods will be used. Please read the directions for each puzzle carefully. If they aren’t clear to you, contact me for clarification.
When submitting your guesses, please try to limit the number of PM’s you send each day. (One PM with 6 guesses is much easier on the scorers than six PMs with 1 guess each.) Also, please put the puzzle name in the subject line. When submitting answers for both puzzles at the same time, please label them in the body of your message.
If your answer is the name of a game, please make sure it’s complete. If it is one of a series, make sure you identify it with a number or the complete subtitle. If you just give the name, it will be assumed that you mean the first one in the series.
Note: Adventure games for the PC will be used in this tournament, but be aware that this covers a broad spectrum and may include adventure games with action or RPG elements, puzzle-heavy adventures, text adventures, and/or children’s adventures. The games used will be known either by English titles or can be played with English subtitles.
PRIZES
The prize for each of the top three scorers of the tournament will be the player's choice of a new game. In addition, a consolation prize will be drawn from the names of those not in the top 3 places. To qualify for this drawing, a player must stay to the end of the tourney. In the event of a tie for first place, a tie-breaking puzzle will be given to determine the winner.
Good luck to all the participating players! You’re going to need it.
QM
