Thank you to our rad friend Charlotte for being a guest this episode! Watch the video on Youtube. Below is a short overview of our pun-ctuation themed mystery challenge, Impostrophe.
Impostrophe is a choose-your-own-adventure detective novel/mystery challenge in a box. The story and puzzles are all tongue-in-cheek and themed around punctuation, typing and associated language elements. Our hero, private detective Sam Interrobang from Twelvepoint City, is up against a mysterious villain whose calling card is inaccurate or missing punctuation, particularly misplaced apostrophe’s.
The game comes as a boxed collection of elements, similar to detective or escape room games, with a story manual, individual puzzles, maps, ciphers and NPC booklets. Reading through the story manual the player(s) must tie together all the clues and solve the puzzles, both obvious and hidden, to advance the story and help Sam bring the villain to justice.
This isn’t a game that can be easily summarised, so instead I have tried to bring a feel of the story’s tone and the mystery’s mechanics through chapter titles and puzzle suggestions.
Chapter title: Total ellipsis of the heart
Plot: Detective Sam Interrobang finds a devastating letter from his girlfriend, investigative reporter Tilde. Not only does it appear to be ending their relationship, it’s also abysmally lacking in punctuation! Seeking solace at the Space Bar he notices some unusual graffiti, learns of some troubling disappearances, and red pen in hand, takes up a new case.
Puzzles: Mark up Tilde’s letter with punctuation and decipher the two alternative meanings within.
Chapter title: Not a good sign
Plot: elsewhere in town, residents of Hyphenate Row discuss the worrying disappearance of two neighbours. A mysterious ransom note appears and causes confrontation – which individual is the note referring to? Is it genuine, or a fluke made for attention? Should they comply with the demands? And where on earth is all the punctuation?
Puzzles: Using the missing individuals’ names as ciphers, try to interpret the reverse of the ransom note.
Re-insert the punctuation on the original side to learn the victim’s location.
Chapter title: The lost home key
Plot: Sam discovers he is locked out of his house, unable to retrieve person files or have a quick shave. At Slash Back Barbers, an overheard conversation gives him pause. His old barber Foreword shows him a threatening postcard that was left at multiple local businesses over the past week.
Puzzles: reconstruct the missing parts of the conversation script and assign the correct names to the speakers.
Mark up the postcard with punctuation to reveal the hidden message within.
Chapter title: First proof
Plot: At an assembly of the Avant-Garde Poets society, a heated discussion takes place as members try to determine who plagiarised Madame Soupçon’s work in strange graffiti messages. Each member defends themselves with an alibi and a claim about their particular writing style.
Puzzles: sort through the poets’ excuses and the graffiti photographs to find the logical contradictions or the threads which would implicate the culprit.
Chapter title: Case sensitive
Plot: Following his leads, Sam investigates the missing Hyphenate Row residents. He speaks to their distracted neighbour Mark Dash who imparts some useful information. Returning to his office, he finds a particular page of an arts magazine pinned to his desk and notices a strangely-written book review in one column.
Puzzles: Follow the correct route through Mark Dash’s dialogue book to find out more about the missing individuals.
Isolate the full stops and dashes from the book review to reveal the Morse Code tip-off message.
Chapter title: Line break & enter
Plot: At the printing press of the Twelvepoint Star, the foreman notices several sets of letter blocks have been stolen. The editor pushes ahead with publication, announcing multiple front-page headlines. Elsewhere, Sam takes drastic action to get at his notes.
Puzzles: reconstruct today’s front page and make notes on the big news of the day. Note down which letters have been stolen.
Help Sam track down his spare key.
Chapter title: Girlfriend in a comma
Plot: Sam winds up at Twelvepoint Hospital and finds Tilde on life support having been recovered from the Bracket River a day ago.
Puzzles: look through Tilde’s waterlogged notes for information on what happened.
Help Tilde’s nurse administer correct doses by adding the right decimal place to her prescribed medicines.
Chapter title: Missing the point
Plot: The Ampersand Library is conducting its annual review of overdue books and uncovers multiple member IDs at neighbouring addresses who have reached their limit and racked up late fees.
Puzzles: Go through the lending data and sort the aliases from the real member names. Learn the pattern of the culprit’s aliases and look for these elsewhere in the story.
Chapter title: End of the line
Plot: Together, Sam and Tilde narrow down the location of the kidnapped individuals and corner Dr. Denote in his secret HQ. They question him on his motives and bring in the law.
Puzzles: reconstruct your map from the incomplete location names to decipher the HQ location.
Chapter title: A long sentence
The kidnapped persons are returned to their homes and reunited with their neighbours. The paper gets its printing blocks back, the library has its books finally returned and the late fees are added to Dr. Denote’s judicial fine. The police force congratulate Sam and Tilde on their good work.
Big Crow Games 