Before the Confetti

What you need

• One copy of 18 public scene briefs

• Eight blank event slips per round, pens, and two private construction ledgers

• Two copies of the fact tracker and event-format reference

• Four arbitrary labels A–D per team, cut separately, and a cover for each team’s construction ledger

Set up

1. Form two teams as evenly as possible, each with 2–4 players. Every team will create a puzzle and solve the other team’s puzzle in each of three rounds. All six solved puzzles belong to one cooperative table.

2. Shuffle the 18 briefs and take six without previewing their scenes. Each round, deal one face up to each team, leaving the other four covered. A brief supplies three FACT names, exactly two permitted values for each, a START state, and a FINISH state. Two facts finish changed; the TEMPORARY fact finishes where it started.

3. Give each team four blank event slips, randomly shuffle its A–D labels, and put one random label on each slip as it is written. Letters identify slips only; they must not encode chronology. Keep a private four-place ledger for the proven order. Prepare one public fact tracker per team. The printable labels supply A–D once for each team. Copy the event template 24 times, the private proof six times, and the tracker once per team; pencil permits tracker reuse. Copy the shared session record once.

4. Read the worked gate-and-cart puzzle together before creating a scored puzzle. Writing the event sentences is part of the game: the printed scene briefs, exact transition language, templates, and construction procedure provide the whole creation kit.

How to play

1. Every event has four lines: an arbitrary LETTER; a short TITLE or fictional sentence; REQUIRE naming exactly two facts and their required values; and CHANGE naming exactly one of those facts, its old value, and its other printed value. Example: REQUIRE GATE CLOSED; FLAG RAISED. CHANGE GATE CLOSED → OPEN. The changed fact must be one of the two requirements. The other requirement is checked but not changed.

2. Facts are literal labels. At every moment each fact has exactly one of its two printed values. A legal event has both REQUIRE values true, then changes only its named fact to the other value. All other facts stay exactly as they were. Flavor text can explain why this happens but never adds an effect, exception, hidden object requirement, real-world knowledge test, or rule.

3. Build backward. Copy the brief’s FINISH onto your private tracker. Choose a fact to reverse, flip it to its other value, and treat that new tracker as the moment immediately BEFORE the event you are about to write. Write REQUIRE using that fact’s current value plus one of the other two facts’ current values. Write CHANGE returning the reversed fact to the value it had just before this backward step. Your event therefore leads forward from the new tracker to the previous tracker.

4. Continue backward for exactly four events, writing them into private ledger positions 4, 3, 2, and 1. Reverse each of the two finish-changed facts once and the TEMPORARY fact twice. The two temporary reversals cannot be adjacent in your proof order: at least one different fact must change between them. Use the supplied tracker to count this. After the fourth backward step your tracker must equal the printed START in all three facts.

5. Share authorship. Within a team take turns choosing the next backward event and its second prerequisite. With two players, each creates two events; with three, the first creates two and the others one, rotating that first author next round; with four, each creates one. All teammates may help, but the current author chooses. A partner can do the handwriting. Keep titles short and concrete; spelling, wit, and literary quality do not score.

6. Now prove the puzzle forward. One teammate who did not write the current slip reads each event while another starts from START, checks both requirements, and applies its one change. Use private ledger order 1 through 4. Confirm that every letter appears once, the effect counts are one/one/two, temporary changes are separated, all four events are legal, and the final tracker equals FINISH. Repair as much as needed before exchange. A puzzle without this complete proof cannot be sent.

7. Shuffle your four event slips thoroughly and exchange them with the other team, together with the scene brief. Keep your private proof ledger covered. The receiving team may inspect every event and the whole brief, discuss freely, and use the fact tracker to try candidate orders. Titles may help make a story, but REQUIRE and CHANGE are the complete scoring authority. Event letters and handwriting contain no intended chronology.

8. When the solving team has an order, read its four letters and announce “submit.” The creators check that exact order from START, applying each event in turn. A submission succeeds if both requirements on each of the four events pass and FINISH is reached after using every event once. The order need not match the authors’ proof. Never reject a different valid route because it tells a different story.

9. If a submitted order fails, identify the first illegal event and name its unsatisfied requirement, or say which final fact is wrong if all events were legal. Do not reveal the private proof yet. The solvers may discuss and submit once more. After a second failed submission, reveal the proof and replay it together. A team can ask to reveal without making either submission; record that puzzle as explored rather than solved.

10. If a genuine authoring defect appears after exchange, return the puzzle for repair: malformed syntax, impossible proof, wrong state vocabulary, missing event, or an inaccurate ledger are defects. Allow fresh unlimited thinking time and restore both submissions for that puzzle after repair. Earlier information remains known. If it cannot be repaired comfortably, use a fresh scene and author again, or mark it explored and continue. Do not punish solvers for an impossible authored set.

11. After both exchanged puzzles are resolved, mark each SOLVED or EXPLORED, share the forward fictional scenes, and begin the next round with two new briefs and fresh slips. All discussion and checking is untimed. The next round’s first author moves one person along inside each team. Keep the event slips if everyone wants to revisit a particularly satisfying puzzle.

Ending and ties

• Finish after three rounds and six exchanged puzzles. Count the SOLVED marks out of six; all six is a fully reconstructed session. EXPLORED means the proof was revealed after a request or two failed submissions. Everybody shares the result. No creator wins for making a puzzle difficult, and there are no individual scores or tiebreaks.

• Estimated duration is 30–45 minutes, with extra time for first-time puzzle authors. This authored edition has not had a live group playtest. For an introductory session, agree before starting to play one round and solve two puzzles; use the same construction and checking rules.

Make room for everyone

• Use the large fact tracker, read both requirements aloud, and move word cards rather than writing new states when useful. A teammate may handle every mark while the current author makes the choices.

• Titles and fictional sentences can be spoken, signed, typed, or omitted if language composition is a barrier; the complete REQUIRE/CHANGE rows still make a valid puzzle. No drawing or acting is needed.

• The scenes are wholly fictional. Nobody performs the physical actions, operates machinery, handles food, or reveals personal experiences. Replace an unwanted brief without explanation; safety changes may be made even after a story is written.

Bring it back to the table

• Eighteen scene briefs provide three complete six-brief sessions. Use unused briefs first, then revisit favorites with a different temporary-event placement and different second prerequisites.

• A returning group may choose the twin-route challenge before a round: the creators try to prove two different valid forward orders, and the solvers try to find both. Keep this as an unscored variant and do not quietly require two solutions from a standard puzzle. The creators must verify both before exchange.

ROUND & REVEL / Before the Confetti / PLAYER MATERIALS

Printable materials

Print single-sided at 100% size. Cut only the pieces described in setup; leave boards and reference sheets whole. Check the print preview before printing.