Every few days here at Boom, after a show or before some movie or something, a good group of us get together and play the board game "Settlers of Catan" (Or its sister game, Cities and Knights of Catan). It's a wonderfully balanced board game that is equal parts skill and luck. And it changes every time you play it. What does that have to do with today?
In light of Jordan leaving, Suzi and Pep built a real-world Catan scavenger hunt/puzzle game. Each part of the Catan world is realized at different Hubs in Amsterdam. For example, you place your settlement at the bakery, and you get wheat cards (hidden there the night before). Sound confusing? It is, but only if you don't know the Catan game. For each Card you collect (again, collected from different hubs around Amsterdam), you get the opportunity to solve riddles. Each riddle solved leads to a location, where more cards are hidden. 10 points to win. 4 locations to settle, 6 points of riddles.
For example, after biking to The Hard Rock Cafe, Cafe Vertigo, and Crystal Pizza, we searched each location for an envelope with resource cards inside. Hard Rock had Brick cards, Vertigo had Wood cards. Trade in 2 Brick and 1 wood, and we got a clue inside of a bible.
The bible had written on it on one side a verse from the Book of Numbers. On a bookmark, inside Numbers, was written, "Mr Skywalker, at 5 minutes before half past twelve." So I looked up Luke 12, verse 25. There, in Italics, was the word Single. And the Book of Numbers was an address: 446. So we biked to 446 SingleGracht and we found ourselves at a huge church. At the base of the church was an envelope worth one point. And that's how the game was played.
Understand? Good. My team won after an hour and 10 minutes of playing. At 2 hours into the game, the other 3 teams have not yet gotten 10 points. Another victory for the Scavenger Hunt team of Andrew and Heather!
Pep wore a cape all day. He's a 35 year old, intelligent, attractive man who has built a wonderful life for himself: he is on the Board of Boom Chicago, started one of the most influential improvisation theaters in the world, has a great apartment in Amsterdam and can ride around town all day in a black hat and cape, cackling.