Welcome to an easy introduction to The Hub Crawl! (written and illustrated by Kirk kirkjerk Israel) The Hub Crawl is about taking photos of things, running around Boston, solving puzzles, and having fun! You should form a 4 person team to play the Hub Crawl. Everyone on the team should be physically able and ready to move across several of Boston's neighborhoods in 3 hours...
You should have a cellphone! And maybe some water. And maybe some sunblock, too. And your team needs at least one digital camera - even a cellphone camera will do! At the day of the event, you and all the other Hub Crawlers will assemble HERE at the rally point. Check-in and meet some of the other teams! You need to pick a single Team Captain. Your Team Captain will meet with the other captains and the Hub Crawl Ninja Staff to get your official packet.
In your packet will be a list of things to photograph, divided into various neighborhoods in Boston. (You have to take a photograph of the thing in the neighborhood it's listed under!) There are two kinds of photo-captures that make up the bulk of the game: standard (worth 100 points) and challenge (which are harder to find and worth 200) but wait... you get MORE POINTS the more team members you have in the photo! 25 points person, in fact.
So how do you do that? Popular strategies are: the MySpace pose! Ask a friendly street vendor or a passerby (who's not a crook!) have a tripod with you and use your camera's auto-timer
Have a camera or camera phone where you can see the photo as you take it and jam all those heads in there! Now, the list has a lot of items. If you're really fast, MAYBE you can keep all 4 of your teammates together and go for the full member bonus! Or MAYBE you should split up, and try to cover more ground! But remember-- the Hub Crawl is no ordinary photohunt. There are also PUZZLES! Besides the two kinds of photo-captures, there's also the TOKEN photo-capture.
Solving each puzzle reveals the location of a "token", a sticker or piece of paper that has been set up somewhere in the neighborhood its listed under. Tokens are worth a lot when you photo-capture them -- 300 points! (If you think a token is really and truly missing, please contact the hunt staff immedediately) Plus each token has a hint - a piece of another, bigger puzzle. Capture all the tokens and it will spell out the details of a Final Capture! The Final Capture could be the location of another token or instructions on how to get a secret photo-capture. Whatever it may be, it is worth 500 points!
So should you sit and solve the puzzles ahead of time, or just start moving and try to solve puzzles as you go? That's for your team to decide! If you get confused, feel free to have your captain flag down a ninja staff member or call them or ask via twitter. -- Hints to puzzles are cheap (25 points) and clarifications on both puzzles and rules are always free. But remember, you don't have a lot of time... you have to hustle back and be back to the rally point at the end of the 3 hours -- Don't be late!
Back at the rally point, your photo captures will be verified. So plan on sticking around after. Verification might be a bit of a social event... Remember, the Hub Crawl Ninjas are the final authority! Once all the judging is done winners will be announced and there may even be a post-Crawl event of some kind... That's the basics! Please check the real instruction and the event website for more details... and have fun!