It’s uncanny: Every year around this time, alarming problems tend to arise on the MIT campus.
One year ago, for instance, a rare diamond went missing. In 2019, a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Boston’s Great Molasses Flood went horribly awry. And in 2007, students were forced to descend into Hell itself after making a pact with the devil.
Relax, panicky parents. These were just a few of the themes guiding the annual MIT Mystery Hunt, a weekend-long gaming tournament that has taken place on the school’s campus each year since the event’s inception in 1981. Created as a humble pastime for like-minded problem solvers, the hunt has grown into a multi-layered, internationally renowned competition, spawning dozens of imitators around the globe.
In recent years, the Mystery Hunt has attracted hundreds of teams annually and thousands of participants, from MIT and beyond, both virtual and in person, without an entrance fee. What began as a dozen clues on a single sheet of paper has blossomed into as many as 200 challenges each year. They can be word games, cryptograms, scavenger hunts, mystery trails — almost any kind of brainteaser that requires clues and a solution. A thematic storyline, devised by the previous year’s winners, eventually leads to the whereabouts of a special coin hidden somewhere on campus. The first team to find the coin wins.
This year’s Mystery Hunt, which kicks off at noon on Friday, was designed by the team Cardinality, which won last year’s competition. Annie Guo, a sophomore math and computer science major who joined the team just after their victory last January, says the Mystery Hunt is the main reason she decided to attend MIT. As a high school puzzle fanatic, she learned about the MIT Puzzle Club, a student organization established several years ago to oversee the hunt and other events, and was instantly hooked.
“The Mystery Hunt is one of the first ways I became aware of MIT,” she says.
Marvin Mao is another sophomore, studying math and urban science. A crossword enthusiast who does the New York Times puzzle every day, he was drawn to the Mystery Hunt because “it’s a super creative endeavor, just because it’s so open-ended,” he says. “People can do whatever they want.”
As a high school student, he says, he tagged along with a team competing in the 2021 hunt. That took place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the whole thing was fully remote.
“They made a virtual version of the MIT campus,” Mao recalls. “I thought that was super cool.”
MIT graduate student Bradley Schaefer launched the Mystery Hunt in 1981 as a fun activity during MIT’s traditional Independent Activity Period (IAP), a monthlong interval between each academic year’s grueling semesters set aside for playful learning and the spirit of exploration. Prizes included a $20 gift certificate to the campus bookstore and a keg of beer. (Schaefer went on to become a distinguished astrophysicist.)
In recent years, Mystery Hunt themes have grown increasingly elaborate, often incorporating cues from popular culture. Hunts have been inspired by films including “Inception,” “Time Bandits,” and Pixar’s “Inside Out,” as well as the board games Clue and Monopoly. Other themes have been wholly imagined, in fictional settings from Normalvilleto Zyzzlvaria.
“The entire production involves creating a story,” explains Rebecca Chang, a senior with a dual major in physics and electrical engineering. She helped design last year’s hunt. “Music, acting – there’s a lot that goes into this,” Chang says. Players spend most of the weekend solving puzzles that fan out across the campus, with members of the design team often role-playing. Last year, there was an ersatz bar where the “bartenders” dispensed not beverages, but clues.
Atul Nadig, a junior studying math and computer science, was also part of last year’s design team. He points out that some of the puzzles are unique to the Mystery Hunt.
“Many times, you don’t really have a format you’re familiar with,” he says. “You just play around and see what happens.”
According to Mao, some teams aren’t especially interested in “winning.” The team he’s on, Galactic Trendsetters, won the competition during the virtual year of 2021.
“A lot of teams just want to see the entire hunt,” he says. “It’s an artistic endeavor, and you want to experience all of it.”
But that doesn’t stop others from pulling out all the stops. Guo, the new member of last year’s winning team, only agreed to speak with the Globe as long as we promised not to give away any of this year’s secrets.
So what sorts of conundrums will take over the MIT campus this weekend? Frankly, we have no clue.
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