25
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Obviously you're underage, the bouncer takes one look at you and points toward the exit.
Your buddy Roman leans over and says, "Sorry man, they look closely at anyone twenty-six or under. But there's a way to get past the bouncer, here you go."
Thanks to Roman, now you can enter the bar. What has he given you?

Update: A clue to help those who are stuck

Roman numerals 26 and under

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    $\begingroup$ Ah, sorry, I completely forgot that I have a modhammer now. Anyhow, I think this is underspecified as is. There isn't much to go on at all, so people could argue all sorts of workarounds as possibly working, which makes this a guess-what-I'm-thinking kind of puzzle. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 18 at 19:42
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    $\begingroup$ There is a definite solution and the path to it is contained within the puzzle. I think the paragraph is short enough that people will find the solution without too much undue experimentation. I ask you to keep it open a bit longer and if further hints are needed I can provide them, but it's only been up a short time. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 18 at 19:53
  • $\begingroup$ Made an update now to add a clue and rephrase a part that was probably unhelpful $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 19 at 23:14
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    $\begingroup$ @bobble See my solution. I'd also like to note that, as is, the puzzle is tagged enigmatic-puzzle and not lateral-thinking, which shows that such an underspecification is probably not real. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 20 at 1:48
  • $\begingroup$ He gave you a carrot "^". Turned you from XXVI to XXXI when appended to the bottom of the V. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 21 at 20:23

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
31
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By

inspecting the embedded roman numerals,

we get:

Obviously you're underage, the bouncer takes one look at you and points toward the exit. Your buddy Roman leans over and says, "Sorry man, they look closely at anyone twenty-six or under. But there's a way to get past the bouncer, here you go." Thanks to Roman, now you can enter the bar. What has he given you?

which transcribes to

6, 1, 11, 5, 9, 4

which is

A1Z26 of FAKEID.

which is, as shown by @verbose, thematic. Good puzzle, OP!

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the contribution! You got it! $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 20 at 3:20
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    $\begingroup$ Worth to explicitly mention "inspecting only less than 26" as some others also exists like "C" and "D" and "L". $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 20 at 5:13
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    $\begingroup$ Yes — but clear by the hint. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 20 at 6:24
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    $\begingroup$ My original intention was to avoid using any Roman numerals except for meaningful ones but I couldn't figure out how to clearly clue "Roman" in that case, so I decided to just also clue the less than 26 aspect $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 20 at 16:44
  • $\begingroup$ I thought rot13(yrggre)s were involved, but I never thought of rot13(yrggre ahzoref sebz puhaxf bs grkg) $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 20 at 17:29
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He gave you a

fake ID. ID is fake Roman for 499; the actual way to write it would be CDXCIX. But it's bigger than XXVI, so you get in.

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    $\begingroup$ That's really clever and interesting. And it's actually the correct answer, but not the correct solution to the puzzle. I'll not mark it correct yet so that you or someone can still find the correct solution $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 19 at 23:46
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I'm not sure if this is correct, but I think Roman…

…flipped you upside down.

Why?

You are 17 (which is why you thought you could pass the bouncer, since it's usually easy to pass as eighteen). However, if you're flipped upside down, you become LI…

…which is

fifty-one in Roman numerals, and certainly above the twenty-six limit.

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1
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for the guess! This is not correct $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 19 at 17:55
2
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He's given you a mirror to put next to you so your X looks like XX. (Or so your 8 looks like 88, for that matter.)

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1
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for responding! This is not correct $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 18 at 19:37
-1
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I realize this is wrong, but I'm going to share my initial thought anyway.

When you combine

the bouncer takes one look at you

with

they look closely at anyone twenty-six or under

would suggest that since the bouncer didn't "look closely" at you, you must be twenty-seven or older.

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    $\begingroup$ This fits significantly worse than the intended answer (e.g. no use of the "Roman" hint) and you already know it's wrong. Feels like it might have been better suited to a comment. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 21 at 16:33
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    $\begingroup$ Huh good thought, I guess there is a logical inconsistency there $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 21 at 18:21

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