An Introduction to La Famiglia

Welcome to La Famiglia, an immersive puzzle adventure! This game is brimming with puzzles to solve as you work with the FBI to infiltrate the La Famiglia gang. To get started, first read the “Read Me First” pamphlet in your box. Then, open up Part I. Read the letter from Agent Price and the note from Agent Morris. Peruse the other materials. Come back to this when you’ve done that.

Part I Puzzles

As you’ve learned from Agent Price's letter and Agent Morris’ notes, Part I includes materials from 5 businesses that each need to be deciphered. These include:

A Gelateria Flyer
A Restaurant Menu
The Gazzetta Weekly Tabloid
Some Notes about a Poker Tournament
A Famiglia Club Flyer and Membership Card

Each of these materials is a puzzle that encodes a secret word or phrase that you must find. There is also a distillery diagram that mentions the other five businesses, and you'll need to figure out the connection between them. Filling out the boxes in the distillery diagram is the final puzzle that concludes Part I.

Puzzle-Solving Tips & Tricks

Want some general puzzle tips that will be useful for some of the puzzles in La Famiglia?

General puzzle-solving tips for Part I
1. Before starting a new puzzle, you may want to re-visit Agent Morris' note to see what he said about it.
2. Keep an eye out for words or phrases that stand out in some way (bolded, italicized, capitalized, titles on materials, strange phrases etc.). These may be clues to solve the puzzle.
3. A common way to encode messages is to pull a letter (or several letters) from multiple words to get a secret phrase.
  
  For example, let’s say one of your materials included a shopping list for things to wear with the following items:
  Strawberries
  Eggs
  Carton of milk
  Raisins
  Energy bars
  Tomatoes
  Further, somewhere in the margin, there was a note that clued you into looking at the first letters of each word. You’ll find the word “SECRET” hiding in plain sight! Be on the lookout for phrases that might prompt you to try this technique.
4. If you see any obvious puzzles (sudoku, crossword puzzle, etc.) in your materials, those are often good places to start. They may lead to somewhere unexpected.
Additional puzzle-solving tips for Part II
1. Swapping a letter (or multiple letters) for a symbol is common for creating secret messages. Keep a look out for where this might be utilized!
2. Don’t forget about the materials from Part I. You may need to use one of the original materials to solve a puzzle. Be on the lookout for names or phrases referenced before.
3. Caesar ciphers are also a common form of encryption. This involves shifting letters by a fixed number to get new letters.
  
  For example, say there this an encrypted word: XZB
  The puzzle tells you to shift each letter forward by 3 to decode it.
  Then, you decode the secret word: ACE
  
  Source: Wikimedia

Viewing Hints & Checking Solutions

If you are getting stuck on any puzzle, don't hesitate to get extra clues from the Online Companion Guide. These will give you small nudges in the right direction to help you solve the puzzles. Especially if this is your first time playing this type of game, there is no shame in using hints! Even people who are familiar with this style of game generally use at least a few hints.

Once you have found a solution, be sure to input it in the Online Companion Guide! Sometimes, it will reveal information that progresses the story. At a minimum though, you will know if you are correct or not.

Playing in a Group

If you are in a group, this game will be a collaborative endeavor. Groups generally tackle the game in one of two ways:

You can divide and conquer. Give each member of the group (or couple members) a puzzle to look at. If anyone gets stuck, you can always swap to get a fresh pair of eyes.
Everyone can work on a single puzzle at one time. You’ll find that everyone thinks differently and brings fresh insights to the same material.

Have fun, and Happy Puzzling!

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