Gimmick Road Rallye

A Gimmick Road Rallye (sometimes just called a Gimmick Rallye) is a type of instructional puzzle in which solvers follow convoluted directions while driving (or following a map), in order to reach a particular endpoint and record certain information along the way. Sometimes called 'conundrums on wheels', classic gimmick rallyes tend to intentionally put misleading, confusing, or just-slightly-off information in their instructions, daring drivers (or more likely their navigators) to catch on to the tricks.

Background
Since the start of COVID-19 pandemic, online rallyes have become increasingly popular, with various rallye clubs either hosting online rallyes exclusively or making them a regular occurrence between physical rallyes.

Gimmicks
Gimmick Rallyes, regardless of time, place, or runners, will almost always share a similar penchant for tricks in the rules, otherwise known as gimmicks. Some gimmicks are relatively common, whether it's due to ease of use or popularity, and others are very situational, requiring specific street arrangements to pull off. Some of the more popular gimmicks are as follows:


 * Taking Things Literally - Gimmick rallyes often come attached to stories or themes, meaning that flavorful information is sometimes presented alongside more serious instructions, or more mundane instructions might pop up in the introductory sections. Things like specifying that no bodies of water will be crossed, or that the route will 'go through commercial and residential areas' might seem like basic rules, but navigators should stay on the lookout so the driver can avoid crossing Pacific St. and make sure to pass through Commercial Avenue.
 * Example: You're participating in a rallye themed after The Godfather. The introduction is written in character as Don Corleone, and ends with the phrase 'Don't you dare cross me'. Since 'me' isn't likely to be a street, instead teams should make sure not to cross any streets with the names ' Don ' or 'Corleone '. A u-turn while approaching Corleone Ave. is taken into account by the RM.
 * Wonky Definitions - As the instructions given to rallye teams during registration often have basic information attached as well, some rallye masters slip in new definitions to what would normally be easy terms and directions. Alternatively, some terms may not be defined at all. Since rallye instructions are meant to be taken as literally as possible, any instructions that involve those terms have to be ignored (if a 'tee' isn't defined, how are you supposed to turn right on one?).
 * Example: An instruction says ' R on Athabasca' . However, the definition list provided lists 'L' as meaning 'A turn to your left', and 'R' as also meaning 'A turn to your left'. As a result,  'R on Athabasca means to take a left on Athabasca'.
 * Signspotting - Signs are a goldmine for rallye writers, as many rallyes will allow for the involvement of a lot more signs than a driver would be used to using for navigation, including the usual street name signs (both perpendicular and parallel) but also attraction signs, road signs, and even businesses (sometimes). Rallyes also often have specific rules for what can or can't 'be seen' by drivers, changing what should be taken into account when making turning decisions.
 * Example: You're driving on a boundary road, where street names are different if you turn left or right. An instruction says ' Turn right at Dr. Watson '. There is no street named St. James, but you spot a signpost that contains Kendall Dr. and Watson Blv., pointing in two different directions. Since these together form 'Dr. Watson ' (according to the rules for this rallye), you should turn right at that intersection.
 * Prepositions - Words like 'at', 'on', and 'onto' all have very different meanings (assuming that their definitions haven't been intentionally changed). 'At' means performing the action as soon as you see a sign containing the word(s) after 'at' where the action is possible. This can mean a parallel street sign, a perpendicular street sign, or some other sign (if the rules allow for it). 'On' is much simpler, and requires turning onto the street sharing the name with the text after 'on', resulting in the team then driving on that street. 'Onto' is trickier, as in rallyes going 'onto' a road implies that you must stay on that road no matter what (turning when it turns, U-Turning when it ends), until another instruction relieves you of the 'onto' rule.
 * Example: A series of instructions tell you to 'turn right on Bellevue', 'turn left at Bucknell', and 'ONTO Burberry'. The first instruction would be followed as soon as you can turn right onto a street called ' Bellevue '. The second could mean to turn left onto 'Bucknell ', but if Bucknell is only the name of a street to the right, you'd have to turn left onto whatever street is across from Bucknell (which happens to be Burberry). Lastly, you should stay on Burberry until you encounter another instruction telling you to stop, ignoring any other instructions that would take you off of Burberry.
 * Order of Operations - Not only is there an order of precedence for following different types of instructions, but...
 * Example:
 * Forced Turns -
 * Example:

There are other types of gimmicks one may encounter in a rallye, like Monster Gimmicks (which have lasting effects for portions of the rallye, such as forcing you to anagram certain words in your instructions), or unique named gimmicks that change from rallye to rallye. Overall, the instruction package given to teams at the beginning will be their best friend, as they'll tend to tell solvers exactly what they need to know, and what variations on certain rules and gimmicks are present for that particular rallye.

Scoring
Since Gimmick Rallyes, unlike other types of road rallye, don't take into account how fast you get from point A to point B, they need other ways to score and rank the participants. This has resulted in several different variations, requiring drivers and navigators to interact with the course and their instructions in specific ways for each.

Coursemarkers
The most common type of gimmick rallye, Coursemarker (CM) rallyes require teams to find a series of signs marked with letters and numbers placed along the correct route. Given a scoresheet to fill out, containing the letters A-Z and some multi-letter extension (either using AA-ZZ or AA-AZ), the idea is that they'll go through the course, and get some amount of the correct numbers written down, each of which contributes positively to their score. However, some craft constructors may put signs on the wrong path with the wrong numbers, or avoid using certain letters except on the wrong paths, leading some teams to lose points for going the wrong way.

Coursemarkers are a good way for RMs to quickly determine what paths were taken, assuming the navigator (or other people present in the car) were observant enough to spot the signs in the first place. Assuming they do, Course Markers also help teams return to the main path if their path took them away specifically to spot the CM. This is done through supplemental instructions numbered in the same way as the CMs, and should be followed after spotting the CM to return to the main route.

In Puzzle Hunts
Unfortunately for their inclusion in puzzle hunts, rallyes are primarily physical affairs, and have enough of their own unique culture to sustain them outside of hunts. However, the concept has not been free of hunts entirely, with similar concepts being found in Runarounds and the theme of map-following puzzles showing up every once and a while.

Notable Examples

 * Mystery Rallye (MITMH 2008) - The only puzzle in an MIT Mystery Hunt that functions like a rallye and calls itself a rallye.
 * Whose Turn Is It Anyway? (MITMH 2022) - While not adhering to any particular type of gimmick or otherwise tricky instruction, this puzzle does function similarly to a road rallye, but divided into four simultaneous parts.