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Complete the following pattern :

1) O, W, B, B, C, N, B, ?
2) N, C, A, P, B, L, D, ?
3) B, N, J, B, I, A, D, ?
4) W, B, T, L, P, N, R, ?
5) T, N, L, P, C, O, L, ?

More notes:

  • The sequences are not related to each other, however, they have something in common.
  • The first person answering and explaining all sequences wins the big green tick.

18/7 Update
Okay, guess this is too hard without hints, albeit actually very much solvable.
This is a little one. Hope it helps.

They are initials.


23/7 Update
Still too hard? Okay, another hint to ease the puzzle.

Cities! All of them!


29/7 Update Okay, probably last hint here.

There is indeed a consistent inconsistency in each number.

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    $\begingroup$ I don't want to post an answer because I honestly have no idea yet but a possibility could be the Initials of towns/locations on a route (road/river/coastline/etc) $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 16, 2017 at 14:02
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    $\begingroup$ I think this is a puzzle that is very easy to make. Get a ruler and draw a line on a map, write down the first letter of each city. But the solving ... that's a different story. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 23, 2017 at 14:17
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    $\begingroup$ You can add a story to this, and weave in some indirect hints about say, which continent each line is on. If they are all in the same direction (eg north to south) the story could explain that too. Etc. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 23, 2017 at 14:19
  • $\begingroup$ @KateGregory No, the position isn't relevant at all. To be honest, I don't even know if the geography tag is still relevant here. Another hint: this cities has something remarkable, and they are well-ordered. I will add a backstory if I have time, but right now, they are simply initials of remarkable cities. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 23, 2017 at 15:10
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    $\begingroup$ But Kate is right: Go to the Wikipedia page for, say, the list of countries in Africa, sorted by population density, and write down their capitals. Then post their initials here and say "Guess!" And it's even easier to be smug about it. ("Still too hard?") $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented Jul 23, 2017 at 15:47

2 Answers 2

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I think the series are ...

... initials of country capitals. The ordering refers to the country, not the capital. My guesses for the criteria are below. Unfortunately, even if the series looks good in principle, there is at least one inconsistency in all of them, so my guesses might be well of.

1) O, W, B, B, C, N, B, ?

Countries in the Americas, ordered by area:

Ottawa (Canada)
Washington DC (USA)
Brasília (Brazil)
Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Ciudad de México (Mexico)
Lima (Peru) [should be N?]
Bogota (Colombia)
Next: La Paz or Sucre (Bolivia)

[This seems to be a good fit, even with the stretch of calling Mexico City by its Spanish name. But unfortunately, Lima doesn't fit.]

2) N, C, A, P, B, L, D, ?

Island countries by area:

Nuuk (Greenland)
Canberra (Australia)
Antananarivo (Madagascar)
Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea)
B ?
London (UK)
Dublin (Ireland)
Next: Colombo (Sri Lanka)

[I'm not quite sure about this. The first ones look promising, but what about Indonesia, New Zealand, Japan, the Phillipines? Maybe only countries with a clear main island count? But then, what about Iceland and Cuba?]

3) B, N, J, B, I, A, D, ?

Countries in Asia, ordered by population:

Beijing (China)
New Delhi (India)
Jakarta (Indonesia)
B ?
Islamabad (Pakistan)
A ?
Dhaka (Bangladesh)
Next: Tokyo (Japan)

[Not quite sure here either. The first three seem to fit, but it's really patchy atre that.]

4) W, B, T, L, P, N, R, ?

Countries of the world by Gross Domestic Product

Washington (USA)
Beijing (China)
Tokyo (Japan)
London (United Kingdom)
Paris (France)
New Delhi (India)
Rome (Italy)
Next: Brasília (Brasil)

[Note: If this is right, Berlin, Germany is missing and should be in the fourth place.]

5) T, N, L, P, C, O, L, ?

[No idea here.]

Finally:

There's an enigmatic-puzzle tag here. I don't know whether there's more to the puzzle than finding ouzt whet the sequences are. I guess the tag is just misapplied, as it so often is.

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  • $\begingroup$ Wow, you get one of them perfectly answered! But I won't tell you which one. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 23, 2017 at 22:00
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I haven't really found out anything. But anyway here are my attempts.

Characters converted to ASCII:

79, 87, 66, 66, 67, 78, 66,
78, 67, 65, 80, 66, 76, 68,
66, 78, 74, 66, 73, 65, 68, 
87, 66, 84, 76, 80, 78, 82, 

Ordering of Characters in Alphabet and the sum per line:

15, 23,  2,  2,  3, 14,  2:     61  

14,  3,  1, 16,  2, 12,  4:     52

 2, 14, 10,  2,  9,  1,  4:     42

23,  2, 20, 12, 16, 14, 18:    105

Because this is tagged as geography, I had the thought that these numbers could be coordinates.

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    $\begingroup$ Nah, no ciphers or anything complex needed. For your info, I have no geography background, and I don't even care about coordinates. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 16, 2017 at 14:15

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