A few years ago, there was an amazing moment in internet history. The entire internet rose up as one and agreed on a single topic. It has never happened before and will most likely never happen again.
So what was it? What was that one idea that the entire world embraced and agreed upon?
That you can, in fact, stack Draw 2 cards or Draw 4 cards in a game of UNO.
Yes, the official UNO Twitter account posted there is no stacking of Draw 2 or Draw 4 cards in the rules, and everyone in the world unanimously agreed they were wrong about their own game.
It was an entertaining moment in the history of gaming, and one that came to mind recently when I stumbled upon another UNO story.
Two siblings (brother and sister) were brainstorming how the brother could propose to his girlfriend in an original, memorable, and surprising way.
Their subterfuge involved pretending that the sister and her boyfriend were going to get engaged instead. Friends and family were recruited into the planning of this fake proposal, including, quite crucially, the brother’s girlfriend.
Yes, she had unknowingly been roped into planning her OWN proposal.
Image courtesy of the WikiHow for “steepling your fingers.” Seriously.
So what does all this have to do with UNO, you may ask?
Well, on the day in question, the brother’s girlfriend was there, calling over the sister to get her in position for the fake proposal, when the sister handed the girlfriend an UNO reverse card.
The girlfriend, understandably baffled, stared at the card as the brother snuck up behind her, got down on one knee, and waited.
She turned around, realized the entire proposal plan had been a ruse, and immediately accepted the genuine proposal.
The plan was a success!
I’ve seen proposals with Scrabble boards, Monopoly boards, Rubik’s Cubes, and PennyPress puzzles, but never with an UNO card before.
And yes, apparently the matching dresses worn by both sister and girlfriend/fiancée were a total coincidence!
We wish them joy, success, and comfort in the years to come. (And won’t be surprised if there’s a Draw 2 card involved in the pregnancy announcement if they have twins!)
What’s your favorite story involving puzzles, games, and romance? Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!
Ever since I first saw it played on Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop YouTube series, I was hooked. I bought my own copy a year later, and for over a decade, it has been in regular rotation on board game nights. I’ve included it in every Holiday Puzzly Gift Guide since I started the blog.
Tsuro is a beautiful, simple game that only takes about twenty minutes to play. You can play with as few as two players or as many as eight. It can be the centerpiece of a game night or the perfect palate cleanser after a more stressful round of another game.
In Tsuro, each player adopts the role of a flying dragon soaring through the sky. Players choose from the tiles in their hands in order to build paths on the board, representing their paths through the sky.
Naturally, these paths will eventually intersect, and you need to be careful to avoid colliding with another dragon or following a path right off the edge of the board. (Both of those scenarios cause you to lose.)
And despite the potential for competitive gameplay, I’ve found most Tsuro games to be peaceful affairs, each player watching their dragon token loop and swirl across various intersecting paths, hoping to be the last one standing on the board.
Calliope Games, the publishers of Tsuro, are celebrating 20 years of dragon-soaring gameplay this year. And not only are they releasing a special 20th anniversary edition of the game, but they’re hosting a celebration at this year’s Gen Con: the First Annual Tsuro National Championship!
On Saturday August 1st, players will convene in Hall D at 6 PM, competing in two preliminary rounds before those with the highest scores advance to the finals.
The winner will receive this gorgeous Limited Edition version of the game (valued at $350, the Luxury edition!), and every participant will receive a copy of the new 20th anniversary edition (pictured above, which also looks beautiful).
You can click here to reserve your seat and compete! I’m bummed I won’t be able to attend, but I’ll probably be picking up a copy of that 20th anniversary edition for my shelf (to sit alongside the other four editions of the game I have).
And yes, they ALL get played.
Good luck to everyone competing! And here’s to many more years of Tsuro and the spirit of gameplay it represents.
So, to mark this lovely anniversary, I’ve got a little puzzly challenge for you.
How many words (five to seven letters long) can you make that include all the letters in TSURO at least once? And let’s exclude plurals to keep it manageable.
I came up with 22 words. Can you top that?
And while I’m asking questions, what board game offer your best chance to compete for a national championship, fellow player? Let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you.
In November of last year, I wrote about the most recent class of toys and games accepted into the Hall of Fame. I enjoy seeing which puzzles and games are nominated, and occasionally accepted, as representative of iconic parts of our collective childhood and the spirit of play in general.
Battleship, slime, and Trivial Pursuit were the newest inductees into the Hall of Fame, and good for them, they’re all worthy nominees.
But I was appalled, APPALLED I TELL YOU, that snow was snubbed for acceptance into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
I mean, snow should have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer day one.
It’s a fundamental item of play for many children. Throwing snowballs. Building snowmen and other snowfolk. Catching snowflakes on your tongue. Sledding.
And people of any age can enjoy.
Plus it’s free. It falls from the sky and anyone in the proper climate can play with it. There’s no cost to play, no entry fee to enjoy.
Look a snowdecahedron! You can’t make dice out of slime. THEY WOULDN’T ROLL. THEY WOULDN’T ROLL, YOU FOOL!
Not only that, but snow literally creates opportunities to play with it. Ever heard of snow days? You betcha. Snow falls from the sky and creates days free of school and other responsibilities so children can go play.
Trivial Pursuit can’t do that! Trivial Pursuit falls from the sky, you just have a lot to clean up. No free day for Trivial Pursuit-ing.
So, I beseech you, trustees of the National Toy Hall of Fame, as well as your associated pals at the Strong Museum of Play…
Do the right thing. Let’s get snow back on the ballot and into the HoF where it belongs.
Fellow reader, will you join me on this worthwhile endeavor?
It’s the perfect time to vote for snow, because it’s summer in America right now and you’re liable to be more nostalgic for it.
(You don’t have to nominate snow. There might be a toy you think is more deserving, and that’s totally fair. It doesn’t have to be snow. It’s not like I’ll know you clicked the button and wrote something else in. I won’t. But I will somehow sense it and be a little disappointed, I’m not gonna lie.)
#JusticeForSnow
(Please note that this is not the same as #JustIceForSnow. That’s bad. Don’t put ice in your snowballs. You’ll hurt somebody like that. Not cool, man. Not cool. There’s a reason I’m not advocating for ice in the HoF.)
Clue (aka Cluedo) is one of the all-time classic board games.
It has seen numerous variations and licensed versions (like the Golden Girls edition, where you need to find out who ate the last piece of cheesecake) as well as escape room-style adaptations. Characters have come and gone, like Dr. Orchid, who took Mrs. White’s place in 2016.
It has even been turned into a movie, a comedic delight that’s on my rewatch list every year (alongside its less-appreciated but equally subversive counterpart, Murder By Death).
Now, this isn’t the first LEGO Clue board I’ve seen. In fact, I wrote about one back in 2016 that came with an interactive scorecard for your deductive reasoning.
But the set by Brickly_Pair goes above and beyond both of those previous endeavors.
The rooms are beautiful, richly detailed, and immersive. The logo in the center of the board is gorgeous. The game pieces are a little simple, but definitely feel inspired by the actual game’s pieces.
All the little nods to both its source material and classic LEGO sets (like the Wolfpack banner above the fireplace) make this a work of puzzly art as well as a fun way to revamp and revitalize a classic board game.
Now, seriously, could someone get to work on a Murder By Death set? It could have the shifting rooms, falling gargoyles, and best of all, a Jamesir Bensonmum minifig!
Do you think this Clue LEGO set will grace your shelves one day, fellow puzzler? Or would you like to see another board game get the LEGO brick treatment? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.
Just a quick post today to remind you that Free RPG Day is tomorrow, Saturday, June 27th!
Legitimately one of my favorite gaming-centric days of the year, Free RPG Day is all about building the RPG community. Game companies send freebies to local game shops and hobby shops all over!
And it literally helps everybody:
Local game shops get more foot traffic, hosting events and getting more eyes on all the products and services they offer.
Game companies introduce their games to new audiences, either through free adventures to try out (often being run in-house at those local hobby shops!) or through Quickstart versions of their games, giving a sample of what their game has to offer in a smaller, easily-digestible presentation.
Customers get freebies to expand their knowledge of the hobby, and often game shops run events and sales to capitalize on customer interest. Plus there’s always the chance of making new friends and discovering a new favorite game.
This year, loads of companies are taking part in the Free RPG Day festivities, although what’s available will vary from store to store.
You could find Quickstart versions for games like The Crooked Moon, Wizard Riders, Age of Vikings, Arkham Horror, Dungeons & Kittens, Vaesen, and Root, giving you a marvelous cross-section of different RPG worlds and play styles to choose from!
There could also be one-shot adventures for Cosmere RPG, Daggerheart, Everyday Heroes, Pirate Borg, Kobold Press, Marvel Multiverse RPG, Pathfinder, Starfinder, and more, offering a sample of adventure, horror, excitement, derring-do, and communal storytelling to try out!
You can visit the Free RPG Day website to find a participating store near you and to check out previews from all the companies taking part in the event.
And make sure to follow the #FreeRPGDay hashtag on Twitter and Bluesky, as lots of companies have discounts and freebies online as well!
Please keep your eyes peeled for this year’s edition of the Level 1 Anthology, offered by 9th Level Games. It’s a collection of new games by up-and-coming and established RPG creators, all centered around a particular theme. Last year’s edition was all about the end of the Wild West. This year’s edition is about Stand Up.
This project is close to my heart because I have a game featured in this year’s collection! (It’s called Pip, Pip, Cheerio: A Game of Last Words and Last Stands and it’s about remaining defiant, sometimes comedically so, in front of a firing squad.)
This event is being held both in-person and online, with four themed puzzles and two themeless/freestyle puzzles to challenge solvers. The list of constructors for this year’s event is quite impressive: Andrea Carla Michaels, Byron Walden, Mark Axel, Rebecca Goldstein, Sarah Sinclair, Sophia Maymudes, Mallory Montgomery, and Zhou Zhang.
The event itself is happening on July 26th in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, and is sure to be a great time.
Man, we’ve got Westwords in June, Boswords in July, Lollapuzzoola in August, and Midwest in October! Tournaments galore!
International Day of Play!
June 11th marks the third annual International Day of Play!
The United Nations, through UNICEF, created International Day of Play in 2024 to raise awareness of how important the act of playing is to the development and well-being of children.
This year’s theme for International Day of Play is “Protect play, protect childhood.”
Play is so important for all of us. It fosters relationship building and cooperation, reinforces friendly competition and concepts of right and wrong, and maintains that childlike love and whimsy that comes with play that so many of us, young and old, must hold onto at all costs in a world that is so often unkind, unfriendly, and unfair.
You can find out more about International Day of Play on UNICEF’s website.
Free RPG Day is coming soon!
Last, but certainly not least, Free RPG Day is Saturday, June 27th.
The concept behind Free RPG Day is simple. All over the world (but mostly in the United States), local game shops, hobby shops, and other outlets team up with RPG publishers to distribute new, fresh, and most importantly, free material for all sorts of different roleplaying games, systems, and settings.
Sometimes they’re quickstart versions of the games to introduce new players. Sometimes they’re exclusive adventures or modules to play either in-store or at home. Othertimes, they’re entirely new games, free of charge.
Not only can you receive a wealth of new ideas and playing options in one fell swoop, but it serves as a terrific way to meet fellow roleplayers and build a community of game enthusiasts.
You can click this helpful link to find local spots near you that are participating in Free RPG Day, and I would highly recommend searching online for local game shops, game cafes, and even community centers like your local public library to see who is participating.
These shops will often be running demonstrations of games, tutorials on how to play, hosting raffles and contests, and offering terrific sale prices to encourage you to find the game that fits you best.
Every year, dozens of companies get involved, not only to encourage the growth of the game world, but to promote their own products. And what better way is there to get people hooked than with free exclusive materials begging to be tried out?
Keep your eyes peeled for this year’s edition of the Level 1 Anthology, offered by 9th Level Games. It’s a collection of new games by up-and-coming and established RPG creators, all centered around a particular theme. Last year’s edition was all about the end of the Wild West. This year’s is about Stand Up.
This project is close to my heart because I had games featured in the previous two years’ Level 1 collections, and I also have a game featured in this year’s collection!
PuzzCulture 