Herbaceous: A Card Game That Grows on You!

I’m always on the lookout for new board games or card games that I think will interest the PuzzleNation readership, and today, I think I’ve got something special.

Many games center around combat, territory acquisition, player elimination, and other aggressive forms of gameplay that can alienate younger players and families alike. But what if there was a game where the toughest decision is what to plant in your garden?

Fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers, I give you…Herbaceous.

You have herb cards and container cards, and your goal is to collect the best combination of herbs to pot in your private garden. You do this by drawing herb cards and either planting them in your private garden or placing them in the community garden, where they might be snatched up by other players hoping to bolster their own private gardens.

It’s a simple, accessible game mechanic that makes it perfect for players of all ages, quick to learn but offering enough variety and strategy to give it plenty of replay value.

I reached out to Eduardo Baraf, who is part of the creative team and managing the Kickstarter, to discuss this intriguing family-friendly game.

What separates Herbaceous from other games?

Herbaceous stands out because it has accessible, welcoming gameplay that provides great player moments and dynamics. Certainly the art and subject matter of Herbaceous also grabs people’s attention.

As both a game designer and a game enthusiast, what aspect of the game most appeals to you?

The ease with which I can play it with anyone in my family and extended family. Cousins, Aunts, Grandparents, etc.

Ed backs up his claims of inviting all-ages gameplay by having his mother explain how to play the game:

And best of all, the game is already funded! So if you donate, you’ll be contributing to a game with stretch goals already in mind and plenty of support. Also, given Ed’s successful track record with crowdfunded campaigns, I have great confidence in this game reaching many satisfied supporters and customers.

[Brief Kickstarter explanation for the uninitiated: Although there are no guarantees when it comes to Kickstarter or other crowdfunding platforms, donating to already-funded projects gives you a much-higher chance of receiving the finished product in a timely fashion, since you’ve already crossed one of the major thresholds — securing the minimum funding to make the game — eliminating the chance for disappointment that the project might be cancelled because it didn’t make its minimum funding goal.]

So if you’re looking for a fun, non-combative game to play with family and friends, Herbaceous just might be what you’re looking for.

Click here for all of the details on the game and the Kickstarter campaign!

Thank you to Ed for taking the time out to answer our questions! Best of luck with the game!


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Bringing Home an Ancient Mystery: The Voynich Manuscript

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[Image courtesy of BBC.com.]

If you scour the Internet for great unsolved mysteries of this or any era, the Voynich Manuscript is always one of the top results, and with good reason.

A small hand-written volume, the Voynich Manuscript is believed to have originated in the 15th century (thanks to carbon-dating), and it’s written in an as-yet-undeciphered language.

Both amateur and professional cryptographers have attempted to unravel the mysteries of the unknown language, but all have thus far failed. (Oh sure, some people have claimed in the past that they’ve cracked the code, but none of these efforts have held up to scrutiny.)

Some theorize that instead of an encryption, it’s an invented language or a previously unseen invented written form for an established language.

vmsample

[Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org.]

A few cryptographers have gone so far as to call it unsolvable, while others believe it to be an elaborate hoax or the work of someone afflicted with glossolalia, a written equivalent of speaking in tongues.

And ever since the only known copy was donated to Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, aspiring solvers have had to rely on online scans of the manuscript in their attempts to crack it.

Until recently, that is.

voynich_manuscript_158

[One of several fold-out pages in the manuscript.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org.]

A Spanish publishing house is currently working on a limited run of exacting replicas of the Voynich Manuscript, purportedly including “every stain, hole, [and] sewn-up tear in the parchment.”

Of course, such meticulous work is reflected in the price of each book, which runs roughly $8000 to $9000 a copy. A third of the 898 copies being offered for sale have already been snatched up in pre-orders.

If you’re still hoping for a chance to tackle the mystery but you’re not looking to break the bank, thankfully Yale University Press is offering a $50 trade hardcover edition of the manuscript for sale later this year.

Whether this finally leads to a solution or simply adds new members to the ever-growing list of disappointed or frustrated aspiring solvers, I can’t say. But it’s exciting to see the mystery is alive and well.


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It’s Follow-Up Friday: Importmanteau edition!

Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

By this time, you know the drill. Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.

And today, I’d like to return to the subject of portmanteaus.

[Image courtesy of upenn.edu.]

For the uninitiated, a portmanteau is a word that combines two words and represents aspects of both of them. Smog is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Spork, avionics, brunch, labradoodle, cyborg, Pinterest, webinar, glitterati, Reaganomics, sharknado…these are all portmanteau words.

It can be a handy way to coin a term for a situation that doesn’t already have a word to describe it. For instance, I like to think of that unpleasant sensation that you’re going to drop your car keys down a storm drain as “sedanxiety.” A disastrous kiss? “Liplockalypse.”

And clearly I’m not the only one who enjoys crafting new portmanteaus.

Tom Murphy, not to be confused with Tom Swifty (another big name in wordplay), set himself a seemingly impossible challenge: create a portmanteau that includes every word in the English language. A lofty goal, considering there are around 100,000 words in our dictionary.

Utilizing a keen knowledge of French grammar, he coins this project a portmantout, using the French word for “all.”

And not only does he coin a few choice portmanteaus along the way, but he succeeds in creating a single portmanteau that contains every word in the English language:

Granted, that word is 611,000 letters long, but hey, it’s still a pretty impressive bit of coding and wordsmithing.

I look forward to a future video where he says the word out loud.


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PuzzleNation Product Review: LEGO Maze

For years, one of the most marketable things about LEGO sets has been that you can use their pieces in your own ingenious creations. They’ve taken it a step further over the last few years, and now fan creations have the chance to become actual sets!

The Ecto-1 from GhostBusters, the set of The Big Bang Theory, a collection of noteworthy female scientists… these are some of the awesome sets that were designed by amateur builders, voted on by LEGO fans, and approved to become marketed LEGO sets.

And the latest edition to that fan-created line of specialty sets is one of the puzzliest products they’ve ever sold: the LEGO Maze.

Jason Allemann of JK Brickworks created the original design, which was voted on by fans, approved by LEGO, and then improved upon by professional LEGO model designer Steen Sig Andersen.

It’s based on classic wooden marble mazes; the goal is to tilt the board with the two dials on the sides of the maze in order to navigate your marble from one end of the maze to the other without dropping the marble through one of the many treacherously placed holes.

In the LEGO maze, those holes are replaced by black depressions in the maze that trap your marble without dropping it out of sight. (Though I’m sure amateur builders are already designing their own maze layouts that incorporate actual holes just to up the challenge factor.)

[The medieval layout included in the instructions.]

Oh yes, there’s not just one layout. As you can see, the set includes all sorts of pieces with which to create numerous possible layouts from basic ones to advanced. (I’m currently working on one of my own design. Maybe it’ll pop up on Instagram soon!)

The adaptability of the maze layout is one of the highlights of this set, encouraging the same entrepreneurial building spirit that inspired the set in the first place.

And speaking of the set, the design is pretty impressive. It cleverly allows you to lock the tilting maze in place by using the storage box for the marbles as a stabilizer, and you can remove it just as easily. (Remove one piece — and the travel lock under the opposite corner, and you’re ready to play!)

Replicating the full range of motion cannot have been an easy task for either Allemann or Andersen, and that leads to the only negative aspect of the set. I was a little underwhelmed by the control offered by the two dials. Each tilts more toward one direction than the other, so you don’t have the full range of traditional marble mazes. (I suspect this could be remedied by a slightly shorter rod connecting each dial to the two frames allowing you to tilt the maze more in the opposite direction.)

That being said, it’s a minor quibble. On a perfectly flat surface, a steady hand will lead you to victory, if you’re patient enough.

[The build in progress…]

As a long-time fan and builder, I enjoyed both the simple and complex aspects of the building process, and I was surprised that they didn’t number each bag of pieces, as they’ve recently started to do with their higher-end, more complicated sets. That might put off a casual builder, but as someone who enjoys the additional challenge of digging through a pile of pieces looking for that one particular piece, I didn’t mind at all.

LEGO has really been pushing the boundaries of what you can accomplish with these classic interlocking bricks, and the LEGO Maze is one of the most inventive and impressive designs I’ve ever seen.

[The LEGO Maze is available from LEGO.com for $69.99.]


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Vikings: Warriors in Life, Warriors in Dice

[Image courtesy of Arlington Viking Fest.]

Board games have been around a long time, longer than most people realize. Chess can be traced back to the 7th century in India, and Go has been played in China for more than 5,500 years!

And it turns out that board games were important to the Vikings as well. Not only were they valued in life, but in the afterlife as well.

An article in the UK’s Daily Mail details the discovery of a Viking grave site known as a boat burial where board games were among the items interred with the dead. And apparently, this was not an uncommon occurrence.

[Image courtesy of The Times.]

From the article:

Mark Hall, a curator at Perth Museum and Art Gallery, has published a new study on Viking board game burials across Northern Europe.

He says there have been 36 burials where board games of some description have been found in the graves around Northern Europe.

This grave site, dating back to the 9th century, grants intriguing insight into how the Vikings viewed board games as a learning tool. After all, board games require strategy and a level of initiative, which are both qualities found in accomplished Viking warriors, so it’s believed that including a board game among the effects of the deceased signals not only their skill and status as a warrior, but their preparedness for the afterlife itself.

So what sorts of games did the Vikings play?

The game pieces were used in multiple games. Researchers believe the dice were used in a game called tabulal alea, which is reminiscent of backgammon.

Many of the bigger pieces were used in a chess-like game known as hnefatafl. In hnefatafl, each player has a king protected by defender pieces, and the goal is for your king to reach the edge of the board before the other player takes him out.

Just imagine what the Vikings could have learned from a game like Risk.

[This story was brought to my attention by Kim Vandenbroucke.]


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It’s Follow-Up Friday: Harold and the Hashtag Game edition!

Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

By this time, you know the drill. Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.

And today, I’m posting the results of our #PennyDellKidsBooks hashtag game!

You may be familiar with the board game Schmovie, hashtag games on Twitter, or@midnight’s Hashtag Wars segment on Comedy Central.

For over a year now, we’ve been collaborating on puzzle-themed hashtag games with our pals at Penny Dell Puzzles, and this month’s hook was #PennyDellKidsBooks, mashing up Penny Dell puzzles and anything and everything having to do with picture books, storybooks, kids books, nursery rhymes, anything!

Examples include Oh the Places Please You’ll Go!, Charlotte’s Spider’s Web, and The Giving Three from Nine.

So, without further ado, check out what the puzzlers at PuzzleNation and Penny Dell Puzzles came up with!


The Wonderful Wizard Words of Oz

The Jumble Book

The Tail Tags of Peter Rabbit

Horton Hears a Who’s Calling? / Horton Hears a Sudoku! / Horton Hears a Guess Who! / Horton Hears a Word Games

Gerald McBingo Bingo

The Cat in the Hat Comes Back Around the Block

The Categories in the Hat / The Categories in the Hategories

One and Only Fish, Two by Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
One and Only Fish, Two at a Time Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
Pine Cone Fish, Two by Two Fish, Assembly Required Fish, Blue Fish

Green Eggs and Piggybacks

Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Bookworms

Hopscotch on Pop / Hop on Top to Bottom

Oh Say Can You Say That Again?

How the Grinch Stole Crisscross / How the Grinch Split and Splice Christmas

A Great Day for Ups and Downs

Shuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale

Fox In and Around Socks / Fox in Shadowbox

The Very Hungry Caterpill-around the Block / The Very Hungry Bookworm / The Very Hungry Crackers-pillar

Where the Wild Animal Crackers Are / Where and There the Wild Things Are / Where the Wild Wacky Words Are

A Wrinkle in Timed Word Seek / A Wrinkle in Two at a Time

The Secret Word Garden

Mad-End of the Line / MadeLine ‘Em Up

Love You ForEverything’s Relative

Harold and the Purple Pencil Pusher / Harold and the Point-the-Way Crayon

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Wheels Bus / Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus Wheels

The Story of Ferdinand and the Bull’s-Eye Spiral

One Morning in Mystery State

Chips for Sal

Harry Potter and the Samurai Sudoku / Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret Words

Hubcaps for Sale

If You Give A Mouse Crackers / If You Give a Mouse a CooKeyword / If You Give A Mouse a Crostics / If you Give a Mouse a Codeword

Alice in Wonderland: By Another Name: Everything’s Relative All Mixed Up / Alice’s Adventures in Word Seek Land

Goodnight, Sunrays

Are You My Mother? Who’s Calling?

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel Build A Pyramid

Curious George Goes to the Crypto-Zoo

Where the Crossroads End: A Visual Deduction Problem

Crisscross Country Cat

The Windowboxes in the Willows

Patchwords the Bunny / Patmatch the Bunny

Make Word Ways for Ducklings

The Cricket in Times Square Deal

Bob-the-Build(er)-A-Pyramid

These Three Blind Mice

Rub-A-Dub-Dub, These Three Men in a Tub

Snow White and The Seven-Up Dwarfs

Good Night Moon, Good Night Star Words

The Itsy-Bitsy Spider’s Web went up the water spout

Crisscross Moo: Cows that Type

The Dial-a-Grams of a Wimpy Kid

The Little Puzzler That Could / The Logic Problem That Could

James and the Puzzler’s Giant Peach

The Give & Take Tree

The Giver and Take

A Crisscross in Time

Penny and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Decisions

One Topsy-Turvy Crazy Summer Fill-in

Anagrams of Green Gables

The Lion, the Which Way Words and the Wardrobe

The Tales of Uncle Rebus

The Word Maze Runner

The Hardy Boys “Hunting for Hidden Word Squares”

Nancy Drew “The Secret Word at Shadowbox Ranch”

Put me in the Crypto-zoo

The Magic Scrambled Up Bus


Several of my fellow puzzlers went above and beyond with these, launching such gloriously wordy titles as:

Alexander and the “Takeout”, “Hubcaps”, “No-List”, Very “Blips” Day

AND

Make Way for Crackers (er, quackers) as they Crossblocks and Dash-It (Mother Duck heard to quack: Keep On Moving! as they Shuffle along in the Middle Of The Road)

Talk about a mouthful!


And members of the PuzzleNation readership also got in on the fun! On Twitter, @HereLetty submitted Where the Wizard Words Are!

Have you come up with any Penny Dell Kids Books entries of your own? Let us know! We’d love to see them!

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