Whether you’re a veteran of many roleplaying campaigns, someone who has dabbled in a few dice-rolling sessions, or a total newcomer to the RPG hobby, one of the best days of the year is fast approaching.
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 programming. This year’s is about the end of the Wild West.
This project is close to my heart because I had a game featured in last year’s Level 1 collection, and I also have a game featured in this year’s collection!
And the wonderful team at Frontera Fund are using puzzles to help raise awareness next Thursday, May 8th with their Puzzle Party event!
Cactus Valley Art in Harlingen, Texas, will be hosting the event.
There will be puzzles, community support, and discussions of the modern abortion access landscape and the challenges involved in ensuring that women and those assigned-female-at-birth have the support and resources they need.
This is a wonderful way to help get the word out. I hope that you’ll participate in the event, either by attending in person, by following through social media, or by donating to the cause!
I’d also like to take the opportunity to shout out These Puzzles Fund Abortion 5 . This year marks the fifth edition of the project, collecting 23 puzzles centered around social and reproductive justice themes, all for a minimum donation of $25.
Whether you support Frontera Fund or the five important charities involved in These Puzzles Fund Abortion, I thank you for your time, your donations, and your participation in helping protect and provide healthcare for others.
The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament was this past weekend, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend. I did my best to keep up with the event through social media, enjoying everyone’s observations, jokes, highlights, victories, trials and tribulations.
One message in particular stuck out to me, though.
I can’t remember if it was posting the results after the sixth or the seventh puzzle, but they remarked that they were excited to see some new blood in the top ten.
I couldn’t help but laugh, because all the names were pretty familiar to me.
Paolo Pasco won the tournament for the second year in a row, dominating the final puzzle with a record-breaking time of 3 minutes and 45 seconds. (Solver Paul Edward did the math on Facebook and calculated that Paolo spent less than 34 minutes across the 8 puzzles that weekend. WOW.)
Will Nediger and former champ Dan Feyer duked it out for second place, with Will edging out Dan by ONE SECOND, solving the puzzle in 4 minutes and 38 seconds. What a nailbiter!
The next day, after the tournament was over, I still had that message lurking in my brainspace.
Now, anyone who reads this blog can tell that I’m a nerd for many things. I’m a nerd for puzzles, games, and RPGs. I’m a nerd for trivia.
And I am absolutely a nerd for statistics. I love numbers and analysis and compiling data.
So I read through the full results available for each tournament going back years, focusing on the top ten from this year’s tournament and reflecting on their ACPT careers. I had to see if that “new blood” message had any merit or not, and I figured this was the best way to find out.
Let’s see, shall we?
Emily O’Neill
Emily has been competing since 2005 (unless there’s a name change involved, which is possible), and has been in the top ten twice. She has been in the top 30 ten times!
Glen Ryan
Glen has been competing since 2013 (where he placed 3rd in Division B), and has been in the top ten five times. He has been in the top 30 ten times!
Al Sanders
Al has been competing since 1999 (where he placed in the top three), and has been in the top ten TWENTY times. He has been second place twice and in the top 3 seven times. He has never ranked lower than 21!
Stella Zawistowski
Stella has been competing since 2001, and has been in the top ten THIRTEEN times. She has been in the top 30 nineteen times!
Andy Kravis
Andy has been competing since 2011, and has been in the top ten six times. He has been in the top 30 ten times!
Tyler Hinman
Tyler has been competing since 2001 and is a seven-time champion! He has been in the top ten NINETEEN times (including five times in a row at second place and fourteen times in the top three). He was the Division B winner in his second appearance.
David Plotkin
David has been competing since 2010, and has been in the top ten TWELVE times. He has been in the top 3 six times and has never ranked lower than 28th!
Dan Feyer
Dan has been competing since 2008 and is a nine-time champion! He has been in the top ten SIXTEEN times (literally every time except his first tournament appearance).
[It’s not until the final two names that we really get anyone who qualifies as new blood.]
Will Nediger
Will has been competing since 2021 and has been in the top 3 twice. He has been in the top ten three times (meaning every time he’s competed).
Paolo Pasco
Paolo has been competing since 2021 and is a two-time champion! He has been in the top ten five times (every time he’s competed). He was also the Division B winner in 2022.
You have to go back to the year 1998 to find a tournament that didn’t feature one of these ten people as a solver. That’s amazing!
Originally, I was just going to focus on the top ten solvers from this year’s tournament and their many accomplishments.
But as I was going through the rankings year by year, I was struck by how many names I recognized, and how many times I got to see those names. I got to experience the tournament community as a microcosm across literal decades.
I watched the changing of the guard as some names slowly slipped out of the top ten and were replaced by others. Names like Anne Erdmann and Trip Payne and Jon Delfin and Ellen Ripstein and Douglas Hoylman. I was more familiar with some than others.
The slow evolution of solvers really struck both the puzzle nerd in me and the history nerd in me. I ventured back before my own career in puzzles started (back in 2003).
I’ve never competed at the ACPT, but I attended the event for several years, working the Penny Press / Puzzlenation table in the common area, and I grew familiar with a lot of attendees. Puzzle people are genuinely nice folks, and so many of them were happy to visit for a bit, introducing themselves, checking out our magazines, and taking advantage of our pencil sharpeners.
Everyone was so friendly, sharing their excitement for the event and letting me know their thoughts on each puzzle as the tournament went on. It really is a delight.
(Just don’t start a conversation about which pencils are the best for solving and you’ll be fine!)
New blood or not, the crossword scene is clearly thriving, and I can’t wait to see what next year’s tournament brings.
And we’ve got news on a crossword convention, upcoming tournaments, a worthwhile puzzle-fueled charity endeavor, and a new Hallmark puzzly mystery debuting tonight.
So, without further ado, let’s get to the puzzle news roundup!
Crossword Con
April 4th marks the second annual Crossword Con, presented by the puzzle app Puzzmo.
Crossword Con is all about bringing together crossword fans and constructors to discuss crosswords as a cultural touchstone and an art form.
For their second outing, the organizers are casting their eyes to the future, asking “what’s on the horizon for crosswords, and what changes are already bubbling just beneath the surface?”
Although it’s only a half-day event, it is certainly jam-packed with notable names with plenty to offer on the subject of crosswords! Speakers and guests include Kate Hawkins, Will Nediger, Ada Nicolle, Brendan Emmett Quigley, Laura Braunstein, Rob Dubbin, Natan Last, Adrienne Raphel, and Brooke Husic.
With Crossword Con in New York and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament starting the same day in Stamford, April 4th is certainly an eventful day for crossword fans all over (and particularly those in New England).
Crossword Tournaments
And speaking of crossword tournaments, if you’re a competitive crossword fan, the gears are already in motion for puzzly challenges all year long.
The registration for October’s Midwest Crossword Tournament opens on April 2nd, just a few days before this year’s American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (April 4th through the 6th) will be held.
And the activities alongside this year’s tournament are a doozy. There’s an event celebrating the 20th anniversary of the “Wordplay” documentary, a magical puzzly performance from David Kwong, and an acrostics event on Friday night!
Lots of competitive puzzle fun coming up!
These Puzzles Fund Abortion 5
There’s a long history of activism and advocacy through puzzles. Women of Letters, Grids for Good, Queer Qrosswords… these are just a few prominent examples of constructors and creators donating their time and puzzly efforts to benefit the world at large.
And for the fifth year in a row, cruciverbalists and editors have united to help fund safe and affordable abortion care.
These Puzzles Fund Abortion 5 contains 23 puzzles “centered around social and reproductive justice themes,” all for a minimum donation of $25.
In the original, a luxury private island murder mystery experience turns real when a dead body is found during the event. It falls to psychologist Dr. Emilia Priestly and detective Jason Trent to unravel riddles, deceit, and shadowy motives to solve the murder.
In tonight’s sequel, we return to the island for another murder mystery game, this time created by our crime-solving duo of Emilia and Jason. With a cash prize on the line, tensions are already high, but things take a dark turn when an employee turns up dead during the game.
Anyone who enjoyed my recaps and reviews of Hallmark’s Crossword Mysteries will be happy to hear that I will be reviewing not only the new Mystery Island sequel, but the original as well!
Mystery Island: Winner Takes All debuts tonight at 8 PM Eastern on Hallmark Mystery.
Phew! So much puzzly goodness going on. Will you be attending any crossword events this year? Let us know in the comments below.
Constructors are doing incredible things with crosswords, so it’s fitting that there’s an award show dedicated to the hardworking cruciverbalists of the world and their marvelously devious creations.
Originally called The Oryx Awards or the Oryxes, The ORCAS (an anagram of OSCAR) celebrate crossword excellence. For the 13th edition of the event, the team at Diary of a Crossword Fiend have lined up some seriously impressive puzzles and puzzlers.
And BosWords director John Lieb announced yesterday that they’re holding Open Submissions for one of the themeless puzzles in this year’s Spring Themeless League!
It’s only open to constructors who HAVEN’T had a themeless crossword published in The New York Times and also HAVEN’T constructed for a previous BosWords event.
Yes, it’s an opportunity for new faces and fresh talent to show what they can do!
You can find the full submission details on the BosWords website, including parameters for grid design, fill content, and words to avoid.
I think this is such a cool way to encourage interest in both the construction side of puzzles and the great fun to be had with themeless crosswords.
The submission deadline in February 15th, so if you’re feeling inspired, get to puzzling!
And if you haven’t already, please strongly consider checking out the Spring Themeless League. It’s a blast and really shows off the creativity and constructing skill it takes to make an enjoyable, compelling themeless crossword.
Good luck to all the potential cruciverbalists out there!
PuzzCulture 