Tag Archives: Board game

The Week in Puzzles and Games

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There’s so much going on in the intertwined worlds of puzzles and games, so let’s skip the intro and get to the good stuff!

Bryant Park Crossword Tournament This Weekend!

The summer crossword bonanza might have come to an end for another year, but tournament solving fans still have plenty to look forward to! Not only is Chicago’s Midwest Crossword Tournament looming in early October, but the 8th Bryant Park Crossword Tournament is this Saturday, September 19th!

Although you’re welcome to walk in and participate, things go much smoother if you register ahead of time. Click here to get started!

They’ve even borrowed Will Shortz’s clock for the tournament!

With three Mike Shenk puzzles waiting for competitors, you should absolutely make an effort to participate in this year’s event.

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The Boswords Fall Themeless League Returns Soon!

And speaking of crosswords, there’s still time to register for this year’s Fall Themeless League, which starts up on Monday, October 5 (though they have a preseason puzzle launching the week before on September 28th).

If you’re unfamiliar, the Boswords Fall Themeless League is a clever weekly spin on traditional crossword tournament-style solving. Instead of cracking through a number of puzzles in a single day (or two), the Fall Themeless League consists of one themeless / freestyle crossword each week, scored based on your accuracy and how fast you complete the grid.

Look at that lineup of talent!

Each week’s puzzle only has one grid, but there are three sets of clues, each representing a different difficulty level for solvers. Smooth is the least challenging, Choppy is the middle ground, and Stormy is the most challenging. (When you register to participate, you choose the difficulty level that suits you best.)

Each week’s puzzle is accompanied by a one-hour broadcast on Twitch, starting with a preseason puzzle and broadcast.

The Fall Themeless League then runs the next nine Monday nights starting at 9 PM.

Image courtesy of The Tyee / Michelle Gamage

Scrabble and the Canadian English Dictionary

The Tyee dropped an article recently about a group of Canadian linguists, the Society for Canadian English, that are working on a new Canadian English Dictionary.

And they’ve started with the letter Q.

“Q is a short fascicle, but not as trivially so as X, and it’s a favourite among Scrabble players,” its quintet of authors explained, in an article published in Dictionaries: The Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America.

“Q has plenty of quite quintessentially quirky and quotable words that are useful in attracting attention to our project.”

They wish to raise awareness of their undertaking, not just for public support, but to find a publisher and secure funding for the project.

Check out the full article here. It’s an in-depth and fascinating exploration of the intersection of language, culture, play, and politics.

Two Puzzle Games to Try Out!

One of the coolest things about running PuzzCulture is getting to learn about new puzzles and creators in the puzzle space. Several enterprising constructors have reached out to me recently, and I’m pleased to help spread the word about their puzzly endeavors.

The first is Esteban Martin’s daily decathlon of click-and-drag puzzles, Roughly.Is.

Each day, solvers are presented with ten minigames that pose a question for the reader. Some are simply trivia, others are guessing games or games of skill.

I’m a sucker for puzzles that teach me things, so the games of Roughly.Is are a delight. How big is a blue whale, compared to a Saturn V rocket? What did a steak cost in Zurich in 1970? Where do bison live?

The variety of topics means you’re sure to learn something new or find something to entertain you for a minute. What more can you ask for?

Check out Roughly.Is for all ten minigames, no ads and no login required.

But if you’re looking for a meatier daily challenge, consider Jeff Doka’s Morning Mystery.

Part of the BossFeed puzzle lineup, Morning Mystery is a logic puzzle that invites solvers to use the facts at hand to determine the puzzly truth.

The twist? You can’t trust all of the facts you’re presented with. Some are guaranteed to be genuine, but others could be the characters in the mystery misleading you.

Can you solve the puzzle and determine who is being truthful and who is lying? Give Morning Mystery a shot by clicking here.

Images courtesy of Apple TV / The New York Times

Widow’s Bay and Its Sinister Board Games

Let’s wrap up today’s post with some insight into Widow’s Bay, fresh off a record-setting bevy of wins at the Emmy Awards.

Widow’s Bay is a horror comedy that’s drawing all sorts of eyes, and for good reason. It’s brilliantly cast, well-paced, and razor-sharp.

And, if you’re a board game fan, there was a creepy treat for you in episode two, as the mayor visited a local inn and discovered a number of board games with unnerving art and unpleasant implications

The New York Times did a fantastic piece with the show’s creative team and the episode’s writer about the board games and fans’ fascination with them.

Check it out, it’s a great read about how visuals and prop production can enhance both humor and horror. (Who’s up for a round of RUN?)

Did I miss any puzzly news or fun board game stories from the last few weeks? Let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you.

The Worst Board Game?

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I was talking about board games with a friend of mine over the weekend, and he asked me what I thought the worst board game was.

That’s a difficult question to answer, because a lot of factors go into it. Some games are fundamentally flawed, while others might not connect with you personally, but other folks love them.

Some games simply don’t explain their rules well, leaving players scrambling and baffled on their first playthrough. Some games have a simple gimmick that is fun once, but has very little replay value. Are those bad games?

A game can be mechanically bad, but if you still have fun at the table with your friends while playing it, is it a bad game?

It’s a lot to unpack.

Many of the old classics end up on lists of worst games: Risk, Battleship, Twister, Candy Land, Trivial Pursuit, Chutes & Ladders, Guess Who?, and of course, Monopoly.

I don’t know that it’s necessarily fair to put simpler children’s games on a list of worst games, simply because they’re not as fun to play when you’re older. (Or if you don’t have polio, in the case of Candy Land.)

I also don’t think that games belong on the list simply because they can take a long time, like Risk or Monopoly.

To be fair, some of these games aren’t games at all. Candy Land and Chutes & Ladders involve NO player agency and NO meaningful choices. (Though, in the past, we’ve suggested ways to make Candy Land better.)

And some of the major flaws of these games can be fixed with house rules.

The main issue with Trivial Pursuit, for instance, is that you have to be on very specific squares to earn your wedges, so a lot of the trivia-answering and die-rolling feels pointless or tedious.

But you can fix that with a house rule like “answering three questions of the same color earns you a wedge” or “answer two questions in a row and you immediately proceed to a wedge spot.” Simple fix!

As for Monopoly… well, it has earned its reputation. And yet, it remains one of the bestselling games. Clearly some people are out there enjoying it. (And I wish to know their secrets.)

But newer games aren’t immune to ending up on lists of the worst games.

Munchkin often appears there, but I think that’s due less to gameplay and more to how difficult it can be to get into the gameplay, given how child-friendly the art style is.

The Oregon Trail Card Game appears on some lists, which I found surprising. Sure, the game is hard, almost unfairly so, but that’s kinda the point. My work team and I had a blast chronicling our attempts at beating it every week at lunch, as well as the numerous deaths I personally endured during play. It was a Sisyphean joy!

A lot of pop culture tie-in games are generally awful because they’re cash grabs, not genuine attempts to make a fun game. (The Twin Peaks Murder Mystery Game is truly wretched, for instance. But, then again, The Golden Girls version of Clue is delightful. It’s a mixed bag.)

Personally, I would put Cards Against Humanity on the list, because it encourages lame edgelord humor and reaching for low-hanging fruit, comedically. Cleverness and wit often loses to shock value.

But then again, it can be the seedling for a better game. I’ve played Charades Against Humanity (where you have to act out a White Card from the game) many a time and had an absolute blast. Again, house rules save the day.

So, at the end of the day, what is the worst board game?

Whichever one you enjoy the least.

Or Monopoly. Who can say?

I can, however, with one hundred percent certainty, tell you the worst card game. And no, astonishingly, it’s not War. (Though War suffers from the same flaw as Candy Land.)

The worst card game of all time is Guess the Card.

Here’s how to play, if you’re a masochist:

  • Shuffle a deck of cards.
  • Put the deck of cards in front of you.
  • Try to guess the card on top.
  • Flip over the card and see if you’re right.

That’s it. It’s maddening and insane and barely a game, and I have a friend who makes us play it before every game night she hosts because it makes her laugh hysterically.

So, while it’s the worst card game in the world for most of us, it’s her favorite.

To each their own, I guess.

What’s your least favorite card game or board game? Or, better yet, what’s your favorite? Let’s end on a positive note, shall we? Let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you.

Tsuro Celebrates 20 Years with a Big Competition and a Grand Prize!

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Tsuro is one of my all-time favorite board games.

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.

Solving a Murder, Brick by Brick!

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The gift that keeps on giving…

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).

And now it has made the leap back to tabletops with a twist: a LEGO version of the board.

This LEGO creation by a married couple under the reddit handle Brickly_Pair is currently on the LEGO Ideas website, being voted on by fans and fellow constructors and hoping to cross the 5000-like threshold for consideration to become an official LEGO set.

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.

There’s also this other one I found via a quick Google search, which has six color-coded minifigs as your playable characters / suspects.

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.

Star Wars Games That Are Actually Good!

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I know Star Wars Day was a few days ago — check out the Star Wars crossword I constructed for May the Fourth — but while the spirit of that galaxy far, far away is still being celebrated, I want to recommend some Star Wars-infused fun for board game and RPG fans to savor.

Now, there are dozens, possibly hundreds, of Star Wars-themed games. But, as I proved with my history of Godzilla games, it can take a long time for a beloved franchise to get a tabletop game worthy of the subject matter.

Thankfully, there are some choice options out there with Star Wars sauce for your tabletop enjoyment.

Image courtesy of BoardGameGeek.

Star Wars: Asteroid Escape

In this space-based variation on the game Tsuro — one of my all-time favorite board games — you try to navigate your ship through space by laying tiles and following the path as it connects to other tiles. Each player is laying tiles, quickly filling up the board, so you need to grow more and more strategic with your plays as the stack of tiles dwindles.

But with asteroids also roaming the field of play, can you outlast every other ship on the board? This is a terrific mix of Star Wars flavor with everything that makes Tsuro fun and challenging. It might be hard to find, but it will be a welcome addition to your game shelf.

Images courtesy of BoardGameGeek.

Star Wars: Timeline

I love the Timeline games. (I own nearly a dozen of them!) The simple act of trying to place your card in relation to other events on the table is both a great trivia experience and an opportunity to engage in some deduction and logical thinking.

So when I heard about Star Wars versions of Timeline, I happily snapped them up. With editions for both the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, it will definitely exact a toll on your memory to see if you can precisely place key moments from the movies in the proper order.

Although easier than some of the other editions of Timeline (like their Inventions edition), this is still great fun for Star Wars fans of all ages.

Image courtesy of BoardGameGeek.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

In this prequel era take on Pandemic, players take on the role of Jedi trying to battle back the onslaught of battle droids across the galaxy. Can you stop the spread of Confederacy forces by saving one world at a time?

While Star Wars versions of Risk and Monopoly are pretty much the same game with Star Wars seasoning, The Clone Wars takes the best of the Pandemic system and feels like it takes it in a fresh direction. This isn’t just another version of Pandemic, this is a very clever marriage of the two that takes the best from both.

Strategy and cooperation is absolutely key in this one, and the cooperative aspect separates it from many of the other games on today’s list.

Image courtesy of BoardGameGeek.

Villainous: The Power of the Dark Side

The Villainous games are amazingly well-designed games. Balancing different mechanics for four different villains as you try to achieve their goals and foil the efforts of the villains played by other players, this Disney franchise continues to expand and never disappoints.

And The Power of the Dark Side, their first Star Wars edition of the game, is one of the best versions of Villainous available today. With five villains to choose from — spanning the original, prequel, and new trilogies, as well as the Clone Wars TV show –there’s truly a villain here for any Star Wars fan.

Can you achieve your villainous dreams, or will the other evildoers at the table outmaneuver you and realize their darkest ambitions?

Image courtesy of Nerds on Earth.

Star Wars: Outer Rim

Embrace your inner scoundrel with this game, where each player strives to complete jobs for their employers, collect bounties, smuggle cargo… you know, your usual day-to-day shenanigans in the Star Wars universe.

This game sorta gives you the roleplaying experience in a one-session microcosm. You’ll make your character, make your choices, upgrade your gear and your ship, and make some money, all while dealing with shady and dangerous folks. It’s a whole narrative arc crammed into a single sitting.

Image courtesy of Entertainment Earth.

Star Wars: Rebellion

While Outer Rim is a personal journey, Rebellion is Star Wars on a galactic scale. This is full-blown war between the Rebellion and the Empire, where one side has a Death Star to build and an insurrection to crush, while the other builds alliances, plays cat-and-mouse with the Empire, and plots to destroy the Empire’s greatest weapon.

I’ve only played this game a few times — it’s expensive, a bit overwhelming, and takes a while to get good at — but it’s been a blast every time.

The tabletop scene for Star Wars sure is stacked, but there are plenty of terrific immersive options out there as well for roleplaying fans looking to explore the universe of Star Wars.

And while officially licensed games are great (I’ll be mentioning one below), sometimes the best stories are told in the shadows by companies that understand the spirit of that franchise, but can’t afford all the bells and whistles.

Here are two of my favorites:

Rebel Scum

If, for any reason at all, you felt like punching a Nazi in the face, you can do so in Rebel Scum by 9th Level Games. Yes, they’re space Nazis running an evil empire, and you’re an intrepid anti-fascist trying to save the galaxy, but hey, punching Nazis, amirite?

This game manages to feel like an epic battle across the stars AND a session of playing with your favorite action figures all at the same time. It’s childhood wonder and all the heroic action we wish we could undertake as adults.

Will you stop Baron Deathray and his Killtroopers with a handful of dice and a lot of gumption? Only one way to find out.

Scum and Villainy

If you really like the Han Solo-esque scrappy smuggler making his way through the universe sorta thing, Evil Hat Productions have you covered with Scum and Villainy.

While the Evil Galactic Hegemony is ever-present, this game is more about criminal dealings, clever negotiation, devious schemes, and profiteering adventure. It feels like the day-to-day trials and tribulations of a struggling spaceship crew.

I love the focus in Scum and Villainy on the roleplay aspect of RPGs. So much of the game is about character and the worlds you visit, and not as much about swinging lightsabers and dodging turbolasers.

As you can see, there are many different ways to play a Star Wars game. It can be a war game, an exploration game, a scheming game, a storytelling game… sometimes all of them at once. And Fantasy Flight Games brings a seriously impressive narrative tool to the table with their Star Wars Roleplaying Game.

There have been Star Wars RPG games since the 80s, but I don’t think any of them offered the same spirit of choice, chance, and adventure that the FFG edition of the game does.

Like most RPGs, you pick a class and build your stats and roll dice to determine the outcome of your choices. But unlike many RPGs where the number you roll declares your action a success or a failure, the narrative dice of Star Wars FFG offer a much more exciting and engaging answer.

It’s not just a binary option, you succeed or you fail. With narrative dice, you can have additional complications, both positive and negative.

You could fail, but with some unexpected advantage: You missed a swing of your lightsaber, but you cut through the awning supports and blinded your foe for a round.

You could succeed, but with some negative consequence: You might have caught the bad guy with your blaster, but you also shot the engines of your ship, and now they need repairs.

Your actions tell a story that goes well beyond yes and no. And in a world where scoundrels often make mistakes while trying to do good, it’s a more interesting, more immersive journey every time, and it truly brings those adventurous moments to life.

Whether you’re a scoundrel on the Edge of the Empire, a hero during the Age of Rebellion, or someone caught between the Light Side and the Dark Side in Force and Destiny, they’ve got a place for you to tell your story.

Did your favorite Star Wars game or RPG get mentioned? Or are you miffed I left out Star Wars Trivial Pursuit and its bweepy little R2-D2 dice roller?

Let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you.

Board Game, But BIG!

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I was surfing social media on my lunch break when I stumbled upon a video on Twitter (not X, never X) featuring a giant balancing game with Tetris-style game pieces.

It’s called Tetris Tumble XL and it’s apparently available at Walmart. And although it’s not a one-to-one gameplay comparison, it is interesting to see Tetris super-sized as a gaming experience.

It’s neat. It’s not building-sized Tetris neat, but it’s neat.

Of course, it’s only the latest example of a traditional game experiencing Godilla-like growth to turn it into a party game.

The most traditional form of “board game, but big” is undoubtedly Chess.

There are literally dozens of places where you can enjoy a gargantuan game of Chess. Wooden cutouts, full wooden pieces, sculpted stone… the aesthetics are all part of the experience.

Plus you can easily play with humans as the chess pieces, which adds a fun element to the sheer scale of the game. I’ll never forget seeing a game just like that decades ago in an episode of The Prisoner.

There’s something about people as literal pawns being controlled that adds some serious philosophical spice to the game’s proceedings.

For a more lighthearted, but no less impressive translation when it comes to scale, there’s Mark Perez’s life-size Mousetrap.

Now, this isn’t playable because there’s no game board, but if we’re all being honest, did anyone actually play the game? Or did you simply set up the contraption and let it tumble and turn and clatter in delightful motion?

This 25-ton version of the board game’s colorful selling point toured festivals and fairs for years, concluding with a car-smashing weight rather than a plastic diver and a little net over some hungry mice.

Hammacher Schlemmer used to sell a wall-sized giant Scrabble game that they dubbed The World’s Largest Scrabble Game, and it retailed for $12,000!

There are some more affordable large Scrabble games out there now for players to enjoy on a sunny day outside, but nothing that rivals this Hammacher Schlemmer monstrosity.

You’ve probably seen outdoor versions of Jenga. There’s a wooden version that still remains relatively portable, and an XXL gigantic edition that dwarfs the man playing it in the photo.

I’m not a huge fan of the cacophony that ensues when a regular game of Jenga ends, so I don’t really enjoy the larger versions either. Give me Catch the Moon any day, or maybe a nice round Junk Art or Rhino Hero instead.

Have you ever wanted to play Yahtzee but wished the cup for the dice was garbage-can sized? Well, your mediocre dream has come true! With big foam dice, you can turn Yahtzee into a yard game.

Look at how much fun these people are having! And no, I did not crop the photo that way. That’s the promotional photo as intended, crouching half-man and all!

Operation has always been a finicky little beast of a game, and it seems like no two versions of the game are the same.

Some are more sensitive, while some — like the version at my babysitter’s house — had a buzz that was downright painful.

But this giant version? I could see this being a pretty fun challenge, depending on how heavy the pieces are.

Family-Size Settlers of Catan, Caracas Comic Con 2011

Settlers of Catan is not just a modern addition to the classic board game pantheon. It’s also the only possible challenger to Chess’s dominance as a build-it-big board game.

Life-size versions of Catan have been played at numerous gaming conventions and other events, and it’s hard to get an accurate number of how many giant sets of this resource management game are out there in the wild.

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That’s not the case for the fictional game turned real life game Cones of Dunshire. As far as I know, there’s only one larger-sized version of the game, produced for a charity event at GenCon by Mayfair Games (the same company that created Settlers of Catan).

And you know, for the most part, I can see the appeal of these inflated, occasionally inflatable versions of classic games.

I take that back. I do not get how making Battleship bigger makes it more fun in any way, shape, or form. It seems so easy to cheat, intentionally or otherwise. Unless I actually get to lob stuff at my opponent’s ships over the wall, I’m not interested.

And while this giant Monopoly board is impressive, I still don’t think it’s enough of a whimsical gimmick to actually get me to play Monopoly.

Clearly there is a market for oversized versions of classic games. And I have some suggestions for board games that should, nay, MUST make the jump to human-sized for the betterment of play all over!

Let’s start with a Canadian classic: Crokinole.

This would be so simple. Get a bunch of curling stones, a hockey rink, draw out the board, and secure some posts with sandbags or something. Then get tossing!

Next, there’s Chutes and Ladders.

Yes, there was a life-size version of this from 2010 when Indonesia’s University of Surabaya honored the original version of the game — Snakes and Ladders — with a 45-foot game board and 105 players.

But that’s just a big flat board. I want a version with actual ladders and actual chutes! (Sorry, no snakes in this one.) Imagine if we could find the right hill OR wide-stepped public staircase so that you could actually ascend the board and slide down in delightful misfortune! That sounds awesome.

Oooh, what about Crossfire?

Image courtesy of SAHM Reviews.

In this game, you used little marble-spewing guns to knock targets into your opponent’s space. Imagine getting to sit sidecar-style next to a dodgeball launcher and trying to outwit your opponent!

Sorta like this, except with dodgeballs instead of a laser.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to constructing my life-size version of Fireball Island.

I’ve almost got all the kinks worked out of the Indiana Jones-esque giant fireball chase sequence.

Oh, hey, I need a couple of game testers. You’re pretty fleet-footed, right, fellow puzzler?