Tag Archives: club drosselmeyer

The Week in Puzzles and Games

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

Happy Birthday Puzzmo!

After celebrating 1,000 days of Puzzmo back in July, this puzzle app has another milestone to celebrate tomorrow.

There has been a countdown running on the app for a while now, and it’s counting down to the three-year anniversary of Puzzmo!

I don’t know what they have in store on Tuesday, but considering how much care and attention goes into each day’s puzzles and games, I’m sure they’ve got something up their sleeves.

Club Drosselmeyer Tickets Are On Sale Now!

I did a full post about all the Club Drosselmeyer events last week before tickets went live, but a little reminder never hurts.

Their flagship “Interactive Nutcracker in Swingtime” Club Drosselmeyer event has performances set for December 4th, 5th, & 6th AND December 10th, 11th, 12th, & 13th.

As the organizers themselves say, “Prepare yourself for another season of magic and mayhem, romance and revelry, champagne and sugarplums.”

Click here to grab tickets and get more information about everything Club Drosselmeyer has to offer!

MyCrossword’s Forum Now Open!

It’s always worth celebrating when a new public space opens up for chatting about puzzles.

MyCrossword is a website allowing cryptic crossword solvers and setters to share their work and sample puzzles. It is a hub of creative expression and puzzly fun.

And they’ve just opened their new forum feature to further encourage community and communication.

Raider at MyCrossword has written a welcoming post, and I hope the forums soon fill up with excited solvers and engaging discourse about the world of cryptics.

Click here to check out MyCrossword and their forum!

(Oh, and thank you to Tom at MyCrossword for providing the feature image for this part of the post.)

Two Puzzle Game Sites 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 Andres Echenique’s crossword-inspired deduction puzzle, CrossEights Daily.

This free daily puzzle challenges solvers to figure out the eight crossing 8-letter words, four across and four down.

You can get hints Wheel of Fortune-style and place certain letters in order to help you figure out the words.

But since only some of the letters are overlapping, it’s up to you to puzzle out starting and ending letters (which can be difficult if you’re not if you need an -ED, -ER, or -ES).

There’s a running leaderboard for speed and efficiency of solving, and I found the combination of deduction and letter-picking luck really fun.

Click here to try it out!

CrossEights Daily is a relative newcomer to the puzzle world, so I thought for my other recommendation today, I’d discuss a puzzle website that has been around since 2006!

Yes, LiveSudoku.com has been sharing free Sudoku puzzles for two decades now, allowing for head-to-head play worldwide, printable booklets, and solving assistance.

I spoke to Maya at LiveSudoku and learned some very cool facts about the site.

The site has more than 10,000 daily players, and there are 14 different languages available for players (including Turkish and Greek, which were just added this summer).

The community aspect of this site really appeals to me, and I’m happy to help spread the word to other Sudoku fans in the audience.

Click here to check out the site and their forums for liveplay.

Florida’s “Crossword Bandit” Busted After Peculiar Crime Spree

Let’s wrap up today’s post with some truly ridiculous criminality.

Have you heard about the “Crossword Bandit”?

Ronald Wladich, a prolific dine-and-dasher in Southwest Florida, left a calling card for some of his crimes by leaving a crossword puzzle book behind instead of paying his tab.

(You know, it’s never a good sign when a thief patterns himself after the Wet Bandits from Home Alone.)

A total of five restaurants reported being part of this cruciverbalist crime spree, which is part of how he got caught.

Restaurant employees began trading stories about this crossword-loving crook and they recognized a familiar blue sweatshirt, drink order, and of course, a love of puzzles.

He was also charged with DUI for riding his bicycle into a Wendy’s parking lot while intoxicated.

No one has yet reported on what crossword books were preferred by this thief. (Why don’t people ask the truly important questions!)

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.

Club Drosselmeyer Returns This December (Plus Other Puzzle Events!)

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(I know it’s Halloween season, but it’s never too early to look forward to holiday puzzly goodness for later in the year!)

If you’re a puzzle fan, you’re absolutely spoiled for choice when it comes to puzzly events to explore. Crossword tournaments, treasure hunts, escape rooms, puzzles by mail, puzzles by email, puzzles on your phone.

But I guarantee you’ve never experienced anything like Club Drosselmeyer.

Imagine getting all gussied up in your best 1940s-appropriate garb and grabbing your tickets before heading out to a show in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

What kind of show, you ask? Well, a vaudeville-style variety show with live music, enchanting and exciting performances, and all sorts of mysteries and intrigue playing out before your eyes, all set during the heady days and nights of World War II.

And what if there was an elaborate puzzle hunt tying the entire show together?

In a nutshell, that’s a Club Drosselmeyer event.

And tickets are available this Thursday for their latest immersive show!

There are performances set for December 4th, 5th, & 6th AND December 10th, 11th, 12th, & 13th for a two-hour whirlwind of puzzly theatricality. As the organizers themselves say, “Prepare yourself for another season of magic and mayhem, romance and revelry, champagne and sugarplums.”

Although I’ve never gotten to attend a Club Drosselmeyer event in person, a few years ago I participated in their virtual Club Drosselmeyer Interactive Radio Broadcast of 1943, and it remains one of my all-time favorite puzzle experiences.

I enjoyed two hours of wonderful music while tracking a rogue flying toaster, unraveling a criminal conspiracy during an air raid, decoding secret messages, helping a starlet choose the right lipstick for her show, and even performing a magic trick!

Club Drosselmeyer is run by a small and incredibly dedicated group of writers, performers, puzzlers, and musicians who put their all into this event every single year, and I simply cannot sing their praises loud enough.

But if you can’t wait for December…

Our friends at Club Drosselmeyer have cordially invited you to a wedding!

Back in April, I helped spread the word about The Wedding Party, an interactive puzzle experience that ran in Boston through the summer.

And it’s been extended (again)! The Wedding Party will be running in October and November as well!

That’s so many new opportunities to check out this delightful “playable theater” experience.

It seems our good friends, Jack and Norah, are finally getting married. You know Jack and Norah, right? Of course you do, EVERYBODY knows Jack and Norah! They both work at Harmonics Inc. (Not the game studio, the global telecom services company founded by the Lane family. Right, that one.) Their reception will be at the W Boston Hotel downtown. They’re thrilled that you’re coming and we’re absolutely certain it will be an entirely normal wedding with absolutely no surprises at all.

…

The Wedding Party will have all of the Drossely craziness that you love but set in 2026 — and with dinner! This wedding will have it all: wonderful food, champagne and custom cocktails, decorations, a charming bridal party, spies, puzzles, intrigue… all the best things of a totally regular normal-person wedding.

Who doesn’t love a wedding with all the pomp and circumstance and spies and secret plots and potentially world-endangering threats?

You know, wedding stuff!

Nope, we’re STILL not done with puzzly Drosselmeyer promotions!

Blood Hunt is a comedy vampire bar crawl on Halloween night in Malden, Massachusetts! It’s What We Do in the Shadows with a puzzle hunt twist, loaded with fun characters, good drinks, and silly, spooky fun.

Check out the pitch:

You are newly turned. Freshly fanged. Tragically immortal. And before dawn, you must pass trials administered by the most unhinged elders the undead world has to offer. You and your coterie have until dawn to prove yourself worthy of the ancient vampire council — four locations, each with trials and elders who have survived plagues and empires and are somehow most annoyed by you specifically.

Can you endure all four stops and prove your vampiric value?

Click here for tickets and more details on the event!

Will you be attending any of these delightful immersive puzzly experiences, fellow solvers? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.

Puzzly Events in the Boston Area This Summer!

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Back in April, I helped spread the word about The Wedding Party, an interactive puzzle experience running in Boston from May to the middle of June.

It’s hosted by our friends at Club Drosselmeyer, who are amazing performers, puzzlers, and event planners who have been branching out in recent years to great success!

And I’m excited to share that The Wedding Party will be running additional Fridays and Saturdays through August 1st!

That’s so many new opportunities to check out this delightful “playable theater” experience. Who doesn’t love a wedding with all the pomp and circumstance and spies and secret plots and potentially world-endangering threats?

You know, wedding stuff!

And that’s not all! If you’re in the Boston area, you’re absolutely spoiled for puzzly choices this summer!

You can add a little exercise and exploration to your puzzling with The Big Dig Treasure Hunt from The Massachusetts Mysteries!

On Saturday, June 13th and Saturday, July 18th, The Big Dig Treasure Hunt challenges you (and a couple of teammates) to walk through Downtown Boston, solving puzzles for a few hours.

Stephanie Yang (who created some of the puzzles for The Wedding Party) has masterminded this event, and as someone who has participated in The Great Urban Race and similar city-based puzzly challenges, this one sounds like a winner!

Click here for more details and ticket information.

And for Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts or puzzle fans who enjoy a pint with their adventuring, Incantrix Productions is hosting a D&D-inspired bar crawl in Malden, Massachusetts!

Choose your class, interact with guild members, help them solve problems, and enjoy a few drinks along the way! It’s a casual D&D LARP-style event that sounds like a great time for longtime RPG fans AND a marvelous way to introduce new players to roleplaying in a fun setting!

As the organizers say on Eventbrite: “You’ll solve puzzles, make choices, drink potions, argue philosophy, and possibly die.”

What more could you ask from a pub crawl?

Will you be attending any of these amazing events, fellow puzzlers? Is there an event near you that you’d like to see featured on PuzzCulture? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.

Club Drosselmeyer Invites You to a Wedding!

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There are all sorts of immersive puzzly experiences available these days. Crossword tournaments, treasure hunts, escape rooms, puzzles by mail, puzzles by email, puzzles on your phone…

But nothing mixes music, art, showmanship, and puzzles quite like a Club Drosselmeyer event.

Although they’re best known for their holiday puzzle events set in the early 1940s during World War II, they’ve recently begun branching out with other themes. Last year, they hosted a Cthulhu-inspired luau event.

And this year, they’ve invited us all to the wedding of Jack and Norah:

It seems our good friends, Jack and Norah, are finally getting married. You know Jack and Norah, right? Of course you do, EVERYBODY knows Jack and Norah! They both work at Harmonics Inc. (Not the game studio, the global telecom services company founded by the Lane family. Right, that one.) Their reception will be at the W Boston Hotel downtown. They’re thrilled that you’re coming and we’re absolutely certain it will be an entirely normal wedding with absolutely no surprises at all.

…

The Wedding Party will have all of the Drossely, Luau-ey craziness that you love but set in 2026 — and with dinner! This wedding will have it all: wonderful food, champagne and custom cocktails, decorations, a charming bridal party, spies, puzzles, intrigue… all the best things of a totally regular normal-person wedding.

Unlike traditional Drosselmeyer shows, which are often limited to a few select weekends, The Wedding Party will run from May 1st through June 14th! You’ll have tons of chances to nab tickets for a singularly lovely puzzly event. And you can play with a group of up to six people.

It will be hosted at the W Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts in collaboration with Toronto’s Secret City Productions, and you can click here for tickets and all the details!

I cannot say enough good things about the Club Drosselmeyer team. They’re not just great puzzle designers, they put so much into the aesthetics of the event, adding music and performances and a thousand little trappings that bring their fictional world to life for guests.

A few years ago I participated in their virtual Club Drosselmeyer Interactive Radio Broadcast of 1943, and it remains one of my all-time favorite puzzle experiences.

I have no doubt The Wedding Party will be another success for this amazing team. Give them a chance, you won’t be disappointed.

Club Drosselmeyer 1941 is Coming!

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(I know it’s Halloween season, but it’s never too early to look forward to holiday puzzly goodness for later in the year!)

If you’re a puzzle fan, you’re absolutely spoiled for choice when it comes to puzzly events to explore. Crossword tournaments, treasure hunts, escape rooms, puzzles by mail, puzzles by email, puzzles on your phone.

But I guarantee you’ve never experienced anything like Club Drosselmeyer.

Imagine getting all gussied up in your best 1940s-era-appropriate garb and grabbing your tickets before heading out to a show in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

What kind of show, you ask? Well, a vaudeville-style variety show with live music, enchanting and exciting performances, and all sorts of mysteries and intrigue playing out before your eyes, all set during the heady days and nights of World War II.

And what if there was an elaborate puzzle hunt tying the entire event together?

In a nutshell, that’s a Club Drosselmeyer event.

And tickets are on sale now for their latest immersive show!

There are performances set for December 5th, 6th, 7th AND December 12th, 13th, and 14th for a two-hour whirlwind of puzzly theatricality. As the organizers themselves say, “Prepare yourself for another season of magic and mayhem, romance and revelry, champagne and sugarplums.”

Although I’ve never gotten to attend a Club Drosselmeyer event in person, a few years ago I participated in their virtual Club Drosselmeyer Interactive Radio Broadcast of 1943, and it remains one of my all-time favorite puzzle experiences.

I enjoyed two hours of wonderful music while tracking a rogue flying toaster, unraveling a criminal conspiracy during an air raid, decoding secret messages, helping a starlet choose the right lipstick for her show, and even performing a magic trick!

Club Drosselmeyer is run by a small and incredibly dedicated group of writers, performers, puzzlers, and musicians who put their all into this event every single year, and I simply cannot sing their praises loud enough.

Check out their website for more details and information on previous Club Drosselmeyer events. You will not be disappointed.

A Summer Camp for Games?

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Hey, are you in the Boston area and looking for the perfect summer activity for the young game designers in your life?

You should check out the Dice and Design Games Summer Camp in Belmont, MA!

This summertime gaming festival of fun is the creation of Caro Murphy, an award-winning game designer who not only founded the Boston Festival of Indie Games, but has lectured on game design at the university level and contributed heavily to Disney’s Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser interactive experience and Club Drosselmeyer events like this year’s Cthulhu Luau!

They’ve put together a five-day program to teach kids about game design and help them create their own card games, board games, roleplaying games, or LARPs, whatever interests them!

With morning and afternoon sessions to choose from, this seems like an awesome way to get the youngsters in your life started on a lifelong journey of game creating, appreciating, and collaborating.

Go to diceanddesign.com for more details on this event. (Thank you to the team at Club Drosselmeyer for spreading the word!)

Do you know of any other kid-friendly puzzly or game-fueled events happening this summer, fellow puzzlers? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.