We’ve got two quick updates for you today from the world of crosswords. And both of them involve opportunities for you to get out there and show off your cruciverbalist talents!
On Monday night’s Boswords broadcast, Will Shortz joined Andrew Kingsley and John Lieb to announce some changes for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
In 2026, the ACPT will be held at the Stamford Marriott, possibly for the last time.
No, worry not, the ACPT is still going strong. So strong, in fact, that it will be moving to Philadelphia for the 2027 tournament! The new space will be able to accommodate up to 1,250 solvers.
It’s a sad moment for Stamford, but not entirely unexpected. Attendance has been pushing the Marriott’s limits for years, and registration for this year’s tournament closed more than a month early because of high demand.
It’s also not the first time Stamford has said goodbye to the tournament. From 2008 until its return in 2015, the ACPT was held outside Stamford.
You can check out the full announcement here:
Will Shortz joined us on our Boswords broadcast tonight to share news about a future location for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT). You can watch the interview at https://t.co/b2iKNr7ExMpic.twitter.com/8Uv6oq6Hz0
Overall, I think this is a great move for the tournament. There’s greater opportunity to attend the tournament, plus a ballroom space fit for voracious solvers of all ages.
I can’t wait to see what 2016 and 2017 bring for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
Remember that registration opens on January 1st for former contestants and on January 8th for rookies!
Reminder: Puzzmo Open Submission Week is Fast Approaching!
From the mecca of in-person crossword solving to one of its most ambitious and welcoming online platforms, we move from one impactful puzzly institution to another that has very quickly made its mark on the world of puzzles.
Puzzmo is holding their next Crossword Open Submission Week from December 29th to January 5th, 2026, with new and established constructors all welcome to submit their puzzly creations.
Themed and themeless puzzles are welcome, as long as they fit Puzzmo’s specs, and the Puzzmo team has created an impressively thorough document to assist aspiring constructors with their efforts. Grid specs, examples of previously published puzzles, and more await anyone hoping to see their work pop up on Puzzmo.
It’s a very cool opportunity to test your puzzly mettle in a creative space known for strong crossword fundamentals as well as playfulness with language and themes (particularly their signature “apt pairs”).
I would highly recommend checking out Puzzmo, whether you’re planning to submit puzzles or not. The minis, midis, and big crosswords are all great fun to solve, and new constructors are bound to learn a thing or two from the terrific names on Puzzmo’s roster of puzzlesmiths.
Will you be attending next year’s ACPT or submitting to this year’s Puzzmo Open Submission Week? Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ve no doubt noticed that one of our favorite topics is puzzle-solving animals. In the past, we’ve discussed examples of puzzle solving in cats, dogs, crows, cockatoos, octopuses,bees, pigs, and squirrels.
European green crabs are an invasive species in both British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest of the US, and locals have been setting up baited traps to capture them.
But in one particular area — the Haíɫzaqv Nation of British Columbia — they noticed traps broken into and damaged by a mysterious thief, who had been making off with the bait intended for those crabs. This happened not only to traps closer to the surface, but to deeply submerged traps as well.
This had been going on since 2023, so naturally, they set up remote cameras to finally solve the mystery and identify the culprit.
You can imagine their surprise when the cameras revealed a wolf swimming out of the water with a crab trap in tow!
The wolf then manipulated the trap until it could get the bait from the bait cup. The entire operation took only three minutes! That’s Ocean’s Eleven-style efficiency.
Now, is this just a matter of wolves observing humans and replicating the action?
Did the wolves observe the traps at low tide and come back for them at high tide, remembering their positions even while submerged?
Is this as simple as wolves being like dogs and loving nothing more than yanking on a rope toy and seeing what happens?
Or is this deduction, where a wolf sees a rope connected to a buoy and deduces there is something to be found underwater connected to that rope?
Today is a day for family and friends, for celebrating togetherness, for appreciating good fortune, health, and happiness. And we here at PuzzCulture are so so grateful for each and every reader and solver.
Whether you’re a puzzler or a gamer, a casual solver or a diehard devotee of all things puzzly, you can rest assured you are a welcome member of a very eclectic, charming, and downright likable community of puzzly people. =)
And so, in the spirit of giving thanks, I’ve cooked up a puzzle for my fellow puzzlers on this delightful Turkey Day.
I call this What’s Leftovers?
Following the instructions, cross off words in the diagram. When you are finished, the remaining words will form a message reading left to right, line by line. Some words may be eliminated by more than one of the instructions.
Cross off all words that name family members.
Cross off all NFL teams playing Thanksgiving games.
Cross off all words that name parts of Thanksgiving dinner.
Cross off all words that name types of pie.
Cross off all words that rhyme with FORK.
Cross off all words that name ways to cook turkey.
Cross off all words that can follow TURKEY in a common phrase.
Cross off all words that are synonyms for HUNGRY.
Cross off all two-letter words in columns A and B.
Cross off all words that are spelled out in the word SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS (like LIDO).
[Click here for a PDF of the puzzle to print and solve.]
The PuzzCulture Holiday Puzzly Gift Guide launches next Tuesday — it would have launched this week, but sadly I’ve been ill AND took a tumble down the stairs, good times.
But, to be fair to all the puzzlers and board game fans in the audience, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a huge, first-time-ever collaboration between a plethora of companies to offer great deals before the holidays.
Running from November 18th to December 1st, you can grab bundles of games as well as brand-new games, miniatures, stuffed animals, enamel pins, roleplaying games, and more!
Seeing this kind of collaboration is so cool, especially after a year where tariffs wreaked absolute havoc with the puzzle and game industry. Hopefully people will enjoy discounts and these companies will do well. It would be fantastic to see the Backerkit Holiday Market return next year.
But how about a little more festive cheer before I go today?
Our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles have put out a free puzzle packet this week in celebration of National Game & Puzzle Week!
I didn’t know it was National Game & Puzzle Week. To be honest, EVERY week around here is Game & Puzzle Week. Who decides these things anyway?
It’s a great mix of art puzzles, deduction puzzles like Logic and Sudoku, plus some of my favorite Penny Press offerings, like What’s Left? and Stretch Letters.
Happy puzzling, playing, shopping, and gaming, everyone!
Thanksgiving is coming soon, and with some time off looming, I’ve got both food and gaming on my mind.
There are plenty of food-fueled board games and card games out there.Just Desserts, Sushi Go!, Devil Bunny Needs a Ham, and Bread Basket (which we just reviewed!) all come to mind, alongside the dozens of food-themed Monopoly games out there.
But I’m a roleplaying game guy at heart, which means my thoughts turn to food-fueled RPGs. Thankfully, there are some choice options there.
Ninja Burger casts you and your fellow players as ninja deliverypersons, with the goal of sneaking into the customer’s house, delivering their food, stealing the correct amount of money from them, and leaving, all without being seen.
It is a riotously good time and one of my all-time favorite RPGs.
The Tasty Lands of Silverplate, on the other hand, isn’t a game on its own. It’s a setting for Dungeons & Dragons, allowing you to create characters made of food to go on adventures. Yes, as one of the foodfolk of Silverplate, you will trudge through mushroom forests and cotton candy swamps while engaging in acts of derring-do.
Silverplate is a terrific setting, welcoming lighthearted and pun-riddled gameplay to your table.
Oh, if you’re looking for food/RPG entertainment, you should definitely check out Dimension 20’s campaign A Crown of Candy on Dropout, which is Game of Thrones if it took place in the fridge. It has big Silverplate vibes and it is excellent and heartbreaking all at once.
You know, it’s funny that one of my favorite roleplaying games is fast food-related, because there is (as the title of this blog post promised) some unexpected crossover between the worlds of fast food and RPGs.
Oh, I don’t mean roleplaying games ABOUT food. I mean roleplaying games and materials manufactured BY fast food companies.
For instance, on two separate occasions, Arby’s produced a short run of Arby’s-themed roleplaying dice.
The original set was designed with an Arby’s hat at the center of each die, as well as the Arby’s logo for the number 20 spot on the D20. They sold out instantly in 2021, and a restock in 2023 was snapped up equally fast.
The second time around, Arby’s went to the company Norse Foundry, who are known for high-end quality dice, particularly their metal ones, and the newest iteration of Arby’s Dice were the beautiful beefy boys pictured above.
They sold out in less than a day, despite the price jumping from $12 for the 2021/2023 dice to $40 a set for the Norse Foundry dice.
Those dice are impressive to be sure, but not nearly as impressive as the complete, standalone roleplaying game designed for Wendy’s. It was called Feast of Legends.
Feast of Legends sets players in Freshtovia, one of the nations of Beef’s Keep, trying to ward off the impending threat of The Deep Freeze by rival nations with more than a passing resemblance to some other fast food franchises.
By taking up arms and representing organizations like The Order of the Spicy Chicken or The Order of the Sides, players can battle in honor of Queen Wendy and protect the realm from mediocre food and the horrors of freezer burn.
The PDF of the game was released for free, and a limited number of physical copies were produced for New York Comic Con. It was even played as a one-shot by internet actual play juggernaut Critical Role, though some negative press generated by some of the executives at Wendy’s (and through no fault of the hardworking team producing the game), caused the one-shot to be removed from YouTube, hurting the promotion of the game.
Still, Feast of Legends resonated with some RPG fans, and to this day, there’s an active subreddit dedicated to the game. Physical copies of the game are obviously quite rare, so fans were surprised to learn in an Instagram post last year that there are some physical copies in the hands of the game’s creator, Matt Keck.
I reached out to Matt (who was also the absolute wizard behind Wendy’s social media at the time, particularly their Twitter account), and he kindly took some time out to answer my questions about the creation of this unique roleplaying property.
What did the creative process look like? Who had the initial idea for the adventure?
I’m actually the reason it even got made. I worked on the Wendy’s team at the agency VML in Kansas City. My primary work was doing the Twitter jokes/roasts/etc., but I really got to work a little on everything. I love TTRPGs and I wanted to write a Wendy’s module.
When I realized they probably wouldn’t do an official partnership I took it upon myself to write it. I didn’t want too many questions about how we would get it done, so I had written the majority of the finished project before even pitching it. I still have a notebook with old sketches of maps and monsters. I really had all of the classes or Orders built out, the world drawn, and most of the story planned before showing anyone. That made it easy to get it made.
There’s a subreddit dedicated to Feast of Legends that still gets attention from the fan community. Does the game’s longevity surprise you? Were there plans for additional content? (A post from the Wendy’s reddit account suggests there might have been.)
It does and doesn’t surprise me. I had boasted it as a long-term brand play, but just because I say something that doesn’t mean it will always play out that way. I’m pumped any time someone has a good time playing it, or makes their own content for it, or even just tells me they enjoyed reading it. That was truly my passion project on that account, and I can only hope to do more in the space.
There were plans for more content, but after the pushback from the Critical Role episode, future plans got scrapped.
I had a breakfast module ready to go, along with exploring even more of the map. Plans always change, but I would’ve loved to make more in that world.
Is there a piece of lore/worldbuilding or idea of yours in the game that you’re particularly proud of? Or, conversely, one that you can’t believe actually made the cut?
I’ll tell you about one that got cut I loved, and that was the Grimagorgon. He was a two-headed grimace monster, and the first thing the lawyers said no to. My favorite piece isn’t something a lot of people would expect, but anyone who watches my videos will see my partner and friend Paul. In Feast of Legends there is a character named Old Man Paul that I wrote into the book just to roast him. As a good friend does.
As someone who really enjoyed playing Feast of Legends — and totally didn’t print out the PDF in its entirely at work so I could play it that week, no siree bob — it was a joy to talk with Matt about the game. Learning that it was something fun and important to him, and that it was a result of the famous axiom “don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness later” makes it an even more epic endeavor in my eyes.
These creative and unexpected crossovers between fast food and roleplaying games proves there’s an untapped market there, and I wish more companies would make the leap into the RPG realm. (Matt himself said “the card game space is still untapped and wide open. Give me a Secret Lair x Wendy’s.”)
Anyway, I’m hungry. I’m gonna go grab some fries and ponder a Feast of Legends one-shot centered around dipping French fries in Frosties. Perhaps Queen Frostina and Fryderick of House Starch have run off together, and the party must keep them safe, seeking to turn the hearts of those who disapprove of the marriage of Frosties and French Fries!
Will you be indulging in any food-fueled gaming over Thanksgiving, friends? Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you.
In case you somehow didn’t know, Deb is a talented crossword constructor, but these days, she’s better known for her role as the head writer and senior editor of Wordplay, the crossword blog and educational/humor column associated with The New York Times crossword puzzle.
You can read her thoughts in today’s Wordplay column, but please allow me to share a snippet of her thoughts from an accompanying Facebook post:
After more than 4,400 bylines and millions of words, mostly in the right order, I can honestly say that this has been the best job I’ve ever had. I’ve had the honor of working with some of the greatest journalists and editors in the business. It has been a wild ride, and as the great David Carr once advised, I have enjoyed every caper I’ve ever pulled at the company: the Trans-Atlantic cruise, the curling adventure, the rogue Crosswords Live. All of it.
…
Hopefully, after an extended period of drooling on myself to get over the deadlines, I can also continue to be part of the puzzle community in some way, because you all are the kindest, most generous, most funny people I know. Also extremely attractive.
As an ambassador into the world of puzzles, Deb’s warmth and playfulness have been the perfect counterbalance for new and inexperienced solvers to the sometimes daunting prospect of tackling a New York Times crossword. Her columns are always funny, more than a little self-deprecating, and very complimentary to each day’s constructor.
I’ve interacted with Deb a few times over the years. I interviewed her for the blog back in 2020, and we had several friendly conversations at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Her enthusiasm for not just puzzles, but for meeting other puzzle fans, is unmatched, and even during a quick “gotta run!” visit, you come away with a smile.
I’m sad to see her go, but I’m glad to know that she’ll be working on new passion projects, traveling, and leaving the Wordplay column in the very capable hands of Sam Corbin and Caitlin Lovinger.
As one of the public faces of The New York Times Crossword, Deb often found herself the recipient of public feeling toward the crossword. Over the years, she has become rather infamous for reminding people that SHE just writes about the puzzles. “I didn’t do it” has become a catchphrase.
Well, Deb, it was true the vast majority of the time, but allow me to say, when it comes to making puzzles more welcoming and accessible to solvers, you absolutely DID do it.
PuzzCulture 