Tag Archives: get thee to a punnery

Answers to the Punny Costume Challenge!

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Halloween has come and gone, but the creativity and the glorious puns remain.

Before we get into the answers to our latest edition of the Punderful Halloween Costume Game, I want to share a few crossword-themed costumes from over the weekend that we were shared online.

The first was this spooky crossword t-shirt, which solvers filled out at the party!

And it featured lots of Halloween vocabulary, like BOO, TRICK, TREAT, and SCARILY, as well as seasonal cluing! Great job!

The second costume was even more elaborate:

They went as common crossword answers! This jumpsuit made of Halloween grids is loaded with crosswordese and familiar vocabulary in picture form. Can you name them all?

So fun to see people getting into the Halloween spirit in a puzzly way. Nicely done, both of you!

Now let’s check out some other creative costumers as we reveal the punny answers to last week’s game!

#1

It’s Amazon Prime! (Optimus Prime + Amazon)

#2

It’s the Atoms Family!

#3

It’s Halo Kitty! (Hello Kitty + Halo)

#4

It’s Jackie-O-Lantern! (Jack-o’-lantern + Jackie O)

#5

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

#6

She’s a web server!

#7

They’re a pair of nun-chucks!

#8

It’s Netflix and chill!

#9

He’s Radiohead!

#10

It’s Obi-Wayne Kenobi and Garth Vader!

How many did you get? Have you seen any great punny costumes we missed? Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!

A Punny Costume Challenge Full of Tricks and Treats for Halloween!

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Happy (almost) Halloween, fellow puzzlers!

One of the best things about Halloween is guessing what people’s costumes are. Clever costumes can be great fun, and I’m a huge fan of costumes that only cost a few bucks to put together, because they really let your creativity shine through.

Punny costumes lend themselves to the low-budget costume genre brilliantly. So it’s only appropriate that we celebrate Halloween in the puzzliest way possible — by looking at some punny costumes!

It’s simple. I post a picture, and you guess what the costume is.

For example:

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She’s the family breadwinner!

I’ve compiled ten costumes for you to figure out. Some are mashups, some are straightforward puns. Let’s see how many you can get!

PuzzCulture’s Punderful Halloween Costume Game!

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

How many did you get? Have you seen any great punny costumes we missed? Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you. And Happy Halloween!

A Universal Monsters Dance Party Puzzle to Solve!

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With Halloween fast approaching, I couldn’t resist putting together a Logic Puzzle for my fellow solvers to enjoy!

At the yearly monster Halloween party, everyone looks forward to the dance contest the most.

Five classic Universal monsters — Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, The Wolfman, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and The Mummy — have created a routine with a different partner to a different song (one is “Season of the Witch”) with a different Halloween treat afterward (including Dead Velvet Cake).

From the information provided, can you figure out all of the monster pairings (one of the dance partners is The Bride of Frankenstein), as well as each pair’s song and Halloween treat?

  1. Frankenstein’s Monster chose the song “I Put a Spell on You.”
  2. The Wolfman and Mr. Hyde didn’t choose Charlie Brownies as their Halloween treat.
  3. The Phantom of the Opera (who danced to “The Time Warp”) didn’t partner with The Creature From the Black Lagoon.
  4. Dracula (who chose “Black Magic Woman”) didn’t choose The Babadook as a dance partner, but The Babadook enjoyed Boo-Scotti as a Halloween treat.
  5. The Invisible Man’s Halloween treat was the Scare-amel Apples.
  6. The Creature from the Black Lagoon (who didn’t dance to “Thriller”) enjoyed the Black Cat Cookies.

Did you solve the puzzle and pair up these monstrous dance partners? Let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you!

The Secret Wordplay of Spellcasting

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We love a bit of wordplay around here. We get it in riddles, crossword clues, brain teasers, and the simple shameless joy of a well-executed pun.

I’m sure plenty of roleplaying game enthusiasts have encountered puns and wordplay in their travels. Sometimes it’s a funny reference or an offhand remark or even a character’s name that inspires groans or chuckles.

But some folks are unaware that there are puns lurking not just at the D&D table… but in the very mechanics of the game Dungeons & Dragons itself.

One of the interesting aspects of spellcasting in D&D is the inclusion of spell components. These are actual physical materials the character must carry on them and use in order to properly perform a given spell. When combined with verbal cues or physical actions, the material components help the spellcaster summon the magic to life.

Some material components are quite thematically appropriate. You need bat guano and sulfur — two ingredients in gunpowder — to produce Fireball. To cast Lightning Bolt requires either a glass rod or a piece of amber, plus a piece of fur to rub it with… just as you would in a science lab to make static electricity.

A pinch of sand for Sleep, a drop of molasses for Slow, a bit of copper wire for Message.

Looks like another tragic instance of out-sorcery…

But if you look at the material components used for some spells, you can’t help but notice a jokey recurring theme.

For instance, the material component for the spell Detect Thoughts is a copper piece, a coin of small denomination. The spell literally requires a penny for one’s thoughts.

To cast Confusion, it requires three nutshells. You know, like the ones you’d use in a shell game to make them lose track of the pea they’d just bet on.

All sorts of illusion spells require a bit of fleece or wool. Like the wool you pull over someone’s eyes.

To cast Feeblemind, you need a handful of clay, crystal, or glass spheres. Like the marbles you want your target to lose.

Levitate has several options, but one of them is a simple loop of leather. Like the bootstraps you’re expected to pull yourself up by. (Reinforcing the original meaning of that phrase by proving IT’S TOTAL FANTASY TO ACTUALLY DO SO.)

To cast Tongues, you have to smash a small clay tower or ziggurat. You need to symbolically smash the Tower of Babel.

Passwall requires sesame seeds. Open Sesame, anyone?

Rary’s Mnemonic Enhancer gives you the ability to retain additional spells. Its material component is an ivory plaque… because elephants never forget!

Perhaps the silliest is Gust of Wind. It was later changed to require a “tiny leather bellows,” but in different editions of the game, all it requires is a legume seed.

A bean. A bean to give you wind.

I told you earlier that many puns are shameless.

Still, it’s fun to find these little easter eggs tucked away in the D&D rulebook. It shows the playfulness and the level of attention to detail that helps make roleplaying games an immersive escape like none other.

Have you found any wordplay lurking unexpectedly in your games, fellow puzzler? Let me know in the comments section below, I’d love to hear from you!

A Punny Costume Mashup Challenge for Halloween!

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Happy Halloween, puzzlers!

One of the best things about Halloween is guessing what people’s costumes are. Clever costumes can be great fun, and I’m a huge fan of costumes that combine humor and design because they really let your creativity shine through.

Mashup costumes offer ample opportunity to show off (and often require some fun wordplay to figure out), so it’s only appropriate that we celebrate Halloween in the puzzliest way possible — by looking at some punny mashup costumes!

I’ve compiled ten costumes for you to figure out. Let’s see how many you can get!

#1

Image courtesy of TDR1411 on reddit.

#2

Image courtesy of EvolvedLurkermon on reddit.

#3

Image courtesy of Epbot.

#4

Image courtesy of pnuttbuttafly on reddit.

#5

Image courtesy of Maude Garrett.

#6

Images courtesy of lithiumflame on reddit.

#7

Image courtesy of reddit.

#8

Image courtesy of EvolvedLurkermon on reddit.

#9

Image courtesy of amandabomb on reddit.

#10

Image courtesy of Zacch on reddit.

How many did you get? Have you seen any great mashup costumes I missed? Let me know in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from you. And Happy Halloween!

The PN Blog 2021 Countdown!

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2022

It’s the final blog post of the year, so what do you say we revisit all of 2021 with a countdown of my ten favorite blog posts from the past year!

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#10 The Man Who Found Forrest Fenn’s Treasure

One of 2020’s most baffling stories was the announcement that Forrest Fenn’s treasure, a mystery sought by thousands for most of a decade, had been found, but the lucky solver was remaining anonymous. Lawsuits were filed, fraud was claimed, and what should have been the resolution to a great mystery ended up sparking several more.

This year, we finally received some information from the solver himself, and it seemed to resolve those lingering questions and quiet the conspiracy theorists (for the most part, anyway). It seems poetic to start off our countdown with the conclusion of another puzzly endeavor.

littlegirlatgrandmas

#9 Bringing People Back to Puzzles

It’s always disappointing when one bad experience with a new hobby or endeavor spoils an entire world for someone. I’ve seen it happen with puzzles more than once, and I always consider it a privilege to get a second chance at introducing someone to the world of puzzles.

So it was a real treat to write this post and offer some advice to other puzzle fans, helping to equip them when and if the opportunity arose to reintroduce a friend to one of our favorite pastimes.

#8 Holiday Puzzly Gift Guide

Every year, one of my favorite activities is putting together our Holiday Puzzly Gift Guide. I get to include the best products sent to me for review by top puzzle and game companies, mix in some of my own favorites, and draw attention to terrific constructors, game designers, and friends of the blog, all in the hopes of introducing solvers (and families of solvers) to quality puzzles and games.

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#7 First Look: The Case of the Golden Idol

Sometimes, we get to be pioneers, trying out new games, new products, and new puzzles before anybody else, and that’s always a treat.

This time around, not only did we get an early look at an in-progress investigation-style puzzle game, but we brought in a friend of the blog to give it the full review treatment. (We’ve done this in the past with video game and app reviews.) We get to share new voices with our marvelous readership and venture into exciting new puzzly frontiers while we do it.

house-rules

#6 Board Game House Rules

It’s always fun to ask the PN readership to contribute to posts, and this was a fun topic to explore with the readers. We asked for house rules used in popular board games, and the sheer variety and creativity employed by game fans to spice up classic board games made for a terrific blog post and one of our favorite discussions of the entire year.

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#5 5 Questions

Across dozens of interviews over the years, we’ve talked to game designers, pop culture figures, and puzzle luminaries about what makes them tick, and each time, we learn something new about puzzling and those who puzzle.

This year, we focused mostly on folks that were relatively new to puzzles, not only to give them greater exposure, but to get a glimpse of where the world of puzzles is headed in the future. And based on those we had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with, the future of puzzles is very very bright.

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#4 Superman and Crosswords

Puzzles are lurking anywhere and everywhere in popular culture if you know where to look. Often I find them in television shows, mystery novels, odd historical moments, and many other places, and I thoroughly enjoy chronicling those experiences for the readership.

And one of the highlights of the year for me was discovering an old Superman radio show adventure where he literally had to solve crosswords in order to save Lois Lane and stop the bad guys. It was silly and delightful all at once, providing yet another example of how puzzles find their way into all aspects of life.

bad puns

#3 Puns

Puns come in all shapes and sizes, running the gamut from clever and hilarious to shameless and groan-inducing. So it was long overdue to write a post discussing the role of puns in puzzles and defending puns from some of their many detractors.

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#2 Ten Years

We marked ten years of PuzzleNation this year, and to get to celebrate that milestone with our loyal fellow solvers was absolutely a high point of the year.

We delved behind the curtain for a brief history of the company, and released a special puzzle pack for readers to enjoy.

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#1 Fairness and Accessibility

Throughout the year, we discussed efforts to make puzzles more inclusive and accessible than ever. More women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community are constructing than ever before, and we happily contributed to the discussion of fairness in puzzles wherever possible.

One of my favorite posts on the topic this year was our dissection of the concept of “the average solver,” and pointing out how this concept can be helpful or hurtful, depending on how it’s employed. We received a lot of great feedback and some very kind words of support on these posts, and it was incredibly worthwhile to participate in these discussions with our fellow puzzlers.

Thanks for spending 2021 with us, through brain teasers and big ideas, through treasure hunts and trips to the past, through puzzle launches and landmark moments. We’ll see you in 2022.

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