Tag Archives: TableTop

A Horror Game For Every Day of October!

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It’s officially time for all things spooky, scary, terror-inducing, and horror-fueled to take over for a whole month, and that should include your games! So I’ve assembled a list of 31 games fit for the season. Some are silly, some are tense, but all fit the Halloween vibe nicely.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the list!

OCTOBER 1: Betrayal at the House on the Hill

Let’s get a classic out of the way first. This game is loaded with various storylines to keep you spooked for hours on end, and its ever-shifting game board makes every play great fun. Controversial take: The Scooby Doo edition is the superior edition.

OCTOBER 2: Cult Following

Looking for a party game with a sinister twist? Look no further than Cult Following, the card game where you try to build the best cult and pitch it to your fellow players in the hopes of winning their hearts, minds, and unending loyalty. This is definitely on the sillier side, but the cult gimmick makes it perfectly Halloween-appropriate.

OCTOBER 3: Dead of Winter

If you’re looking for tension, high stakes, cooperative gaming, and the potential for self-serving surprises, it’s hard to beat Dead of Winter. The players are trying to survive the zombie apocalypse, but each player also has their own agenda (which might not always align with the group’s interests). This is an awesome game with plenty of replay value.

OCTOBER 4: Horrified

More family friendly than some other spooky games, Horrified is a good way to balance scares and good times. In this cooperative game, your group of heroes is pitted against some of the classic Universal movie monsters like The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolfman, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. You must work together to complete specific tasks in order to defeat the monsters. (There are loads of different versions. My current favorite is the American Monsters edition!)

OCTOBER 5: There’s Been a Murder

In this card game that’s quick to learn but harder to master, there’s a murder to be solved, and every card can help or hinder the investigation, depending on your motives. Will you help the Detective solve the crime, or will the Murderer dispatch the Witness and get away scot-free? This is a murder mystery condensed into a card game, and it’s brilliantly done.

OCTOBER 6: Werewolf

With the full moon, how could I not put this here? This is a classic social deduction game where a group of townsfolk are trying to find the werewolf in their midst. A great party game with very little prep, it’s always a winner. (For similar gameplay but different story trappings, check out Salem 1692 and Are You the Robot?)

OCTOBER 7: So You’ve Been Eaten

This is more sci-fi than horror, but I think the concept still fits the bill. You’re a miner inside the body of a giant space beast, and you’re trying to get your crystals before the beast’s bacteria turn you into so much bodily detritus. This game can be played with 1 player (as the beast or the miner) or with 2 players (the beast versus the miner), and it’s a peculiar mix of sci-fi horror and strategy.

OCTOBER 8: Dread

Ever play a scary game with your friends involving nothing but imagination and a Jenga tower? That’s the brilliant concept behind Dread, a horror roleplaying game where your choices lead you to pulling blocks from the tower, and if it falls, you die! With all sorts of scenarios to play, Dread is a new game every time you play. A perfect introduction to roleplaying games for anyone.

OCTOBER 9: Ghost Stories

The players take on the roles of Taoist priests protecting village from ghosts. This feels like a Halloween-fueled variation on Castle Panic!, given both the difficulty of the game and the relentless waves of spirits to defeat. But it’s a great time and one of the best cooperative horror games out there.

October 10: Ten Candles

Easily the bleakest game on the list, Ten Candles is a game about the secrets we keep until the end. This collaborative storytelling game after trying to endure as long as the candlelight lasts. It’s fantastically dark and makes you appreciate every single moment.

OCTOBER 11: Psychic Pizza Deliverers Go to Ghost Town

What if 20 Questions, but about psychics delivering pizza while battling ghosts? That’s the insanely creative idea behind Psychic Pizza Deliverers Go to Ghost Town. One player (the Mayor) builds the town and challenges the other players (the aforementioned Psychic Pizza Deliverers) to find a pizza and deliver it to the proper house in 20 turns or fewer. It’s bonkers, but with the right group, it’s so so fun.

OCTOBER 12: Welcome to Night Vale RPG

If you’re not paranoid or horrified enough yet, this is the perfect game to put you over the top. A roleplaying game set in the town from the wonderful titular podcast, Welcome to Night Vale RPG gives you eldritch horrors, governmental conspiracies, and all the weird your brain can handle. Fun and scary in equal parts, this is great stuff.

OCTOBER 13: Call of Cthulhu RPG

If you’re looking for mind-shredding scares and sanity-challenging evils, Call of Cthulhu has been the champion of the genre for decades. Based on H.P. Lovecraft’s legendary mythos, Call of Cthulhu has very human, very mortal characters dealing with unknowable cosmic horrors. Tension runs rampant in this game, so be warned.

OCTOBER 14: Terror Below

Ever wanted to test your mettle in a Tremors-style scenario? Terror Below is where it’s at. Featuring tense gameplay, beautiful design (especially the minis), and all the giant worms you’ll ever need, Terror Below is an underappreciated gem.

OCTOBER 15: Nyctophobia

There’s perhaps no fear more primal than the fear of the dark, and Nyctophobia uses that to its advantage, plunging all but one player into darkness. (Blackout glasses are provided for the players.) The now-blind players must try to escape a dark forest, while the one player who can see stalks them, removing them from the game one by one. When properly executed, there’s no board game more immersive and scary than this one.

OCTOBER 16: Float from the Deep

You’re lost at sea, with untrustworthy people on the raft with you, and strange terrors lurking in the deep below. Can you make it to the island in the distance before your fellow players betray you, you drown in the unforgiving waters, or something drags you into the briny deep? This survival game (that could be cooperative, depending on the cards) might start a fight at the table, but it’s gonna be one heck of a game night.

OCTOBER 17: Don’t Go In There

You know how kids are with haunted houses? They wander in, they get haunted by ghosts, and they desperately try to get out alive. This is definitely on the less-spooky end of the selections in today’s list (and one of the shortest to play), but it is still a good time and worthy of a spin at your table, especially with newer players.

OCTOBER 18: The Faceless

In this game that feels like Stranger Things but with magnets instead of powers, you must navigate your group around the board, following a compass’s directions, manipulating it with cards and the magnetic figures around the board. Part-strategy game, part-scary hunt for your friend’s lost memories, The Faceless is a unique experience.

OCTOBER 19: Nemesis

This is, hands down, the best way to play the movie Alien with your friends. Aboard a deteriorating ship, overrun with alien monsters, you can only trust your skills and your fellow crewmates… despite their own agendas. Oh, and the longer the game takes, the stronger the monsters become.

OCTOBER 20: The Night Cage

The light is fading. The tunnel behind you looks different than it did before. There’s something in the dark, and it’s getting closer. The Night Cage is brilliantly anxiety-inducing, so challenging and scary and atmospheric. I cannot say enough good things about this game.

OCTOBER 21: Arkham Horror

During the Roaring Twenties, you and your fellow investigators must hunt monsters and prevent one of the Old Ones, a great cosmic evil, from being released and dooming the world to insanity and darkness. This cooperative game puts a little bit more of an action-y spin on the Lovecraftian horror genre, but it’s still an engaging horrorshow of an experience.

OCTOBER 22: Mysterium

Nothing makes a game atmospheric like a murder to solve, and Mysterium goes way beyond Clue by having players work together to find the murderer. But there’s a twist, as one of the players is a ghost, and cannot speak. Instead, they offer visual clues to all of the other players, who are psychic mediums. The mix of clever communication and immersive storytelling makes this an excellent choice for a macabre night of gameplay and murder-solving.

OCTOBER 23: The Thing

It’s hard to make a board game capture the tension and paranoia of an all-time classic horror movie, but man, The Thing does one hell of a job translating the creeping terror of that isolated polar station at your table. Can you figure out which player is the creature before it’s too late?

OCTOBER 24: Grave Robbers from Outer Space

I love movie-based games that break the fourth wall, and this game hits all the high notes for that genre of gameplay. You are the producer of a B-grade monster or slasher movie, sending monsters or villains to attack the movies behind made by your fellow players. It’s meta in the best way, and a really good time.

OCTOBER 25: Sub Terra

Some horror scenarios are very simple and terribly effective, and this is one of them. In this cooperative game, you’re a group of cavers exploring a network of subterranean tunnels, and you’re trying to find your way out with diminishing light and resources. This tile-laying game is brilliantly claustrophobic and will get your heart pumping!

OCTOBER 26: Dead Man’s Cabal

Sometimes it’s hard to gather friends and loved ones for a party. Well, in Dead Man’s Cabal, that’s not a problem, since you can simply raise the dead and make them attend your party! As players compete to gather the most undead partygoers for their event, they can affect not only which guests arrive for their party, but the queue for other players’ resurrected guests as well. The dark tongue-in-cheek humor of the game only enhances the experience, making for a raucous and ridiculous time for all involved.

OCTOBER 27: Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG

If you want scares and monster-slaying, wrapped in a story-fueled package, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG is the perfect way to get it. Told like a season of the show, you get to build your character’s strengths and flaws, battle the forces of evil, and maybe trigger a plot twist or two along the way. This is a top-5 roleplaying game for me. Do yourself a favor, grab some friends, and try it out.

OCTOBER 28: Mansions of Madness

Can you survive a Lovecraftian horror in a mansion? That’s the question posed by this app-assisted game that will have you in knots for hours. With numerous scenarios and game pieces to choose from, this hits a lot of the same checkmarks as Betrayal, but with a decidedly more sinister vibe. Plan your whole night around this one.

OCTOBER 29: Gloom (or Gloomier)

If you’re looking for a darkly fun game with shades of The Addams Family or Edward Gorey, then Gloom is the game for you. In Gloom, each player is the head of a spooky family, and it’s your job to make them miserable in hilariously ghastly ways before they croak. And as you do so, you regale your fellow players with the ongoing tragic tale of their fates. The gameplay is accentuated by the beautiful clear playing cards, which allow you to stack different events and effects on your family characters and still be able to see what’s going on!

OCTOBER 30: The Doom That Came to Atlantic City

Have you ever wanted to play Monopoly but steeped in APOCALYPTIC MALICE instead of greed? Good! In this game, you crush houses to claim properties, play Chants (instead of Chance) cards, and basically try to be the best doomsday cultist at the table, summoning your monstrous god to end the world before the other players can. It’s tongue-in-cheek and great fun.

OCTOBER 31: Endangered Orphans of Condyle Cove

Here is my all-time favorite spooky game. Everyone plays orphans visiting all the creepiest places in town, hoping to be the last one standing before the boogeyman gets you. It’s so gloriously dark and creepy and an incredibly good time. This one might be hard to find, but it’s so worth it.

Will any of these games be haunting your Halloween game tables, fellow players? Or is there a spooky favorite of yours that I missed? Let me know in the comments below!

Answers to our International Tabletop Day Puzzle (Plus a Special Offer!)

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a story to die for box

Before we start with today’s blog post, we’ve got a special offer for you from the puzzly folks at ThinkFun!

Have you checked out our reviews of their new unsolved crime series of puzzle games? In Cold Case, you’re tasked with going through the evidence and solving the case!

There are two editions of Cold Case; A Story to Die For is available for preorder now, and A Pinch of Murder will be available for preorder on June 14th!

And if you click this link and use the promo code 20COLDCASE, you’ll get the puzzle game for 20% off!

Enjoy!

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Last week, we celebrated International Tabletop Day with some puzzly recommendations, suggestions, and an anagram mix-and-match puzzle, all in the spirit of celebrating gathering with friends and loved ones — in person or virtually — to play games together.

The challenge was to unscramble the names of famous board game characters from the entries on the left, and then match them up with the correct board game from the list on the right.

We’re sure you managed to unravel all those jumbled phrases, but just in case, let’s take a look at the solution.

First, let’s look at the anagrams.

  • Resist Clams = Miss Scarlet
  • Screenplay Bunching = Rich Uncle Pennybags
  • Niceness Fir Sport = Princess Frostine
  • I, Hyphen Pro = Henry Hippo
  • Air Ma = Maria
  • AI Zag Rug = Gigazaur
  • Cam Sat Ivy = Cavity Sam
  • Be Brother = The Robber

And now, for a splash of color, here is the solution for the matching portion of the puzzle.

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How did you do with the puzzle? Did you enjoy International Tabletop Day? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.

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Have you checked out our special summer deals yet? You can find them on the Home Screen for Daily POP Crosswords and Daily POP Word Search! Check them out!

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It’s International Tabletop Day!

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It’s International Tabletop Day!

Whether you play board games, role-playing games, card games, dice games, puzzles, or logic games, this is the holiday for you, family, and friends to come together and enjoy games.

So, to celebrate, we’ve got a grab-bag of different ideas for you today. Want to learn more about games through video playthroughs? We’ve got you covered. Want to solve a Mix and Match puzzle all about games? We’ve got you covered. Want to play something similar to Monopoly that’s not Monopoly? We’ve got you covered.

Please enjoy this somewhat chaotic sampling of board game-themed goodness in honor of Tabletop Day!

monopoly

Monopoly is the most famous board game in history. We really can’t discuss the topic of board games without mentioning Monopoly.

But Monopoly has its issues. It takes a long time to play, and if you fall behind, it’s incredibly difficult to catch up. Plus, if you get eliminated, it’s not fun to watch other people keep going.

So what do you do if you like some of the game mechanics in Monopoly but not the total package? Easy! Use our handy-dandy guide to find other games that do part (or ALL) of Monopoly better than Monopoly!

Maybe you enjoy buying property and building it up with enhancements and making money with it. That’s great. You should check out Lords of Vegas.

It’s a casino-building game set in the early days of Las Vegas. It’s got play money, dice, all sorts of strategy, plus a gambling mechanic where you can make up for monetary shortfalls. It’s a brilliant game and so so much fun.

Maybe it’s collecting valuable cards, negotiating and trading with other players that you enjoy most about Monopoly. Terrific! You should try Sheriff of Nottingham.

In Sheriff of Nottingham, players collect cards with different goods to take to market — apples, chickens, bread, and cheese — as well as cards of contraband items (like spices, mead, and weapons). Each turn, one player is the Sheriff, trying to stop the other players from sneaking contraband into the market. So you can bluff, or bribe, or try to sneak goods past the Sheriff, or just play it straight with regular goods.

The game allows for trading, cutting deals, being sneaky, and bonuses for being the person with the most of certain goods (apples, for instance) at the market. It’s so much fun, and allows for lots of fun interaction throughout the game, since nobody is ever eliminated.

Do you like completing colored sets of items? Outmaneuvering other players? Claiming valuable property that other players want? Pretty much everything involved in Monopoly is also part of Ticket to Ride.

In Ticket to Ride, players collect cards and play train cards on a map in order to complete different train routes to earn points. Not only can you score by completing those routes under your banner, but you gain bonus points if you can connect distant locations through your railways.

It covers a lot of the strategy and craftiness that made Monopoly famous, but in a sleeker, quicker package.

Oh, and if you want a totally off-the-walls Monopoly-inspired game, there’s always The Doom That Came to Atlantic City.

In this game, you crush houses to claim properties, play Chants (instead of Chance) cards, and basically try to be the best doomsday cultist at the table, summoning your monstrous god to end the world before the other players can.

It’s delightfully tongue-in-cheek, great fun, and a hilarious inversion of a lot of classic Monopoly tropes. I highly recommend it.

Oh, were you looking for some great video content? We’ve got you covered!

If you’re looking for great recommendations and playthroughs of games that your family will love — like Sushi Go, Codenames, Tak, or Takenoko — Girls’ Game Shelf is one of my favorite YouTube channels. The hosts (Kiki and AnnaMaria) are brilliant and insightful, the players are hilarious, and the game choices are topnotch.

It’s been a few months since they’ve uploaded, but there’s a load of terrific content already waiting for you there. Check out Girls’ Game Shelf!

And for slightly less-family friendly — but still fantastic — fare, No Rolls Barred‘s game playthroughs are uproariously funny. Whether they’re bickering over Telestrations, betraying and misleading each other in epic-length games of Blood on the Clocktower, or simply pitching insane products with Snake Oil, their videos are incredibly entertaining.

Plus the channel has top ten lists of games by genre or play-style, skits, and glimpses of game history. They recently passed 50,000 subscribers on YouTube, and their content keeps getting better. Check them out!

Yes, it’s a puzzle on International Tabletop Day. Hey, we’re PuzzleNation, we’ve got to include some puzzly fun, don’t we?

Today, we’ve got a Mix and Match puzzle for you. Can you anagram these phrases into the names of characters from famous board games, and then match them up with their board game?

How are you celebrating International Tabletop Day? Let us know in the comment section below! We’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

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International Tabletop Day Is Next Week!

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Over the last 18 months or so, an uncountable number of events had to be cancelled or postponed due to safety restrictions. Everyone knows someone whose wedding or graduation or vacation was affected by the pandemic. Major holidays were disrupted.

As more people across the country are fully vaccinated and things start to open up, people are naturally starting to plan get-togethers with those they haven’t seen and share communal experiences denied to them over the last year.

For puzzle and game fans, the same is true, as folks all over are gearing up for this year’s International Tabletop Day.

International-Tabletop-Day

As long-time readers of the blog know, International Tabletop Day is one of the highlights of the puzzle/game calendar, especially around here. We usually celebrate with an open game session with tons of games to try, snacks and game-themed treats, and more.

There was some controversy back in 2019 regarding when to actually celebrate Tabletop Day. It had been celebrated at the end of April for years, but then the official creators “moved” the date to June 1st, so there is a little bit of debate regarding when to celebrate this year’s game-fueled event.

But whether you’re celebrating on May 29th or June 1st (or any other date that suits you), we’ve got plenty of suggestions for how to enjoy the day, no matter what your circumstances!

In Person

If you’re gathering a small group of like-minded vaccinated chums for Tabletop Day fun, there’s plenty you can do:

  • Host a short game tournament and crown the winner King/Queen/Non-Binary Ruler of Tabletop Day
  • Have people dress up as favorite games or game characters
  • Have secret game-related rules for people to follow, like not being allowed to say certain words or trying to accomplish certain tasks (stealing a candlestick, referencing Clue, for instance)
  • Create specialized Bingo cards with games or rules or inside jokes to cross off as they happen, and have some small prize for people who get Bingo
  • Refresh with old classics OR break out something new from your stash that you’ve been desperate to play for months

[Image from Stranger Things courtesy of The Verge.]

At Home

If you’re trying to keep things mellow but still enjoy the day, here are some suggestions for the game fans in your household:

  • Play a communal storytelling game where the story goes around to each player and you have to build on what other players have said before. You can even add a twist to it with cards to play that add story elements, settings, and other weird obstacles to incorporate into the story at a moment’s notice.
  • Use Candyland as a guide, but each of the different colored spaces represents cards to draw or tasks to complete or other neat personalized challenges or prizes!
  • Try to kitbash together two games and make up new rules on the spot, and play your new hybrid game to see how it works! You’d be surprised how a few new twists can bring new life to old classics that have grown a little stale
  • In the same vein, make up your own game by playing 1000 Blank White Cards! (The link suggests everyone submit 5 cards, but I prefer that everyone submit as many cards as they can think of!)

no rolls barred

[Image courtesy of No Rolls Barred.]

Virtual

Maybe you’re still hesitant to gather together to celebrate. No problem! There are some terrific virtual options for you, no matter how you connect online with friends and family:

  • Writing games where you need to compare answers (like Scattergories or Hive Mind) are perfect for this sort of interaction, because all you need is some paper and something to write with!
  • Trivia Night! There are tons of ways to do this, either by having someone write the trivia, or use pre-set trivia games or websites, or even log into an app like Kahoot and have everyone virtually compete in the same online quizzes.
  • Play a social deduction game like Mafia or Werewolf by having one person run the game and assign players their rolls! This requires some coordination (and a willingness by players to shut their eyes and adhere to the rules), but it can be great fun if you pull it off!
  • Sign up for virtual board game spaces like Board Game Arena to communally play virtual versions of your favorites. (Also, there are tons of online versions of games as varied as Telestrations, Wits & Wagers, Uno, Secret Hitler, and many many more if you’re willing to search for them! All you need is one person to share their screen and run the game for you, and you’re in!)

horse race puzzle

One game that quickly became a favorite in our virtual office game group is Dobbins or Bobbins, a DIY parlor game that is huge fun.

Essentially, you pick a topic — the usual one is racehorse names — and have everyone who is playing submit 5 fake racehorse names each ahead of game time. Then you find 5 real racehorse names, and you create 5 lists.

Each list has a fake name from each of the players, plus one of the real names. (The person running the game can also submit a fake name if you want to spice things up a bit.)

Then everyone gathers (in person or online), and you read one of the lists. The goal is for every player to pick the real racehorse name. You get three points for guessing the real racehorse, but you also get a point for every player who picks your fake racehorse name! (Also, you can play with the rule that, if no one guesses the real horse, the person running the game gets three points, making them the antagonist.)

So even if you don’t find the real racehorse, you can clean up on points if you trick the other players into picking your horse!

After five rounds, the player with the most points wins.

And you don’t have to limit the game to racehorses. Our group has played Dobbins or Bobbins with board game names, Christmas movie titles, professional wrestler names, and more!

(Yes, you do need one person to host/organize this one, but it’s great fun to watch everyone play. Also, tricking them with a fake name is very satisfying.)

Will you be celebrating International Tabletop Day, fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

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The PN Blog 2019 Countdown!

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welcome2020

It’s the final blog post of the year, so what do you say we revisit all of 2019 with a countdown of my ten favorite blog posts from the past year!

#10 Daedalus

I’m a huge history and mythology buff, so any opportunity I have to indulge those interests in a puzzly way, I will happily seize. Delving into the story of the famous labyrinth builder and trying to separate fact from fiction was great fun, probably the most interesting deep dive into a subject I experienced all year.

#9 Escape Room Goodness

Escape rooms are the biggest puzzly fad in years, an interactive form of group puzzle-solving that is immersive, challenging, and story-driven. This year, we teamed up with several escape rooms around the world to share stories of some of the weirdest moments from the relatively brief history of escape rooms.

From people breaking into the ceiling to escape to others sabotaging the room in insane ways, it was a treat to hear just how far some people will go to “escape.”

#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.

#7 Crosswords

There’s more to writing about crosswords than simply solving puzzles and unraveling clues, and that was especially true this year. The social and cultural aspect of crosswords came up several times, and it’s important to discuss these issues in an open, honest way, even if that means calling out the biggest crossword in the world to hold them accountable.

Whether it was The New York Times ignoring good advice and placing an offensive word in a grid or Will Shortz dismissing the hard work done by other crossword editors in the field (intentionally or unintentionally), we took up the torch more than once this year because it was the right thing to do.

#6 Wordventures

At the start of the year, we were already rolling with Wordventures, our interactive puzzle mystery that incorporated narrative, word search puzzles, and roleplaying elements into a unique solving experience.

It was an absolute delight to explore that narrative in posts like this, taking the reader into the mysterious world of the Vampire Pirate, one where sight and sound helped draw you into one of our most ambitious puzzle apps yet.

#5 PUZZLE FEST

April Fools Day pranks are an Internet tradition at this point. Some websites go all out in celebrating the holiday. (Heck, ThinkGeek has started using the holiday to tease the public’s interest level in “fake” products, going on to actually release some of those April Fools pranks as real items later in the year!)

So after Puzzles for Pets and PNVR both made a splash in subsequent years, we couldn’t resist getting in on the pranking fun again this year. And why not have a little fun with the famously disastrous Fyre Festival by pretending to host our own PUZZLE FEST? With an elaborate brochure, lots of photos, and enough overblown promises of puzzly luxury to catch all sorts of eyes, we made a lot of puzzlers laugh (and left a few disappointed that there wasn’t a luxury puzzle resort… at least, not yet anyway).

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#4 Top Solvers

Blending pop culture with puzzles always makes for an enjoyable blog post, and this year, I was fortunate enough to combine my love of puzzles with my love for horror movies when I made a list of the best puzzle solvers in horror films. It allowed me to discuss some of my favorite clever characters without delving too far into the horror element (which I know some of our readers wouldn’t necessarily enjoy), making it the best of both worlds.

Plus, it’s kicked off a recurring series of posts, since I recently followed up with a list of the best puzzle solvers on TV. For 2020, we’ll see additional lists like the best puzzle solvers in literature and the worst puzzle solvers in pop culture.

#3 Puzzle Events

And speaking of top solvers, there are few things better than spending time with fellow puzzlers and gamers, and we got to do a lot of that this year. Whether it was cheering on our fellow puzzlers at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament or putting our hands dirty with some knock-down, drag-out, game-playing ferocity during our Tabletop Tournament, these interactions were both invigorating and encouraging. Events like these really help solidify the spirit of community that comes with being puzzly.

#2 Crossword Mysteries

One of the funniest and most peculiar moments of the year 2019 was finally getting to see the long-ballyhooed Crossword Mysteries film debut on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. Not since the Wordplay documentary had crosswords gotten such public attention, and this only increased when the channel announced three additional movies in the series would air later in the year.

Although we only got to see one more of them before the year was out — still waiting on #3, Hallmark — it was tremendous fun to review the marriage of the curiously campy style of Hallmark murder mysteries with puzzles (particularly when it involves Will Shortz cameos).

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#1 Daily POP Word Search

There’s nothing more exciting than getting to announce the launch of a product that has been months or years in the making, so picking #1 was a no-brainer for me. It had to be the announcement of Daily POP Word Search.

But it’s not just the app, it’s everything behind the app. I’ve watched it grow and evolve during the development phase, and I had the pleasure of interviewing some of my favorite fellow puzzlers who contribute so much to its success and style thanks to their puzzle designs and terrific content.

It may sound self-serving or schlocky to talk about our flagship products as #1 in the countdown, but it’s something that we’re all extremely proud of, something that we’re constantly working to improve, because we want to make our apps the absolute best they can be for the PuzzleNation audience. That’s what you deserve.

And it’s part of the evolution of PuzzleNation and PN Blog. Even as we work to ensure our current products are the best they can be, we’re always looking ahead to what’s next, what’s on the horizon, what’s to come.

Thanks for spending 2019 with us, through brain teasers and big ideas, through Hallmark murders and Halloween puns, through puzzle launches and landmark moments. We’ll see you in 2020.

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Wendy’s Viral Marketing Victory (with a side of French fries)

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Some of my all-time favorite puzzling experiences have been part of roleplaying games, so it warms my heart to see more and more people discovering Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop RPGs. Not only are they a wonderful way to connect with friends and tell stories, but they inspire me to create new and innovative puzzles.

Both the Netflix series Stranger Things and the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory have helped bring roleplaying games to greater mainstream attention (as shows like Community and Freaks and Geeks did in the past), and now, even fast food chains are getting in on the pencil, paper, and dice-loaded pastime.

Yes, Wendy’s has created its own roleplaying game.

Feast of Legends is a self-contained roleplaying adventure that is both staggeringly detailed and shamelessly self-promotional. This NINETY-SEVEN page downloadable PDF contains the rules for building your character, equipment, rules, setting details, and different character classes (like the Order of the Frosty or the Order of the Spicy Chicken Sandwich), each with their own bonus abilities.

It’s actually a terrific introduction to roleplaying games as a whole, discussing concepts like how many actions you can take on a given turn, how combat works, and which dice to use.

They even created an online dice roller for you to use if you don’t own roleplaying dice!

(For RPG aficionados, the system is reminiscent of both D&D’s fourth and fifth edition rulesets, though not nearly as involved, obviously.)

Once you’ve created your character — an easy task, given the streamlined (but effective) character creation instructions in the first half of the handbook — there’s an entire campaign included to play through!

Yes, a five-part adventure awaits players willing to explore Freshtovia, battle the evildoers who seek to force frozen beef on people across the land, from Costa del Spicy to Roast Beach, from The Box to Biggie Vale.

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Oh, you were curious about the shameless self-promotion? Trust me, we’re getting to that.

It starts with the setting — the mythical land of Freshtovia, in the realm of Beef’s Keep, where Queen Wendy requires your help to battle the monstrous threat of frozen beef. You can arm yourself with various implements (the spork caught my eye) as you prepare to do battle with the Ice Jester (a thinly veiled take on Ronald McDonald) and his minions, including violent versions of the Hamburglar (aka the Beef Bandit) and the Fry Guys.

Not only that, but there are rules regarding the bonuses you get for eating Wendy’s food while you play (as well as minuses for any characters eating from a different fast food chain during the game).

It’s seeded throughout the game, and on the website as well. On the page explaining how RPGs work, readers will find this text:

Beef’s Keep is a wide open world waiting for you to explore it. Make the world your own, expand your adventure, and most importantly, buy Wendy’s. Wait, we meant to say have fun. Also, buy Wendy’s.

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As a writer and a content creator, I was a little disappointed to see that this voluminous and impressive PDF was lacking in one crucial detail: credits for all the hard work that must’ve gone into it.

Yes, there is a brief credit near the end — illustrations by Alex Lopez, maps by Collin Fogel — and a few signatures and identifying marks hidden in some of the art, but what about the writing? What about the well-crafted adventure? What of all the puns?!

I really had to go hunting in order to track down who exactly deserves the kudos for this engagingly ridiculous endeavor. The credit belongs to the company VMLY&R and their Wendy’s team, including @TonyMarin and @SmugKeck.

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Designed to launch in time for New York Comic-Con — coinciding with a play-through on the popular webseries/podcast Critical Role — Feast of Legends seems like a rousing viral success.

Yes, there is naturally some pushback on the Internet — some for campaign donations made by the CEO of Wendy’s, some for how Wendy’s employees are treated — and some directed at the RPG itself, viewing it as a thinly-veiled propaganda tool (or an anti-union screed designed to brainwash the puny minds of roleplayers).

Politics and social issues aside, I’m calling this project a win. People that have never played a roleplaying game before have asked me about it, and roleplaying games in general are in the news because of this. If this brings more people into one of my favorite activities and opens up a new world of puzzles and games for them, then I thank Wendy’s for making that possible.

And yes, we’re probably going to end up playing this at the office at some point.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!