Monthly newsletter

Puzzler Name a word you might use as a first word in a conversation. Change one letter and you’ll end up with a word that means, in some contexts, “first”. What words are these? Agents of F.I.E.L.D. Reddit AMA Agents of F.I.E.L.

Chicagoans: I’m putting on my tabletop puzzle game The Unknown Islands Thursday night (November 15) at Empirical Brewery. In it, you and your team are secret agents who must break into the bag and use the objects you find inside — a bottle, ancient coins, postcards, a newspaper, a whale-watching

Here’s a creative challenge. Yesterday’s twitter puzzle combined a fantastical musical duo along with a song they should cover: * Brian May & The Decemberists, “A Thousand Years” * Cat Power & Snoop Dogg, “Singin’ in the Rain” * Lorde & James Taylor, “Sharp Dressed Man” * Prince & John Popper, “It’

The autumn is rich will puzzle hunts: DASH [https://playdash.org/DASH10/], Puzzle Boat [http://www.pandamagazine.com/island5/], Mark Halpin’s Labor Day set [http://www.markhalpin.com/puzzles/puzzles.html], Cryptic Puzzle Hunt [http://crypticpuzzlehunt.epizy.com/], and now REDDOT (link below). Battle that SAD by digging into

I’m continuing to publish daily Twitter puzzles at @pzlr [https://twitter.com/pzlr]. Each tweet offers five items that share a quality and asks you to reply with another item with that same quality. I’m trying to come up with puzzles that allow room for some creative expression.

Over the last week, I’ve been publishing daily Twitter puzzles. I was inspired by — and using the same format as — P&A Magazine, who’s been posting their own for a while, and @puzzletheory, who did the same kind of thing years ago. Each tweet offers five items

Puzzler Name a product found in a supermarket checkout line, in two words. Remove the space and 2 adjacent letters, and change the last letter, and you’ll end up with one word that describes an activity only possible to do at night. What are they? Anti-Match Game: Announcer’s

I just returned from the 179th National Puzzlers League Convention, known informally as the Con, in Milwaukee, a brilliant three days of meeting fellow puzzle mavens, solving puzzles, and playing original games designed by attendees that you can’t find anywhere else. It was my first time going, but I

On July 11, I’ll be in Denver at the Crooked Stave to put on my newest puzzle game, Mystery in the Galleries. It’s a 90-120 minute escape-room-at-a-table for teams of 6. EventBrite will be set up soon, so for now, follow this link to save yourself a spot.

Puzzler What world capital sounds like two Greek letters? How To Make a Word Search My friend Eric Berlin, maker of Puzzle Your Kids (my kids are huge fans), has a new video out for those who love puzzles so much that they want to make their own. Three Quines

Puzzler Take the last name of a young movie director. Remove one letter, and what remains will be, phonetically, a synonym for a word in the title of his latest movie. Who is this? Become a member, support The Mystery League. These newsletters will always remain free, but if you’

In honor of Opening Day, here’s a baseball puzzle for you. Puzzler Take the name of a mountain. Change one letter, anagram it, and the result will be what you call someone who plays for the nearby MLB franchise. What mountain and franchise are they? Become a member, support

Puzzler Name two activities done at a gym, one word each. Remove a single letter from one of the words. The resulting two-word phrase will describe something you might see at a circus. What words are they? Verwald's Treasures on Kickstarter — 2 days left! Verwald’s TreasuresIn this

NEW GAME. I’m putting the finishing touches on my new table-based puzzle game, The Unknown Islands, and I’m running a couple final playtests this Thursday and next at the Chicago Design Museum. Buy tickets here. Or keep reading to win a couple of them for half-off… 📖  📖  📖 PUZZLE OF

I’m recovering from the 55-hour puzzle marathon that is the MIT Mystery Hunt. My team, Palindrome, placed 3rd, just an hour or so out of first place. I’m still processing all the production and clever puzzle design that went into the event. Once Death & Mayhem (the organizing