The Puzzles of the Beast
November 2024
Greetings, puzzlers and gamers! November is now upon us.
The biggest news is the conclusion of the Hijinks Hunt! Nearly a thousand people have gained access to this puzzle adventure, and I continue to get notifications of successful completions. Well done all of you!
If you haven’t been playing along, it’s not too late! There are still seven days left to back the Kickstarter campaign and any pledge of $3 or more gets access to the whole thing, to solve at your leisure!
Congratulations
Our best puzzle score this month was from Katherine Gordon this month, with a spooky victory over The Pumpkin Problem. Great job!
How to Teach
I love to teach board games to people! One of my favorite aspects of the hobby is introducing someone to their next favorite game. But not everyone likes this task or feels it’s their strength.
A new YouTube channel has recently launched which tackles this issue head-on, giving you a comprehensive guide to teaching games to others. Check it out!
What I’ve Been Playing
Lately my game group has seen a lot of Seers Catalog by Taylor Reiner.
Seers Catalog is a climbing-style trick-taking game, in which you are playing melds of increasing value to a trick, trying to get rid of your cards. Almost.
In many climbing/shedding games, the winner is the person who plays all their cards the fastest. In Seers Catalog, you also don’t want to be stuck with a bunch of cards in your hand: they lose you a point apiece! But if you manage to get down to 5 cards or fewer before the hand is over, the lowest card in your hand is now worth positive points. So the best you can do is to thread the needle of playing nearly every card, but holding back a couple of your best cards. It’s a delightful twist on the old formula!
Your Monthly Puzzle Treat
We are a day late for Halloween, but that won’t stop me from presenting a spooooky set of puzzles to you: 6 6x6 Sudoku puzzles.
I imagine most of you are familiar with Sudoku in general, but you may not have seen many of the variants that are out there. Before we get into the puzzle pack, here’s a warmup with no variant rules.
Normal 6x6 Sudoku rules apply. Place the digits 1-6 exactly once in every row, column, and 2x3 box.
Got it? Great! Now on to the main course. Each of the following 6 6x6 puzzles uses a different variant rule you’ll need to understand and apply to solve the puzzle. Good luck!
Irregular 6x6 Sudoku rules apply. Place the digits 1-6 exactly once in every row, column, and bold-outlined region.
Normal 6x6 Sudoku rules apply. Place the digits 1-6 exactly once in every row, column, and 2x3 box.
Sudoku-X: Place the digits 1-6 exactly once on the marked diagonals.
Normal 6x6 Sudoku rules apply. Place the digits 1-6 exactly once in every row, column, and 2x3 box.
Nonconsecutive: Orthogonally adjacent cells may not contain consecutive digits, meaning they may not have a difference of 1.
Normal 6x6 Sudoku rules apply. Place the digits 1-6 exactly once in every row, column, and 2x3 box.
Kropki Dots: Digits separated by a white dot are consecutive. Digits separated by a black dot have a 1:2 ratio, meaning one is exactly double the other. Not all dots are necessarily given.
Normal 6x6 Sudoku rules apply. Place the digits 1-6 exactly once in every row, column, and 2x3 box.
Killer Cages: Some cells are surrounded by dotted lines, called "cages." Digits cannot repeat in a cage. The digits in a cage sum to the value in the top left.
Normal 6x6 Sudoku rules apply. Place the digits 1-6 exactly once in every row, column, and 2x3 box.
Thermometers: There are filled circles in the grid with connected thick lines called thermometers. The circle represents the bulb of the thermometer. Digits must strictly increase along the thermometer starting from the bulb end.
More Puzzles
If you’re hungry for more, I’ve got you covered! Join the Discord server where I’m posting puzzles of all sorts every few days. It’s also a great place to get hints, and to discuss games, puzzles, and anything else that strikes your fancy.
Happy puzzling!