I realized the other day that the last puzzle I had actually solved (or even attempted to solve) was Artifact #5 in the Black Letter Game. That was months ago, and we didn’t even finish! With my work about to calm down for a bit (I anticipate), and with MIT Mystery Hunt coming up, it’s the perfect time to do a little puzzle training! Not only will this be fun and help get me ready for January, but it should also help my puzzle-designing abilities as well. It’s weird, but it seems I’m the type of person who has to really schedule time or make a regimen for doing hobbies I enjoy like reading or puzzle-solving.
So far, here’s what I’ve got on my list:
- Previous MIT Mystery Hunt puzzles – Particularly the game-themed hunt from 2011 as recommended by Todd.
- P&A Magazine – Been wanting to do one of these anyway! According to Puzzle Hunt Calendar, the next issue comes out on November 24th. Could be good but there’s a chance we’ll be on the road back from visiting family for Thanksgiving.
- Shinteki Puzzle of the Month – I’m totally ashamed that I’ve never even tried one of these. Consider my calendar marked for November 15th!
- BANG 33 – The now-online charity BANG sounds fun, and like something I could gather some friends to play over a weekend!
- Previous DASH puzzles – Though maybe I should save these for DASH warm-up?
That’s probably plenty, but if anyone has any recommendations I’d be glad to hear them. I should probably do a little bit of work on things like crossword, cryptic crossword, sudoku, and MATH (ugh) puzzles as well since those are areas I usually avoid. Though maybe there are just SO many puzzles at Mystery Hunt that you can stick to what you know?
I’d also like to finally finish up those last few extras on The Stone for personal reasons (I seriously doubt they’d help me in any normal kind of puzzle hunt!).
I’ve gotta train my puzzle muscles!