The Sphinx's Lair

merrybot

00:15

sounds like a pretty cool box

i got a 30"x50" poster cloth thing of the USS Enterprise-D

bobble

00:44

PLEASE, STOP! Ugh, I so much hate these guys who steal reputation by answering questions. — zixuan is bad at Puzzling 4 mins ago

... so you don't like people who answer puzzles? What are people supposed to do with puzzles, leave them alone until you and only you get a chance?

(flagged as NLN)

Hmm, looking at the profile they're just unhappy here in general

oAlt

01:01

(Good morning) ugh same I just saw that now

I'm not the only user and so I shouldn't be surprised when someone else gets the answer before me

Graylocke

05:27

Merry Christmas :)

bobble

back to you :D

Graylocke

I am wishing I had gotten someone to check my puzzle before I had put it up! lol

(I was running out of time pre Christmas Day >.< )

bobble

Playtesting, while not always possible, should definitely be done at least with the instructions for complicated puzzles.

Deus has helped to take a look at some puzzles I made before posting. Mods can create private chat rooms

Graylocke

I totally did with people at my place, but they aren't as reliable as checking with people I can't talk to at the same time >.>;

Oh! That is a good idea <facepaw>

bobble

9

Q: Can we use private chat rooms for collaborating on puzzles?

Here on Puzzling, we're a little different from other sites. Like, we know the answers before we post the question (usually), and we want other people to come to the same conclusion. And sometimes, we work on puzzles with other people. Take my Clues series. There is a list of Clues, and the puzz...

^^ relevant meta discussion

Graylocke

05:34

Hahaha - Thank you! You should note that it took until I was brave enough to try answering a question to even find out that there was a chat function >.>; several years after I started coming to SE -.-;

bobble

Well I'm glad you've found this room!

Graylocke

It is an enjoyable and humbling experience to watch y'all solve and make puzzles :)

bobble

aww. Do you have any puzzles cooking?

I have a teensy cryptic crossword in the works

Graylocke

I have been thinking up my next one! I live in a shared house and run table top RPGs... so when I started a new one recently I started it with a small "ARG" in the house. Shiny envelopes were hidden around the place with people's names on them and mysterious messages and puzzles and riddles... like a whole-house "escape room" that was meant to lead into the new game. That's kind of weird, I know... -.-;

bobble

Hey this is a Puzzling site. We're all weird

Nov 12 at 3:55, by bobble

Are we all nerds?

Nov 12 at 3:56, by merrybot

yes

Graylocke

05:42

heh - reassuring

most of the puzzles I make are not for puzzlers though - if that makes any sense -.-

I did a similar puzzle hunt at my work because I had to make a video on what my team does and that was boring -.-;

bobble

sorta. you're not making things like cryptic crosswords and grid-deductions?

Graylocke

those are the kinds I like to do. and sometimes I add them, but they tend to be the bits the people I make them for struggle with! :P

bobble

I make puzzles exclusively for this site because, well, no one in my regular life will solve my puzzles...

Graylocke

hehe - that's kind of the problem for me... the people I play RPGs with like them up to a point, but don't have the patience to sit there and solve them if it takes them more than a short while.

so I tried making a couple for here... partly the weirder ones I don't think anyone else would do! :P

bobble

I am very jealous that you can play RPGs. That's another thing I would like to do but I can't find people to play with

Graylocke

05:47

well we were locked down for quite a while, so we have only played a few times over Zoom recently :)

bobble

which game?

Graylocke

So I have been running two games, one has kind of been on pause (Pathfinder) and the one that has been a little more regular is Invisible Sun :)

I love Invisible Sun because it is basically a world of mysteries, secrets, puzzles and magic ;p

I don't see what is not to love!

bobble

I have read the rulebooks and flavor for a wide variety of RPGs, so I've played through a bunch of games in my head :D

Graylocke

:D Which is your favourite? (I collect more rulebooks that I ever play for similar reasons)

bobble

hmm, hard to choose

I can tell you the worst rulebook I've read

Graylocke

05:53

hehe okay ;p

bobble

The Warriors book series (really it's a saga with a bunch of series in it) has an RPG with NO RANDOMIZATION MECHANIC. Every check is entirely predictable.

Graylocke

o.O

bobble

which, um, I understand you were trying to simplify it for children, but you don't just remove randomization

Graylocke

So there is no real conflict at all.

bobble

also they recommend rotating GMs during a session

Graylocke

05:55

Well I guess if there is some kind of GM / Player bartering mechanic.

bobble

and only ever playing their prepared scenarios

which are written out like "choose your own adventure", you move through scenes based on choices or checks

Graylocke

Even Fighting Fantasy books had some "roll a d6" moments, didn't they?

bobble

I'm sure that even terrible RPGs recognize the importance of some randomization

except this one, for some reason

Graylocke

Like I do believe that you "Don't Randomize Fun" in that ... you don't want everything to be entirely random. Players want to feel like their characters have some skill and agency. That can come from too many rolls / too much uncertainty, but also a roll-less system in which a GM arbitrarily decides when you succeed or fail. Dice kind of overcome that provided they are used at appropriate times with a sensible level of difficulty. :)

bobble

Just enough randomness :D

Graylocke

06:04

Enough to tell a good story with the right amount of risk and reward ;p

bobble

Where characters don't die randomly but players feel like they could

Graylocke

Yeah :) You also don't want "script immunity" because that is also lame ;p

bobble

Well looks like we accidentally made this into RPG.SE chat

Graylocke

Oops >.>; Hm - I might try to make a cryptic crossword. I have made clues but never a whole crossword.

bobble

I am making a 5x5, with 6 words (3 in each direction)

tiny and easy, hopefully

Graylocke

06:12

ooh nice

sounds like I might be opening a spreadsheet - which seems to be where I make all my puzzles -.-;

bobble

I made most of mine in a spreadsheet, yeah. Some in puzz.link's interface, some in plain docs, vast majority in speardsheets.

Graylocke

06:36

I think I live in spreadsheets -.-;

Graylocke

06:55

There we go - partly with my list of clues I have made for other things...

Sphinx

0

Q: A 15-minute Cryptic

A hastily-made festive gift for PSE, and a test to see whether it is ever possible to make a puzzle faster than it takes someone here to solve it! :P Clues: 1A One of us in gold-coated regret 4A Mixing up dictionary with basic directions is more mature? 5A Stop, particularly, watery spirit 1D...

cryptic-crosswords

Sphinx

07:31

0

Q: 8 soldiers lining up for the morning assembly

There are 8 soldiers, gathering and lining up every morning for their military service. The commanders at the head of these soldiers demand that the morning lineup of these soldiers be arranged differently from the next day according to the following rule: Any three soldiers cannot be lined up n...

logical-deduction combinatorics optimization

Sphinx

08:47

0

Q: Underpromoting in Chess

I can see how promoting a pawn to a knight can be beneficial if it can attack immediately in L-shape. However is it ever beneficial to promote a pawn to a bishop or a rook, instead of a queen in standard Chess?

chess

Sphinx

11:20

0

Q: Shikakui Hebi: Introduction

Shikakui Hebi is a new grid deduction puzzle I invented. It translates from Japanese which means "Square Snake". It quite sounds like Slitherlink, but trust me, it isn't. Rules of Shikakui Hebi are as follows: Solvers are to draw 1 big snake/a long line with twists and turns around a rectangular...

grid-deduction

Anonymus 25

12:19

Can anyone unpin the old C4? I'm confused in which one is the current one.

Sphinx

12:36

4

Q: A Pairing Puzzle for Christmas

knowledge pattern

0

Q: Explain this holiday calendar oddity

Happy Boxing Day! Yesterday was Christmas Day, and in a few days, it will be New Year's Day. Each holiday season, those two holidays are always on the same day of the week (in this case, Friday). But in 1914, Christmas Day and New Year's Day were on different days of the week. Why?

real seasonal

Anonymus 25

By the way, Merry Christmas! At least, the day after Christmas, wink

oAlt

14:30

Merry unChristmas!

Sphinx

14:43

0

Q: Four rational numbers whose product is 10 and whose sum is 0

It has been shown that every positive integer is the product of four rational numbers whose sum is 0. Thus: 3 = (13/45) x (45/11) x (-11/6) x (-48/13) while 0 = (13/45) + (45/11) + (-11/6) + (-48/13). Find four rational numbers whose product is 10 and whose sum is 0.

mathematics number-theory

Sphinx

15:09

0

Q: On a budget with my travel agent

An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #45: Flags "Hey Pat, I got your latest tour brochure. It looks really fun; you know I love military history! But times are tough, and I did ask you for something from the budget list." "That's what I sent...this is one of the cheapest tours I have." "I'm t...

visual story history flags

matt

15:59

heh

Sphinx

16:25

0

Q: (Zebra Problem) Tougher than Einstein's Puzzle

Einstein had made quite a good zebra puzzle tough enough to confuse many people's brains. Today I present even more tougher one, will you be able to solve it? There are 5 customers , who bought a different set of furniture, each with different prices. Every customer wore a different coloured shir...

logical-deduction logic-grid

msh210

C4 hint: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/35187398#35187398

bobble

16:49

@Sphinx @Graylocke you idea-thief :P

oAlt

Lol same at first I thought you were the one who posted it

Sphinx

17:16

0

Q: It really hertz while listening

Listen to the mp3 file present at the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nmuXIomqWKSmP4yXQ92E0DQhgVAPUnXL/view?usp=sharing

word enigmatic-puzzle

bobble

17:28

Would it be terrible if I went on a retagging spree in meta?

Sphinx

19:48

0

Q: Why did the number of islands change?

There is a cluster of islands, which a private pilot flies over at dawn. The pilot can see 17 islands. A week later, she makes the same flight, at dawn, following the same altitude, speed, path and direction, and this time she sees 11 islands. Why did the count change? The pilot has perfect visio...

geography situation real

Deusovi

@bobble a retagging spree for what purpose?

bobble

There are posts that are missing tags, tags that are duplicates of other tags (I'd just edit them out for the Roomba), and also I'd like to fix up the grammar and stuff of old meta posts. Tagging seems more doable, so I'd try that first.

I don't have much concrete planned, though

Sphinx

21:05

1

Q: Christmas is over, the demon will soon arise

There's this little helpless creature that would fear, how Christmas is over and coming is a new year. For a demon horned creature would shortly arise, to take the little creature's home, despite its cries. What are the two creatures?

riddle word wordplay rhyme

risky mysteries

22:36

@bobble How does your puzzle making service work exactly?

whoops, gotta go, please ping me

bobble

@riskymysteries if there's a grid-deduction genre that I've made, and you would like me to make another, I can make it and post on the site.

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