Chain Puzzles

Chess (2)
Battleship (4)
Trivial Pursuit (5)
Scrabble (1)
Pentominos / Blokus (2)
Ticket to Ride (3)
Clue (4)
Connect 4 (2)
Monopoly (2)
Mikado (3)
Qwirkle (4)

Lukas Rotter

i tried taking the nth letters and anagram, but didn't work unless I made a mistake

Prince North Læraðr

That might

Lukas Rotter

9:10 PM

@Mithical ticket to ride has 4

Mithical

oh, right

Lukas Rotter

and monopoly has 3

what I came up with is hstknrkeloi

do you see any anagrams? :D

bobble

It would be a thematic word, probably another game

Lukas Rotter

yes

Prince North Læraðr

Did you use Blockus or Pentominos?

Lukas Rotter

9:17 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr I read that as "Was that the ...", so now, almost 10 minutes later, I apologize for my awkward "Nope" response :D

blokus

Mithical

@PrinceNorthLæraðr tried both

Prince North Læraðr

I think it's blockus though

Lukas Rotter

Blokus

Blokus ( BLOK-əs) is an abstract strategy board game for two to four players, where players try to score points by occupying most of the board with pieces of their colour. It was invented by Bernard Tavitian and first released in 2000 by Sekkoïa, a French company. It has won several awards, including the Mensa Select award and the 2004 Teacher's Choice Award. In 2009, the game was sold to Mattel. == Gameplay == The game is played on a square board divided into 20 rows and 20 columns, for a total of 400 squares. There are a total of 84 game tiles, organized into 21 shapes in each of four colors...

Mithical

I'm pretty sure there's no c

Prince North Læraðr

Right

bobble

9:18 PM

Just checked my copy, it doesn't have a c

Prince North Læraðr

Yeah, sorry I meant "I think it's blokus not pentominos" not "I think it's spelled blockus"

Lukas Rotter

I think the sequence tag is suspicious, because it looks like the order of the objects is not important at all (or even discernible)

bobble

maybe you have to arrange the games into a sequence?

Prince North Læraðr

Well a really famous board game that stands out as missing is life

Lukas Rotter

like the game of life?

yeah I was thinking about that too

Prince North Læraðr

9:21 PM

Yes. There's also backgammon that's not there either so it doesn't really say much

bobble

LIFE would also be a nice, easy word for the next puzzle to incorporate, so there's that

Prince North Læraðr

But Stiv would clue something obvious...

msh210

I was squinting at it for a while to see if the pieces or negative space spelled anything, but I'm pretty sure they don't.

Where's the green piece at the lower-left from?

Lukas Rotter

Ticket to ride

Prince North Læraðr

Ticket to Ride

msh210

9:24 PM

My copy of TTR doesn't have any buildings....

I feel like I've been missing out. :-)

Prince North Læraðr

Looks identical to the picture above tho

msh210

true

Prince North Læraðr

Some other board games include Operation and Risk

bobble

Linking the puzzle for easy access

Prince North Læraðr

Oh, and Jenga. Can't forget jenga

msh210

9:26 PM

Curious that he/she chose (some) pieces that are letter shapes -- like the S from Blokus and the K from Scrabble and the J from Clue.

. . . probably meaningless but who knows.

Lukas Rotter

I think the buildings were not included in the original TTR, but in TTR Europe.

Prince North Læraðr

@msh210 Well Scrabble has to take a letter. But it makes me wonder why stiv picked "K". Probably overthinking it

msh210

I also tried creating triangles just from the threesomes, or line segments just from the twosomes, to see if either one would form anything interesting, but no dice.

(No pun intended.)

Prince North Læraðr

I've never even heard of Ticket to Ride here in the US

Are these all really popular European games?

Mithical

@LukasRotter I dunno, I only have the Europe version

msh210

9:28 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr It's pretty popular stateside, too, I think, though I never played it, myself, when I lived there.

bobble

@Stiv, are you enjoying watchin a bunch of puzzlers struggle at your puzzle?

Prince North Læraðr

What's the opposite of rot5?

bobble

rot21?

Prince North Læraðr

Yeah nvm

msh210

If the bishop captures the blue train, the king is in check.

(quotes out of context)

Lukas Rotter

9:35 PM

lol

Prince North Læraðr

Hehe

msh210

but the dog is defending that square, he'll eat the bishop

don't mind me

Prince North Læraðr

Idk if this helps?

Don't mind my screen and tabs, had do double check there wasn't any personal information

msh210

I assume we're not supposed to look for steganography in the image file, right?

That would run counter to the storyline, in which we're supposedly just looking down at pieces on a table.

Prince North Læraðr

That'd be too much, I think. But maybe not?

Yeah, I highly doubt it

msh210

9:43 PM

@msh210 ... though I keep seeing the blue train car atop the Blokus piece as an F.

Prince North Læraðr

hnng

msh210

> The answer is 1 word, and finding it relies on making use of all of the pieces shown in the picture.

Not just "all", "all".

Prince North Læraðr

also all

bobble

I should not have read so many cancer books

Prince North Læraðr

what

That means it would be a 34 letter word if every single piece meant something

bobble

9:51 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr My brain read "all" as "acute lymphoblastic lymphoma"

Prince North Læraðr

yikes

Lukas Rotter

making use of != meaning something specific

but yeah

msh210

What is that green piece from Ticket to Ride? Google is not helping.

Lukas Rotter

a station

> Your 3 stations let you borrow one route at the end of the turn. On your turn, pay the cards needed (one card for the first station, 2 identical ones for the second, etc.) and place a station on a city that the borrowed route connects to. You may borrow one route per station. Also, every station you don't build gives 4 points.

msh210

thanks

Lukas Rotter

9:55 PM

> Stations only appear in Europe.

bobble

What

Why?

Stiv

@bobble I wouldn't say 'struggle' :) It truly is fascinating though to check back in and watch your thought processes at work! I'll tell you now that all the relevant board games have been identified in this thread and there have been 2 very pertinent observations made in passing that might prove helpful to be developed further...

msh210

and apparently the Mikado sticks are called "kuli"... fwiw

@Stiv was this one of them?

22 mins ago, by msh210

but the dog is defending that square, he'll eat the bishop

:-)

Stiv

(and it's not the steganography one)

@msh210 Haha! No, but it made me laugh a lot!

Lukas Rotter

What moves can the dog perform? :P

Stiv

9:59 PM

I'll back out again now so as not to bias anything, but I'll be ping-able if needed...

bobble

@LukasRotter Knock over the Board: make it so neither player wins

Prince North Læraðr

@LukasRotter What did you mean by this?

all, any, are, all

Lukas Rotter

That not every individual piece necessarily has to have a specific meaning other than grouping them together

Prince North Læraðr

Wait, hold on. Chess is out of place here

And battleship

Those are two player games

Lukas Rotter

hmm

Prince North Læraðr

10:06 PM

" I found four of our fellow gamers stood around the table with puzzled expressions, staring down at what appeared to be a jumble of pieces from several different games."

Lukas Rotter

isn't connect 4 too? or am I lost?

msh210

yes it is

Prince North Læraðr

Yes that too

I forgot

msh210

so there are six people (unless some haven't arrived yet) - how many of these games even allow for six people (officially)?

Prince North Læraðr

Only monopoly I believe

msh210

10:07 PM

a game night need not have everyone playing the same thing at the same time

Prince North Læraðr

Maybe pick-up stix?

msh210

Not to discard your line of reasoning, which is interesting and may prove fruitful, but another funny thing is that there are two battleships on the table (one from Battleship, one from Monopoly), and two Ks (one from chess, one from Scrabble).

Prince North Læraðr

Yeah

Lukas Rotter

haven't even noticed the "four" in the story. Seems significant

Prince North Læraðr

Monopoly seems to be the only game that can accommodate 6+ people

Mikado is four players

Scrabble is four

Chess is two

C4 is two

msh210

10:09 PM

if you join the battleships with a line segment and the Ks with a line segment, you get a T . . . fwiw

Prince North Læraðr

You know, you might be onto something. Remember what Stiv said?

msh210

(but really a T -- the segments are at about right angles if you connect the middles of the pieces)

Lukas Rotter

sounds promising

msh210

@PrinceNorthLæraðr what thing that Stiv said?

Prince North Læraðr

13 mins ago, by Stiv

@bobble I wouldn't say 'struggle' :) It truly is fascinating though to check back in and watch your thought processes at work! I'll tell you now that all the relevant board games have been identified in this thread and there have been 2 very pertinent observations made in passing that might prove helpful to be developed further...

It could be, could be not

msh210

10:11 PM

problem with that line of reasoning is that all the pieces have to be used... and I doubt they can all be paired up like that. Also, if they are, I doubt it would spell anything.

Lukas Rotter

I'm gonna guess one of those observations was bobble's "probably a board game with a general other meaning"

and the other one was actually related on how to solve it

Prince North Læraðr

Okay yeah

That rules out Yatzee

Lukas Rotter

If that's actually what they meant, yes :)

Prince North Læraðr

But still leaves Risk and LIFE, and maybe Sorry too?

msh210

the other oddity that I just noticed -- only Mikado has >1 identical piece. Woulda been possible with several of the others.

Prince North Læraðr

10:14 PM

And why is the station green? Why not a green train?

@msh210 Well, mikado I think only has one piece

msh210

@PrinceNorthLæraðr no, it has a few types

Prince North Læraðr

huh

Lukas Rotter

yeah it has more

msh210

worth different amounts of points

Prince North Læraðr

huh

msh210

10:15 PM

hmm... points.... Battleship pieces are scored according to their length, a chess bishop is generally considered worth 3... Trivial pursuit I suppose we can count as 1 or 6... but I don't see what to do with the Monopoly pawns or the Clue weapons or the chess king...

Prince North Læraðr

hy are there only monopoly pawns instead of also houses or hotels?

msh210

right, that too

and clue weapons but no pawns

Prince North Læraðr

Well, clue pawns are kind of generic though

They can easily be mistaken for sorry!

msh210

true

though I'm sure PSE minds would've identified what game they were from

Prince North Læraðr

but interesting that stiv picked the battleship of all the pieces

msh210

10:17 PM

they're not identical to Sorry! pawns

Prince North Læraðr

from monopoly

msh210

well, also the hat and dog

Prince North Læraðr

yeah but considering battleship is also a ship

msh210

oh. right, yeah.

hat and noose are both headgear (so to speak)

2

Lukas Rotter

lol

Prince North Læraðr

10:19 PM

I'm pretty sure battleships are missing a piece

msh210

yes

Prince North Læraðr

There are two 3 pieces right?

msh210

I forget, but there are definitely two length-n pieces for some n

Prince North Læraðr

Yeah, it's missing the submarine

msh210

what weapon(s) is/are missing from Clue?

what pawns from Monopoly?

Prince North Læraðr

10:22 PM

Except c4, pretty much all the games are missing some pieces

@msh210 I'm not sure which edition, but I know thimble is a classic, as well as horserider

Lukas Rotter

crossbar, I think

oof thats the wrong word

Prince North Læraðr

@msh210 Knife, obviously

Crowbar and knife

hm

10:23 PM

And 25 tiles from Scrabble :P

msh210

the Trivial Pursuit colors are weird, by the way . . . I mean I'm unfamiliar with them. I know the wedges as brown, blue, green, yellow, pink, and orange . . . there's purple here

Prince North Læraðr

@LukasRotter Yup

and 30 pieces from chess

Lukas Rotter

technically, yes

msh210

oh I see, Wikipedia says "Arts & Literature is originally brown, later purple"

Prince North Læraðr

There are eight categories in monopoly game pieces:

Animal (dog), fashion (top hat), historical (thimble/bell?), footwear (boot), inventions (wheelbarrow), social media??(cat), transport (car), float (boat)

Okay each blog says something different

It's either cat or iron

msh210

10:28 PM

I know iron. But I guess it varies with the edition.

I dunno battleship, e.g.

Prince North Læraðr

I don't know

msh210

well, I should be sleeping so I'll leave you to it... good luck

Prince North Læraðr

gn to you sir