Puzzles

Question 1

Magic Question

Answer 1

“How many ways can this (rule or part of a rule) happen?”
How many distinct arrangements/outcomes are possible?

MQ forces you to mentally play out the rule in light of what you already know, and to discover its real impact when actually applied

Start with one “extreme”, count your way via one smallest-possible-increment at a time til you get to the opposite extreme

Ask it for every rule in every puzzle

Question 2

Common Element

Answer 2

Anything (character, position, set, attribute, issue) that is mentioned in two or more different rules, that is mentioned in two or more different answers, or that is true in common among all the different legal outcomes.

Anything that is true among all the different legal ways a rule can play out in context is something that MUST be true generally.

Question 3

Most efficient way to do puzzles

Answer 3

Work puzzle out as far as possible before starting to answer questions at all

Question 4

“or”

Answer 4

“OR BOTH” (unless otherwise specified)

“either / or” = “at least one of…”
In puzzles, args, and passages

Question 5

“unless”

Answer 5

“if not”

Question 6

“Work the puzzle out…”

Answer 6

“…further, sooner.”

It will always be more efficient to do so. This will pre-answer at least a third of the questions.

Question 7

“Your picture”

Answer 7

There’s no such thing as “the” picture for any given puzzle type. You have to experiment with 2-3 diff pictures for each type to find the one that works for YOU. (Then that’s your picture for that puzzle type.)

Question 8

A good picture…

Answer 8

1. is a “storage medium”
2. is easy to manipulate
3. shows the connections among rules and characters
4. does the work for you (pre-answers as many questions as possible)

Question 9

A question ELIMINATES a rule or REPLACES it with another rule

Answer 9

You have to REDRAW THE WHOLE PICTURE FROM SCRATCH, rule by rule

Question 10

“Issues”

Answer 10

Categories of information.

All Puzzles have 2+ issues

Question 11

An OverView will tell you…

Answer 11

1. What the Puzzle’s issues are

2. How you personally want to think about (arrange) those issues

Question 12

Numbers

Answer 12

Implicit in every puzzle, if only in the form of how many characters there are and how many places or connections there are that each character takes or makes (number of “data points”)

Almost always an issue…and likely to be the defining issue in any Puzzle that mentions numbers explicitly.

Question 13

Steps of an OverView

Answer 13

1. Read the intro paragraph
2. Skim the rules
3. Skim at least the Questions, and preferably the Answers too

Looking for what type of info you have and what type of things you’re being asked for. Will help you choose the best picture type.

Question 14

Ordering Family puzzles

Answer 14

Absolute Ordering
Relative Ordering 
Schedule Ordering
Table Ordering
Multiple Ordering

Question 15

Matching Family puzzles

Answer 15

1-Issue Matching
2-Issue Matching
Multi-Issue Matching
Assignment Matching

Question 16

Grouping Family puzzles

Answer 16

2-Bin Sorting
Multi-Bin Sorting
Selection

Question 17

Mapping Family puzzles

Answer 17

Connection Mapping
Physical Mapping
Conceptual Mapping

Question 18

Coding (L6) issues

Answer 18

Characters (symbols, abstractions, things, people) are placed or moved around in pre-set patterns of movement

usually involve cumulative generations of movements

Question 19

Number-Crunch/Spreadsheet (L6) issues

Answer 19

Numbers of types of characters usually with 2 different attributes, have maximum, minimum, or fixed values, usually with numeric relationships among the values.

Can look just like Selection puzzles but with number values in most or all answers

Question 20

Relative Ordering (L4) issues

Answer 20

Characters (people, places, things, events) are lined up in places relative to one another, but not in absolute/concrete positions

(at least until enough characters get “fixed” to permit concrete placement in some questions)

Label each character’s range of possible locations, by asking the magic question for each character (how many must be before/ahead of them, how many characters must be after/behind them)

Question 21

Schedule Ordering (L4) issues

Answer 21

Events are lined up in time, with each block of time (day, hour) subdivided

Question 22

Table Ordering (L8) issues

Answer 22

Characters (people or things) are placed in order around a table or anything else that wraps around

May or may not have absolute positions

Question 23

Multiple Ordering (L8) issues

Answer 23

Same characters (people, things, events) are lined up in 2-5 separate sequences

Question 24

1-Issue Matching (L5) issues

Answer 24

Characters (people, places, things, events, abstractions) each have or do not have a characteristic or attribute (diseases respond/don’t respond to various treatments)

or do or do not perform an act (technicians repair-don’t repair types of machines)

or do or do not have an act performed (movies get/don’t get reviewed by several reviewers)

1-issue matching puzzles can be done as bins instead.
(Better to do as sorting/bins if there’s exactly one appearance of each character. Better to do as matching/grid if there could be 0, 1, or multiple appearances of each character.)

Question 25

2-Issue Matching (L5) issues

Answer 25

One MAJOR issue of characters (people, places, things, events, abstractions), which may or may not be in an ordered sequence, do or do not have 2 different characteristics or attributes; or do or do not perform 2 different acts; or do or do not involve 2 different types of people. These two MINOR issues of attributes/acts/classes are less related to each other than they both are to the major issue of characters/positions in the sequence Have to be done in grids. Major issue characters or positions get listed across the top, and each minor issue takes up one row of the grid underneath. Normally can't be filled in with checks/x's.

Question 26

Multi-Issue Matching (L8) issues

Answer 26

Same as 2-issue but with 3+ issues, each more related to the characters than to each other

Question 27

Assignment Matching (L5) issues

Answer 27

Characters (people, places, things, events, abstractions) are each associated with two attributes, characteristics, acts, or people Two FIXED issues, one on each dimension of the grid, and one MOBILE issue, which populates it Each outcome has a different unique 3-way combo for each of the characters, as in the end of a game of Clue Hints as to what should be the fixed/mobile issues: 1. look at the other questions' Answers (mobile issue normally the last word of the answers, or the word after the verbs) 2. look at the Canary question's Answers (though sometimes misleading) 3. issue with the most different members is usually mobile Usually helpful to draw rosters for both each COLUMN and each ROW Any common elements are determinate (as long as there are no duplicate appearances)

Question 28

2-Bin Sorting (L5) issues

Answer 28

Characters (people, places, things) are separated into two groups ("bins"), which can be just collections, physical locations, or abstractions Any sorting/bin puzzle can be done as a matching/grid instead. (Better to do as sorting/bins if there's exactly one appearance of each character. Better to do as matching/grid if there could be 0, 1, or multiple appearances of each character.) Characters could each be in just one bin at a time (more common) or in both bins or neither

Question 29

Multi-Bin Sorting (L5) issues

Answer 29

People, places, things are separated into three to five groups ("bins"). Any sorting/bin puzzle can be done as a matching/grid instead. (Better to do as sorting/bins if there's exactly one appearance of each character. Better to do as matching/grid if there could be 0, 1, or multiple appearances of each character.) Characters can each be in only one bin at a time (more common) or in both bins or neither

Question 30

Selection (L8) issues

Answer 30

Characters (people, places, things, abstractions) are each "chosen" or not chosen May or may not sort characters into categories, with number limits attached

Question 31

Connection Mapping (L8) issues

Answer 31

Characters (people, places, things) are linked or not linked, by one or more types of 1-direction or 2-direction connections

Question 32

Physical Mapping (L8) issues

Answer 32

Places, people, things are placed in physical locations relative to one another

Question 33

Conceptual Mapping (L8) issues

Answer 33

Events or states of being are related by interlinked if-then network

Question 34

Roster

Answer 34

Cast of characters Crossing off as needed If characters appear more than once, might be better to draw each appearance separately Include blank spaces as characters Categories of characters: use subscripts/superscripts, shape code, capital/lower case...

Question 35

Limiting Factor

Answer 35

Any rule, character, issue, or combination of any of these that makes things happen, prevents things from happening, allows things to happen, or that otherwise makes any useful connections occur Any combination of rules that happens 4 ways or fewer

Question 36

The Magic Question

Answer 36

For each rule (and for each element/character within each rule) "How many ways can this happen (in the context of what we have already played)?" Gets the rules to show their connections Magic number: 4 or fewer If something can happen only that many ways, that connection is a Limiting Factor

Question 37

Splittable puzzle

Answer 37

Half or more of the puzzle's characters or data points are accounted for Will generally generate a 30+% time savings

Question 38

"Could be true" questions

Answer 38

Predict wrong answers to Could questions ("lies") from your picture If it was legal for any other question (even ones with "if" conditions), then it's legal for this question (unless this one has an "if" condition)

Question 39

Brute force trial-and-error

Answer 39

When you need to do this, start with answers that contain more Limiting Factor content (more likely to be right) (Before doing this, always try to predict the answer, e.g. from prior work or knowledge of connections between rules) Fallback is to start from the bottom answers, up

Question 40

"Complete and accurate list" questions

Answer 40

If you haven't already gotten at least half of the data points necessary to answer this question from prior pictures, skip the question and return to it once you have more prior pictures (Fake C&AL questions are basically just like regular "could" questions)

Question 41

Toughest puzzle placement

Answer 41

Last LESS THAN 25% of the time. Never a mistake to walk away (from any individual question or any entire puzzle)!

Question 42

Canary questions

Answer 42

Usually the first question. Apply the rules individually to eliminate all but one legal answer (rule-by-rule elimination is almost always the fastest approach)