Trouble Brewing (Summer Puzzle 15)

 And here we have it, the 15th and final summer puzzle. Before I talk about this week's puzzle,  I want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who has solved any of these summer puzzles, and double thank you to anyone who has commented on a puzzle, streamed a puzzle, said nice things to me at a tournament(!), or especially to anyone who collaborated with me on one of these summer puzzles. When I started this project, I was looking for a way to get myself to get back into puzzle-making after a busy school year, and I'd say I succeeded. Making each puzzle in under a week, following the themes and seeds I was feeling, and being unconstrained by the restrictions and schedules of published crosswords was a really great experience, and I'm proud of the work I did here. If you haven't been following along, I think a few highlights are puzzle 6, puzzle 7, and puzzle 13, but I really like all the summer puzzles!

Anyways, for this week's puzzles, I've shifted gears and made a puzzle about one of my other current favorite hobbies: Blood on the Clocktower. If you're not familiar with Blood on the Clocktower, it's a social deduction game that can basically be summarized as "what if Werewolf were way better?", as it keeps the same general "find the bad guys" style of gameplay but gives each player a unique ability (some of which can get pretty wild) and lets "dead" players continue to fully participate in the game. I started going to a local BOTC group last fall, and having a day to tell ridiculous lies, untangle complicated puzzles, and (usually) lose a bunch of games is always a highlight of my month.

So, for the puzzle itself, I've decided to make a game of Blood on the Clocktower into a crossword puzzle! Each of the 8 starred entries represents a player in the game, and the starred clues correspond to the roles those players are claiming to be, all good characters from Trouble Brewing. However, 2 of these players are lying about their roles–one is the DEMON and one is their loyal minion (a POISONER, SPY, BARON, or SCARLET WOMAN)–and it's up to you to find out who they are! Down clues will always match their true roles, but because the evil team is very devious, entering their true roles in the grid may require the use of rebus squares.

For the BOTC fans, yes, this is a legal 8-player TB set up. Also, I've tried to clue this on the easy side, so if you're BOTC player but not an avid crossword solver, this is hopefully still approachable. If you know nothing about BOTC, this should also be perfectly solvable, but you may want to glance over the character list linked above–none of the characters have nonsensical names, but a few are entries I probably wouldn't put in a normal grid.

Crosshare

Themeless: So Random (Summer Puzzle 14)

 For this week's penultimate summer puzzle, I was inspired by a Will Nediger blog puzzle where he randomly placed 5 black squares and 5 letters in the grid. Like Will, I randomized 10 squares this way (including rolling physical dice for the positions--though I used an online tool for picking the letters). Unlike Will, I did not get particularly unusual placement for my black squares (and also did not keep super close track of where they were), so this is a pretty standard 72-word themeless grid. The letters were a little more constraining, though--notably both the first and last letters of 18-across were randomized, which let me put a pretty fun short entry in that spot!

Anyways, not too much more to say about this one, but I'll be back next week for the final summer puzzle before my semester starts! I already have an idea for the puzzle, so if my gridding pays off, I'll see you all then!

Crosshare

On the Shelf (Summer Puzzle 13)

 So as I mentioned in my post for last week's puzzle, I'm starting to get busier as summer is winding down and fall course prep has begun in earnest. This meant that I didn't actually have time to make a puzzle this past week, but... I did have time to make a puzzle this morning! What this has resulted in is... a pretty normal, pretty straightforward themed puzzle that I think is pretty good? Definitely still got silly with some of the clues, but I think this will play sort of like an early week newspaper puzzle.

Anyways, hope you're all having a good summer, and I'll see you next week for the penultimate(!) summer puzzle.

Crosshare

Themeless: No Thoughts, Head Empty (Summer Puzzle 12, with Dan Schwartz)

 Sorry for the delay, but I'm here once again with a summer puzzle! We're starting to get towards the end of summer (already!), which means that I once again am starting to get a little busy, between preparing for the upcoming semester and traveling last week to NYC for Lollapuzzoola. That's basically all that delayed this puzzle, but I am going to still be trying to get 2-3 more of these out before the summer is actually over!

Speaking of Lollapuzzoola, this puzzle is a collab with Lolla express division runner up Dan Schwartz. Dan is a great friend, a common collaborator of mine, and also just so incredibly good and fast at solving puzzles. It was very fun to collab with him here, and I hope you like the puzzle.

Dan says:

"I had fun making this with you! Happy summer"

Crosshare

Combo Meal (Summer Puzzle 11)

 This week, I bring you a fairly straightforward themed puzzle, with a few themers I've been thinking about for a bit. Since there's only 3 themers, and some of them were on the shorter side, I tried to make this a slightly more open grid than I usually do, and I am of course always trying to find good fill/clues.

Anyways, not much more to say about this one, but if I don't get my next puzzle up before next Saturday, I should say that I will in fact be at Lollapuzzoola this year! I'm actually leaving tomorrow to spend some time in NYC with friends before the tournament, so... maybe Amtrak will inspire my next puzzle? Who knows, I don't really plan these in advance, but I will try to keep posting one per week!

Crosshare

A Couple of Items (Summer Puzzle 10)

 Yes, I'm still here and proud to present the 10th summer puzzle! I'll be keeping this going through August (and hopefully get back to a true weekly schedule soon), so there's more to go. This one is definitely another "I just put the media I'm consuming into a puzzle" puzzle, and the theme is a little looser, but as always, I hope you have fun!

Also! I will be at Boswords tomorrow! (Likely place for me to be, I know.) If you're there, please come say hi. I love talking to people at tournaments.

Crosshare

Themeless: Cool for the Summer (Summer Puzzle 9)

First off, sorry for the delay on this puzzle--I did say at the start of this project that I was likely to miss a week here and there, and I guess I made good on this project. Pretty shortly after the last puzzle I posted, I got sick (why I didn't post a puzzle last weekend), and then I wound up traveling for a multi-day bachelorette party (why this puzzle is late). I am, in fact, still traveling (driving back to Boston) and therefore very tired, but I should be home tomorrow, so that should get us back on track.

Anyways, for those of you who aren't here for my life updates, have a puzzle! This one's a themeless where IMO the vibes are 10% "hot girl summer" and 90% "I must be the hottest they/them at the bachelorette party." I also was completely exhausted during most of the cluing of this puzzle (due to the aforementioned travel), so the "no test solvers" vibe may be a little rougher than usual, but I like the grid a lot and think this should be fun!

Crosshare