Puzzles Flashcards
Magic Question
“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
Common Element
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.
Most efficient way to do puzzles
Work puzzle out as far as possible before starting to answer questions at all
“or”
“OR BOTH” (unless otherwise specified)
“either / or” = “at least one of…”
In puzzles, args, and passages
“unless”
“if not”
“Work the puzzle out…”
“…further, sooner.”
It will always be more efficient to do so. This will pre-answer at least a third of the questions.
“Your picture”
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.)
A good picture…
- is a “storage medium”
- is easy to manipulate
- shows the connections among rules and characters
- does the work for you (pre-answers as many questions as possible)
A question ELIMINATES a rule or REPLACES it with another rule
You have to REDRAW THE WHOLE PICTURE FROM SCRATCH, rule by rule
“Issues”
Categories of information.
All Puzzles have 2+ issues
An OverView will tell you…
- What the Puzzle’s issues are
2. How you personally want to think about (arrange) those issues
Numbers
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.
Steps of an OverView
- Read the intro paragraph
- Skim the rules
- 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.
Ordering Family puzzles
Absolute Ordering Relative Ordering Schedule Ordering Table Ordering Multiple Ordering
Matching Family puzzles
1-Issue Matching
2-Issue Matching
Multi-Issue Matching
Assignment Matching
Grouping Family puzzles
2-Bin Sorting
Multi-Bin Sorting
Selection
Mapping Family puzzles
Connection Mapping
Physical Mapping
Conceptual Mapping
Coding (L6) issues
Characters (symbols, abstractions, things, people) are placed or moved around in pre-set patterns of movement
usually involve cumulative generations of movements
Number-Crunch/Spreadsheet (L6) issues
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
Relative Ordering (L4) issues
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)
Schedule Ordering (L4) issues
Events are lined up in time, with each block of time (day, hour) subdivided
Table Ordering (L8) issues
Characters (people or things) are placed in order around a table or anything else that wraps around
May or may not have absolute positions
Multiple Ordering (L8) issues
Same characters (people, things, events) are lined up in 2-5 separate sequences
1-Issue Matching (L5) issues
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.)
2-Issue Matching (L5) issues
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.
Multi-Issue Matching (L8) issues
Same as 2-issue but with 3+ issues, each more related to the characters than to each other
Assignment Matching (L5) issues
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:
- look at the other questions’ Answers (mobile issue normally the last word of the answers, or the word after the verbs)
- look at the Canary question’s Answers (though sometimes misleading)
- 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)
2-Bin Sorting (L5) issues
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
Multi-Bin Sorting (L5) issues
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
Selection (L8) issues
Characters (people, places, things, abstractions) are each “chosen” or not chosen
May or may not sort characters into categories, with number limits attached
Connection Mapping (L8) issues
Characters (people, places, things) are linked or not linked, by one or more types of 1-direction or 2-direction connections
Physical Mapping (L8) issues
Places, people, things are placed in physical locations relative to one another
Conceptual Mapping (L8) issues
Events or states of being are related by interlinked if-then network
Roster
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…
Limiting Factor
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
The Magic Question
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
Splittable puzzle
Half or more of the puzzle’s characters or data points are accounted for
Will generally generate a 30+% time savings
“Could be true” questions
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)
Brute force trial-and-error
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
“Complete and accurate list” questions
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)
Toughest puzzle placement
Last LESS THAN 25% of the time.
Never a mistake to walk away (from any individual question or any entire puzzle)!
Canary questions
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)
