DASH 11

You probably know this, but we strive to make Puzzled Pint a beginner-friendly event. Our charter is to to grow awareness of puzzle events, which we partially achieve by running Puzzled Pint every month. We see PP as a stepping-stone to more advanced events such as BANGs, MIT Mystery Hunt, and weekend-games. But informally, since the beginning, we have always kept DASH in mind as the “next step” for puzzlers after honing their puzzle skills with Puzzled Pint.

“DASH,” you ask? “What is DASH?” DASH, or Different Area Same Hunt, is an afternoon-long puzzle event that’s played on the same day in cities around the world. With regard to its “simulcast” nature, it is very much like Puzzled Pint. The puzzles are a little more advanced — though an easy track is available, and no matter what your level, hints unlock as you solve. It takes the shape of a walk around your city. But at its heart, it is solving puzzles with friends, just like Puzzled Pint.

DASH 11 happens soon, and we’d be neglecting our duties if we didn’t share the information. With luck, it’s playing in a city near you — but there’s still time to volunteer to help run it in your city.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

A patient has come down with a variety of mysterious ailments, and your team has been called to investigate. You’ve dealt with puzzle-related illnesses before, but this time you’ll be working at a much smaller scale. Diagnose! Assemble! Shrink! Heal!

Registration closes Monday July 1

PP After Dark – Solutions and More!

Earlier this week, Puzzled Pint Portland was invited to participate in OMSI After Dark, an adults-only nighttime event at a local science museum. The theme was “forensics.” We pulled some thematic puzzles from past months to reprint, and also brought along some surplus copies we had on hand to show people what we’re all about.

We’re set up next to the Planetarium @OMSI – stop by and say hello! pic.twitter.com/EWzIBxoy0F

— PuzzledPint Portland (@PuzzPintPDX) April 28, 2016

There was quite a bit of interest! We started with 100 copies of Brian Enigma’s “What is Puzzled Pint?” info sheet, and ran out of those less than halfway through the evening. OMSI was kind enough to reprint those, as well as more copies of the three featured puzzles:

Brian Hahn himself was on hand to help us tell people about Puzzled Pint, as were regular GCs Matt Shields, Jen Dumont, and yours truly.

Tell us how this puzzle thing works @digitaluddite @DysClaimer ! #omsi pic.twitter.com/7ZyYcMUKCq

— PuzzledPint Portland (@PuzzPintPDX) April 28, 2016

It’s true, @JenoftheMT knows a lot about puzzles. #omsi pic.twitter.com/G0DMa6XxsQ

— PuzzledPint Portland (@PuzzPintPDX) April 28, 2016

As shown in these photos we tweeted, we also pulled out Brian Hahn’s “Paddles” from October 2015 and Andrea Blumberg’s March 2016 Comic Book Mystery as examples of different presentation formats. We’re extremely grateful to all our volunteer puzzle authors who share their creativity with us!

If you were at OMSI After Dark on Wednesday and are looking for solutions to any of the above puzzles, here they are:

Thanks @OMSI for a great #AfterDark event tonight! Hope to see some new puzzlers on May 10th. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/Lsx3VXfq4S

— PuzzledPint Portland (@PuzzPintPDX) April 28, 2016

DASH 7 is happening soon!

Puzzled Pint was founded nearly 5 years ago and DASH was a strong inspiration for our founders. (Alas, I cannot include myself in that group; I joined GC a couple years later.) We try to position Puzzled Pint as a monthly event to help foster a puzzle community in new cities and to act as a stepping-stone to train folks for more advanced puzzle hunts such as DASH. In other words, if you attend Puzzled Pint, you should strongly consider DASH.

For those not in the know, DASH stands for Different Area, Same Hunt. It is an afternoon-long puzzle hunt that’s played out in cities around the world. While Puzzled Pint happens on paper, in a bar, DASH involves running (or walking) around your city, and answering puzzles to reveal your next destination. While the majority of DASH puzzles are on paper, there are sometimes more interesting mechanisms — plastic lemons, business cards, tokens, Post-It notes, foam-core board constructions, MP3 players, and so on.

DASH can be as competitive or noncompetitive as you want. There are three tracks: one for experienced puzzlers, one for beginners, and one for kids. Time is tracked during solving itself and does not accumulate when walking between locations. Some teams like to run, many prefer to walk at a leisurely pace.
dash_gryffindor-thumbDASH 7 is coming soon. From the look of the logo, this one is Harry Potter themed. (I’m so excited!) The event is on May 30th, but registration closes in less than a week, on May 1st. It’s $45 per team, with a team being 3–5 people. It takes place in 16 cities: Albuquerque, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Davis, Denver, London, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Monica, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington DC. Find out more on the PlayDASH website and on their FAQ.