Mental Judo: A Cryptic Blog (11)

Kaye and I have known each other for 5 years thanks to the wonderful world of crossword solving on Twitch, so it's about dang time we collaborated on a puzzle (and finished it)! This one is themed around our shared interest of board games, and we brought it to this year's Westwords  (where we competed as a pair and won the Beach division!). Kaye says: "As collabs often go, we have had a few different things in the works over the years without getting them out the door, but I was happy to get this one polished up in time for Westwords and to now share it here. Expect more from us (but not necessarily in a timely fashion) because it turns out we have fun working together!" Thanks to Herzwesten , known tabletop gamer and tabletop game maker,  for taking a look at this for us. [ solve online ] [ pdf ] [ ipuz ]

This puzzle relates to a specific location—can you use the themed answers to figure out where you are before the grid spells out the answer? (Highlight the spoilered text below to see which answers relate to the location) Special shout out to Rich, who redeemed this puzzle as a channel-point redemption on my stream , only about [*mumbles four-digit number*] days ago! Our stalwart tester this time was  skaldskaparmal , whose latest puzzle is (like all of them) an amazing construction with an awesome [redacted].  As ever, I will add some text here to avoid the spoilered answer text from appearing in the link preview. Have a nice day! [ solve online ] [ pdf ] [ .ipuz ] SOLUTION: (highlight to reveal) When some guy stole MONOPOLY from the woman who invented it, he rethemed it using streets from Atlantic City, New Jersey The New Jersey DEVIL is a cryptid (and also hockey I guess) The Jersey SHORE is a coastline encompassing dozens of towns and communities The New Jersey...

Ten of this puzzle's answers relate to a specific year—can you figure out which? (Highlight the spoilered text at the end of this post to see the answer!) This puzzle is another ancient request via my stream, this time by Liari , prolific British-style cryptic setter (who recently debuted in the Times, congrats!). She left the year up to me, so I hope she approves! Once again, skaldskaparmal helped me out with a test solve—thank you, friend! Finally, I just want to take this opportunity to pad this blog post so the spoilered answer text doesn't show up in the preview. Welp, that should do it. Thanks for solving! [ solve online ] [ pdf ] [ .ipuz ] SOLUTION: (highlight to reveal) The word BLOG(S) was coined… 11 countries officially adopted the EURO… FUTURAMA and SPONGEBOB premiered… NAPSTER launched… SPLENDA was introduced… The DREAMCAST came out… BABY ONE MORE TIME debuted… OCTOBER SKY premiered… The first book of A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS was published… …and it all hap...

Ten of this puzzle's answers relate to a specific year—can you figure out which? (Highlight the spoilered text at the end of this post to see the answer!) This puzzle was requested via my stream some time ago (he said purposefully vaguely) by juff (who also runs the variety cryptic outlet The Gnomon ), but they left choosing the specific year up to Ruby, a fab streamer who plays a lot of point-and-click adventure games. So thanks to those two for being the impetus for this puzzle! Another big thanks to skaldskaparmal (an amazing puzzle maker ) who provided excellent feedback, some of which I politely declined to implement (so if there's anything annoying in here, skald already told me about it and you can revel in your correctness together). Finally, I think it's funny that I've only posted one puzzle here this year, and it's a Cryptic of the Year. That's all. Thanks for solving! [ solve online ] [ pdf ] [ .ipuz ] SOLUTION: (highligh...

Herzwesten and I are back with another text adventure–style cryptic, so  blow the dust out of your data ports and jack in—it's time to hack the cryptic! Like our  previous puzzles  in this genre, there are a few small cryptic grids plus a mini meta puzzle. Unlike the previous puzzles, the descriptive text that appears when you enter a correct answer is just for fun and immersion—you won't need it to solve the final puzzle. Thanks to akatookey and skaldskaparmal for their invaluable test solves!  [ solve online ]

This puzzle was requested via my stream (a long, long time ago) by the fabulous akaamrit, who has no doubt forgotten by now that she ever redeemed it! This puzzle relates to a specific someone—can you use the nine themed answers to guess who? This puzzle has been in my queue for some time, and for whatever reason proved very difficult to finish cluing. But I got by with a little help from my friends, and the puzzle is much better for it! Many thanks to Dob, Gwen, jmsr, juff, Liam, momes, and Paula for their help with cluing, and juff and Liam for the test solve!  [ solve online ] [ jpuz ]