These are PDFs of cryptic crosswords I made to hand out at conventions
of the National Puzzlers' League in the years 1998–2020. I didn't
have soft copies of some Con cryptics (notably, the early ones), so the
ones marked * have been retypeset to give the approximate (though not exact)
appearance they had originally (The Village and 8x10 Cryptic, in contrast,
were redone to look snazzier and more New Yorkerish, respectively, than
the originals). As for non-Con cryptics:
Miscellaneous cryptics are here,
any cryptics among
my MIT Mystery Hunt puzzles are here, and my
Mystery Hunt warmup cryptics and American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
cryptics are on my home page.
Since each of these was written for a specific time and place, there
are a few instances where the final step may require explanation.
In these cases I have provided an "Endgame Explanation" link;
however, it is probably best to solve the puzzle first, since the
explanation contains SPOILERS.
(Also note that in 2004 I was one of the constructors for the
Charlie-on-the-MTA-themed Saturday night extravaganza at the Con,
where solvers were directed, by puzzles like
this one, to different parts of the Con hotel
to get various items and information.)
(1995–1997, Portland, OR, Chicago, IL, and Washington, DC: I didn't
bring cryptics to these Cons, but see "2012, Portland, OR" below.)
1998, Atlanta, GA:
1999, Big Sky, MT:
2000, San Francisco, CA:
2001, Newark, NJ:
2002, Vancouver, BC:
2003, Indianapolis, IN:
2004, Cambridge, MA:
2005, Los Angeles, CA:
2006, San Antonio, TX:
2007, Ann Arbor, MI:
2008, Denver, CO:
2009, Baltimore, MD (forming a four-puzzle group):
2010, Seattle, WA:
2011, Providence, RI:
2012, Portland, OR (forming a three-puzzle group):
2013, Austin, TX (forming a three-puzzle group):
2014, Portland, ME (forming a three-puzzle group):
- NH
- ME (minor errata have been corrected)
- VT (I recommend solving this one
after solving the other two.)
2015, Vancouver, BC (the first three form a three-puzzle group):
2016, Salt Lake City, UT (the first three form a three-puzzle group):
2017, Boston, MA (forming a three-puzzle group):
2018, Milwaukee, WI (the first three form a three-puzzle group):
- London Times
- Financial Times
- Listener
(I recommend solving this one after solving the other two.)
- In These Parts (A handout for a 5K race
at the Con; not part of the above group.)
- (Cowritten with Tortoise.) Old Milwaukee, an official convention
cryptic in two different versions:
Premium (longer/harder) and
Light (shorter/easier).
2019, Boulder, CO (forming a three-puzzle group):
2020, Toronto, ON did not occur; an online not-officially-NPL con
called Conline 2 did, preceded weeks earlier by the "warm-up" Conline 1,
and followed in October by Conline 3. (The Conline 2 puzzles form a
three-puzzle group.)
2021, Washington, DC, preceded in February by Conline 4. (The DC Con
puzzles form a three-puzzle group.)
2022, Nashville, TN (forming a three-puzzle group).
2023, Montreal, QC (forming a three-puzzle group).
Back to my home page