yomikoma

Today I spent a happy afternoon
(plus bits of morning) walking all around
the streets of Boston, solving puzzles with
some friends. We four were playing in a game
called DASH (that's Diff'rent Area, Same Hunt).
Our team (STDP) had played in DASH
the first when it was held September last -
this was the second, and we had a ball.

Like then, this hunt consisted of a set
of puzzles, with the first given to all
the teams at once. The answer to
each puzzle lets you figure out the place
which holds the puzzle following. A bit
of walking will ensue in unknown parts
of town. Unlike DASH 1, there was no cost
for taking time to just enjoy the day -
the ranking is on solving time alone.
The sites are clued by numbers on a map
which changes in each city with a hunt;
thus all ten cities shared the puzzles and
the answers, simply walking different ways.
The final place provides a puzzle which
will take as input all the answers of
the hunt - a metapuzzle. Finally
a single answer's given and the teams
relax and chat and eat some food nearby.

I really liked that change - it meant we could
relax and see the sights - some lovely parks,
some fountains too, and, in the BPL,
some murals that were worth the trip alone.

The puzzles, 9 in total, were quite good.
I think I liked "The Brady Bunch" the best.
(there was a TV theme this time, it seems)
The first one, "Dancing With The Stars" appealed
to me for using constellation names
since constellations interest me of late.
And "Star Trek"'s use of other bases was
a cute device - especially the choice
of values in the case of Enterprise!
I also liked the fact (which maybe not
another of the members of my team
has noticed) that the metapuzzle words
(the answer, that is) fit into our grid
and also clued a final place to go:
the place we started from! I'm guessing that
in other cities that is where the bar
or restaurant to end at was. Nice job,
constructors! Also, puzzle number 10:
a twitter puzzle, asking every team
who wished to to contribute to a game
of cluing common words, which also were
the names of people in some well-known shows
(for instance, "Venus Flytrap", "Wednesday", "Creed"
(we had to look that last one up)). If you
could guess the names from other groups of teams,
and more importantly their shows, it led
to one more extra answer. Somehow not
a single team in group the third took part
but we could solve around that missing name
and even guessed correctly what it was.
(The show should start with M? Radar, from M*A*S*H!)
'Twas fun - a side dish, nice to play and solve
between our other solving. And the change
in timing meant there was no reason not
to take a rest and solve this other thing.

In general I'm very happy with
DASH number two and will be waiting with
impatience for the third one. If you want
to solve or volunteer to help put on
the next one, there is contact info on
the playdash website. Hope to see you there!