Amazéd
(Published on 22. February 2026, 23:23 by ThePedallingPianist)
This is my response to Scojo's setting prompt for last week, for which some chump thought it would be funny to request rulesets with either at least one or at most one word beginning with each letter of the alphabet.
The number of impressively creative rulesets using exactly one word beginning with each letter of the alphabet seriously amazéd me, and somewhat put my own puzzle shame, but it was a very fun one to set so I hope that sharing it brings some joy! My first draft looked like this, which has Monkeys and Kites, but I wanted to shoehorn maximum silliness into the final rule...!
Many thanks to several testers who confirmed my difficulty estimate and helped to improve rule wording (as much as is possible with the constraint!)
Quattroquadri: Place 1-9 without multiplicity in rows / columns / boxes.
Numbers equidistant from V / X on Zebra lines total 5 / 10.
Helicopters: smaller digits as you go up... just kidding!
The number of impressively creative rulesets using exactly one word beginning with each letter of the alphabet seriously amazéd me, and somewhat put my own puzzle shame, but it was a very fun one to set so I hope that sharing it brings some joy! My first draft looked like this, which has Monkeys and Kites, but I wanted to shoehorn maximum silliness into the final rule...!
Many thanks to several testers who confirmed my difficulty estimate and helped to improve rule wording (as much as is possible with the constraint!)
Quattroquadri: Place 1-9 without multiplicity in rows / columns / boxes.
Numbers equidistant from V / X on Zebra lines total 5 / 10.
Helicopters: smaller digits as you go up... just kidding!
Solution code: Row 6 (bottom), left to right
Last changed on on 22. February 2026, 23:30
Solved by MSDOS, widjo, emoney1374, RedBarchetta, Andrewsarchus, gnidan, Krisonium, fajoogaloo, Fizz, balpha, Exigus, jwsinclair, SKORP17, LenD, Neumino, Scojo, eladv, abihummel, zrbakhtiar, johnreid, Counterfeitly, NEWS, blackjackfitz, Ktt, jgarber, zeniko, maniacaljackal, JVA, BG03, slatt490
Comments
on 24. February 2026, 21:01 by blackjackfitz
A beautiful construction. Doesn't everyone find great happiness in "just kidding" logic? Maybe not one person quite readily solved this until V's with X's yielded zen.
on 23. February 2026, 12:03 by balpha
My quest for solving this x-traordinary puzzle yielded immense enjoyment. Unfamiliar zebra lines brought additional knowledge. Very nicely constructed despite obviously hilarious rule weirdnesses, good job!
on 23. February 2026, 02:48 by RedBarchetta
Hey, alright! That was fun.
on 22. February 2026, 23:30 by ThePedallingPianist
Added link to first draft
