Veizla

[jack]

And we have seating riddle objects. It's annoying when I form a fixed idea of what I want, and then can't get it, and am too tempted to waste ages looking. But in only a couple of hours today I'm satisfied.

Background, at the veizla there's some simple riddles to solve to find your seat. Eg. a seating plan with crossword clues one of which solves to your name. Last year, which I liked very much and decided to copy, Clare had 30 alphabet blocks with little pictures on them, and handed each person a pair of clues to the block on the left or right. There's a lot of variation as sun could be "yellow" or "big" or "hot" or whatever the clue demands.

I wanted to copy this with different blocks. I didn't actually have this conversation, but it represents the problem:

CartesianD: Hi!
Storekeeper: How can I help you?
CartesianD: Can I get 30, that are smallish, have a different picture on each, and cost about £10 for the lot?
Storekeeper: Thirty what?
CartesianD: Well, exactly.

Substituting "google" or "froogle" for "storekeeper" doesn't help either. I had a few ideas: alphabet blocks, flash cards, illustrated playing cards, tarot cards. But I wanted something really shiny and nothing was. There were some nice novelty card sets (I got a nature one from borders, it's bound to be useful sometime), but all too specific (animals, or even african animals) or way too specific (german declensions, or parts of anatomy) :)

Here are a few of the runners up, the last two were the nearest to shiny but I wasn't sure if they'd do:

National geographic: Nature
Bold but not shiny flash cards
Alphabet blocks, attatched to a wooden frame. Nearly right, but I didn't like some of the pictures.
One of several animal playing card decks with nice art
A more recent (as in, 1800s) Tarot-like deck, with 36 numbered cards not from the tarot. Nice art, but a bit wishy-washy (literally) for my feelings at that time.
Children's snap cards. The photos of objects were beautiful, you could nearly taste the apple, and the objects appropriate (clue for red pepper: "Mars"), but I wasn't sure how many there'd be.

But finally something clicked with me. It was a modern tarot set, and shiny, and illustrated all 78 cards, each then having a picture and a name or number/suit, so more chance to make good clues.

I'm glad I don't have to worry -- I wanted to choose something nice, and had a day to spend at home recuperating, but didn't want it becoming a major job or to be paniced at the last minute.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Yes. I'm perhaps biased by having had *my* first Veizla fairly recently, so thinking too much about what's easy for newcomers. (Eg. having an itinery in the announcement so they know what's going to happen!)

because I didn't know anyone's names (especially surnames) and so couldn't solve the clues

Which was puzzle was that?

Having clues to random wooden things / cards is a lot friendlier / easier from that point of view

Yes. Also, I like the shiny. And it's easier on me because I can make up two or three clues for each block in the back of my head whenever I like, independent of arranging a seating plan, and even of assigning blocks to people, and then use a spreadhseet to print off all the appropriate clues at the last minute, I don't need to know who's who, or what who might know about who.

not everyone would know my surname is Vernon...

LOL. Yes, I'd forgotten reading the first half of that sentence, and then gone "Ooh! Weddingshiny." :)

Susan would be great fun here, all three clues could be anagrams to different words :)

Of course, it depends what you think of as complicated.

Yeah. How intricate do you want it to be, and how hard? I'd say not hard at all, just an excuse to get people talking, and be pretty, but take from none to ten minutes of thinking time, allowing much mixing. So mine is probably about the right hardness but maybe slightly too intricate.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

(You're logged out, BTW)

Which was puzzle was that?

In the Old Days, they would just be an A4 page of straight, slightly amusing anagrams (eg "a clog lushly") or clues about names (eg "final rush into a ravine"). Can't remember whose viezla it was though.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ah, of course. I was going to say "But surely, you just need to be able to find your own name", but I remember that not being the case at my first Veizla. (I think Naath spelled "Vickeridge" right, though :))

"final rush into a ravine"

LOL, that's good. (Was it an actual clue?) It's actually quite hard, because you tend never to think of your name in terms of homonyms, just as your name, so when people start talking about vicars at me I'm always completely baffled :)