It’s been two years since we last played Spaghetti here on the blog — I completely forgot about running a round or two last year, much to my eventual embarrassment when the game was name-checked in a Mystery Hunt puzzle.
Let’s review, shall we?
In the Mystery Hunt and other such events, players accrue answers by solving puzzles. Those answers generally form a “metapuzzle” — which is to say, those answers form one further puzzle, which when solved usually brings great rewards.
Many years ago I first ran an experiment where I challenged puzzle lovers to solve a metapuzzle that wasn’t a puzzle at all — it was, in fact, a bunch of randomly chosen words. This should have been impossible. It wasn’t. Puzzlers are incredibly adept at spotting patterns that others are likely to miss, and they found all kinds of “answers” in those random words. And they have done so every single time I have run the game. As a group, they have never been stumped. Go read the comments from the last time I did this to see some examples.
So with the new Mystery Hunt coming up this weekend, let’s play at least one round of Spaghetti and see what these crazy puzzleheads come up with this time.
Even if you can’t “solve” the puzzle I am about to present, come back often and read the comments, and press Like for your favorite solutions. (You can vote for as many solutions as you want.) The submission with the most Likes will be the winner.
Here are five randomly chosen words. What’s the answer, and why?
ADJOINING
GOOD
PASTORAL
RUDDY
SMASH
When crafting your answer, you have the option of adding a sixth word to this list — any word you like. Or you can stick with these five.
Good luck and bon appétit!