❓Welcome to the Puzzles & Pints event series!❓

Do those pesky blue squiggles fill your map and keep you up at night? Not sure where to begin with the wild world of Geocaching puzzles? Fret not, my fellow caching friends, as the Puzzles & Pints event series is here to help! Every third Thursday we will have a meeting of the minds to discuss strategies, suggest ideas, and riddle our way to solutions. These laid-back events are designed to be fun and collaborative; attend just one or all 18, it's completely up to you! Here is how it works:

1️⃣ Log your will attend

It all starts with logging your intention to attend, after all, we want to know who is coming! In your log, feel free to suggest up to three Geocaching puzzles you wish to discuss during the event. Simply include the GC code followed by the name, for example, GCADBRW - The Ladder Cache. Of course, this is optional; you do not need to suggest any puzzles to log a will attend or attend the event.

Some suggestions for selecting puzzles:

• Preview the puzzle before adding it to our list. Give it an honest try on your own.
• Try to avoid complex and layered puzzles. This includes random lines of cipher text, the use of external websites, or puzzles that look tedious, time-consuming, or overall lame.
• When possible, suggest puzzles attendees could potentially have an opportunity to find. Puzzles closer to Morgantown and the surrounding states will be prioritized over those far from the event.

2️⃣ Preview the list

A week before each event, I will add all the suggested caches to our Puzzles & Pints 2024 shared list. (Also check out Buckeye's Google Sheet!) Puzzles suggested within a week of the event may not appear, depending on the existing length of the list and the timeliness of the event. If you have time, familiarize yourself with the list and make notes of any initial ideas you might have. The expectation isn't to come with solutions, but rather a few ideas to get the gears turning. No ideas are bad ideas and this is a collaborative effort!

When reviewing the list, the following nomenclature is used to organize the stack:

• [01] Caches marked with a number are to be worked on during the next event, in the order the numbers appear.
• [O] Caches marked with an O indicate the puzzle has been previously discussed, but no solution has been reached.
• [X] Caches marked with an X indicate the puzzle has been solved.

3️⃣ Join us for an evening of fun

Bring your thinking cap and we will see you on Thursday, May 30, 2024, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Stone Tower Brews in Morgantown. No purchase is necessary to attend. You'll want to bring printed copies of the caches from the list, any notes you might have, scrap paper and pens, and a laptop if you have one. Stone Tower has excellent FREE wifi for us to connect to, although, the space is limited on charging outlets. We will spend about two hours working through each cache on the list. Caches not discussed during this event will be placed on the top of the list for the next event. 

It is also important to note this is not an event to get free coordinates from your fellow cachers. If the majority of the group does not have a puzzle solved, the expectation is to provide nudges or clues, not a full solution. This is especially true for caches owned by local players.

4️⃣ Homework

The fun doesn't stop when the event wraps up! Each event is healthily spaced to allow attendees of previous events to try suggested ideas, brainstorm solutions, and reach out to the cache owners for assistance, if necessary. For each event, we will start by discussing any breakthroughs from any of the previous events. Feel free to message me or other attendees to collaborate and share ideas in the meantime between events!

But wait, there's more! 

It wouldn't be a Troopbiz event without a little twist! I love working on local puzzles placed by my caching friends, so I issue a challenge of sorts. At the conclusion of the 18th event, I will be awarding prizes to the best puzzles placed in 2024 discussed at these events.

• Puzzles eligible for recognition should be challenging enough to warrant being discussed at these events, but clever enough to offer a satisfying solution. A hard puzzle for the sake of being hard isn't fun.
• If you have personally published a cache you would like to be considered for recognition, please indicate the GC code and name in your "Will Attend" log. This submission will not count toward one of your three.
• I will keep track of my favorites throughout the year by adding an asterisk (*) after the [X] in the bookmark list. My reviews are subjective and my personal opinion. I'm hosting the event and making the rules, so I do what I want.

I hope you join in on the fun and place a puzzle or two!