Equinox 73

The 73rd Equinox Word Games Party was held in Berkeley on March 23, 2024.

Theme: Radio

Mixer: Hello Group, Solve Mixer by NeilFred Picciotto (Renfield)
Paper-and-pencil puzzle: by Jill Tallmer
Whole room game: The Middle by Wei-Hwa Huang
Creative game: Segues by Dean Howard (Shrdlu)
Performance game: Digital Alphabet Blocks by Stephen Ng
Paper-and-pencil puzzle: Hex Rugs and Rock 'n' Roll by Rick Rubenstein (Rubrick)

Hex Rugs and Rock 'n' Roll

A paper-and-pencil puzzle

Hex Rugs and Rock 'n' Roll by Rick Rubenstein (Rubrick)

Has there ever been a more iconic pairing than rock music and floor coverings?

Digital Alphabet Blocks

A performance game by Stephen Ng

The game involved hardware and software, consisting of six 8-inch wooden cubes with an LED letter displayed on one side, plus a video game component displayed on a projector. Rearrange the cubes to make words and score points. The screen shows your current set of letters so the audience can follow along. Periodically, a letter falls from above to replace one of your existing letters. Groups played in teams of four--three people to manipulate the cubes, and a spotter to help make words and anticipate new letters.

All the code is available on GitHub. The video game part is playable on a computer; contact the designer for more details.

Segues

A creative game from Equinox 73

Segues by Dean Howard (Shrdlu)

Teams work together to find connections between apparently unrelated things.

The Middle

A whole room game from Equinox 73

The Middle by Wei-Hwa Huang

In this game, Wei-Hwa posed several trivia and wordplay-adjacent questions, but instead of trying to guess the correct answer, each team's goal was to guess what answer had been given the "middle-most" number of times on social media. It then proceeded to get weirder and more meta as the game went on.

Hello Group, Solve Mixer

A Wordle-ish mixer from Equinox 73

Hello Group, Solve Mixer by NeilFred Picciotto (Renfield)

Each player receives a sticker on their back with a five-letter word, plus three separate half-sheets of paper that are labeled page 1, 2, and 3.

The game was setup for 55 players, though in the end we had fewer than 55 players, so some people took double solving duty.

Within the PDF:

• The first 55 sheets each contain a page 1 and a page 2. These should be cut in half before play.
• Everyone's page 1 is the same as each other so of course it doesn't matter who gets which one. 
• Each player gets a different page 2, but again it doesn't matter who starts off with which one since part of the game will be re-distributing them.
• The next 28 sheets each contain two different page 3's. These should also be cut in half before play.
• Again, it doesn't matter who starts off with which particular page 3 since part of the game will be re-distributing them.
• The next four sheets are the stickers. They are to be printed using Avery 5162 template labels – that is, 1 1/3" x 4", with 14 labels to a sheet.

Further instructions are on the sheets.