Puzzles Books

This is a how-to book about running a d20 campaign in the `Biblical Era'

It includes alternative base classes, prestige classes, spells, monsters and a wealth of information about culture, history and religion of the major powers in the region. Does give a bit more space to the Israelites, but Egyptian, Babylonian and Cannite societies are all discussed in detail. A new tactical battle system is also introduced to run Biblical style wars. (aka. where the actions of a single hero or miracle will determine the course of the battle.)

Players need to be a little more mature than most d20 games to enjoy TESTAMENT. Not because the content is questionable. (although the discussion of Temple Prostitutes may cause snickering in some groups) There is a heavy emphasis on role playing in TESTAMENT. Protecting your tribe, surviving history and maintaining piety are very important concerns in the setting. If your players are looking for a `kill monsters and take their stuff' kind of game, than a lot of info in this book is going to go to waste.

Looking for an alternative to the LOTR/Conan/Magic Medieval setting? Try TESTAMENT. It's Better than you think.

This is an example for any 'historical' or 'literary' RPG supplement. It gives a good overview of the historical and literary inspirations, makes complete and coherent rules for role playing in that setting, addresses fairly the limits and opportunities in taking a setting familiar through history or fiction and making the shift to a role playing setting. Not only did they think up cool and useful feats, spells, etc. they are integrated deeply into the setting & vice versa. There are good gaming products out there, but few that can serve as an example of how to make a good gaming product as well. Some may say it isn't perfect, but until we find something that is, this will serve as something to measure other products against.

Excellent roleplaying guide for any Old Testament story. Covers play as any of the ancient peoples of the Bible and during any period, although there is an emphasis on Israelites and King David. Detailed events system makes village and farming life interesting. Bronze age army combat resolution captures the feel of the ancient ballads. Heroes dominate the ancient battlefield like champions from the Trojan War. Very, very well done and worthwhile for anyone interested in roleplaying the Ancient World.

The best puzzles satisfy the following criteria:

(a) Easy to understand and look easy to solve.
(b) Difficult to solve.
(c) In reality, easy to solve and the solutions are easy to understand.

All of the puzzles contained in this book, many of which have been in existence in some form for many years, fit the mold defined above. Detailed instructions on how to construct them as well as solutions are included. While most require only standard materials, such skills as wood and metal working are sometimes necessary.
It is easy to feel like an imbecile when you are unsuccessful in solving some of these items and then in desperation go to the solutions and see how simple it is. In many cases, the secret is to abandon the "obvious" approach and look at the problem sideways. The path that first appears least likely to lead to a solution is often the proper one. If you enjoy puzzles, this book is a necessary purchase.

Published in Journal Of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.

Excellent book covering a wide variety of puzzles, old and new, simple and complex. Full of color photos and diagrams that illustrate the puzzle and its workings, but with a light touch so the reader is not bored with details.

Boy!! what a book for a puzzle lover and/or collector.You just wont find a better book on the subject than this;for the simple reason that the two authors are the top puzzle guys.Well,maybe their other books are just as good.Can you imagine someone with a collection of 20,000 mechanical puzzles and 2,000 puzzle books. Some of these puzzles date back to the 17th.century.This book is so well put together I would suspect that even someone who doesn't particularly like to solve ,or for that matter don't even think they could solve puzzles ;would find this book a joy to thumb through.
The book includes 101 puzzles ,directions on making and solutions.Going through this book is almost as interesting as would be a visit with the authors and looking at this fantastic world class collection.Without question,a book no puzzle lover should be without .I own about 500 puzzle books and this is one of the best and one of my favorites.

I'm really happy that all over the world anybody can find something so fresh and great for himself brain growth. It's realy magic how one book can show you so much brandnew ideas...And it's only beginning.

Great puzzle book! - full of reworked classics, but with plenty of new twists and ideas - though you'll need to get plenty of paper and a pair of scissors to work many of the puzzles.

Let's hope for more puzzles from Serhiy!

If you're an afficianado of visual/logicial puzzles, you've probably shared my experience when browsing through so-called new puzzle books at your local bookstore-they all recycle the same old familiar chestnuts! There are a few places to find original puzzles-Games Magazine, the World Puzzle Championships, Scott Kim, Cliff Johnson, Think Fun-but not many. Happily, Grabarchuk's new book is a welcome departure from the norm. His puzzles are original and first rate, in a league far above your typical Mensa puzzle book. Highly recommended.

This book is excellent. This book will open a gamer up to new possibilities and ideas. Lots of variants on common games like chess.

In this book we see games we have played many times, and have (maybe) become bored with, revitalized with clever ideas, enhancements and suggestions from the author. As an example, consider the section on balancing non-symmetric games (such as Chess and Go which have an inbuilt first person advantage). Bidding, simultaneous playing of two games and the ingeneous "I'll make a move and then you decide whether to play black or white" idea where one player makes a move that the other player has to decide is bad or good are suggestions that are useful not just in the context given, but in the design and evaluation of all games. Recommended for anyone who enjoys, studies, reviews or designs games -- especially strategy games.

Wayne Schmittberger is a longtime associate of Games Magazine. It's a lot of fun to tinker with games to see how they change. The growth in Chess Variants is just one aspect of this. He explains those well, along with variants on Go, Risk, Monopoly, and many other games. He introduces many games you probably haven't seen before. All of them are great games, too! If you are considering designing a game of your own, or if you just have a collection of games, you need this book.

Whether you're flying, lounging by the pool, stretched out on the couch or riding a bus, this little entertainer is right there for you.
Each puzzle is contained on a single page and the spiral binding folds back on itself to provide a firm, page-size writing surface, so you don't need a lap-table or tray. Puzzles are challenging (after all, it IS the NY Times we're talking about) but a good search engine will prove invaluable.

These puzzles are extremely hard but they are clever and fun to do. I've only been able to do two so far without cheating ie: looking up the answers. They are tricky but I'm getting used to some of the tricks such as realizing that a single letter need not be an "a" or an "i" . And clues can have several different meanings and word forms -what looks like a noun can be a verb etc.For example a recent clue was "single" and I was trying to think of a word for unmarried or a one dollar bill. The answer was "one base hit."

As a long-time solver and former constructor of acrostic puzzles, I find it difficult to find acrostics that can challenge me, but these do! They are considerably more challenging than the ones Middleton does for the Simon and Schuster series. I highly recommend them to experienced solvers.

I love this product and buy it every year and get some for xmas presents for friends. It is daily fun that I look forward to and challenges you more and more as the days move to Sat/Sun. Highly recommended!

These are excellent puzzles ready to be worked on a daily basis. I've given this calendar to my father in law for many years, and he loves having it around. He likes to work them while he has his morning coffee.

This page-a-day desk calendar features 313 consecutive New York Times daily crossword puzzles originally printed between May 11, 2004 and June 1, 2005. This series aligns with the normal Monday to Saturday progression of difficulty. Saturdays and Sundays share a calendar page and feature a Saturday puzzle.
The puzzle grids measure about 3" x 3" on the page, while each full page measures about 6" x 5". The lower right corner even features a few square inches of blank space for use as an actual desk calendar. The tear-off pages offer portability - I often keep a few pages in my planner for use in waiting rooms, train rides, etc.
The 2007 calendar merited criticism for reusing the same puzzles as the 2006 one, but this 2008 edition clearly states on the box that these are not those same puzzles.

I'm down to the last puzzle and need to order another book of crosswords. I hope I can find one as good as this one. I've really enjoyed working these unique crosswords. If you like hard but clever puzzles, there's 50 in this book.

Everyone loves a New York Sunday crossword puzzle, for many people who can't get the New York Times on a daily basis because of geography or finances, the Sunday puzzles are the only ones they ever do. They're truly the most finely-crafted large crosswords available.

The puzzles are bigger than the Times daily puzzles, and although they are only the same difficulty level as your average Thursday puzzle, they take much longer to solve because of their mammoth size.

This is a great collection of puzzles that any crossword puzzle fan should have in their just-in-case arsenal.

After seeing the movie "Wordplay," my wife became interested in solving the NY Times crossword puzzle and is now addicted. This book was the perfect gift for a vacation to a place where getting the newspaper is not so easy.

This guide is very helpful. I gives you hints, tricks and so forth. It is very easy to understand and I read it whenever I am losing in my season(I am the St.Louis Blues - go Blues! ). If you are already already good at this game it will make you a grand master. I am only average at the game at best.

I recently bought a Sega Dreamcast and NHL 2K. NHL2K is a very complicated game. I needed some help so I purchased this guide. It has improved my play dramatically. I am the best in my neighborhood and almost always win. A must buy for all those who need help with NHL2K

Prima's NHL strategy guide is the best NHL guide I have everread. It gives you cheats, tips and playing tactics. I would recomendyou all to buy it, that is of course if you have the game, if you don't buy the game as well...

In 1993 Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short broke away from FIDE, the world chess federation, to contest their own world championship match sponsored by The Times newspaper of London. This book gives Nigel Short's best games, with meticulously researched comments, against top players, and shows how he qualified to meet the great Kasparov in their million dollar clash in London. Short's victims include Timman, Speelman, Ijubojevic, Karpov and Kasparov himself.
Raymond Keene is a British Chess Champion,and the first British Player to achieve a FIDE (World Chess Federation) Grandmaster norm. He was awarded the OBE for services to chess in 1985. He is Chess Correspondent of The Times,The Sunday Times,The Spectator, and The International Herald Tribune. He is a prolific author of chess books, several of which are classics of the genre. He has organised three World Chess Championships.<.>

nigel short challenged garry kasparov for the world title in 1993. this book gives short's best games commented on in detail with wins against karpov , kasparov himself, seirawan, miles gelfand, speelman and timman.

nigel short was a chess prodigy who swept through the ranks of experienced grandmasters including anatoly karpov and jan timman to take on garry kasparov in the 1993 world championship. against kasparov , short was outclassed but he held his own with all the rest and played some wonderful tactical games for example against yasser seirawan. this book is very useful indeed for players who like to play 1e4 and start attacking right from the word go!

Tired of listening to all your friends and coworkers talk about how much fun they have playing Texas Hold'Em. I was, but not knowing how to play kept me from going to any games. I saw this book on line and decided to give it a try. The book was great !!! Very easy to read and gave me all the basic rules and strategies. I went to my first game last weekend and came in second place !!!! Now I can't wait to play again. Don't miss out on the fun.

This book is terrific for newcomers to the Texas Hold 'em scene. Everything you need is right here in an easy to follow layout. The book is designed for both the novice and the more experienced player. I found that once I had read the book I could easily go back and find the section that I was interested in. The strategy sections are particularly helpful. I found the advice on when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em especially good.

No Limit Fun is a must-have book for learning how to play Texas Hold'em poker. It teaches you everything you need to know to play this exciting game. I actually won my first tournament after reading the book! If you want to learn to play the game, or try your hand at hosting your own poker party, you gotta get this book!