Last weekend I spent the day volunteering for DASH 12. DASH stands for Different Area, Same Hunt. On the same day, in cities all over the world, teams solve puzzles that lead them through a story as they navigate from location to location. The puzzles are centrally developed, but the route (of course) is different in every city. This year, DASH also stood for Delightful Animal Sanctuary Holiday, because the puzzles had a safari theme.
I wrote the puzzle "Ears" for DASH 11, which ran in 2019, and was thrilled to be asked back for the next iteration. You can find my puzzle, "True Stripes", on the DASH 12 page. I wanted to make a puzzle that required some physical manipulation to take advantage of the in-person nature of the hunt, but did get some feedback from other cities that managing strips of paper in windy conditions was not an ideal solving experience. This wasn't a problem in Toronto, where the smaller number of teams allowed for mainly indoor sites, but other locations had too many teams to make this possible. Live and learn!
The teams in Toronto seemed to be having a fantastic time, and from what I've heard this was in general a hugely successful re-launch of DASH after its six year hiatus. As in 2019, I was so impressed with everyone involved in the development and organizing of the event. So many rounds of playtesting, so many logistics to manage, so much planning for the individual cities. And so much creativity from my fellow constructors. I'm very grateful to have been part of it!
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| Me (right) and my partner in crime for the day, the hilarious Becca, manager of Bakka-Phoenix Books, Canada's oldest science fiction and fantasy bookstore. |
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| The iconic Toronto Reference Library: stop three on the route. |
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| Becca and I also staffed the seventh stop, which was outside at Queen's Park. It rained a little, but that meant I got to use my on-theme umbrella. |
