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Let's do fortnightly topic challenges again!


What to Do:

If you have an idea for a tag or a theme of any kind to use as a topic challenge, post it as an answer below. (Do note, you can propose anything, not only a tag). Only one suggestion per answer, please. Here is a list of all tags, to help.

At the start of each fortnight, the highest-voted answer to this post will be selected as that fortnight's topic. Starting from today, users can propose their themes or topics. The selected answer will then be deleted to reduce clutter in the list.

After the selection, a new question will be created in this format. An answer will then be posted to that question with links to all the posts in the featured topic in the fortnight, hopefully by the poster themselves.

We'll again keep a list of all the topics in the re-run.

Happy Puzzling!

Current topic:

  • March ??th – April ??th, 2019
    ??? ** suggested by **???

ANY NEW IDEAS?

Previous topics:

  • November 12th – November 25th, 2018
    Short-and-Sweet list suggested by Bass

  • October 15th – October 28th, 2018
    list suggested by Riley

  • September 24rd – October 7th, 2018
    Deep-Down-in-the-Dungeon list suggested by BmyGuest

  • September 3rd – September 16th, 2018
    Reusing-Information list suggested by phenomist

  • July 9th – July 22nd, 2018
    Rare-and-Endangered list suggested by Alconja

  • June 18th – July 1st, 2018
    Twisted-Classics list suggested by Alconja

  • May 28th – June 10th, 2018
    Restricted-Title list suggested by Sp3000

  • 2015 – 2017
    See prior thread...

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  • $\begingroup$ Any chance for a Fortnightly Topic Challenge #42 in October? $\endgroup$ Sep 20, 2019 at 19:06

8 Answers 8

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INSPIRED BY @someone's PUZZLE

Create a puzzle that is inspired by other puzzles that have been published in Puzzling. But it should provide a "twist" on the existing puzzle (not just same style with a different answer). That could be in the form of reverse puzzling, combining with other puzzles, or whatever creative things you can imagine.

example:

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This is a genre of puzzle that has been rather underused. The last topic challenge on this one led to some wonderful puzzles and great participation from users. Maybe, it's time to get this one rolling again.

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Hidden Puzzles

I often like puzzles where the puzzle itself is hidden in the text of the question. The puzzle is not directly given, and it is up to the reader to figure out all of the hints to solve it.

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Restricted Title #2

Rerun of the Restricted Title topic challenge, originally suggested by Sp3000 (text mostly taken from their suggestion post, but with a new title list).

Usually the title is decided upon later in the puzzle creation process, chosen to be fitting and often to provide a hint/reference. Here we're going to go the other way.

Below is a list of the works of modern art currently on view at the MoMA, filtered down to only those titles which are family-friendly and would be valid for posting as a Stack Exchange question title (≥ 15 characters). Pick any of the 217 remaining titles and use it as-is (preserving case, part numbers, parenthesised words, etc.) — this will be the title of your new puzzle.

The title should make sense given the puzzle, whether that be through the puzzle's presentation, mechanics or answer. The more fitting, the better!

Don't be discouraged if you see that someone else has posted a puzzle with a title you had intended to use. If anything, it can be interesting to see what different approaches people take for the same title, should there be any collisions!

The list:

A Rolled Banner - Hare's Blood
Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, Pardons the Sentry
Abstract Painting
American People Series #20: Die
And on a Different Note
Apple on the Sideboard
Art Make-Up: No. 1 White, No. 2 Pink, No. 3 Green, No. 4 Black
Articulated Lair
Bauhaus Stairway
Bell-47D1 Helicopter
BIO 1 (Poster for the first Biennial of Industrial Design held in Ljubljana, former Yugoslavia)
Black Pope (Sandwich Board Man)
Blond Negress II
Blue Vase with Nasturtiums
Broadway Boogie Woogie
Brooklyn, New York
Chitungwiza from the Lynch Fragment series
Christina's World
City Archive, Skopje, Macedonia (Elevation, 1:200)
City Archive, Skopje, Macedonia (Ground-floor plan, 1:200)
Collection of Various Flexible Materials Separated by Layers of Grease with Holes the Size of My Waist and Wrists
Composite Photo of Two Messes on the Studio Floor
Composition 1960 #2
Composition 1960 #3
Composition 1960 #4
Composition 1960 #5
Composition of Circles and Overlapping Angles
Cultural Center/Macedonian Opera and Ballet, Skopje, Macedonia (Roof plan)
Cup of? from the Lynch Fragment series
Dance Constructions: Yoko Ono Chambers St. Loft Map
Dance or Exercise on the Perimeter of a Square (Square Dance)
Development of a Bottle in Space
Diary of a Seducer
Drawing without Paper 84/25 and 84/26
Drawing without Paper 85/19
DS-101 Computer
Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin
Easter and the Totem
Echo: Number 25, 1951
Eighteen Happenings in Six Parts, Reuben Gallery, New York, October 1959
Elektroslavonija Headquarters, Osijek, Croatia (Longitudinal section, 1:50, 1973)
Elektroslavonija Headquarters, Slavonski Brod, Croatia (Perspective)
Elke Allowing the Floor to Rise Up Over Her, Face Up
EM 2 (Telephone Picture)
EM 3 (Telephone Picture)
Enak's Tears (Terrestrial Forms)
Entrance Gate to Paris Subway (Métropolitain) Station, Paris, France
Essex Street Market
ETA 80 Telephone
ETA 85 Telephone
Everything Else Has Failed! Don't You Think It's Time for Love?
Expansion in Four Directions
Extinction of Useless Lights
Flying Carpet with Magic Mirrors for a Distorted Nation
Formula 1 Racing Car (641/2)
From a Day with Juan II
Full Fathom Five
Garden in Sochi
Ghost Dance/Pedmarks
Giufà, la luna, i ladri e le guardie
Glass and Tobacco (Verre et paquet de tabac)
Glass of Absinthe
Goce Delčev Student Dormitory, Skopje, Macedonia (Floor plan, 1:200)
Goce Delčev Student Dormitory, Skopje, Macedonia (Site plan, 1:250)
Gold Marilyn Monroe
Goldfish and Sculpture
Grandcamp, Evening
Green Still Life
Group of Figures
Hanging Column (from Dawn's Wedding Feast)
He Did What He Wanted
Head of a Sleeping Woman (Study for Nude with Drapery)
Help Me Hurt Me
History of LeRoy Borton
Homage to the Square: Two Whites Between Two Yellows
Hope for the Future
I See Again in Memory My Dear Udnie
Katutura from the Lynch Fragment series
L A Air from Artists & Photographs
Lady Dog Lizard
Landscape at Collioure
Large Torso: Arch
Learned Helplessness in Rats (Rock and Roll Drummer)
Ledge II, no. 88/37
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Lobster Trap and Fish Tail
Lupina armchairs
Man in the Open Air
Man with a Guitar
Manipulating a Fluorescent Tube
Masks Confronting Death
Measures of Distance
Medea's Hypostases II
Medea's Hypostases III
Medea's Hypostases IV
Microphone (model MD8-C)
Microphone (model MD9)
Milk Can and Apples
Model for Animal Pyramid II
My Grandparents, My Parents, and I (Family Tree)
Night Fishing at Antibes
No. 16 (Red, Brown, and Black)
Non-Objective Painting no. 80 (Black on Black)
Noon Time Activities
One: Number 31, 1950
Opus 217. Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones, and Tints, Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890
Painterly Architectonic
Painterly Realism of a Boy with a Knapsack - Color Masses in the Fourth Dimension
Painting Number 2
Personal Service Announcement: National Anthem
Picture with an Archer
Pines and Rocks (Fontainebleau?)
Planes in Modulated Surface 4
Points in Space
Portrait of Jacob Meyer de Haan
Portrait of Joseph Roulin
Portuguese Market
Punch and Judy II Birth & Life & Sex & Death
Q 1 Suprematistic
Refugee Flag
Reservist of the First Division
REX Lounge Chairs
Rock My Religion
Roof Sculpture with S Curve, II
Screwarch Bridge, state II
Sekuru Knows from the Lynch Fragment series
Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat
Seven Virtues/Seven Vices
Shimmering Substance
Siberian Salt Grinder
Simultaneous Contrasts: Sun and Moon
Simultaneous Counter-Composition
SLOW CORROSION LEADING TO A LOSS OF INHERENT DIGNITY OF THE OBJECT AT HAND
Solid as a Rock (My God is Rock)
Space Modulator L3
States of Mind I: The Farewells
States of Mind II: Those Who Go
States of Mind III: Those Who Stay
Still Life (Table with Bowl of Fruit)
Still Life with Aubergines
Still Life with Fruit Dish
Still Life with Ginger Jar, Sugar Bowl, and Oranges
Study for A dedicated follower of fashion
Study for Black Pope
Study related to "The First Step"
Study related to the sculpture Storage Capsule for the Right Rear Quarter of My Body
Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying
Suprematist Composition: White on White
Suprematist Painting
Tahitian Landscape
Television Delivers People
The Birth of the World
The Blue Window
The Channel at Gravelines, Evening, Marine avec des ancres
The Congo Queen
The Hunter (Catalan Landscape)
The Japanese Footbridge
The Large Trees
The Last Supper
The Mediterranean
The Menaced Assassin
The Nutty Professor storyboards
The Olive Trees
The Palace at 4 a.m.
The Passage from Virgin to Bride
The Persistence of Memory
The Piano Lesson
The Propitious Garden of Plane Image, Third Version
The Reservoir, Horta de Ebro
The Seed of the Areoi
The Starry Night
The Table (Still Life with Fan)
Things from the Room in the Back
Three Musicians
Three Women at the Spring
To Be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close to, for Almost an Hour
Tony Sinking into the Floor, Face Up, and Face Down
Trafalgar Square
Tribulations of Saint Anthony
Turning Road at Montgeroult
Twining Court I
Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale (Deux Enfants sont menacés par un rossignol)
Untitled (73/15)
Untitled (73/17)
Untitled (Bearded Man)
Untitled (Double Exposure Self Portrait)
Untitled (Endless Column)
Untitled (Golden Bird)
Untitled (Head of a Sleeping Child and The Newborn II)
Untitled (Head of a Young Woman)
Untitled (Large Night Sky)
Untitled (Nets)
Untitled (Night Train)
Untitled (Picture with Basket Ring)
Untitled (policeman)
Untitled (Rock Head)
Untitled (View of the Studio with Eve, Plato, and Golden Bird)
Untitled from Full Moon in Aries (Vollmond im Widder)
Untitled from the Firestorm series
Unttiled (View of the Studio with Endless Column, Beginning of the World, Adam and Eve, Bird in Space, and Torso of a Young Girl)
View of Notre Dame
View of the Artist's Studio
Violin Tuned D.E.A.D.
Vir Heroicus Sublimis
Walk with Contrapposto
Wall Drawing #1144, Broken Bands of Color in Four Directions
Wall/Floor Positions
White Anger, Red Danger, Yellow Peril, Black Death
White Curve VII
White Relief over White
With My Back to the World
Woman with a Veil
Woman with Pears
Woman's Head (Fernande)
Wood, Wind, No Tuba
Workers Leaving the Factory (after Lumière)
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One-Line Wonder

I like puzzles that are one sentence, and one sentence only (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and some others).

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Food, glorious food

I greatly enjoy solving and creating puzzles with a nice theme - story or pictures. And what can be better than trying to puzzle your way through all kinds of mouth-watering food? :-) The type of the puzzle doesn't really matter, ideally there should be images but a good text description will work.

Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4

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Waterfalling Words

Don't you love it when a puzzle just rolls off the tongue? When something about it just "flows" so well? This is usually because it has been written in a type of meter: a recurring pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in lines of a set length. Everyone can appreciate a puzzle whose prose is so satisfying that you get to the end, you say to yourself: "Man, that was smooth."

Challenge:

  • Write your puzzle (or a portion of it) in a type of poetic meter.

This guide details out the different terminology and types of meter, with examples for most of them:

http://shakespearestudyguide.com/meter.html

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Multiparters

How about questions that have multiple parts that must be solved to get the compete answer. This could either be done as one posted question that has multiple parts listed or as multiple questions that link together. Not sure which would be better but this can be discussed below.

I think this would be a good theme because it encourages creators to make more complex puzzles that take more thought to solve. The other benefit of multipart questions is you can choose to do different types of puzzles for the different parts so there can be good variety in that.

Some examples of good multipart questions are:

Feel free to add to this list if there are other multiparters you'd like to highlight.

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