New-to-You Puzzles
We'd like to introduce Browser subscribers to the puzzles of the Rackenfracker, and Rackenfracker subscribers to our new puzzle in The Browser!
If you're new here, welcome — The Rackenfracker has been publishing variety cryptic crosswords for (checks notes) (faints) (honestly, I really did have to check my notes) nearly three years now. In the third paragraph, we'll navigate you to some choice puzzles to sample.
If you're a Rackenfracker regular, you've heard us talk about the ebb and flow of places that publish North American-style cryptics. Well, The Browser has been a gusher: to date, 211 weekly block-style 15x puzzles edited by Dan Feyer. Dan and his constructors keep solvers on their toes with wordplay that's a little on the wild side of the mainstream, which made for good company: We wrote that 211th puzzle, available today to Browser subscribers. A number of our collaborators and editors — Andy Yingst, Will Nediger, Joe Pasini, Steve Mossberg, Will Eisenberg, Norah Sharpe, Nate Cardin — are part of that formidable cryptic archive, so if you haven't sampled The Browser (which, apart from a puzzle purveyor, is also a daily digest that curates fascinating writing from across the web), trust that you'll be in the best hands.
On this site, we publish a monthly variety cryptic for subscribers, and free puzzles as often as we can make 'em. You can sign up to be notified whenever we publish a new puzzle. Those include our series of starter puzzles, the Nerfrackers — not exactly 101, say, but 102 or maybe 201 — which are straight cryptics, not varieties. Our variety puzzles tend to have a little logic puzzle involved:
- This Wordle-based puzzle commemorates the upcoming Oscars
- This Scrabble-based puzzle is our first where the words have to assembled like a jigsaw – one of our favorite gimmicks
- This heist-themed puzzle — a collaboration with Mr. Pasini — is a favorite of our solvers
The rest of the free archive is here.
Our wildest and wooliest puzzles are our edited series of subscription puzzles. Our members have so far gotten monthly cryptics in two 12-puzzle suites, Word▶️ and Out of Shape, and some new experiments in our third year, including Downright Tricky. Soon we'll be collecting these past puzzles as books for individual purchase, and we've got a raft of fun new ideas ahead. We hope you'll join us.