See Puzzle 25 for instructions. My originally planned Puzzle 43 is postponed due to excruciation. Besides, it freed me up to make this for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jdllama's birthday (sorry it's late). It's an easy puzzle, but hopefully still interesting. Assisting slightly in that regard is the presence of non-symbol cells in the grid, an original addition of mine to the design. Note that they're not absences from the grid (they'd be solid black if they were, like the rules state), so they have to belong to blocks; note also that they don't alter the rules any, so they can piggy-back onto any kind of block. Yes, the puzzle still has a unique solution; yes, I could use this mechanism to make a Number Link and call it a Polyamory, something I've been secretly plotting for awhile now. Be afraid. Be very afraid. But I digress:
"Steverino" is an inside joke. I suppose I could explain it, but then it wouldn't be inside anymore. No prizes for this one in the short term, I'm afraid - I'm not exactly rolling in dough at the moment - but send me your solutions anyway and perhaps I'll apply them towards enhancing future rewards. - ZM
Nikoli calls these simply "Block Puzzle". That won't do. That could describe hundreds of puzzle types. Besides, this involves polyominoes, not rectangles. I've been wanting to use Polyamory as a puzzle title for some time, and it may as well be used here.
The usual 5×5 sample puzzle is on the left; its unique solution is on the right rendered in indigo, with the cyan lines being just a solving aid. Yes, I just repeated a color scheme. What can I say, it fits.
Concise pedantism follows: The object is to take the given grid and divide it into polyominoes such that a permutation of the symbols in each polyomino matches one of the given permutations beneath the grid and that the given quantities of polyomino for each permutation are matched exactly.
Yep - another one-sentence ruleset. If you don't know what a permutation is, here's the numbered multi-line version:
1) Except for borders, the puzzle grid shows only the corners of the cells of the grid. (Black "cells" are simply holes in the grid pattern.) To solve the puzzle, draw in the needed borders between cells so as to divide the grid up into sections (polyominoes) following the remaining rules.
2) Each section will contain a quantity of symbols - letters, digits, whatever. It doesn't matter what order they are in in the grid, but for each section, those symbols must be able to exactly match one of the arrangements listed under the grid if those symbols were lined up and ordered properly.
3) The numbers next to each arrangement under the grid show how often the arrangement is used in the solution - that is, how many times a section matching those symbols appears in the solution. Divvy up the entire grid to match those numbers, and the puzzle is solved!
In the sample puzzle, each section has a single 'A', a single 'B', a single 'C', a single 'D', and a single 'E'. No other combinations are allowed, since "ABCDE" is the only one provided for under the grid. As a quick glance at the solution shows, the letters don't need to be in a nice, neat, intuitive alphabetical order inside of each section.
I always try to make my sample puzzles instructional, such that they can't really be solved by means other than one that enforces the points I'm trying to get across. Sometimes this results in the sample puzzle really being quite nasty for a sample. I believe this happened here. Don't feel ashamed to read behind the cut:
( How to solve the sample puzzle )
I thought it would be particularly fitting for me to use the usernames of the two actual declared polyamorous individuals on my Friends list for my first Polyamory. In addition to the obvious, it also happens that they consider each other archnemeses; the grid below, to me, looks like their minions duking it out in a massive melee. Another curiosity is that unlike everyone else on my Friends list, I discovered them, as opposed to the other way around or having known me prior to my starting this journal. I'm curious to see if either of them notices. Of course, anyone who notices the puzzle may feel free to comment on it here (barring spoilers, natch), and if I'm emailed the solution, my standard practice is to verify it and on occasion award a prize if correct. My email address is on my User Info page (as is my privacy policy). - ZM
