Dummies.com: Games

Building a Farm in Minecraft

Though farming is not a required task in Minecraft, having a reliable source of renewable resources is useful. Many different items (plants, mostly) can be farmed in Minecraft. [more…]

How Hunger Affects Your Minecraft Character

Hunger is a dangerous long-term obstacle in the game of Minecraft — and you'll have to overcome this obstacle as efficiently as possible. As depicted by the Hunger bar at the bottom of the screen, you [more…]

Types of Plants You Can Farm in Minecraft

You can farm a variety of plants in Minecraft, some of which provide food, some that you can trade or sell to make profit, and some that you can use to make important utensils. [more…]

Mining Efficiently in Minecraft

In the game Minecraft, mining is an incredibly useful practice that gives you a fast (though challenging) means of obtaining strong minerals such as iron, redstone, and diamond. You can mine in a number [more…]

Engineering with Redstone in Minecraft

Redstone is one of the more advanced concepts in Minecraft. You can obtain redstone dust by mining redstone ore underground. You can spread this dust across the ground as wire, attach it to levers or doors [more…]

Tackling Abbreviations Used in Cryptic Crossword Clues

Abbreviations are widely used in cryptic clues, and many clue devices use them. You will come across abbreviations in charade, container, reversion and deletion clues in particular, and in some anagram [more…]

Getting to Grips with Cryptic Crossword Devices

There are about eight main types of wordplay devices used in cryptic crossword clues and a bunch of less common ones. Here you’ll find the basic points of the main devices. [more…]

Understanding Cryptic Clue Anatomy

While they do look completely incomprehensible at first glance, cryptic clues are actually written along set guidelines. The majority of clues in a cryptic crossword adhere to these standards: [more…]

Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies Cheat Sheet (Australian Edition)

Cryptic crosswords are often seen as a challenging puzzle form — delight may be rare to anyone new to this type of brain teaser! On first reading, the clues can seem to be made up of complete gibberish [more…]

Cryptic Crossword Reference List of Common Abbreviations

Here are some basic abbreviations that are very useful to have by your side when cracking cryptic clues! The list is concise and only focuses on the harder abbreviations. Straightforward abbreviations [more…]

Spotting Indicator Words When Solving Cryptic Crosswords

Indicator words are vital words that are found in many (but not all) cryptic clues for crosswords. These are words that indicate the type of wordplay being used, so they’re giving you a sort of coded message [more…]

Making a Start on a Cryptic Crossword

While they do look completely incomprehensible at first glance, cryptic clues are actually written along strict guidelines. The majority of clues in a cryptic crossword adhere to these standards: [more…]

Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies Cheat Sheet (Australian Edition)

People love to do puzzles of all kinds, but cryptic crosswords are often seen as a challenging form of entertainment — delight may be rare to anyone new to cryptics! This Cheat Sheet covers the basics [more…]

GURPS Critical Miss Table

In GURPS, the flipside of critical successes are critical failures, or misses in character combat. Like critical successes, critical failures mean an extreme result from a roll — in this case, a bad result [more…]

GURPS Critical Hit Table

In GURPS, when your characters are involved in combat, a critical success is a really good result from your skill roll. In general terms, a roll of 10 under your skill is a critical success, although a [more…]

GURPS Melee Attack Modifiers

In GURPS, being successful in hand-to-hand combat involves skill and the right weaponry — melee weapons like daggers, smallswords, sabers, and large knives are effective. When your character is making [more…]

GURPS Active Defense Modifiers

In GURPS combat, defending your character by avoiding and effectively absorbing a hit is sometimes more important than landing a hit. Good weapons for defense are shields and armor, but remember not to [more…]

GURPS Ranged Attack Modifiers

In GURPS, being able to inflict damage on your opponents' characters when attacking from a distance is quite handy. Some helpful weapons are spears, nets, harpoons, and axes, but remember that you can't [more…]

GURPS For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Once you’ve developed your character and playing field in GURPS (Generic Universal Role Playing System) and you’re ready to roll, make sure your GM (Game Master) has the tables explaining the roll values [more…]

Tips for Solving Sudoku Puzzles

When you're working on a Sudoku puzzle you can throw vocabulary and factual knowledge out the window. Keys to solving Sudoku puzzles are logic and diligence along with these key strategies: [more…]