NPL Convention 2025: SPAMcon
SPAMcon, the 185th National Puzzlers’ League Convention, was held in the Twin Cities, MN from July 17–20, 2025 and organized by B‑Side and WXYZ. The event was hosted at the Courtyard Minneapolis Downtown in Minneapolis, MN.
202 members of the league (and 235 total attendees) were present, making this the largest convention of the league’s 142 year history.
Program highlights
Please see the Con Handout Archive for handouts/PDF resources from this year’s convention.
Official games
Compound Sentences [ice-breaker] by Alf
Join your given word with others’ to build a sentence. Prizes awarded for funniest, most sensible, most NPL-relevant, etc.
Jibber Jabble! by Roku
Based on the popular commercial party game.
Segues by Shrdlu
A cooperative creative word-association game.
Tryometry by Kryptogram
Try to find three words with a little help from a friend.
Triple Word Score by Tabascq and Spiel
Teams of two or three. Given a set of Scrabble tiles, try to form as many words from a themed list as possible. Unused tiles are lost for succeeding rounds.
Darn Star Facts by High Life, ¢ , Vebrile, Response, and €
Grab a partner or two and solve together. Figure out the mystery craft supplies and create a visual clue for your table to solve.
Time Test by Willz
Seven wordplay challenges. You have 30 minutes! Begin!
Two Bits by Manx
A puzzle that gives new meaning to the term “pairs solving.”
Con cryptics
Being at the Con by Mr E
ConCryptic Junction by Slik
Double Play by T McAy
Flat contest
Puzzles for Polygots, organized by Saxifrage
A collection of new flats by the Krewe, each based on a foreign word or phrase generally familiar to English speakers.
Extravaganza
Twin City by Rubrick and Trazom
A puzzle extravaganza over 2,500 years in the making.