Puzzlehunts

• Introduction to Puzzlehunts (betaveros)
• Puzzled Pint’s Puzzling Basics (editor’s note: I would like to state for the record that alphanumeric codes wrap around by subtracting 26 extremely rarely; everything else in this guide is reasonable.)
• mezzacotta’s Puzzle Solving Guide
• Mission Street Puzzles’s Beginner’s Guide

Puzzlehunts for Beginners

• Zelda minihunt (Deusovi): 3 puzzles and a meta, as short and sweet as it gets.
• Colby’s Curious Cookoff: 22 puzzles, four metas, a capstone and a metameta. Very polished; most if not all puzzles have interfaces that let you solve them directly in the browser. Pay-what-you-want.
• DP Puzzle Hunt: 23 puzzles and two metas. Makes more effort than the other hunts on this list to follow “puzzlehunt conventions”, particularly for metas, in my opinion (but I led this effort). Difficulty fluctuates a bit.

Crosswords

• How to Solve the New York Times Crossword (Deb Amlen)
• xwordinfo

Cryptic Crosswords

• Cryptic Clue Guide (Deusovi)
• Introduction to Cryptic Crosswords
• Puzzler Instructions

Writing Puzzles

• Suggestions for Running a Puzzlehunt
• Introduction to Writing Good Puzzle Hunt Puzzles (David Wilson)
• Puzzlecraft

Tools

• Yet Another Puzzlehunt Spreadsheet Tutorial (betaveros)