How to create an awesome treasure/puzzle hunt
June 20, 2017 9:40 AM Subscribe
It's my friend's birthday next month and I'd like to create a pirate-themed puzzle hunt for her and our friends to take place around the city we live in. However, I'm stuck on the logistics and the specifics of the puzzles themselves - help!
Details of the event that I've thought of so far:
- I'd like the whole treasure/puzzle hunt to last about 1.5 to 2 hours and it will take place on a Saturday afternoon.
- There will be about 10 people attending, so I'm thinking of splitting the group into two teams of five.
- I'm thinking the primary structure of the hunt will be: Puzzle 1 leads to Location 2. Puzzle 2 requires the teams to find and use information in Location 2 to solve the puzzle, which then leads them to Location 3. Rinse and repeat until the final location is reached.
- For locations, I want to use indoor places like churches and museums that have lots of in-built information (eg. names and dates) that could be used in clues as well as outdoor places that can be used after the indoor places close.
- I think a handy way to provide the clues will probably be to just give each team a pack containing the set of clues in envelopes that they open when they get to the relevant location.
- I'm also considering making a little lockable pouch or box for each clue so that each puzzle solves to a four-digit number that can be used to unlock the box (Escape Room style). Inside the box would either be a direction to the next location or a portion of a clue pointing to the very last location.
My actual questions:
- Does the above make sense as a vague structure for a treasure/puzzle hunt?
- How many puzzles/locations do you think would be needed to stretch a hunt out to 1.5 to 2 hours?
- Most importantly, does anyone have any genius ideas for puzzles? I'd like them to be complicated enough not to be too easily solved (as this particular group, especially my friend, is good at similar stuff such as escape rooms) but also not so fiendishly hard as to leave everyone stumped and frustrated. They should ideally have enough in them for five people to get involved, and as mentioned above, they should somehow require information from the specific location in order to be solved. Also, I'd like for them to have at least a couple of layers (eg. so the puzzle isn't just something like 'What year was so-and-so born? Answer: 1750' and that's the puzzle solved and the box unlocked).
- Does anyone have ideas for puzzles that could involve use of a compass (traditional use or quirky unexpected uses both fine)? I like the idea of including compasses in the puzzle packs as they seem piratey but can't think of an interesting way to work them in!
- I'm also considering throwing in some extra side challenges to fill time if needed and to add general silliness, such as 'Fit your whole team in a phonebox because [pirate reasons] and take a picture'. Does anyone have other ideas for those?
- Just in general, how can I make this particularly pirate-themed?
Apologies for the loooong post and thanks for reading this far - any help would be hugely appreciated! :)
Details of the event that I've thought of so far:
- I'd like the whole treasure/puzzle hunt to last about 1.5 to 2 hours and it will take place on a Saturday afternoon.
- There will be about 10 people attending, so I'm thinking of splitting the group into two teams of five.
- I'm thinking the primary structure of the hunt will be: Puzzle 1 leads to Location 2. Puzzle 2 requires the teams to find and use information in Location 2 to solve the puzzle, which then leads them to Location 3. Rinse and repeat until the final location is reached.
- For locations, I want to use indoor places like churches and museums that have lots of in-built information (eg. names and dates) that could be used in clues as well as outdoor places that can be used after the indoor places close.
- I think a handy way to provide the clues will probably be to just give each team a pack containing the set of clues in envelopes that they open when they get to the relevant location.
- I'm also considering making a little lockable pouch or box for each clue so that each puzzle solves to a four-digit number that can be used to unlock the box (Escape Room style). Inside the box would either be a direction to the next location or a portion of a clue pointing to the very last location.
My actual questions:
- Does the above make sense as a vague structure for a treasure/puzzle hunt?
- How many puzzles/locations do you think would be needed to stretch a hunt out to 1.5 to 2 hours?
- Most importantly, does anyone have any genius ideas for puzzles? I'd like them to be complicated enough not to be too easily solved (as this particular group, especially my friend, is good at similar stuff such as escape rooms) but also not so fiendishly hard as to leave everyone stumped and frustrated. They should ideally have enough in them for five people to get involved, and as mentioned above, they should somehow require information from the specific location in order to be solved. Also, I'd like for them to have at least a couple of layers (eg. so the puzzle isn't just something like 'What year was so-and-so born? Answer: 1750' and that's the puzzle solved and the box unlocked).
- Does anyone have ideas for puzzles that could involve use of a compass (traditional use or quirky unexpected uses both fine)? I like the idea of including compasses in the puzzle packs as they seem piratey but can't think of an interesting way to work them in!
- I'm also considering throwing in some extra side challenges to fill time if needed and to add general silliness, such as 'Fit your whole team in a phonebox because [pirate reasons] and take a picture'. Does anyone have other ideas for those?
- Just in general, how can I make this particularly pirate-themed?
Apologies for the loooong post and thanks for reading this far - any help would be hugely appreciated! :)
You should look through the archives for Puzzled Pint and DASH for ideas.
Cluekeeper is a great app that you might want to use to reduce the amount of physical stuff you burden your participants with.
posted by phunniemee at 9:56 AM on June 20, 2017
Cluekeeper is a great app that you might want to use to reduce the amount of physical stuff you burden your participants with.
posted by phunniemee at 9:56 AM on June 20, 2017
What a great friend you are! My suggestion would be to do a pirate themed photo scavenger hunt instead or paired with the puzzles. I'd be concerned about leaving random treasure boxes around town.
You can ask them to pose with sticks for a wooden arm or leg, for example. Or they all have to wear an eye patch in a group photo at the marina. Or they have to find stuffed parrots at the toy store or gift shop at the zoo.
They can send you a photo when they are at x place, and then you can send them the clue to the next place. This keeps you involved too...
posted by hydra77 at 11:26 AM on June 20, 2017
You can ask them to pose with sticks for a wooden arm or leg, for example. Or they all have to wear an eye patch in a group photo at the marina. Or they have to find stuffed parrots at the toy store or gift shop at the zoo.
They can send you a photo when they are at x place, and then you can send them the clue to the next place. This keeps you involved too...
posted by hydra77 at 11:26 AM on June 20, 2017
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So my suggestion would be to find some good piratey story in local archives and go from there to find places and a theme.
(I live opposite a cemetery and based the treasure hunt on a story about a young woman who had been buried alive by accident, and was then found by grave robbers and killed, alas. Really spooky, the hunt gradually uncovered the story with aid from the ghosts of both the robber and the girl).
posted by mumimor at 9:56 AM on June 20, 2017