I've actually done this sort of thing before. Really, it all depends on how complicated you want to make it, because this sort of thing can get really complicated. Don't underestimate the amount of time you'll need to put it together.
Things that make this sort of hunt better include themes (July 4th is the obvious one) and a variety in type of puzzle. Adjusting the difficulty of the puzzles will be difficult. Also, the more location specific you can make the puzzles, the better. This kind of hunt is partly a tour of the town, so you might want to tailor your puzzles to where it's interesting to go. Decide what kind of ending you want; the hunt should lead somewhere fun or have a prize or something. Puzzles can be made easier by including directions.
A couple of puzzle ideas: Give a list of clues referencing particular books. Use their Dewey decimal numbers (or something else that they can find by picking up the physical book in the library) to encode the answer. Or you could do essentially the same puzzle with food and bar codes.
Easter Egg hunt in the park. Get a bunch of colored plastic eggs and put directions to next egg inside. If anything in your town can be spelled with ROY G BIV, spell that. Or put a grid in the final egg that shows how to shift the colors of the eggs in order to spell out something. Does that make sense?
I like the America the Beautiful idea (I love the Westing Game!), but rather than directly cribbing it from the book, maybe you should pick a different song just to make it slightly harder.
To expand on your Home Depot idea, maybe have them construct a rebus. Give product codes, or exact descriptions of location in the store. This might be difficult to construct as you'll have to run around a lot.
Ooo! Good ideas! (I'd forgotten about rebuses! Awesome!)
I LOVE the Easter egg one! Unfortunately, where are you going to get some in July? Idea for the future! (I have a feeling this is not going to be the last time we do one of these. We've done similar treasure hunts for years, just always on a MUCH smaller scale (house, yard, neighborhood))
We're limited on places to go into since it'll be a holiday and many shops are closed. But we are going to send them in a few. Once to talk to the manager, once to find something in the store, once to THINK they're finding something in the store but actually getting paged over the intercom with the clue.
SO much fun! My mom and I stayed up until 2:30-3am planning!
Our final clue is going to be the sheet music for Brahm's Lullaby (both of my sisters can read music) which will send them to the neighborhood Braum's (ice cream store) where they will be directed to select a half-gallon of their favorite flavor and head out to our grandparents to go swimming.
We've got about three dozen clues and are waiting until tomorrow morning to hide the envelopes in case we get (ANOTHER) rainstorm tonight.
Things that make this sort of hunt better include themes (July 4th is the obvious one) and a variety in type of puzzle. Adjusting the difficulty of the puzzles will be difficult. Also, the more location specific you can make the puzzles, the better. This kind of hunt is partly a tour of the town, so you might want to tailor your puzzles to where it's interesting to go. Decide what kind of ending you want; the hunt should lead somewhere fun or have a prize or something. Puzzles can be made easier by including directions.
A couple of puzzle ideas:
Give a list of clues referencing particular books. Use their Dewey decimal numbers (or something else that they can find by picking up the physical book in the library) to encode the answer. Or you could do essentially the same puzzle with food and bar codes.
Easter Egg hunt in the park. Get a bunch of colored plastic eggs and put directions to next egg inside. If anything in your town can be spelled with ROY G BIV, spell that. Or put a grid in the final egg that shows how to shift the colors of the eggs in order to spell out something. Does that make sense?
I like the America the Beautiful idea (I love the Westing Game!), but rather than directly cribbing it from the book, maybe you should pick a different song just to make it slightly harder.
To expand on your Home Depot idea, maybe have them construct a rebus. Give product codes, or exact descriptions of location in the store. This might be difficult to construct as you'll have to run around a lot.
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I LOVE the Easter egg one! Unfortunately, where are you going to get some in July? Idea for the future! (I have a feeling this is not going to be the last time we do one of these. We've done similar treasure hunts for years, just always on a MUCH smaller scale (house, yard, neighborhood))
We're limited on places to go into since it'll be a holiday and many shops are closed. But we are going to send them in a few. Once to talk to the manager, once to find something in the store, once to THINK they're finding something in the store but actually getting paged over the intercom with the clue.
SO much fun! My mom and I stayed up until 2:30-3am planning!
Our final clue is going to be the sheet music for Brahm's Lullaby (both of my sisters can read music) which will send them to the neighborhood Braum's (ice cream store) where they will be directed to select a half-gallon of their favorite flavor and head out to our grandparents to go swimming.
We've got about three dozen clues and are waiting until tomorrow morning to hide the envelopes in case we get (ANOTHER) rainstorm tonight.
Reply
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