u/Sweet_Batato

The "relics" in the show are mostly old toys if you want to go that way - Etch-a-sketch, Slinky, kite, Aerobie, etc.

Those sweet, literal little brains! Reminds me of when I was younger and my dad made my sister and me a scavenger hunt to find the PS1 we knew we were getting for Christmas... And the clue was something about a "nuclear cooking machine" and we looked in the oven🤦🏻‍♀️. Not my proudest puzzling moment.

Yes, has to be the "frosted" looking kind.

Can confirm - used this in a recent hunt when my sister and her kids visited, and the tape was up the whole weekend before the hunt and no one ever noticed it on the walls.

Because it's Upwords - it would be cool to do a crossword-style puzzle that they then have to continue to build on - almost like a ladder puzzle where you change one letter at a time to make new words.

Probably need to note that pop-ups need to be enabled! Mine were blocked and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get to the instructions.

I’d be happy to help!

Maybe the uv note is on the shelves which are numbered in a shuffled order, so the photos’ shelves are numbered and he has to match the photo to the book and then order them based on the shelf number. Might add some challenge if they are different books in a series that don’t correspond (eg HP and the Order of the Phoenix {#5} on shelf labeled 1, Return of the King {LOTR #3} on shelf 2…)

You could have something that represents each one (eg. a photo of flapper girls for The Great Gatsby) and then you don’t NEED a UV light situation, unless that’s a crucial part…

I think ideally you do enough signposting, etc that the players don’t get too far off track. I’m curious if you have examples of what you’re thinking about, because I don’t know that I’ve run an adventure that can’t be “fixed” by some hinting.

Also curious about the “technically solvable” - if the puzzle is so challenging you have to add the “technically,” it may be worth it to reconsider or rework - the lesson I’ve learned time and again in these hunts is that solvability is much more important than the challenge of solving it. Signpost or pre-hint to a solution and your players are likely not going to feel like “I did it, but I wish it had been more challenging…” They’re going to be delighted to have solved the game. (And in my experience, if you can sprinkle early hints about a challenging puzzle/gambit to come, the solve has way more payoff, because players feel like they put all the pieces together along the way. Silly ex.: “Remember?!? The letter at the beginning said he loved SCRAMBLED eggs! This is why!”)

Alternatively, you make it hard, and the entire adventure comes to a full stop or (as you’ve suggested?) make them back track? Devastating, and hard to recover from momentum-wise.

Nice! Glad you found a solution! I use nfc chips for work and have been thinking about how to implement them for an adventure. Ours are always just URL links, but I know you can also program them to perform Shortcuts and the like. I haven’t played around with it yet, but it’s on my to-do list for sure!

Uh-oh, The Cogitator is on her BS again… I got the idea for a Halloweeny hunt themed on a fantasy/cryptid naturalist’s study, and I’ve spent my week researching how to make creepy lil guys (like mummified fairies), and making skeleton leaves, and buying glass bottles…

If anyone has spoopy crafty ideas, let me know 😆

Thanks for the follow-up!!! This is great to know!

There is a puzzle in a game I’ve played where the parts of a flower/plant correspond to letters - for example a purple bloom begins with C, a jagged leaf is an A and a tulip shape ends with a T; give a couple examples and then players have to determine the other words via different plants that use those same rules.

I think lots of signposting - don’t assume your player knows what things go together, mark them so they know exactly how they fit. It does definitely depend on your player, but I think the most unfair thing is when the player could solve the puzzle if they knew what it was, but didn’t know if they had all the pieces, or wasted time trying to fit the wrong “key” to the wrong “lock” (not necessarily literal).

What that has looked like for me in practice is putting the same color ribbon on the lock and to tie up the clue that solved it. It has also looked like using consistent symbols on both the clue-puzzles and on the map they needed to be drawn on.

Ultimately what I’ve learned is solvable is more important than challenging - nothing puts the brakes on in an adventure like a player getting straight up stuck. You want your player to have some nice Aha! moments, but those don’t only come from solving hard puzzles.

Hide it in some air-dry clay and paint to look like a rock, then the kids have to break it open to get to the clue.

Frixion pens!!!! Write a message in a regular pen, then write scribbles (or make them look like other letters - a C into an O, etc) over it in Frixion pen, and then she has to heat it (via candle or hair dryer, etc) and the scribbles disappear revealing your message. It is such low-budget magic!

Also, I did an adventure recently where the player had to wet a handkerchief and I had stenciled a message using art fixative a message so that part didn’t get wet - also very cool.

Also makes me think of the game Pandemic, where you have to contain the viruses, and if one city gets overrun, it spills out over to its neighbors... I don't know how to puzzle that out, but in seeing if someone else did, I found this - no idea if it'd be helpful or not:
https://www.amazon.com/Pandemic-Escape-Room-Puzzle-Puzzles-Humanity/dp/1802791817

Maybe some iodine/Vitamin C magic?

https://www.steamsational.com/iodine-and-vitamin-c-experiment/

This may over-complicate your work, but maybe branching paths where people have to decide at some point if they’re team vampire or team werewolf? Then that branch is all about doing things against the other side (assembling the stake, finding garlic, etc/ finding the silver bullet).

When I’m building an adventure, it helps me to make a couple of lists - one with objects/ideas related to the theme (anything I can think of), and then another as I scavenge this sub and Pinterest of gambits or puzzles that are interesting to me, and then I try to see where I can connect the two lists. I think you’re asking for help on the latter, but with it being so open-ended (and without knowing every previous gambit you’ve exhausted) I think it’s tough to make very specific suggestions. Maybe also look at re-working old gambits in a different way? Last time people had a flashlight and mirror, maybe this time the mirrors are discreetly in place and they have to point a laser at one to see where it leads?

100%!!! He’s definitely “our people” and I think he would appreciate this community.

This is great! Love the passport idea - I feel like that can be used for lots of adventures like this! Also love that one of your takeaways was erring on the side of simplicity - it's so easy to get wrapped up in making a "grand" hunt, when really it's more fun if it's actually solvable vs extra challenging and they get stumped. Definitely something I have to remind myself of as I create.