How to Build a Treasure/Scavenger Hunt: The Basic Formula
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- This is a video to help you break down the steps needed to build a fun Adventure for someone. When i say "Adventure" I mean a (sometimes puzzle filled) day where your player is sent from place to place to place to place. Some people call it a "Scavenger hunt." Others call it a "Treasure hunt." I just call it an "Adventure."
Here are all the places you can find me:
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If you want to take your hunt to the next level, I do 1 on 1 consultation calls, reach out here:
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Once you build the hunt, post a recap on my subreddit for an easy Guilding!
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Here is my Discord Community if you want help building puzzles:
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Did one of these about 15 years ago for my wife. Her friend drove her everywhere so my wife could work on figuring our clues. She had to send me a photo from the location before she could open the next clue. Having 6 hours to finish the hunt, I waited for her at the end.
She had to walk up to an employee (who had agree to participate) at a beautiful conservatory and cluck like a chicken without saying anything to the person, who would then give her a Polaroid photo. The photo was of a specific bench in the conservatory that she had to find.
On the bench was an old man who had also agreed to participate. When she sat on the bench next to him, he handed her a gift and walked away. It was a lovely necklace and earring set. It was a ton of fun!
OH man i LOVE that! I think it's time for you to make another Adventure! Thank you for sharing!
@@ConstructedAdventures well, my son and I started mapping out a new adventure for her this afternoon. Her 45th birthday is in 2 months. Appreciate your channel.
I did a huge scav hunt for 50 people in 2004. My follow up is in spring 2023. You definitely need help from people not participating in the Hunt itself. You also need help from business owners to for clues and SUCH.
FOR SURE! I'm working on a video for a "Big group hunt" formula! Lots of crossover but definitely lots of new hurdles when building for lots of people!
What I found funny/awesome was the fact that I was searching UA-cam for tips to build a Treasure Hunt for my D&D players and I was listening to your steps thinking "I hadn't thought about that... that is cool!" or "That gives me an awesome idea for the ending!" and then I realized you were talking about adventures in real life and that cracked me up! I don't know if you thought that was ever going to happen after you uploaded this video, but this actually gave me excellent tips to build a D&D Adventure! Thank you very much!
So glad I helped! I'm a big fan of D&D (I've built a few D&D themed Adventures myself) and I'm happy to provide a service to DMs everywhere! Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to focus on. Also, if you're a podcast listener, check out "Escape this podcast." You'll get TONS of ideas. Its basically an escape room series in audio format
I was actually doing the same, except this is exactly what i was looking for since the DMG nor the PHB have any good tips on having the players actually engage with a quest. And then i thought: you know what? Treasure hunt. That's where it is. (Watching quite a bit of Parks and Recreation helped with the decision)
@@NerdyCatCoffeeee Oh man i really need to start giving tips for DMs to build in game treasure hunts!
Dude I had the same experience I was looking to build up a puzzle that was essentially a scavenger hunt type of thing and saw this and though “why not?” And it helped so much 😂
Just in time! I have been thinking of what I can construct for father's day...
You can do it! I have faith in you!
Hi there. I did the birthday adventure for my daughter and it went great!!
In August I'm going to have one for my husband as a surprise birthday. His birthday isnt until September so it should be completely umexpected.
When the kids were little I was the family member who made the big elaborate cakes. This is my new awesome birthday thing.
I'm so glad I found you on reddit. You've made me a bit of a hero. Thank you.
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm so glad i could help empower you to create fun moments!
@@ConstructedAdventures I'm giving him the 1st clue tonight at 9p. The results instruct him to clear the next 2 days and to pack an overnight bag. The roadtrip starts tomorrow at 9a and after all he has solved the last puzzle we will be spending the night at the Crater Lake Lodge
This was exactly the video I was looking for, such great ideas and you're so good at explaining them! Thank you for your time!
So Glad I could help you! I can't wait to hear about what you put together! Let me know if there is anything you'd like me to focus on!
Literally just found one of the most helpful channels! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
You bet! Let me know if there is anything you'd like me to cover!
@@ConstructedAdventures Do you think you could take us on a live walk along of you actually setting up a quest? Step by step.
@@aerialistsinmotion8653 Great Idea! I have two back to back Adventures coming up. I'll try to document as much as I can!
@@ConstructedAdventures that would be awesome! Thanks!
This looks GREAT! I'm looking forward to studying under your coaching!
Thank you!!
Thank you ❤
Great video, concise and packed with insight!
Glad you liked it! Don't hesitate to let me know if you'd like me to cover something in the future!
@@ConstructedAdventures I want to use an adventure to create the habit of checking email as well as the learning center announcement board for healthcare staff.... Have you ever done something like that before?
this is so helpful thank you!
Thx this really helped for my scouting event❤❤
My Mom Is a really smart person 😂 And I was finding it difficult to build a scavenger hunt for her bday so This is what I needed Thanks A Lot 😀🤗
Glad I could help!!
@@ConstructedAdventures 😁😁
Thank you so much for sharing your great ideas!
You are so welcome!
These are some great ideas you've been sharing. Hopefully one day I'll create some puzzles and/or hunts of my own. For now I've still got such a backlog of ones to play...
Have you thought about creating some playlists of the different categories of things you've talked about? For instance, I found 3 other videos about these types of hunts that could go in a set. I make a number of lists of my own for various topics to easily find them again, and/or create even *more* backlogged stuff...
Thanks for sharing!
Right?! There have been some AWESOME puzzletales that people have created since the pandemic started!
"friggin be ready" 😄
I want to do a treasure hunt but I want players from all 50 states to participate for a grand prize. I definitely need your help to make it happen
www.constructedadventures.com/home#sign-up-form-link Here when you're ready!
Dead drops, handoffs, decodes
1. Start at the end
2. Go to the beginning
3. Get your anchor points
Bingo! THEN you figure out how you want to push your players forward
@@ConstructedAdventures I'm setting up a scavenger hunt for kids after a potluck tomorrow. It's a small building but a decent yard.
I think I'm going to have the elders have clues. I think it will bring them joy to be a part of it too.
And then I'm basically going to be sending them in and out of the building and around the yard.
I think I'm going to have two layers.
The hints will lead to almost the same points but the younger kids will have less anchor points and a faster hunt to get to their prize. The older kids will need to complete harder tasks.
Now just to fill in all those gaps.
But I thought I could keep it simple like a clue will tell them to come to me, I'll send them to an elder who will have a task that says so fifteen jumping jacks and then go to another adult and then adult will have a card that will send them to their next point.
@@Zalaria. YESSSS! I love love love adding arbitrary challenges in-between the clues and puzzles. This helps you control the tempo and keep it competitive. The difference between another minute or two is more jumping jacks! You can also send them out to find something random (Find me something red, something shaped like a rectangle, etc) You can also research easy riddles that they need to solve!) Let me know how it goes!
@@ConstructedAdventures Oh! I like that idea! Ex: find me a blue rock!
It's tomorrow.
Maybe it just goes hand and hand with some writers but I'm a gold star procrastinator.
I've wanted to work on it but typically put it off.
I'll let you know how it goes. Thank you!
Ok, i think im ready now, lol wish my luck
YOU GOT THIS! Please post a recap of the Adventure on my Subreddit! (Link in notes)
I’m throwing a party for about 50 people with various activities, one of which is a puzzle hunt. Because of the various activities and people involved, I’m not sure exactly how many people will be actually doing the hunt. Do you have any tips for organizing a large group like that for the puzzle hunt portion, in the possibility that EVERYONE AND THEIR MOM wants to play and arrives perfectly at the same time? The puzzle hunt itself is very linear with a final code being solved with physical pieces picked up along the way from other puzzle locations.
Most escape rooms I’ve done have around 4-10 people so I was considering breaking everyone down into groups of max 10 and somehow staggering every group’s starting time with the rule to return each puzzle how they found it so the next group can enjoy it. (Planning on having at least 1 copy of each puzzle in case something gets lost/broken)
I am not sure how to estimate how long the hunt/each puzzle would take for each group since I obviously know the answers already. So I’m not sure if I should plan to have each group fully do the hunt, stalling other groups with other party activities while they wait, and compare end times for ranking. That sounds disgustingly long to me.
So I’m wondering if I could stagger start times so subsequent groups start playing after a brief head start from the previous group. How would I navigate possible traffic jams or clever teams passing each other?
Also, with such a large group, how can I make sure everyone has fun and can participate if they want? In escape rooms I’ve done, I know some people do nothing and some people really wanna solo everything. How do I balance HOW players work together? Make each team have a captain to look out for each other?
To figure out the order to stagger teams (and break the ice for groups with a mix of members they may not know), I was considering a mini competition to compile items/do tasks from a list within a time limit. The groups would start the puzzle hunt in order of how much they completed the list.
Now I’m wondering if those tasks could be better suited for something to stall any waiting teams somehow.
The puzzle hunt itself is partly on location with various hidden deaddrops and partly online with a Google form for some puzzles. I am hoping I don’t need any confederates for this and people can just come to me for hints for each numbered puzzle if they need any.
nice thanks
I'm a freshman doing a scavenger hunt proposal to my crush hopefully it goes well... The homecoming football game is oct 8 the dance is oct 9
GOOD LUCK! The biggest advice I give my clients is to KEEP THINGS SIMPLE. Elegant simplicity will go a lot further than you think.
Update me
How did it go what did you do???
I need ideas for team based scavenger hunt
I Get this a lot! You can check out this blog post I wrote for the formula I use: www.constructedadventures.com/how-to-build-a-treasure-hunt/2020/5/27/how-to-build-a-large-group-hunt
Want to make a care package adventure all contained in a box so all decodes and puzzles any ideas?
Thats a tricky one! There are lots of companies that do "AdventureTales' (mail in adventures) like postcurious and society of curiosities. You could get ideas from them.
Similarly to live adventures, you need to figure out what the conclusion is. then work backwards. In this case, maybe they need to open a box with 3 locks on it. Each lock can be a different theme of puzzles.
Amazing thanks! Can’t fly to see my boyfriend on Valentine’s Day because of COVID so hopefully this will make it memorable
Treasure hunts are the rare versions of Hot wheel cars, they are variant like different design and rubber wheels, current ones could sell up to $300+, they are hard to find there for that's why they are called a treasure hunt
OHHHHHHHHH! Great insight!
Thank you I will use this to hide my sister's Lego from now on
Adventure hunt?
That's a good idea! Puzzle hunt can work too!
Hey! I am looking for a treasure hunt sponsor for a massive UA-cam video
Any luck?
If you’re looking to hire me to assist with an event or video, feel free to reach out at www.ConstructedAdventures.com
I'm not one to sponsor this, but out of curiosity, what is the video? Sounds cool!
Here after watching Max Fosh
Just checked out his hunt! Super cool but VERY different format than what i usually talk about (Day long hunt for friends). I should see if I could get him to chat about the build!
Thank you God for scavenger hunts 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍. I heart them in Jesus name amen 🙏