Treasure Hunt Fan - Plan Your Treasure Hunt

Planning your Treasure Hunt

After you have your treasure buried, the next step to planning your treasure hunt is choosing from some common treasure hunt scenarios. Mix these up to create the perfect treasure hunt for your audience. In general I advise simple short hunts for parties, as well as kids that are new to hunting for treasure.

To rhyme or not to rhyme? I suggest not worrying about making rhyming riddles in your hunt, at least not initially. Once you have a basic plan though, its fun to look at a few clues and see if you can make a rhyme or two.

The Straight-To-It

This type of game involves a map with an X marking the spot and is the simplest to put together. Generally the map will have landmarks, but there are no clues or waypoints (places you have to go), except for the treasure spot.

The Straight-To-It can sometimes involve a lengthy hike or an unclear treasure position, making it somewhat more difficult. But often it has only minimal challenges, making this type of hunt great for younger children. Its simply fun to get the kids outside and dig up the treasure. And remember that often young kids often have trouble interpreting directions, so even a very clear map can be troublesome.

Go-Here

This hunt involves clues placed in several locations, and when a clue is found it somehow tells you where to go next. In a Go-Here, the clues simply tell you where to go next. The directions are fairly clear and may or may not rhyme. The difficulty is usually how well hidden the clues are, not interpreting the clue once you found it. This is the de facto standard birthday treasure hunt for kids 4 to 7.

Riddler

Unless your good at riddles, a Riddler takes a lot time to setup the places and the riddles. I don't recommend riddles for kids only treasure hunts, but a good riddle can add some fun if you have a team with parents included. Since a good riddle can take a lot of time to develop I suggest only using one at the most.

Dead Reckoning

The idea of the Dead Reckoning is that you must get to a waypoint so the route to the next waypoint or the treasure location becomes apparent. Here is an example of directions on a dead reckoning treasure map:

Find the tallest tree in the forest, then head toward the tallest mountain. On the way you will find Pirate Rock. At Pirate Rock go to the nearest pine tree. The lowest branch points toward to the X marking where the treasure was buried.

So in the above example, the locations mentioned and the directions are all marked on the map, but it is still important that one locates the tallest tree, then Pirate Rock, then the pine tree, and then X in that order.
You may want to make your waypoints increasingly harder to accidentally stumble upon as you get near the treasure.

Orienteering

This treasure hunt uses Compass directions to lead you to the treasure. The direction to go next can be posted at the waypoint or on the map. Orienteering can be simple cardinal directions (West, Northeast, etc), precise directions in degrees, and even triangulation of your position.

Missing Map Pieces

This one involves a search for one or more critical missing pieces of the map. It may be the treasure location is missing, or perhaps the maps legend is missing. Usually you leave a place on the map that is easy to figure out what it is, maybe with a little help.

Hole In Map

To add an interesting twist to any treasure map, burn a hole in it. This trick comes in handy if you realize your map is too easy.

Hidden Letters

Hidden near each place on the map is a letter. Get enough letters, and you can figure the word that is a clue on where to find the treasure. For instance on your map, near the X, it might say "The treasure is 29 _ _ _ _ _ from the _ _ _ _ ."

Geocaching

Geocaching is an electronic GPS game where you hide and seek containers. In our pirate treasure hunt version, you just seek the pirates treasure or a certain waypoint using a GPS. While pirates did not use electronic GPS, some probably used latitude and longitude, so its not something out of the ordinary on a treasure map.

Some GPS units tend to be more accurate than others, and terrain can effect signals. One can expect about 25 to 50 feet accuracy normally, depending on obstructions and satellite positions that vary moment to moment.

Sundial

Let the suns shadow point to your treasure! While a little tricky to setup, a shadow from a mountain, rock, or tree can be used to point to your treasure. This is of course very time dependent, and shadows shift slightly from day to day. But is an interesting way to reveal a treasures location, and it makes for some interesting clues that must be found.

Multi-Stage

In this scenario, within the treasure is a another map or note leading to even more treasure. You can also use the Cryptic Riddle lead in story to delay the next stage of the treasure hunt indefinitely.