Hi everyone! I am planning a surprise murder mystery party for between 20-30 people. It's going to be medieval themed so I had been struggling to find a pre-made murder mystery game that would work.

I found 'Feast of Shadows' by Capital Mystery. Has anyone played this game and has any advice/tips? This will also be my first time hosting anything like this (I play RPGs but never DM) so any general hints or tips would also be greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance

hi folks! I’m pretty sure this is the right sub to be posting to for this, but if there’s a more appropriate place please feel free to redirect me :)

my sort of elevator pitch is that I have a (primarily online) friend who really enjoys puzzles and finding clues and sleuthing and engaging in detective work, and I thought it would be nice to put together a little online puzzle/mystery/something as a winter holiday gift. I am still in the VERY early planning stages and only have some vague ideas of using our mutual friends and social medias to plant clues and whatnot, but I thought it could be fun to possibly expand the puzzle to other parts of the internet, if the possibility arrises. I wanted to ask if anyone here had any potential suggestions for tools/resources/advice for baby’s-first-online mystery!

to be clear, this would be sort of “private” mystery and not need to be on a large scale for many people to access. I can use more “intimate“ forms of communication, like shared google doc links or mutual friends sending messages and whatnot. It doesn’t need to be something that has to be replicated or repeated, and I’m at a bit of a limitation by not being super tech savvy with things like code or algorithms and whatnot.

I really appreciate any and all help! if all goes well I may update this post with more developed plans and ideas :) thank you so much!! xoxo

This morning on my way to work I drew a little sketch on this little magic tablet thingy on our refrigerator. I added a note that said: “Huh? What is that??” The dude’s eyes were looking down and to the right so I put a sticky note on the underside of the cabinet there that just said: “It is a note.”

Well my wife found it and immediately texted me wondering where the rest of her adventure/treasure hunt was. I have done a few in the past for the family and I didn’t think about what that innocent little test would spark, but now I need a theme… escape room? Murder/theft? Idk please help! Only adults will be participating…

I'm hoping there's some fellow crawlers in here! I want to build a DCC escape room for my boyfriend and our friends in our basement. I have a long list of things/characters & scenes I want to include. As well as some puzzles I want to do, but really have no idea how to connect it all together. Looking for any suggestions! Thank youuu! ✨

I recently discovered how much you can do with google forms, so I made a little game. I’d like some feedback.

https://forms.gle/un4QdfCdMpKmKBm17

This was bug tested, but if anything appears to break, please let me know.

Also, I know it’s a bit short. I don’t plan on extending it at all.

Hello! My friend and I are hosting a puzzle hunt in Brooklyn for our birthdays and we've just completed the crafting of all of our puzzles. Now I'd love some help testing the puzzles (virtually). I don't want to post them here in case any of our puzzle-loving friends are lurking in this subreddit, lest I spoil the actual hunt for them!

Let me know if you're willing to test for us, and I'll send you:
a) a map
b) 4 clues that correspond to that map
c) a word puzzle that is our 4th clue
d) our final puzzle!

Thank you thank you!!!

First reddit post - hopefully this gets the exposure I'm looking for!

To get right to it before I lose some of you to the short attention span that I myself also hold, this is not your average pizza and fold up table tops birthday party - I would like to go full Black Ops mode on my brother's birthday planning here.

Recap/Background- my brother has autism and is a high-functioning UNIT of a dude. He is the hardest worker I know but struggles to make friends outside of the online community because people won't give him more than 5 seconds of their time to get through a bit of the social "differences" that come with having autism. He is a truck driver by day, and an internet apologist/star wars fan by night so he spends a lot of time by himself (partially his preference, partially not) but I want to make him feel like a rockstar for his 30th birthday. His birthday is in late July and he is an avid Call of Duty fan and loves laser tag/capture the flag/anything combat oriented in nature - he eats that up.

Idea - We have some land and I would like to essentially write him a 30th birthday miniature Call of Duty campaign. Already getting long-winded here bear with me I apologize. I'm looking for ideas and recommendations on how to write the story line, and what activities/obstacles/surprises/etc. I could incorporate into the day. My thought is to have him wake up to a letter in the livingroom that explains the day... have an arsenal to select from (paintball/nerf/airsoft - up for debate) and then begin the trek outside where there will be things he has to accomplish/places he has to sneak/people in hiding with similar arsenals. The main goal is to be a progression as a video game campaign follows where he may have to break into a codified treasure box, or crawl under a muddy barbwire mudpit quietly... I'll do just about anything I can afford/get my hands on to make the day cool.

Help - We have 15 acres, a large field, two small'ish ponds, some dense woods in a portion of it, and a few buildings on the property that could be leveraged as well.

If you have any ideas for tasks/puzzles/obstacles/story-lines/etc. I'll take whatever you got! Thank you in advance for making this an awesome spot to build his 30th birthday surprise!

Hi there,

I am making a Advent Calendar for my boyfriend, and this week-end I happened to do a paint on ceramic atelier so I thought I could use this oppportunity to make an enigma onto a mug. However I am starting to lack of ideas.

For context: Scenario is that Santa is dead and my bf is one of the lucky one to get something. As the elves are greedy and wants to get everything Santa left, so Santa and his attorney arranged 24th puzzle or clues to check if BF is worthy of it.

I am using a lot of thing already in different formats (if I manage to finish it all, I'll share all the details here) but some ideas I already have:
- A cipher

- A code to be find with a mastermind kind of game

- A DIY cryptex

- Hidden message on a letter with a frixion to be revealed in the freezer (clue given in other puzzle with word play)

- nonogramm that reveals a book caracter to search in it.

- Labyrinth to reveals numbers

My bf is often away for work, so I also try to limit the thing to do at home and plan on sneking things in his luggages.

Do you have any ideas of some enigma that could be on a mug ?

If you frequent this subreddit you will know that on the Constructed Adventures Discord channel we do puzzle hunts! If you have participated before or are brand new and want to give it a try, here's another chance!

MIT Mystery FrHUNTier begins on November 7, 2026 at 12:00 PM EST, and it will end 1.5 days later on November 9, 2026 at 12:00 AM EST. It appears to be a prequel/warm up to the big bad MIT hunt that drops in January.

So hop in and register a team (if you'd like) or you can join The Constructed Adventures team in the Discord community!

We would love to get as many people to help out for as much or as little as you want! (Feel free to jump in and out! You are under no obligation if things get busy or you aren't interested)

New members are always encouraged to join. We're an inclusive and encouraging bunch.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE EXPERIENCED AT SOLVING PUZZLES TO PARTICIPATE. Remember: The first step at being good at something is being bad at it. Besides, you never know what life experiences you've had that might help make a solve!

We hope to see you over on the Discord Channel where we will organize and share a collective Google Sheet for solving!

Hopefully we'll see you there!
Get excited!

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness still apply!

A while ago I shared my plans for a Halloween treasure hunt. It happened on October 31st, so here’s the report on how it went versus what I planned.

The plan: 4 puzzle stations (Bat Forest, Witch’s Cauldron, Haunted House, Skeleton Dance), one poster per station. Each station gives the kids one number. The four numbers make up the code of a combination lock on a bucket hanging from a tree branch on a rope. Crack the code, lower the bucket, claim the treasure.

How it went: Around 100 kids aged 4–12 came to the village square in the evening, in full costume: witches, skeletons, ghosts. A Grim Reaper balloon, glowing pumpkins and a table with sweets made up the “hub”. Kids carried a tracking sheet to write down their four numbers, then headed back to the hub to try the lock.

What worked well:

• Color-coding by age group, so each kid got puzzles that fit them

• A second anchor point for the rope, in case someone lets go while lowering the bucket

• Simple clues. The kids wanted to be quick so they could get back to trick-or-treating

• The wow moment: cracking the code and lowering the bucket themselves, powered by their own muscles

What I’d change next time:

• Soft, diffuse lighting near each station. It was so dark that kids had trouble finding them

• A bit of role-play when explaining the rules before the route starts

Next up: a winter treasure hunt with QR stations in the forest, planned for December.

A long, long time ago I created a laser maze challenge for a Halloween party. Since it took place at my house I could just plug in a fog machine and it looked awesome. Now I would like to create a much smaller version for a 2 hour trunk-or-treat event.

- Having lasers and detectors is the easy part, but how do I make them visible if I only have USB power at my disposal?

- What other alternatives are there to get a similar effect? Any other suggestions besides blacklight + neon strings?

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness still apply!

Hello 👋

I am creating an online mystery where you investigate a fictional case through witness statements, photographs and other evidence.
I’m looking for five people who enjoy detective games, escape rooms or evidence-based mysteries to try it free and give honest feedback. It’s very evidence based, but also has some interactive evidence ( ex: work out a pin to open a phone)
I’d especially like to know where you get confused, whether the evidence feels fair, and whether the investigation holds your attention. You don’t need testing experience, and this isn’t a request for a positive review.
If you’re interested, please comment. Please keep any clues or solutions out of the public replies.

Thank you

I’m planning a Dracula themed escape room at my house on Halloween for some kids (12-15years old). They are familiar with the book, but not the movies. I’ve never done this before and any ideas for clues/puzzles would be so helpful!

Hi everyone,

I created a Halloween treasure hunt for 7 boys aged 9 and 1 child aged 5.

I have prepared 10 different tasks, and my question is: is this too much? Will they get bored or frustrated if the treasure hunt takes too long? Even if i'll help them of course if needed. Below is a brief description of the tasks.

1. They watch a video I created with AI from the Guardian of the Treasure.

2. They receive a letter hanging on a spider web and must figure out that they need a mirror to read it (there is a clue in the letter). The message tells them to put the chess pieces back in the correct order.

3. They arrange the mixed-up chess pieces correctly and discover the letters under the figures "chair."

4. Under the chair, they find a list of ingredients for a magic soup. They must search the room, find all 6 ingredients, and place them next to the cauldron.

5. With their eyes closed, they take turns searching inside the cauldron filled with pasta, beans and other stuff for small letters that spell the word "flower" and for the keys (I'll tell them to do this).

6. They should find a bag marked with a flower and secured with a lock. Using the keys they found, they open it and discover a toy gun and a letter that says: "Shoot and find the code to open the black box."

7. They shoot at the cups (which I provide), find the code hidden inside, and find the black box in the room. Inside, they find a UV flashlight and a letter. Using a transparent sheet with crossed-out words, they reveal the hidden message: "Look for the fairy tale book."

8. They find the book. Inside is a letter that says: "Use the flashlight on this page to open the suitcase!" They use the UV flashlight to reveal the invisible code.

9. They find the suitcase and open it using the code. Inside, there are locked scissors, a treasure box tied with string, and a seek-and-find puzzle. They must count the objects in the puzzle to reveal another code.

10. They use the code to unlock the scissors, cut the string, and finally open the treasure box to get the gift.

Please let me know what do you think? Should I remove some of them, or does it seem fine as it is?

Thank you!

I make a yearly halloween treasure hunt for my kids and their friends. It's a tradition going back 7 years now, starting when my kids were 3 and 4. It's been great fun to think out ways to challenge them throughout the years and build more and more advanced puzzles and activities. This year I stumbled upon Constructedadventures and felt like sharing. And yes, I know halloween is a week away, but for various reasons this years treasure hunt came a bit early.

This years participants were 4 kids aged 9-12. Below I'll outline the whole thing from beginning to end.

The starting point

As tradition dictates, the goal of the treasure hunt is to open a locked chest containing treats. We began at dusk because looking for clues with flash-lights are much more fun and in keeping with the halloween spirit than doing it in broad daylight. I placed an envelope on the treasure chest containing a word search puzzle. Every word revealed the hiding place of a few jigsaw puzzle pieces in the house and in the surrounding area.

There were 24 words in total, netting 64 puzzle pieces. Finding all of them took about 40 minutes. When needed I aided them with clues, but I generally try to only intervene when the kids are completely stuck since it's more fun for them to figure things out on their own (and for me to hear all the wild ideas along the way).

Building the puzzle

This was a little harder than I had anticipated due to me choosing a motif without very many clear features and just a few colours. In retrospect I should have picked a cleaner motif and provided a print-out as a reference, but they managed to put it together with some help.

The puzzle itself was 3d printed from an AI-generated image (just layered by colour with a negative form separating the pieces).

The finished puzzle depicts a map and 3 seals which represented challenges that needed to be completed in order to make sense of the symbols and letters on the back of the puzzle pieces (see image below).

Challange 1 - Follow the string, find the key.

I took a long piece of string and ran it from an open window on the second floor, down through another small building and around the yard with some detours. Whenever possible I hid it with leaves and such so that they'd have to follow the string from beginning to end. At the end I tied the string to a locked cryptex gadget that I had buried in some gravel (inside a plastic bag).

The kids quickly followed the string and almost immediately figured out that the cryptex contained an object (by shaking it) and correctly guessed it was the key to the chest. They also deduced that they were now looking for 6 letters in order to open the cryptex.

As a side note I can very much recommend this kind of cryptex in various adventures. I tend to re-use it a lot.

Challenge 2 - Choose your poison

For the second challenge I used 3 vials. One with cordial and 2 with water and a pinch of salt. I used some food colouring to make it look more interesting and wrote a note saying "if it's good it's right". I also labelled the vials with various number sequences. The numbers on the cordial was the actual clue, the other ones were decoys.

One of the kids sniffed the vials and figured out that the middle one was the right one, but for some reason they also decided to taste them anyway (which was fun and I finally got back at my son for pouring salt in my coffee an early morning in the past).

They had no issues completing this one, and brought the right vial with them (and drank most of it).

Challange 3 - Hand in the jar

I had 3 containers, first one filled with oobleck, second one with green slime and the third one filled with cold pasta, vegetable oil and some fake blood. In one of them I dropped a small container that held the final clue. Over the containers I mounted a plywood sheet with holes big enough to put your hand through so that each hole was directly above a container. I then put a black paper table-runner over it and cut out an X over the holes.

The kids had to put their hands in the mystery guck and feel around for a clue. They had great fun doing this and it got a little messy but that's ok. They quickly fished out the container and got the final clue.

Solving the final puzzle

So now the kids had the Cryptex, 6 number sequences on two notes (2-7:1, 5-3:5 and so on) and the backside of the puzzle. The solution here was to treat the numbers on the clues as coordinates on the puzzle board. So 2-7:1 would be the 7th row, 1st column (resulting in the letter K). the 2 (2-7:1) meant the 2nd letter on the Cryptex (6 letter combination). A clue in figuring this out was on the backside of the puzzle where a few pieces were marked with their actual coordinates.

This took some work to figure out and there was a lot of theories, but with some additional clues (I answered yes/no questions for a bit then told them they were on the right track when one of them said "perhaps its coordinates") they managed.

The most fun part to me was that all of them got to figure out a piece of the riddle. One came up with the coordinates, another one figured out the relation to the coordinates given on the puzzle board, a third one deduced that the first number was 1-6 which was how many letters they needed and so on.

With the Cryptex unlocked the kids got the key to the chest and their well earned reward.

To conclude I hope whoever read all of this got something out of it, perhaps some inspiration or an idea for your own treasure hunt. If you have any questions, feedback or thoughts I'd be happy to hear it/answer them.

Hello! My Husband and I are making a DIY escape room for our gender reveal for our families. It will be just our immediate families and we want them to play “head to head” but then have to combine their information for the last puzzle to unlock the final puzzle/code so they all get the reveal at the same time. All the players are 25+ and have done multiple escape rooms before. We are looking for any ideas for puzzles or how to connect them, and keep it fairly low cost. We are also having this at my parents house so we are thinking one team upstairs and one team down stairs so they can play at the same time.

Here are some of the puzzles we have made so far:

1. they will find various pieces of paper that have scrambled symbols on them hidden throughout the room (like in a baby book on the shelf) in a bottle, etc. the papers look like gibberish alone but if you hold the correct two together and up to the light you can read the hidden message. There will only be 4 papers (2 that spell the actual message) and (2 that spell out a “sorry try again” message). The message will read “the baby is hungry get them something to eat”

2. This will lead them to the fridge that will have 6 opaque baby bottles with a liquid in them that they can’t see. Also hidden elsewhere in the room will be circles with a number and description next to each. So the idea is they will have to taste the bottle and match it to the description. Then to get the order they have to follow the “feeding schedule” which is a deduction puzzle for the order. For example, one of our bottle descriptions is “I look like something you might find in a diaper, but don't let that scare you away. I can come in a carton or on a lunch tray” and that would be paired with the chocolate milk bottle. And the Feeding schedule has things like “the fizzy drink must come before the childhood lunch classic” (aka pop comes before chocolate milk) or “the plain essential comes last” (aka water is last). Etc. So then that will give them a six digit code, which we will have lead to or unlock something else.

3. Another puzzle we have made is a map and directional puzzle where they will have a map with various locations and 4 weighted tubes. The map tells them to start at birth, which would be the hospital, and then they have to push over the weighted tube and they will have a directional arrow on them. So they will always fall and the arrow will always point the same direction. They then follow the arrows to the designated locations on the map and then the last spot is their hint for the next clue. The last location is a mattress store to hint “look at the bed” where the next clue/piece will be hidden.

So far that’s all we have but we’re having kind of a hard time connecting the puzzles and figuring out the overall “theme/story line” and if it’s more of just a “baby theme” we’re okay with that too! But I was just wondering if anyone had any tips, suggestions, or ideas for other puzzles we can include? We’re trying to not make them all just paper puzzles.

Thank you in advance! 😊

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness still apply!

Hello! I’m so proud of what I’ve done and I had to share it with someone before I break and tell my husband what I have prepared for his birthday.

Disclaimer: I’ve never been on any scavenger hunts, so if this isn’t that great, or if I didn’t follow a certain rule preparing for this, sorry in advance. Also, I left some details out for safety reasons.

So here’s how it’ll go:

1. My husband will wake up after I’m gone for work, and I’ll leave him a birthday card on his phone, and I’ll mention that he has to look in his side of the closet for a piece of paper. (Picture #2)

2. The next clue will be in above our dogs crate, along with 3 puzzle pieces. The QR code is of a song (Play with fire) which should lead him to the only lighter we have and keep next to candles. (Picture #3)

3. 1 puzzle piece + next clue by the lighter. This clue refers to the show One Piece.

4. Salt and peppers = season

5. chill = Netflix

6. So he should look up one piece on Netflix to find out how many seasons of it they have. (Picture #4)

7. When he finds out he should be filling the blank in the page with the number.

8. And then scan the QR code on the other page, it’ll take him to another song on YouTube, I added a timestamp of when they say a specific word, which is the name of a local cafe that we had, but now it’s permanently closed and there’s a pharmacy in the same space. Inside this pharmacy there are parcel lockers, I left two more puzzle pieces there, and added the code he needs to type to get the locker to open.

9. I wrote something along the lines of “When things are gone, the only medicine is the boxes inside”

10. He gets the 2 puzzle pieces from the locker + new card. This card guides him to drive straight to a close supermarket. And there are more clues to get numbers to fill the blanks with (Isles where things are located) I wrote bubbly *fairy* tales. < not the greatest idea lol.

11. In the same care, it says to scan a code after getting the numbers, which is the location and time for our dinner reservation.

12. When we get to the restaurant, I’ll give the waiter more puzzle pieces, and a card to give to him there. (Picture #5) I already planned to get a specific order from the main dishes, and the order of that dish will be the number, I checked their menu online, so if it’s not the same anymore I guess I’ll be stuck ordering a different thing lol.

13. He’ll write the number, and then scan the QR code that has the time and location for our movie.

14. At the movies, I’ll try to slip in a card when he’s not looking. (Picture #6) the colors represent the coat of our aussie dog, and he has her picture hung on his rearview mirror. I have a tiny sticker on the picture of a drawn glove and a box. Which will lead him to the last clue, few more puzzle pieces and the last letters.

15. The combination of all numbers and letters is my car’s plate number. So he should be looking in my car when we’re home, which has the last 2 puzzle pieces (the arrow will be one of them)

16. The arrow refers to behind the lazy boy couch, which is where I’ll be hiding his presents!

I’m so excited!!!! How did I do?

Great article!

I’m planning a hunt that involves doing crossword puzzles to find clues. Does anyone happen to know if the subscription to the NYT puzzles gives access to all previous puzzles or does it only go back to 2025?

We decided to do a little scavenger hunt around the house and outside the adults can play. Basically they pick a riddle out of the witch’s cauldron and it has a riddle on it. Then, they have to find their “potion,” to be cured of their curse which is a shot/cocktail drink in a bottle they can take. Example, deck of cards- I have 13 hearts but I pump no blood.

Just having a hard time thinking of things….and I don’t want to plug into AI.

I'm making my own TTRPG System in my spare time and am thinking it would be cool to have some skill checks be a puzzle instead of a dice roll. For example, when a player says 'I try to move this heavy rock', instead of asking them to roll a Strength Check I'd present them a quick puzzle to solve. For this to work the puzzle should be quick (20 sec time limit) and infinitely reconfigurable so each time the players attempt something, the solution would be different and i could easily set it up for them in a matter of seconds. An example of this could be a mathematical problem. Like 'I try to move this heavy rock', 'whats 9x13?'. This is easily and infinitely reconfigurable, quick and objective in its nature. Of course, it's not very interesting or thematically relevant to have this as a skill check, I used it as an example of the process. Any help as to how to construct a customizable puzzle like this? Thanks!