Riddles for weapons should stay in, sooo much more fun!

[J]

I remember the last time I did this, there was a weapon that wasn't found until later. Basically everybody thought that somebody else had found it, and that created a completely different kind of tone once everybody established that there was one more missing weapon.

3 murders went off, and 3 or 4 people still wanted to "off" somebody else. After complaining a little to each other "I wish there was another weapon," a few said.. Well, there's only been 3 murders, isn't there another?

The faces they all had was pretty priceless, as they ran off to recheck the riddles and see which weapons were actually discovered.

Maybe for people who want to get straight to the point with the dinner and murder, should use the draw system. It does save quite a bit of time if you have a limited schedule, too.

But if you want the full effect of the game, the scavenger hunt adds a whole different dimension to the night.

Don't make the riddles so hard that only smart people will get them. I found that (using my own riddles), if you make them moderately easy and give everybody 10 minutes to figure out the answers before taking a step to finding them, it will be awesome. Instead of being "who's the smartest people to figure it out," it will be "who can get there the fastest."

Since mostly everybody will know each answer, some people will go after weapon #2 instead of weapon #4 if they think it's closer.

Also, if you place them in ambiguous places, such as under a lamp, there can be 10 lamps in a given area. So since there will be 15 people running after 4 weapons, which can be in 10 places each, there is no way in heaven that anybody will know who found what. There will be people running all over the place.

And lastly, I think it's sooo much cooler when you DONT have a weapon. When I did it, I didn't have a weapon, so I was forced to be extremely creative in getting what I needed done.

It helps when the dummies have weapons, then you can use 'em!

Just kidding. But it is very, very fun with the scavenger hunt. Leave it!

[2coolbaby]

The weapons would stay intact, but we are talking about managing the disbursement in a different way, while still having each games scavenger hunt be a free download and be able to be used. So in effect, it would not change anything, just make it easier for those hosts that get easily confused by the scavenger hunt. And believe me there are a LOT of these. We have people that just want to not use weapons as they find the scavenger hunt too confusing. If we had a draw, but then provided a link on the Weapon Card Instructions to get the scavenger hunt, would that work? Unfortunately, so many people are just overwhelmed by the the whole thing, so we have to simplify things for them, while still leaving the more challenging things for others.

[J]

The weapons would stay intact, but we are talking about managing the disbursement in a different way, while still having each games scavenger hunt be a free download and be able to be used. So in effect, it would not change anything, just make it easier for those hosts that get easily confused by the scavenger hunt. And believe me there are a LOT of these. We have people that just want to not use weapons as they find the scavenger hunt too confusing. If we had a draw, but then provided a link on the Weapon Card Instructions to get the scavenger hunt, would that work? Unfortunately, so many people are just overwhelmed by the the whole thing, so we have to simplify things for them, while still leaving the more challenging things for others.

To keep it simple for those particular parties, a draw would work fine...

And yeah, a link to the scavenger hunt details would work pretty well too. You could even leave it in the package, and explain it... Or, presuming everybody actually reads the READ ME, you could add a part where it says

"VERY IMPORTANT, MUST READ" And explain the situation...

"There are two ways to distribute the weapons, choose which is best for you."

Then give the pluses and minuses...

I definitely feel for those who it's a burden for, I can imagine it may dampen their spirits a bit if they feel confused by it.

[2coolbaby]

About 30% of the customer service calls I receive are from people who are confused aobut the weapon card scavenger hunt and since they are confused, they are usually irritated. This makes our job difficult. We want our customers to be happy and that scavenger hunt does not make a lot of people happy. So many people just skim their information and anything that requires much in depth planning, is going to be unpopular. Not everyone gets so into the game and the planning of it. They just want to have a successful party. They don't want to have to think and plan to pull it off. I just really think providing a link in the Weapon Instructions, saying something along the lines of.... "For those with a more adventuresome spirit, we have a fantastic scavenger hunt you can enact to distribute the weapon cards. You would use this instead of drawing as we instruct here. Get the free weapon scavenger hunt here!"

How does that sound?

[J]

That sounds really good.

The only thing I wouldn't want to hear about happening is people didn't know about the scavenger hunt, people that would have really enjoyed it

But you definitely have to appeal to the masses, and if 30% of calls are from frustrated or irritated people then I think the drawing system is probably better, and let the adventurous ones download the scavenger hunt

Especially if you're going retail.. This is an important change to do before

[2coolbaby]

I have to agree. We are fortunate that the way our games play do not get complaints. It is just this aspect of the game that gives us fits and we just don't like negativity. We want our people to be happy and party planning is stressful enough without adding to their stress by making it more difficult then it needs to be. We would be sure to make the Scavenger Hunt option very clear and easily accessible. We had pretty much already decided to go this way. We are in the process of re-designing everything to accommodate this change, which in itself is a chore

[clemNZ]

Hi there,
I'm hosting the party with the Weapons scavenger hunt but at someone else's house and this person is playing the game. It will be harder for me to hide the weapons since she will know if something has moved or to different. I wanted to know if I could change some of the riddle to find easier spot for me to hide without disrupting to much the game. Indeed, there is one riddle (the one with the book) where I'm not sure she has this book at her place.


Thanks

[2coolbaby]

If the answer is a BOOK, it is ANY book. Or maybe just a picture of a book. You can get creative. We would never tell you to hide something in a certain book. That would be crazy.

If you change clues, you have to change every clue sheet that is going out to the guests to fill out for the scavenger hunt. There are 4 puzzles also. So you would have to create all your own and then print them up. I don't see how that will help though, as she will still be able to see where you hide things, so that's a lot of work for nothing.

[clemNZ]

Well the answer is a telephone book and I'm not sure she still uses it since now we have the Internet. And if she has one and I ask about it she might find this odd and get an advantage for the hunt. Thanks for you reply

[2coolbaby]

Ah, well you could always bring one and blend it in with other books where it isn't noticeable to her. Despite me not having a phone, I still get 2-3 telephone books every year! I would hope you aren't going to hide things until right before or even during the party.