Treasure Hunt Clues - Riddles

Whichever type of treasure hunt you like to participate in car, foot, cycle or in home, the treasure hunt clues are paramount.

They need to be match the age of the hunters, the education level as well as being challenging and fun.

One of the old types of clue is the riddle. Often uses as the sole source of entertainment.

Unless you have a lot of experience of creating riddle it can be a time consuming process. Don't give yourself the task of creating a whole treasure hunt packed with riddles. Just start with a few and use other clue types for the bulk of the clues.

Simply riddles start with "you have to be there to get it" clues, where it is obvious if you at the answer location. For example "Name the father?" when near Peters and son carpenters.

Next are riddles that cryptically describe the answer you want. These might include the old favourites like “What has 4 legs in the morning, 2 in the afternoon and 3 legs in the evening?” but add your own additions. In this case your might add “find a bronze one” to get the hunters to locate a bronze man.

You can create your own riddles from the simple. “It makes a list which you can easily rub out.” (pencil) to “It has four legs and a tail. It has a coat it doesn’t take off” (dog).

As you go you can add more detail and you’ll find that the clues start to become more cryptic. So for a table you start to get “It has four legs but does not walk. It has a top good enough to eat off.”

The format “It has ... but does not ...” is a useful model to adapt and is an easy clue generator.

The clue above also used the trick of stating the obvious hoping to mislead.

The best way to generate riddles is to brainstorm, characteristics of the object or places, anything rhyming or sounding the same, any riddles your already know or sayings. If the riddle does not come quickly then walk away for half an hour or so, when you come back you will often find the riddle falls into place.

While hard to write riddles do make great treasure hunt clues.