Without trying to scare anyone off, or spoil anyone’s fun, we thought we would give you an idea of what sort of challenges might await you on one of our trails. Each trail has around 16-18 clues and the overall level for each trail is roughly similar, but not all clues are created equally!
The basic principle …. read the question in stages, they are written to help you, not to try and trip you up, we WANT you to succeed – honest. During early testing with friends and family we saw people (so often) read the clue and try to jump to the answer before even getting to the right place! Take your time and make sure …. read the question again, and pass it round so everyone can have a look.
Follow your nose …. some of them are as simple as following instructions i.e., go here, find that, what’s the picture of – that sort of idea, this is the most basic clue, sometimes we just need an easy clue to make sure you get somewhere.
Interpret the text …. the next level of difficulty is along the same line but you will have to interpret what is written to get you to where you need to be. These are probably the most common type of clues – not exactly cryptic, but requiring a certain level of thought (and care!) in working out.
Use your smart device ….there are times when you will have to look things up – unless you are THAT clever! Again – there’s nothing to fear here, we’re not asking you to do a research paper, just look up who a certain person was …. or what a word means.
There may also be a compass direction – head North, or the answer you have is in miles and you have to convert to yards – nothing too difficult, just a little calculation. I would also envisage that your maps app would come in handy from time-to-time.
I suggest the team ‘captain’ controls the questions and the rest of the team are the researchers – but you know your team better than we do.
Roman numerals …. not widely used in our clues but they have made an appearance – again, help is readily available on line so no need to panic.
Anagrams …. ok – for those of you have no idea about anagrams, here are a few to help you out. It’s basically jumbling up the letters of a word (or words) to make different words – which you would have to unscramble to find the answer. These are well-known and very clever anagrams (but not used by us) ….
- THE EYES = THEY SEE
- ELEVEN PLUS TWO = TWELVE PLUS ONE
- DORMITORY = DIRTY ROOM
- ASTRONOMER = MOON STARER
- SLOT MACHINES = CASH LOST IN ME
…. again, we don’t use these a lot, but you should be aware they could pop-up.
Shift cipher …. this is rarely used, you certainly wouldn’t get more than one on a trail (if any). This is a code whereby each letter of a word is shifted along in the alphabet to make it appear gibberish e.g. if you shift each letter of the words SHIFT CIPHER one place to the right in the alphabet you get TIJGUDJQIFS.
Julius Caesar used shift ciphers when sending messages, in case they were intercepted by his enemies.
Us the Help and/or Hint buttons to give you a little assistance
Help & Hint buttons ….
If you do get stuck, rather than get a question wrong by guessing (10-minute time penalty), use the Help and Hint buttons to give you, well …. a help, and a hint really …. they only have a 5-minute penalty, and they are written to be very helpful.
The ‘Help’ will guide you to the right location, this is usually the first part of the clue. The ‘Hint’ button is generally used more in solving the actual clue, just a little nudge in the right direction.
Skip …. when all else fails, or if a clue location is inaccessible for some reason, simply enter ‘Skip’ as your answer and you will be moved on to the next clue. Obviously, abuse of the ‘skip’ function will be detrimental to your sense of self-worth and will keep you awake at night for months to come …. and it’s not what you paid your hard-earned money to do!
So, there you have a little insight into what we have prepared for you, enjoy your trail and have fun discovering the city you live in, work in, play in. Check out more information on the ‘How it Works’ page.
