Multi-Stage Mystery Cache - What Is Allowed

[+TexasGringo]

(1) Can you specify coordinates to a particular spot and then from there have the cacher walk a magnetic bearing for maybe 100' feet to find a clue?

 

(2) Can that clue then have a geocacher get the next coordinates off a website?

 

(3) Can a clue have coordinates on voicemail and have the geocacher call in from a cellphone to get them?

 

(4) Can the cache segments be divided up....some stages are Day / some stages are Night?

 

 

What else could you do to make a real caching adventure...but pass Geocaching.com's rules...Ideas?

[+imajeep]

Above all else, multis have to be fun. You're asking a lot of the finder, who has to locate several caches just to record one find. So the value proposition comes out to:

 

Entertainment value :> effort required

 

The best multis that I have done have involved local history, and each stage of the multi taught me something new. In other words, each stage of the multi had a point.

 

If finders enjoy your multi, they will rave about it in their logs, which will draw other finders to the cache. I'd suggest that's a lot more important than the mechanics of each stage.

 

Cheers!

[Cracker.]

1) should be OK

 

2) probably wont fly. I believe they changed the rules so that everything needed to find a cache must be listed on the cache page.

 

3) probably pushing the same thing as 2) above.

 

4) should be OK.

[+gearhedd]

These would seem to work. I would do it. I have puzzle cache that you need to use the web, as long as there is no downloading required to view the web site, then it would fly. This voice mail idea I like, I have a cache that takes you to an old telephone booth and was going to have them call 411 Information to get a phone# which was needed to get the second coordinates but when I tried 411 and the place of business I wanted a number for. The operator had to ask me not the voice directory. So I decided against it. Voice Mail how would that work and what would be the cost factor....

[+Knight2000]

Maybe OT. Can you have a puzzle/mystery multi cache?

 

Im assuming you could, but what kind would it be? I guess a puzzle/mystery.

[+Kit Fox]

(1) Can you specify coordinates to a particular spot and then from there have the cacher walk a magnetic bearing for maybe 100' feet to find a clue?

 

This is done more often than you might think, and it's perfectly fine.

(2) Can that clue then have a geocacher get the next coordinates off a website?

 

Yes, if the website doesn't require you to install any program, or requires you to register any personal information

 

(3) Can a clue have coordinates on voicemail and have the geocacher call in from a cellphone to get them?

 

I'd specify on the cache page write-up that a cell phone or access to a phone is required.

 

(4) Can the cache segments be divided up....some stages are Day / some stages are Night?

This is perfectly fine. I would mention on the cache page about the requirements though. You'll have to work hard at making the night section "day proof."

 

 

What else could you do to make a real caching adventure...but pass Geocaching.com's rules...Ideas?

 

On a side note, it is perfectly acceptable to create multiple puzzles, with the same final solution to meet the new puzzle requirements. For example, my 100th placed cache Operation Wreckhunter (GCPRMK) has two different puzzles. One requires the downloading of a special program in order to access secret information. The other puzzle requires no downloading of anything, but it is bit more "obtuse." Most cachers are going for the easy puzzle, which uses the program.

 

I worked out these details in advance with my local reviewer before creating the puzzles.

[+sTeamTraen]

(1) Can you specify coordinates to a particular spot and then from there have the cacher walk a magnetic bearing for maybe 100' feet to find a clue?

 

No problem... but I often wonder what this sort of thing adds to the hunt. You can project the WP into your GPSr so it's not like it forces people to count feet. In fact it often gives errors because the placer didn't measure the distance accurately.

 

(2) Can that clue then have a geocacher get the next coordinates off a website?

 

Yes, but it's pretty lame. Not everybody takes a data-enabled laptop or PDA with them on the hunt, and not many people will want to drive home and make another XX-mile round trip, especially if they feel that there might be another six stages like that. There's no guideline saying "the cache should be findable in a single visit" but it's a good idea, or at least you should warn people if it's not the case.

 

(3) Can a clue have coordinates on voicemail and have the geocacher call in from a cellphone to get them?

 

Probably not. You'd have to convince the reviewer that this is fairly bomb-proof.

 

(4) Can the cache segments be divided up....some stages are Day / some stages are Night?

 

Yes, but again, make it clear, and show people where they can go for dinner between the two (while not, of course, publishing restaurant recommendations).

 

What else could you do to make a real caching adventure...but pass Geocaching.com's rules...Ideas?

 

There are thousands of possibilities, all of which require you to commit to maintenance, and all of which will, to some degree or other, discourage people from going for your cache. Spend some time finding a couple of dozen multis and mysteries and see what you think then.

Edited June 11, 2007 by sTeamTraen

[+Isonzo Karst]

Entertainment value :> effort required

 

The best multis that I have done have involved local history, and each stage of the multi taught me something new. In other words, each stage of the multi had a point

 

heed the wisdom of imajeep! s/he really nailed it.

 

And I'd absolutely second what sTeamTraen said about each of your examples, in SPADES on the walk a bearing part.

 

What's the point? either the cacher already knows that they can just +180 to your bearing and move away from the GZ point ~ distance, or they know how to project a point, or they carry a compass or their GPSr has a compass, or they don't. If they don't already know a way to do it, AND they figure it out on the spot, it's fun. If they don't figure it out, it's a bummer, and for everyone else it's just a "jump through this hoop" drill. You're likely to entertain a very small % of cachers with that one.

[+TexasGringo]

Thanks for the replies.

 

Remember entertainment is different for different people. To me, finding a micro in a tree or under a light-pole skirt is not entertaining....finding a well placed ammo box deep in the woods is.

 

I'm still in the plotting stage....

[+TexasGringo]

***What's the point? either the cacher already knows that they can just +180 to your bearing and move away from the GZ point ***

 

You already assumed that they know what bearing to take before they got to GZ.

[+Happy Humphrey]

 

(1) Can you specify coordinates to a particular spot and then from there have the cacher walk a magnetic bearing for maybe 100' feet to find a clue?

 

No problem... but I often wonder what this sort of thing adds to the hunt. You can project the WP into your GPSr so it's not like it forces people to count feet. In fact it often gives errors because the placer didn't measure the distance accurately.

This would be very lame if it's presented in a prosaic fashion: often caches can become very entertaining (although the actual mechanics are mundane) if the cache description is imaginative enough.

Here's a classic example.

Edited June 12, 2007 by Happy Humphrey

[+TexasGringo]

It would require someone to locate something at GZ ... and calculate the bearing and distance to walk to the cache stage.

 

The cache link you provided does things like that.

[+Miragee]

I found a Multi last week, The Dark Cell Poltergeist, where we had to figure out the coordinates for the "final" but at that location, had to walk a distance at a specific bearing to find the cache container. That was a fun cache!

[+halffast]

This might work for locals.I might drive through your area but not have time to do all that needs to be done to log it.Not every one has a cell phone(maybe Im the only one who doesnt)So I would just skip it.

[+ncfinn]

This might work for locals.I might drive through your area but not have time to do all that needs to be done to log it.Not every one has a cell phone(maybe Im the only one who doesnt)So I would just skip it.

 

I agree with this. I would be very annoyed if I was far out of town and had just spent time on a cache that required I go home first before I can continue.

 

Yes, not everybody has a cell phone, and not every phone works in every area.

[+Knight2000]

This might work for locals.I might drive through your area but not have time to do all that needs to be done to log it.Not every one has a cell phone(maybe Im the only one who doesnt)So I would just skip it.

I didnt catch the phone part. Which cache or proposed cache idea involves a phone?

[+ncfinn]

Here's the phone part:

 

(3) Can a clue have coordinates on voicemail and have the geocacher call in from a cellphone to get them?

Edited June 13, 2007 by ncfinn

[+Knight2000]

Here's the phone part:

 

(3) Can a clue have coordinates on voicemail and have the geocacher call in from a cellphone to get them?

Thanks!

[+Miragee]

I have found Puzzle caches that involved making phone calls and getting the information from the Voice Mail message.

[+Renegade Knight]

(1) Can you specify coordinates to a particular spot and then from there have the cacher walk a magnetic bearing for maybe 100' feet to find a clue?

 

(2) Can that clue then have a geocacher get the next coordinates off a website?

 

(3) Can a clue have coordinates on voicemail and have the geocacher call in from a cellphone to get them?

 

(4) Can the cache segments be divided up....some stages are Day / some stages are Night?

 

 

What else could you do to make a real caching adventure...but pass Geocaching.com's rules...Ideas?

 

I'm working on one that has some similar creative angles to it. Not because I want to push rules, but because I have an idea for how to lay out the cache that works for this cache. It uses some of your ideas, a few you didn't post, and you have a couple that I don't.

 

The odds are that this site will decline my cache. The rules have changed from when I started. However I'm not going to modify the cache to fit since that would really destroy the entire idea behind the cache and I've invested a lot of work and still have a lot of work to go.

 

Translated. It's good to know the rules but sometime the rules get in the way of a good cache and then hopefully your reivewer will understand the cache does meet the spirit and intent of caching even if it doesn't actually nail every guideline by the letter.

[+Renegade Knight]

Here's the phone part:

 

(3) Can a clue have coordinates on voicemail and have the geocacher call in from a cellphone to get them?

 

I like that idea. Can't see a reason it would not work.