Question on a really cool cache I'm planning.

[+pvogieguy2007]

So I am creating a mystery cache. It is my first one. In the future I am going to do a harder one.. It would be inspired by all the movies and TV shows on going to multiple locations to get the next clue to get to the cache.

 

It would start at a location, solve the riddle, go to a place, find a clue that would lead to the cache. The  clue would be hidden in something that.... think of a cane with a sword in it. The sword is inside the cane... don't want to give my idea away. (And no I am not hiding a cane sword)

 

There would be a riddle, a 3/4 walk, that hidden clue.

 

The terain is a 1.5 and all the elements separately I would probably even label a 1.5, but all together I have no clue how I should label the difficulty. This could be the easiest and hardest mystery cache someone could do. Just wondering on how to label/ warn people to what they are up for.

 

 

 

Any help labeling levels, attributes, and other things that people should know.

[+Shawna426]

What do you mean by easiest/hardest?  I have one that COULD be found in a couple of seconds, especially if someone has seen a similar cache before, but the FTFs, two people working together, spent 2 1/2 hours at GZ, left, then had an epiphany and came back and found it in seconds.  I gave it 3.5 for difficulty (terrain 1.5 because it involves a little tromping around on jeep roads and a tiny bit of off trail, but not much really), and am willing to adjust it if/when others find it and give feedback, but the FTFs seemed fine with it.  My description includes lots of information, some of which are red herrings, but some of which are actual hints.  I would say if you are descriptive enough in your cache description so people don't feel snookered if it takes them a long time, you're probably fine to give it a middling rating instead of difficult, but I wouldn't rate it easy if it will likely be difficult for some people (like probably me--I'm what I call "culturally illiterate"--I didn't watch a lot of the same movies or TV as most people my age, so there are a lot of references I don't get).

 

Also, I don't know if yours would involve a 0.75 mile (or km) walk, or 3-4 miles, or what, but be clear about that in your description, as well (and as well as rating the terrain accurately).  When setting off on multis, or even traditionals where it's kind of hard to see where the parking is compared to the actual cache from the satellite map, I like to know what I'm getting into so I can plan accordingly.  I do a lot of my caching after work, with only a set amount of time before dark, though I also do some on weekends.  I would, of course, want to save ones with a bit of hiking for the weekend so I don't end up out in the dark, especially if there will be a field puzzle that I can't predict how long it would take.

[Johannis10]

On 9/19/2021 at 6:45 PM, pvogieguy2007 said:

Any help labeling levels, attributes, and other things that people should know.

Hi pvogieguy2007,

Find an experienced beta tester and implement his suggestions for improvement.

Greetings Johannis10

[+Max and 99]

On 9/19/2021 at 11:45 AM, pvogieguy2007 said:

So I am creating a mystery cache. It is my first one. In the future I am going to do a harder one.. It would be inspired by all the movies and TV shows on going to multiple locations to get the next clue to get to the cache.

 

It would start at a location, solve the riddle, go to a place, find a clue that would lead to the cache. The  clue would be hidden in something that.... think of a cane with a sword in it. The sword is inside the cane... don't want to give my idea away. (And no I am not hiding a cane sword)

 

There would be a riddle, a 3/4 walk, that hidden clue.

 

The terain is a 1.5 and all the elements separately I would probably even label a 1.5, but all together I have no clue how I should label the difficulty. This could be the easiest and hardest mystery cache someone could do. Just wondering on how to label/ warn people to what they are up for.

 

 

 

Any help labeling levels, attributes, and other things that people should know.

Let the finders know what to expect, especially with the walking distance and time expectation, and number of stages. Have you pre-checked all those physical stops with a reviewer? You may want to check on that before you get too far in the planning process.

[+pvogieguy2007]

thanks all. the replies did help. It was a 3/4 of a mile walk, and I havent talked to a reviewer yet, put the location is northern Wisconsin, so this would be far enough away from others, but still not too far that noone would find them.

[+GeoTrekker26]

That's several hours away from your home so the reviewer will want to know about your maintenance plan will be for the new cache.  A cache with multiple locations could end up requiring a lot owner follow up.  Do you get up there on a frequent basis or do you have friend or relative geocacher in the area that will be able to maintain the cache for you?

 

[+Max and 99]

48 minutes ago, pvogieguy2007 said:

thanks all. the replies did help. It was a 3/4 of a mile walk, and I havent talked to a reviewer yet, put the location is northern Wisconsin, so this would be far enough away from others, but still not too far that noone would find them.

You have only found Traditional caches, yet you are planning something different. Don't you think it would be a good idea to find some caches of the type you plan to hide? If you haven't solved any puzzles or multicaches in that area, you may not know where those physical stages are. Just saying', to prevent you from having frustration when the reviewer says those spots are already taken, and you want to know why they're not showing on the map.

[+Isonzo Karst]

https://wiki.Groundspeak.com/display/GEO/Wisconsin

 

Geocaching policy for Wisconsin.

[+coachstahly]

On 9/19/2021 at 12:45 PM, pvogieguy2007 said:

The  clue would be hidden in something that.... think of a cane with a sword in it. The sword is inside the cane... don't want to give my idea away.

 

Do you have a replacement available on the chance that this "container" might go MIA?  You'd be surprised by the places that non-cachers go and "find" a cache that they remove.  For more "unique" containers, I usually have 2 ready to go - 1 to put out and one replacement, should the first one go missing.  If the second one ends up disappearing, I typically end up archiving the cache.  I suggest leaving something similar in size and shape at the location you're considering while getting things ready to submit for publication.

 

15 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

Don't you think it would be a good idea to find some caches of the type you plan to hide?

 

Why?  Unless the OP is struggling with the actual "riddle" at the first stop, all a puzzle/unknown cache is is a traditional cache that requires the finder to do something first to be able to find the container.  While I advocate that new hiders find caches before considering hiding them in order to get a better idea of the variety of containers and hide styles that are out there, at the root of geocaching, it's still just placing a container at a set of coordinates and then determining the manner in which you want finders to go find it.  

 

Also, it's my guess that there aren't a lot of multi-stop mystery caches out there for the OP to find.  Multis, yes.  Mysteries, yes.  Multi mysteries, no.

 

15 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

If you haven't solved any puzzles or multicaches in that area, you may not know where those physical stages are.

 

This, 1000 times over.  If you've not cached the area, then there's a strong possibility that you might have some saturation issues, especially if it's an active caching area.  The more caches in an area, the higher the chance that you'll run into issues like mentioned above.  

 

If I understand your cache correctly, it appears you're going to need 2 physical locations - the "clue" and the final, while the first stage will be a virtual stop.  Does that sound about right?