|
This Frequently Asked Questions list should answer many of your questions about Cryptic Mission.
What is CrypticMission.com?
CrypticMission.com is a company that designs, plans, and runs custom puzzle adventures
(Cryptic Missions) for educational, corporate, and private events. CrypticMission.com can create a
custom adventure for a company team-building exercise, bachelor/bachelorette party, birthday
party, club function, or just for fun.
CrypticMission.com also runs events that are open to the public.
For more information on what CrypticMission.com can do for you,
see our Services page. To meet our staff, check out
our People page
What is a "puzzle adventure?" What is a Cryptic Mission?
"Puzzle adventure" is a general term for a game
that takes teams from one location to another,
puzzling through clues using intuition, resourcefulness,
and problem solving skills. A Cryptic Mission is a puzzle
adventure designed by CrypticMission.com.
Puzzle adventures are known in other contexts as Puzzle Hunts,
Puzzle Safaris, Midnight Madnesses, Mystery Hunts, or Urban Challenges.
For more information on the background and history of these events, see
the Background and Glossary pages.
What kinds of clues can I expect on a Cryptic Mission?
Cryptic Mission clues include
mystery trails, brain teasers, cryptograms, trivia quizzes,
and other challenges that require varying amounts of brain
power, knowledge, creativity, and insight.
Samples of the types of clues you would see on a Mission can be found
on our business card,
the Examples page, or by solving My
First Cryptic Mission.
How can I prepare for a Cryptic Mission?
Though you never know what kind of clues will see during a puzzle adventure,
understanding the thought processes behind solving Cryptic Mission clues
can be invaluable. As you go through the sample clues found on
the business card,
the Examples page, and My
First Cryptic Mission, you can read all the hints (displayed in links
at the bottom of the pages) to see the kinds of information
that are important.
You can also go read the information on the Tutorial
page. This gives you some strategies
How can a puzzle adventure be customized?
The unique offering of Cryptic Mission is that we design puzzles and
adventures to suit the tastes of our clients. The length of the adventure,
the locations used, the difficulty level of the puzzles, and
the skills and knowledge used in the puzzles can all be tailored
to the client's tastes. We work with you to create an adventure that will
keep all the participants interested, excited, and satisfied.
Our Welcome page offers some ideas for customized Missions.
For some examples of puzzles customized for clients, see the
Examples page. Our Testimonials
page records the reactions of some of our clients to our customization approach.
What different types of Cryptic Mission are there?
Though all Missions revolve around solving puzzles, there are several "flavors"
of events that we run, depending on the preferences of the client.
These flavors include:
- Quest - A treasure hunt where each clue leads you to another clue until you reach the Treasure at the end
- Safari - Like a Quest, but clues can be found out of order
- Web Hunt - A Web Hunt takes place through the Internet, and may include web pages, passwords,
email addresses, and possibly phone and fax numbers. My First Cryptic Mission
is a Web Hunt.
- Challenge - A Hunt or Safari which physical skill as well as puzzle solving ability
- Mystery - The adventure takes place a single location (such as your living room)
instead of across a campus or city.
- Murder Mystery Party - participants act out roles and collect clues to solve a crime.
Unlike most puzzle adventures, a Murder Mysetry party emphasizes role-playing
to reach the solution to the game.
Cryptic Missions can also be run cooperatively or competitively. A cooperative Mission
has all the participants working together to succceed. A competitive Mission will have
teams of participants competing to be the first to finish the adventure.
Missions can be hybrids, incorporating elements from several types of adventure. For more
Cryptic Mission definitions, see the Glossary. The history of
these types can be found on the Background page.
Why would I want a Cryptic Mission?
Puzzle adventures are ideal team building exercises for work groups, and can be custom tailored
to fit the industry or specialization of a given work group. Cryptic Missions will make any
party or get together incredibly memorable. Specific ideas for Missions you might want
can be found on the Welcome page.
Where is Cryptic Mission located? Where do you run Missions?
Cryptic Mission is currently based in Los Angeles. Just because you don't live in
Southern California does not mean that you can't have a Cryptic Mission, though. We have several options
for running puzzle adventures in other locales. See our Services
page for more information.
How much does a Cryptic Mission Cost?
Custom tailoring an adventure involves many variables that make it hard to estimate a fixed price.
Location, duration, difficulty, and the amount of required research all figure in. Prices are
negotiated on a per-client basis.
How long does it take to organize a Cryptic Mission?
Under the right circumstances, we can organize a puzzle adventure for you in as little as
7 days. For best results, however, give us at least a month lead time to research and develop your customized
Mission.
Who typically enjoys Cryptic Missions?
Any kind of person may enjoy a Cryptic Missions, especially when it is custom tailored to their
tastes, background, and preferences. The attributes that best serve a Cryptic Mission participant
are general intelligence, problem solving skill, mental flexibility, enthusiasm, and tenacity.
|
