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Rules for a Treasure Hunt Game at Home

Treasure hunts come in a number of varieties. For some, the goal is to follow the clues in an attempt to find one item at the end of the hunt. Other treasure hunts ask you to find multiple treasures throughout the game, with some being worth more points than the others. Whichever style of treasure hunt you decide to host, setting ground rules that are the same for every team is important. Violating these rules should penalize or disqualify the offending team.

Teams
- If the treasure hunt is conducted using teams, the teams must stay together at all times. Team members may not split away from their team to try to gather information from the other teams.
Follow The Clues
- Each team or individual must follow all the clues in the treasure hunt. Following another team during the treasure hunt is not permitted. This could result in your team skipping clues and just looking for where the other teams go. Each team must collect all of the clues along the way and present the written clues when they finish the hunt. If the winning team does not have all of the clues, that team is disqualified.
Interfering With Other Teams Is Not Permitted
- During the treasure hunt, you may not set traps or attempt to interfere with other teams. If you arrive at a location with a clue before the other teams, you are not permitted to hide the clue enveloped left for the other teams.
Supplies
- Bringing outside tools or supplies to assist you with the treasure hunt is not permitted. You may only use the tools provide by the organizer of the treasure hunt. The use of cell phones with Internet access is permitted only if at least one member of every team has a device capable of this.
Time Limit
- If a time limit is announced for the treasure hunt, there should be a penalty for exceeding that time limit. If there are multiple items found on the treasure hunt, each worth a certain amount of points, impose a point penalty for arriving late at the finish area. The penalty could be five points for every 10 minutes late returning to the designated meeting area.
Determining the Winner
- Determine the winner based on the individual rules of the treasure hunt. One version can declare the winner to be the team that completes the treasure hunt first. Another version might have multiple items that teams find throughout the treasure hunt. Whichever team has items worth the most number of points at the end of the treasure hunt is the winner. If there is a tie for total points, the team that returned to the meeting area first is the winner.

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