The TV shows the adventure. You run the game from your phone: the riddles, the timing and the magic effects. Watch the one-minute video, or follow the five steps.
1. Start the game on the TV
Open www.leagueofriddles.com/tv on your TV, or on a laptop connected to it, and press Start. Then scan the QR code on the TV with your phone: the phone becomes your remote. Open the editor: your game is already there. Walk through your home and pick hiding places: under a pillow, in a shoe, behind the curtain, in the pot cupboard.
2. Prepare the riddles on your phone
Write your own riddles or use ready-made ones. Add photo riddles too: a photo of a teddy bear means the treasure is hidden near the teddy bear. Riddles can be in any language you like, up to 200 in one game. Don't forget to hide the play money in these places ;) The printable PDF is in your order e-mail. Until you tap “Start game” on the remote, the game is a preview: rehearse on the TV as often as you like. From “Start game” your game is live for good: play tonight and again whenever you like.
3. Show or hide the riddle on the TV
Tap Show to put a riddle on the TV. Hide now takes it off the screen, Keep on screen holds it there until you hide it.
4. Use an effect
Tap an effect on your phone whenever you want an extra magical surprise on the TV.
5. End the game
When all the riddles have been shown, tap End game.
Run the party from the couch
The gong sounds, the riddle appears, the kids run. You show every riddle from your phone. Between rounds the kids can spend the play money they found in a little "shop" (a bowl of candies is enough), or save it for the end, when the shop opens once more. No shop? Then whoever has the most play money wins the game. Here is our short guide.
How to play it well
Surprise and mystery are the whole game. Give nothing away in advance. Around 20 riddles is the right number for an evening. Have snacks ready, and a bowl of candies or small treats as the shop: the kids will buy them with the money they find.
Run everything by hand. You press the gong, you show each riddle, you pick the moment. That is how you feel the kids: when they are bored, when they are ready, when they need a break. The automatic mode (riddles on a timer) is there as a fallback and is off by default. Leave it off, at least for your first game.
The evening, step by step:
- Set the TV up before the guests arrive. It shows the welcome board; if you like, tick "Black screen" on your phone so nothing gives the game away.
- Press "Start game". The gong sound means that the kids must come to the TV screen, because the riddle will appear.
- The room appears and nothing happens. Let the kids get bored. Let them wander off.
- At a completely random moment, press the gong. If they don't get it, call out: "Kids, the gong!"
- They run to the screen and nothing happens. Wait. Let the tension build. Only when they start to fidget, show the riddle.
- They run, they hunt, they come back. Repeat. After a few riddles, press "Buy candies" and open your shop.
Effects: a surprise first, a show later. Save the effects. The first one works best as an ambush: one child walks past the TV, you fire an effect (the spider, say) and off they run to fetch the others. Towards the end of the game you can fire them freely, for the spectacle.
Play anywhere. At home, at school, at grandma's, at a friend's party: all you need is a screen (a TV or a computer), internet and your phone. Your game lives in your account, so it goes wherever you go.
Kids can be the hosts too. Let them prepare a game for their parents or their friends: they pick the hiding places, write the riddles and run the evening from the phone. Making the riddles is half the fun.
After the gong, wait. After they gather, wait. The pauses are where the fun is.
What you need
- A screen for the game: a TV (with its own browser, a laptop plugged in by HDMI, or a phone or tablet casting to it), or simply a computer.
- A smartphone for the host, and internet on both devices.
- Something to hide: our play money (you need a printer), or candies, small treats or anything you like.
- Candies or small treats for the kids' shop, if you run one: they buy them with the play money they find ;)
Lasts about 1.5–2 hours.
Questions? Write to league.of.riddles@gmail.com.