One Day to Go... A Sneak Peek at the Chamber of Secrets Game!

Radio silence usually means I'm too busy crafting to post on the blog. The last few weeks I have been hurriedly working on the party details for the upcoming Chamber of Secrets birthday party for Little Tomato.

For this party, we are starting with a couple of quick crafts, which the girls will get to take home: re-potting baby mandrakes & a Cornish Pixie jar.

After the crafts, there will be a little game. This is what has been taking so long to work out. I'm not going to lie, my brain is a little fried right now!

I have devised a game that is a little bit 'escape room' flair, a little bit scavenger hunt flair, and a little bit Clue flair... I think it will be a hit!

The game begins with a diary page that reads,

"We have learned that this diary, that belonged to the heir of Slytherin, has bewitched a student at Hogwarts to open the Chamber of Secrets! Ginny Weasley has been kidnapped and taken to the Chamber. You must help find who is bewitched by the diary, where the entrance to the Chamber is hidden in the castle, and what creature is the Beast of Slytherin before it is too late for Ginny! 

Follow the clues you find. Every person, beast, and location found can be ruled out. When you have found all of the clues, you will have all you need to free Ginny!"

The 'students' will be given a checklist (Clue-style!) and their first clue. All of the clues are provided by Gilderoy Lockhart in his typical 'Lockhart flair.' Some are riddles, some are puzzles- it is a fun mix of solving clues and hunting for the next clue once you've solved what you're looking for. Each clue includes a card of a Suspect, Beast, or Location. That card can be checked off the list, as we know that they are not 'guilty.' Each Suspect, Beast, & Location is numbered. Once the students find all of the clues (and thus, all of the cards). They are left with only one Suspect, Beast, and Location that can be the answer to the game. The number of associated with each [Suspect - Beast - Location] is entered into a final lock which completes the game!

What I love about the game setup is that I designed it to allow the cards to be mixed up. Much like Clue, you can shuffle the Suspects, Beasts, and Locations and set a new end game. While the clues are the same, you can shuffle the order of them, and where the item they lead to is hidden (ex. if the answer to the clue is 'glove,' the glove can be hidden somewhere new).  So the game can be replayed with different results.

I'm looking forward to seeing it played out tomorrow!