Geocaching the Game

Jack7

First Post
Does anyone here geocache or have you ever done this in the past? What did you think of it, and did you enjoy it?

I'm thinking about making geocaching part of our D&D and other games. (I've always enjoyed working real world experiences into our games, both for purposes of practicing skill sets, and for purposes of increasing entertainment value.) For mysteries, clues, information, etc. I would create a geocache which the players could find and which others (geocachers not directly involved in our other games) could find and then use or decipher as necessary.

I think this would be good for certain D&D scenarios as well as for other games we play, such as pulp, horror, hero, detective (especially detective games), and sci-fi games. (I'm also gonna work the idea into an Alternate Reality Game I'm developing.) It will also be good practice for SAR operations and that kind of thing with my kids, and some of the cadets.

I'm also thinking of creating an in-game version of it, but I'm not sure how I'll work out the details of that yet. For instance with our D&D setting it will work by magic or may be tied to the Vadders, in other settings it will work in other ways. I'm open however to ideas about how to create the exact process and how it would operate (both in-game and in the real world).

Anyways if you do geocache then let me know your experiences.

If not and you know how it works and operates then I'd be glad to hear your ideas about how to effectively weave it into games.

Looking forward to hearing about your ideas and observations.
 
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I could easily see geocaching worked into a modern or scifi RPG, assuming the players are up for a little LARPing. I think the reliance on a GPS, coordinates, and the necessary tech to link to the geocaching info (iPhone, smartphone, whatever) might prove to break a players "willing suspension of disbelief" in a medieval fantasy game.

That being said, I think it's a cool idea. Perhaps run a modern game where players have to locate components to a supercomputer, alien artifact, or thaumaturgic circle. Each geocache would either lead to the next, or would provide one piece in a grande puzzle.

Or make it like Escape From New York. Set up your geocaches and give the players a set amount of time to find all the components of "the antidote".
 

Set up your geocaches and give the players a set amount of time to find all the components of "the antidote".

I hadn't thought about the time/mission restrictions yet since I've been concentrating on the purely basic operational aspects of how to run these scenarios in relation to a game. But it's a good point, I like it.
 

Another thing I just thought of is that this can be used like an "open dead drop."

You could put things in the cache meant either for your mark or your contact, and upon finding and seeing them then the contact would know how to read the objects/info or at least decipher it, whereas everyone else would just assume it is a regular old geocache.

So in effect your dead-drop is in plain site but no-one realizes it has a covert or secondary function. This kind of thing could have a lot of very practical uses.
 

I geocache, though not often, because Texas is too hot. I got into it because Jolly wrote about it in his editorial for KoDT way back when.

google up GeoHack for some ideas on RPG elements in geocaching.


Using an existing cache as a dead drop would be a good idea, no extra work on your part. Your risk of somebody else grabbing it before the players do is fairly high though.

The race to collect all the components is also good idea. Think of a multi hidden in nearby parks. Close enough to drive to each one, almost a park-n-grab.

I would recommend hiding your own, but not publishing them. Thus geocachers wouldn't be looking for them. As a new cacher, you may have no idea how fast the first-to-find (FTF) hounds work to get credit.
 

All of those sound like good ideas Janx.

google up GeoHack for some ideas on RPG elements in geocaching.

I will.

Using an existing cache as a dead drop would be a good idea, no extra work on your part. Your risk of somebody else grabbing it before the players do is fairly high though.

I was under the impression that supposedly the finder was either supposed to leave the cache for others to find, or add new things to it. I could be wrong.

The race to collect all the components is also good idea. Think of a multi hidden in nearby parks. Close enough to drive to each one, almost a park-n-grab.

That's a good idea. Multiple components at the same location but not necessarily at the same coordinates, or multiple components located at connected or nearby locations.

I would recommend hiding your own, but not publishing them. Thus geocachers wouldn't be looking for them. As a new cacher, you may have no idea how fast the first-to-find (FTF) hounds work to get credit.

Good idea, and I had already considered that to some extent.

These were my takes:

Create a cache and run an "In-house search and/or recovery operation," then use geocaching methods to plant and seek it. Then after everything has been cleared with the game list it on the geocache site so that they can recover it too.

Create caches just for our games, using geocaching principles and methods.

Use already existing geocaches as "open dead-drops." But if what you say is true, and so far I don't know how it operates because I just created my account last night, then I'll have to use this carefully or sparingly.

Use already existing geocaches with "replants." (Stuff for our game planted in.)

Develop new caching techniques of my own and improve existing techniques. (For instance I'm thinking about combining mnemonic and coding and forensic techniques to add in to caching methods of planting and recovery.)



I'm kinda excited about the possibilities of all of this. There are game applications, and real world applications. It will teach my kids a lot about map reading, coordinate tracking, etc. I've decided to make it a part of their Friday Field Trips.(I homeschool my kids and every Friday involves Field Trips, usually to historical or impart locations - so I'm gonna work in geocaching into some of their field trips. I'll also work in the technical methods into their Thursday laboratories. Such as their detective and SAR and forensics work.)

It will be excellent training for site searching and teaching them to sweep a scene for evidence. The GPS functions and mapping functions I'll use to teach them about SAR operations, and my daughter can use that for SAR operations conducted with her squadron.

Well, thanks for your ideas and suggestions. They were very good.
I've still got a lot to learn about it though. Exactly how it operates and so forth. Well, gotta go eat lunch now.

See ya.
 

well, PM me if you have any questions. I'm under the same handle on geocaching.com.

I'm going to clarify the situation on this idea:
"Use already existing geocaches as "open dead-drops." But if what you say is true, and so far I don't know how it operates because I just created my account last night, then I'll have to use this carefully or sparingly."

This means, you goto cache GC123456 and deposit an item on Saturday, 1pm.

then you give your players clues to find the cache and they go hunting for it on Sunday, at 2pm.

In the 25 hours between that, other cachers may have hunted for cache GC123456 and tan your item intended for your game (as part of the take something, leave something etiquette). No wrong doing has taken place, it's simply a risk of placing something intended for a specific person in a published cache.

Now a cool side-effect of this, is that if it did occur (and your item was marked), the game would then involve external participants, as the players must now negotiate with other GC players, for their in-game item.

One idea I've had baking in my back-brain for awhile is a modern rpg, with larp elements. use fake-web pages for the players to hack (it's easy to make something that just runs in IE even), use geocaching elements for dead drops and such. Tailing and surveillance of somebody (a player who is participating, do NOT do this on random people).

The roadblock in post 9/11 is not looking suspicious and making trouble.


I recommend following gc.com guidelines for actual hiding of caches, they are good rules to follow for any kind of "thing to be hidden for a game". Also, check out the puzzle caches, people have made a lot of hard ones, that ought to be examples of what you're talking about for your kids.

another new idea I had today (after responding to this initial thread), was modernizing the GeoHack idea. The original idea was people would leave a GeoHack card for a monster and treasure in a cache. You'd get there, see the card, and with simple rules, resolve the fight so you could take the treasure.

Ignoring the cheating aspect (can't stop it, don't bother fretting about it), the problem with the GH idea was caches get wet, not everybody plays, and somebody might take the card for the encounter.

Enter the internet. Punch in the GeoHack code on the cache container on your phone, and resolve the fight online. The web site takes care of the randomizer, and the cache doesn't even have to truly be a container.
 

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