'Adventure' birthday party

[zorket]

Okay - At the risk of throwing myself out there as a TOTAL and COMPLETE dork (well, my 20-something kids tell me I am just that), I am in the wee early planning stages for my fifth kid's 7th birthday party.  I am trying to plan an IF Adventure party for him.  He LOVES to play Zork - or his version of it in the back yard.  This is very hard to explain.  But the kids love to play this game, as if they are the adventurer - I give them clues and such, and they have to search/explore, find more clues (I have planted my own version of zorkmids, etc.) in order to advance in the game.  I have even managed to pull the older kids into the game as the Grand Inquisitor, or as grue's or such.  And, yes, occassionally a small child does get eaten by a grue.  (I think they love that the most of all).  So.....anyhoo..... now that my true nature has been revealed .... (and yes, I would LOVE some rye) ....  just wondered if anyone might have some interesting thoughts, ideas, suggestions for pulling off the birthday party of the year.  (well, since he only gets one of these per year...)

zorket

[DataAngel]

Sounds fun, i'll be by to play. 8-)

If I think of any ideas I'll post them, sounds fun already!

[DrPaul]

Five years ago, I constructed a murder mystery party for my daughter's 12th birthday.  The game was designed to be very similar to playing an adventure game in real life.  - Hidden clues, puzzles, inventory, etc.

I posted a thread about my game on an interactive fiction newsgroup and one of the members there offered to post all of my game materials on his website.

All the stuff (invitations, clues, character bios and all the details) can be downloaded from here:
http://tritarget.com/IF/murder_party/

Some of the clues are pretty sophisticated.  Using braile, chemistry, ultraviolet lights, telescope...

Read the host page for a good overview and then download all for documents (3 pdfs and an html).

Check it out.

[Reaver]

I doubt it will help much, but when I was younger my dad did something similar for me for Christmas, without announcing it.  I opened what I thought was my last present, which was a Brass Lantern that he had converted to be battery-powered (yes, I still have it).  In the box he included a hand-drawn map of the house, with new fantasy-style names for the varying rooms.  It eventually lead me down to the storage room of our storm shelter, where he had placed more adventurer-themed presents, which basically consisted of an archery set.

Still my favorite X-Mas 10 years later.

[DataAngel]

That is very cool Reaver, im jealous.

[Reaver]

Sorry you are jealous.  It was just around the time Grand Inquisitor was released, and my parents new that I really liked the Zork games.  My dad wanted to do something special for me, and so he made the lantern.  It still works and I keep it in my room.  Just in case of grues.

[Siriusstar]

Those birthday parties sound great. I never had an awesome birthday party like that. *sniff*  

How about hidden spell scrolls? Perhaps one of them might need to go through a 'spell lab' like in Z:GI. Or have them 'buy and sell' magical objects like in Beyond Zork. Zork Zero's Snarfem or the puzzle with the fox, rooster and earthworm could be fun at a party. The green eyed rock and the brown eyed rock puzzle from Spellbreaker might be entertaining, if a little complicated.

[zorket]

Those birthday parties sound great. I never had an awesome birthday party like that. *sniff*  

How about hidden spell scrolls? Perhaps one of them might need to go through a 'spell lab' like in Z:GI. Or have them 'buy and sell' magical objects like in Beyond Zork. Zork Zero's Snarfem or the puzzle with the fox, rooster and earthworm could be fun at a party. The green eyed rock and the brown eyed rock puzzle from Spellbreaker might be entertaining, if a little complicated.

HA!!  We do that in our outside version of the game already!  (great minds think alike!!) - my daughter has a collection of little spell scrolls, and has thought up a few of her own - "smurfsniv" actually shrinks her brothers when cast upon them...  wish I had that spell when I was growing up with FIVE brothers!!    :o

zorket

[zorket]

I doubt it will help much, but when I was younger my dad did something similar for me for Christmas, without announcing it.  I opened what I thought was my last present, which was a Brass Lantern that he had converted to be battery-powered (yes, I still have it).  In the box he included a hand-drawn map of the house, with new fantasy-style names for the varying rooms.  It eventually lead me down to the storage room of our storm shelter, where he had placed more adventurer-themed presents, which basically consisted of an archery set.

Still my favorite X-Mas 10 years later.

This sounds completely awesome.  I hope your dad knows how jealous we all are!!  I may steal some of his ideas.  

zorket

[zorket]

Five years ago, I constructed a murder mystery party for my daughter's 12th birthday.  The game was designed to be very similar to playing an adventure game in real life.  - Hidden clues, puzzles, inventory, etc.

Some of the clues are pretty sophisticated.  Using braile, chemistry, ultraviolet lights, telescope...

I did check it out - and saved it for later...  I think this is a bit too sophisticated for 7 year olds, but a very cool idea, all the same.  Thanks for the link.

zorket

[DataAngel]

Very cool everyone! I still don't want kids, but shall I ever change my mind... not only will they be hardcore into Zork, but i'll for sure have to do some of these things for their birthday's.

[cade_46]

Can anyone suggest me best birthday party nyc venue where I can find the live music too? As it is the party of a child so I don't want bar service in it.