How to host

One evening of play for kids aged around 6–12. You hide the treasure (play money, candies or anything you like), the TV calls the riddles, the kids hunt. Here is the whole evening in four steps, from the editor on your phone to the end board.

What you need

• A screen by the TV with a web browser. The simplest: a laptop plugged into the TV with an HDMI cable (this is how we play at home). A smart TV with a browser or casting the screen from a phone or tablet (Chromecast, AirPlay) also works. Nothing to install, no sign-in on the TV.
• Your phone as the remote, and internet for both.
• Something to hide: our printable play money (you need a printer), or candies, small treats or anything you like.
• About 30 minutes to prepare, 1.5–2 hours of play.

1. Prepare on your phone

1. Open the editor and sign in with the e-mail address you bought the game with (create the account if you have none: a confirmation link arrives by e-mail).
2. Your game is already on the list under Your games: every game you buy appears there by itself. Bought with another e-mail? Tap Bought with another e-mail? and enter the order number and that e-mail. Open the game and pick the Party date.
3. Walk through the house and add a riddle for every hiding place: Add text riddle for a rhyme or a clue (in any language, up to 240 characters), Add photo riddle for a picture of the place. Crop and zoom the photo in the TV frame. The kids see the riddle on the TV; a note to yourself stays on the phone.
4. In the game settings pick the TV theme (look and gong), the gong sound, how long a riddle stays on the TV and how many minutes pass to the next one. Six to ten riddles, six minutes apart, make a good evening.
5. Until the party day the TV shows PREVIEW, so you can rehearse as often as you like; you can move the date any time until you tap Start game on the party day. On the morning of the party day we send you a reminder by e-mail. Games you already played wait under Played games.
6. Everything saves as you type, and your account opens the game on any phone.

2. Hide the treasure

• With a printer: open the play money page, set how many notes you want, print and cut along the marks. No printer? Hide candies, small treats or anything you like instead.
• Hide the treasure in the places your riddles point to: at kids' height, away from the oven, medicines, sockets and chemicals.
• Lay out the prizes or candies for your shop: between rounds, and once more at the end for the kids who saved up.

3. Put the game on your TV

1. On the device by the TV open the TV screen and press Start: sound and full screen turn on, the pairing screen shows a six-letter code like ABC-DEF and a QR code.
2. On your phone scan the QR code, or open the remote and type the code. A typed code works only while the TV shows the pairing screen; once a phone is in, the room closes to strangers.
3. Pick which game goes on the TV. A second phone (the other parent) joins through Add a second remote on the first phone.
4. Do a dry run the day before: everything works, the TV shows a PREVIEW mark, and your pass is untouched.

4. Run the party from the couch

• Start game on the remote: the gong sounds and the first riddle comes on. From then on the TV runs by itself: a riddle, the hunt, the next gong after the interval you set.
• Any time: Show a riddle by hand, Hide now, Keep on screen for a tricky one, Repeat gong, an effect from the theme. Pause auto mode stops the clock for the shop break.
• Between rounds open your shop: the kids buy small prizes with the money they found, or save it for a bigger prize at the end.
• After the last riddle press End game: the TV says goodbye. Time to open the shop once more for the savers.
• Freeze remote locks the controls on your phone against curious kids; it unfreezes the same way.

Your pass

• One pass is one game, played once. Classic opens the illustrated themes, with nine effects in Cute Ghost (each in five versions); Witch Vespera adds the animated theme of that name with its own effects.
• Before the party date the game is a PREVIEW: it works end to end for rehearsals, with a mark across the TV. Nothing is used up.
• Your game starts when you tap Start game on the remote on the party day, not before. A sick kid five minutes before the party costs nothing: change the date in the editor.
• After the party the pass is used up; buy a new pass for the next party.

If something goes wrong

• A reload of the TV or the phone carries the game on where it was.
• The phone died? The TV plays on in auto mode. Its keys run the game: S start, N next riddle, P previous, H hide, B black screen, Q show the code so a phone can join again, F full screen, ? or the ⋯ button in the corner for the on-screen menu.
• No sound? Reload the TV page and press Start again: browsers play sound only after a tap. The game carries on.
• Smart TV browser says the page is too old for it? Use a laptop over HDMI or cast from a phone.
• Questions: leagueofriddles.com, or write to league.of.riddles@gmail.com.