Securing a location is a lot like investing: it doesn't take a lot of work, but it does take time. ... Establish a route and set locations along that route early. Not everything needs to be set in stone, and some puzzles may fit better at locations that you haven't yet chosen.
This echoes some of the "Roadtrip" posts at the Muppet Movie game blog. (You have been following the Muppet Movie bog, right?)
On hints versus teams' competitive natures:
No team tried to game our hint system. With hindsight, I believe that worrying that teams would try to squeeze hints out of us that they didn't deserve was an unfounded worry. In fact, often it was us who would call teams and ask them if they needed a hint. Teams trying to advance their position by asking for hints was not something we should worry about in future games.
I've heard Alexandra talk about past games in which a few folks called up, seemingly to "fish" info out of GC without it counting as a hint. So I guess some of that goes on. All of the cases she talked about were more "social engineering" than "messing with the hint system", though.
If you're in to puzzle-huntish games, this is a good read. I just quoted a few excerpts. Check it out.
Labels: puzzlehunts