How to Create an Alternate Voicemail for your Treasure Scavenger Hunt
The “WOW” moment of an adventure, that one puzzle or leg of the journey that your players will be talking about for days to come, can be difficult to create.
The use of technology to bridge the gap between a game and reality can transform a simple treasure/scavenger hunt into an extraordinary adventure. However, some creators shy away from such gambits (ploys used to push the player from one stop to the next) due to a perceived lack of technological prowess.
This guide will walk you through how to set up an alternative phone number using Google Voice in only a few simple steps, to show that you can bring your adventures to the next level, regardless of your technological background.
HOW TO CREATE A GOOGLE VOICE ACCOUNT:
Google Voice may behave differently based on your geographical location. Please be aware that the following gambit may not work worldwide. If you are outside of the United States, please do some additional research before attempting these steps.
You will need two things before you set up a Google Voice account:
A Google Account
A Personal Phone Number (Landline or Mobile)
The following steps assume that you have both of the above already.
You will be asked what this number will be used for. Select “For Personal Use”. In the drop-down menu, select what device you will be accessing this account from. For this example, I will be creating the account from the website and NOT from the Android or iOS apps.
On the next few screens you will be asked to accept the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy, followed by a screen to claim your Google Voice phone number.
Use your own zip code to see if there are any available phone numbers in your area. If there are no available numbers or if you want your phone number to appear as if it were coming from a different location, try entering different zip codes until you find an available phone number you are happy with.
After selecting your Google Voice number, you will be asked to tie your account to a pre-existing phone number. This would normally be used to forward the messages between the two different phone numbers. Google will text you a 6-digit code to verify your phone number.
Completing these steps will secure your selected Google Voice phone number, and allow you to access and modify your Google Voice account.
HOW TO ADD AN AUTOMATED VOICEMAIL:
Adding a voicemail is just as easy as creating an account!
First you need to determine what you want to set as your voicemail message. Is it going to be a direct message to the player? Another puzzle? Morse code? The only limiting factor is your own imagination (and the three-minute maximum limit on voicemail greetings). If you are uncomfortable with recording your own voice or have difficulties with finding someone to do it for you, you can always find a text-to-speech program and have it read out your message for you.
When you are prepared to record your message, enter the settings menu from the main Google Voice webpage. You can do this by clicking the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner.
From here, scroll down to the sections called “Do not disturb” and “Voicemail” OR use the tabs on the left-hand side to jump to those sections.
If you want your players to be automatically sent to the voicemail greeting, it is important that you make sure that the “Do not disturb” option is turned on!
In the voicemail settings, you can record a greeting, or manage greetings you’ve already created.
LOOK! YOU CAN DO TEXT MESSAGES TOO!
Having a fake telephone number and voicemail opens up a world of possibilities to spice up your adventure… but that’s not all you can do with a Google Voice number.
Clicking the chat bubble icon on the left-hand side of the main page of the Google Voice website will bring you to a page where you can view all of the text messages that your phone number has received. You can also send out text messages yourself using the fake number you created!
FIVE ADVENTURE SCENARIO IDEAS:
Try starting your adventure with a mysterious text message. Make it clear to your players beforehand, or very carefully in the text message itself, that this is part of the adventure and not a spam text.
In an adventure where the player needs to follow in the footsteps of a missing person to locate said person or to finish their mission/project, try hiding the phone number in the missing person’s personal belongings. For example, an important appointment in a pocket calendar or on a business card found in a wallet.
Hide the phone number in plain sight out in the field. Think of places that you would normally see a phone number such as a club meeting flyer on a public bulletin board or a “Missing Pet” sign on a light pole. Make it clear to your player that this phone number is for them and be sure you have proper permission to post your clue. Be prepared that a curious stranger may try to contact you as well if the phone number is displayed publicly.
Have the player text your fake phone number for story progression or hints. Maybe they need to report their answers or findings to another operative or to a criminal mastermind to receive their next steps. Make sure you or an assistant is available to receive and respond to these text messages for the entire adventure.
In a reversal of tactics, give your players access to the fake Google Voice account. Explain to the players that this account belongs to XYZ, and that they need to monitor the voicemails or text messages that have or will be sent to that account to aid them in their task.
FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER:
Will your players have service?
This may sound like the most obvious flaw, but it can often be overlooked. If you ever include a puzzle involving a phone call or a text message, make sure that your players will have the ability to make and/or receive the call or message at that specific location.
Test! Test! Test!
Will your players be comfortable calling a phone number?
Implementing a gambit that requires your adventurers to call an unfamiliar number may sound like an amazing idea, until the game comes to a crashing halt when no one wants to call it.
It’s all part of the game, right? Why wouldn’t someone call it?
Regardless of how it is presented, it all falls on the players. Personality, age, and time of day may all factor into the willingness to call an unfamiliar phone number. In my own personal use, I’ve seen teams waste up to 15 minutes of an adventure over a phone call gambit. They had all seen the number, but nobody wanted to be the one to place the call, so they spent that time looking for any other solution that would use the phone number (a fake phone, a texting cipher, a password lock that would take a 10-digit number, etc.).
If you are creating teams, try to determine which players have the most outgoing personality and make sure that they are on separate teams. These people will be the most likely to ring a stranger.
Will this phone number work in your geographical location?
Fake phone messages can add a unique twist to your adventure, but at the end of the day, getting billed for making international calls is not an exciting reward. If you are in the United States and your players are as well, you should be fine. If you are international, or your players are joining in from all over the world, you may want to do some additional research to make sure that no one will get charged when solving your puzzle.
Something to consider: Can your players use an alternate tool to make this phone call? For example, placing a call to an international number using an application like WhatsApp.
Is your phone number ambiguous?
When using a phone number gambit in your adventure, you want to make sure your players know exactly what to dial. If you hide your phone number behind a puzzle, make sure it is a puzzle with little room for error. If your players mess up and get even one digit wrong, both your players and the person on the other side of the wrong number will be very confused and it can sour the entire adventure.
Are there any other phone numbers in the same area?
It does not matter how clear your instructions are, if there is any room for error, one of your players is bound to make a mistake.
This scenario comes from experience. In an online escape room that I had created, players would find a note that read “Call Tiffany Vance for iPhone Pin at ###-###-####”. No confusion. They must call the number next to the instructions telling them to call. However, I made the mistake of placing this note on a corporate branded notepad that had our real business number at the very bottom of the page. Although I thought it was clear which number to call, we still had about three players out of a hundred call the WRONG number. Keep this in mind when designing your clues.
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!
With another gambit in your bag of tricks, we would love to see what creative ways you can utilize a Google Voice account (or a similar application) to bring your adventure to the next level.
We welcome you to share your experiences old, new, good, and bad on the Constructed Adventures subreddit and on our discord channel. You can also find us on Instagram at @ConstructedAdventures.
Remember, every day is an opportunity to learn something new!