EVERY GREAT HUNTBEGINS WITH ADESIGNER
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Founding Principles
The Trove
Manifesto
We exist to elevate treasure hunts from party games to narrative art. These are the principles that separate a designer from someone who bought a padlock and buried a tin can.
A Hunt Is a Narrative, Not a Scavenger List
The best hunts have a beginning, a middle, and an ending that earns its revelation. Clues are chapters. The box is a resolution. Design accordingly.
Difficulty Is a Design Choice, Not an Accident
A cipher-locked box buried in a national forest should be hard for the right reasons — not because the designer was lazy with their coordinates or smug with their wordplay.
The Clue Is a Gift, Not a Test
UV-ink hidden in a library book, a QR code etched into a park bench, a letter postmarked from 1947 — the designer is a host, not a gatekeeper. Your job is to delight.
Place Is a Co-Author
The Sonoran Desert, the stacks of a Carnegie library, the underside of a bridge in November — the location should be doing half the storytelling. If your hunt could exist anywhere, it exists nowhere.
The Community Is the Canon
Puzzle architects, ARG creators, geocache artists, escape room designers, and the rare park ranger who moonlights as a cluesmith — we are a tradition, not a hobby.
The Archive
Every locked card
is a reason to join.
Case studies, cipher libraries, field guides, hunt templates, and interviews with designers who treat the craft seriously. The waitlist is the only key.
The Appalachian Cipher Trail
ARG DesignThe Appalachian Cipher Trail
47 clues across 6 states. 14 months. One box. How Marcus Ellery designed the longest continuous ARG in North American history.
"The Box Is Never the Point"
Community"The Box Is Never the Point"
Priya Nair on 11 years of designing epistolary hunts — and why she mails clues instead of burying them.
A National Forest, A Buried Box, and the FOIA Request
Real WorldA National Forest, A Buried Box, and the FOIA Request
What happened when Jordan Whitfield's 3-year hunt intersected with a federal land use dispute.
Cipher Library Vol. I
ToolsCipher Library Vol. I
32 printable cipher systems — from Vigenère to custom glyphs — with usage notes for field deployment.
Designing for the Reluctant Player
WritingDesigning for the Reluctant Player
Your hunt has one shot to hook the person who almost didn't come. Here's how to write that first clue.
Hunt Brief Canvas
ToolsHunt Brief Canvas
A one-page planning template used by 200+ designers to scope narrative, difficulty, and place before laying the first clue.
UV Ink & Public Spaces: A Legal Field Guide
Field CraftUV Ink & Public Spaces: A Legal Field Guide
What you can hide, where you can hide it, and which park rangers will actually appreciate the craft.
The Escape Room to Hunt Pipeline
CraftThe Escape Room to Hunt Pipeline
How escape room designers are bringing puzzle architecture skills to outdoor hunts — and what they're learning in both directions.
The Appalachian Cipher Trail
ARG DesignThe Appalachian Cipher Trail
47 clues across 6 states. 14 months. One box. How Marcus Ellery designed the longest continuous ARG in North American history.
UV Ink & Public Spaces: A Legal Field Guide
Field CraftUV Ink & Public Spaces: A Legal Field Guide
What you can hide, where you can hide it, and which park rangers will actually appreciate the craft.
Designing for the Reluctant Player
WritingDesigning for the Reluctant Player
Your hunt has one shot to hook the person who almost didn't come. Here's how to write that first clue.
A National Forest, A Buried Box, and the FOIA Request
Real WorldA National Forest, A Buried Box, and the FOIA Request
What happened when Jordan Whitfield's 3-year hunt intersected with a federal land use dispute.
Cipher Library Vol. I
ToolsCipher Library Vol. I
32 printable cipher systems — from Vigenère to custom glyphs — with usage notes for field deployment.
"The Box Is Never the Point"
Community"The Box Is Never the Point"
Priya Nair on 11 years of designing epistolary hunts — and why she mails clues instead of burying them.
The Escape Room to Hunt Pipeline
CraftThe Escape Room to Hunt Pipeline
How escape room designers are bringing puzzle architecture skills to outdoor hunts — and what they're learning in both directions.
Hunt Brief Canvas
ToolsHunt Brief Canvas
A one-page planning template used by 200+ designers to scope narrative, difficulty, and place before laying the first clue.
The Appalachian Cipher Trail
ARG DesignThe Appalachian Cipher Trail
47 clues across 6 states. 14 months. One box. How Marcus Ellery designed the longest continuous ARG in North American history.
Cipher Library Vol. I
ToolsCipher Library Vol. I
32 printable cipher systems — from Vigenère to custom glyphs — with usage notes for field deployment.
UV Ink & Public Spaces: A Legal Field Guide
Field CraftUV Ink & Public Spaces: A Legal Field Guide
What you can hide, where you can hide it, and which park rangers will actually appreciate the craft.
"The Box Is Never the Point"
Community"The Box Is Never the Point"
Priya Nair on 11 years of designing epistolary hunts — and why she mails clues instead of burying them.
Designing for the Reluctant Player
WritingDesigning for the Reluctant Player
Your hunt has one shot to hook the person who almost didn't come. Here's how to write that first clue.
+ 40 more articles, templates & case studies at launch
Designers on waitlist
Launch contributors
Countries represented
Hunts yet to be designed
Founding Members
The designers
who built this.
Trove is being built by designers who have buried boxes, mailed clues, and spent months building hunts no one asked them to build. This is not a platform by outsiders looking in.
Marcus Ellery
ARG Designer
Designed the 47-clue Appalachian Cipher Trail. 14 months. 6 states.
Priya Nair
Epistolary Hunt Maker
11 years designing hunts that travel by post. Never buried a box in her life.
Jordan Whitfield
Geocache Artist
Former park ranger. Knows exactly where you're allowed to bury things.
Saoirse Brennan
Escape Room Architect
Brings escape room logic to outdoor hunts. Obsessed with misdirection.
Founding Membership
Claim Your Seat
at the Table.
Founding members get first access to the archive, early contributor credit, and a seat in the community before it opens to the public.
No spam. No algorithms. One email when the doors open.