For the past several years, I have been doing a scavenger hunt/escape room for my kid’s birthday party. There is always a theme (Gravity Falls, Yokai Watch, Warrior cats, Animal Crossing, Dream SMP, FNAF)and this year it’s South Park. I don’t know if letting my 15 yo be into South Park makes me a cool dad or a bad dad. It’s a very thin line.

Every year I learn a lesson and the lesson I learned last year is that I am running out of “kid friendly” puzzles. So this year I leaned into transparencies to create some new puzzles.

I usually plan the game out in Paper by 53 but this year I used Miro. Admittedly, not as nice to look at (or as fun to draw) as my previous planning but it’s faster and allows for more freedom.

Over the past few years, I’ve learned to make dual paths so no more than a couple of kids are working on a single puzzle. If there are too many kids, someone cannot contribute to the puzzle solving, and they get disengaged.

I decorated the basement with various South Park posters to create some immersion.

Also some fun South Park decorations, balloons, etc.

The story set up was my kid had crossed Cartman and he locked them in this basement full of diabolical traps and they could not get birthday cake until they solved the puzzles. These little stuffed kids were a little present as well.

The first puzzle was quite easy. There was a transparency with blacked out lines to place over the initial intro letter to reveal the first clue. This led the players to the bathroom closet, where the key to the first box was located. The first box had 2 puzzles to start the divergent paths.

Path 1-1

In the first box was another transparency with seemingly random numbers on it. However, when overlayed with one of the many pictures hung in the room, a clue became apparent for South Park fans.

Everyone knows Manbearpig is the greatest threat to mankind, so clearly the next clue was 419. Now the players just needed to find a 3-number lock.

Path 2-1

The second puzzle in the box was this image:

It is not strange for all manner of old video game systems and equipment to be laying around my house. So the nearby Guitar Hero controller did not set off alarm bells for players at first. Eventually someone recognized the layout and figured out to use the count of “notes” and map them to the colors of the fret buttons. Now the players needed to find a 4-number, colored lock to proceed.

Path 1-2

This was a simple Pigpen cipher but I hid the key on one of the posters with blacklight pen (didn’t get a picture, unfortunately).

The code is “drugs are bad” so player must fill in the last word, which is “Mkay”. My letter lock, frustratingly, only has numbers at its last slot, so I filled in a zero as a gimme.

Path 2-2

This box contained a simple vertical text puzzle which led the players to “Bedroom on bookcase top”.

On top of the bookcase was a picture of the boys but someone was missing? STAN! Now the players need to find a 4-letter word lock.

Path 1-3

In this box was a puzzle heavily inspired by the game Tunic. Following the possible path Mr. Hanky can move in a straight line creates a set of directions for players to enter into a directional lock.

Path 2-3

This box contained a zigzag cipher which gave the clue “BUTTERS BULLSEYE”.

This led players to a hidden dartboard with a giant head of Butters covering the dartboard. Players were challenged to hit a number of targets drawn on the front of poor Butter face (oh hamburgers).

Is it a good idea to throw darts at a child’s birthday party? Probably not but I always try to work some kind of physical test of skill into the game. I also cordoned the area off, so no one could go into this area unescorted by me until this challenge was completed. (again, no photos. I was too focused on safety)

Once all the targets were hit, player could approach and see some of the targets were specially marked and those marks aligned with numbers of the dartboard. This made another 3-number code.

Path 1-4

With the directional lock opened, this box contained another code that was decodable with a code wheel in the room that was driving the kids nuts the whole time. The finally found the puzzle to use it with. This code was “Secret Room Tee Hee Hee”. This code was a nod to “Cupid Cartman”, one of my kid’s favorite bits from South Park.

I have a legit secret room in my basement and now the kids have to search the secret room for a tiny Cupid Cartman I had made and hid. This contained a colored key for the final lock.

Path 2-4

This box contained a bunch of Popsicle sticks with seemingly random letter on them. Arranging the Popsicle sticks correctly gave the clue of “Green hat needs cuddles.” The stuffed Kyle given at the beginning of the hunt was wearing a little bracelet. My youngest REALLY wanted to help make puzzles, so I leveraged her jewelry-making skills and she made a bracelet with different counts of beads for the last 4-number lock.

The Last Boxes

Each path’s final box contained a small transparency with lines on them.

Separately, they seem to mean nothing but combine them together!

Their first instinct was to revisit the stuffed Kenny for a clue but no luck there. How else can they kill Kenny? Remember the balloons I mentioned before? Popping the Kenny balloons revealed a couple of small, colored keys that were required final box.

Cartman’s final letter took defeat gracefully, as he always does, and resigned that the birthday kid had earned their cake.

As always, the family went all out on food and cake, making an amazing spread of snacks. Of course, there were cheesy poofs and fish sticks.