It's 17:58 and a family of five is still standing outside the library trying to read a QR code that has gone soft in the rain. The display starts at 18:00 on the other side of the recreation ground. Dad has the phone. The kids have stopped caring about the clue. Across the field, a steward is trying to move three hundred people toward the viewing area while forty of them are looking down at their screens for one more point.
Guy Fawkes Night is Thursday 5 November 2026. Councils already have displays, road closures, and a lot of moving parts that evening, and a treasure hunt fits well alongside, as long as it switches itself off before the organised bonfire starts and the posters survive the weather. One wording note before anything else: in UK local copy, say treasure hunt. On a parish Facebook post it's clearer than scavenger hunt.
Here's what the evening looks like. Someone from the parish council or the PTA spends an evening in a web editor writing three chapters, each holding a handful of tasks: a plaque to photograph, a code from a café receipt, a steward to find. Families scan a laminated QR in the library window, a web page opens on whatever phone they have, they type a team name, and they're off; grandparents included, because nothing gets installed. One person watches a dashboard from the village hall, messages every team if a road closes, and ends the game. Up to 25 phones at once is free, with a small watermark, which covers a lot of village hunts; paid plans raise that number and change nothing else. That's PlayTours. Pricing and IT details for a campus are in their own posts.
Make the hunt switch itself off
It's dark by late afternoon. Every task can be given a clock time after which it disappears from players' screens, so if the display is at 18:00, set every task to vanish at 17:30. Teams mid-riddle see the task list empty and a final message: go to the official viewing area. Tell people that in advance. The game's countdown timer can't be paused, so if the council brings the display forward, end the game from the dashboard.
No firework photos. Not as a task, not as a bonus. People should be watching the display, not filming it for points, and skip "find a bonfire" if the field is ticketed.
Codes that work in the rain
GPS on a UK high street in the rain is average at best. Use codes instead. A QR sticker on a lamp post you have permission for, or a short typed code in the library window and on a trail card. Players scan or type it, and the task unlocks. A browser on a wet phone still works; laminate the posters and they'll survive the evening, unlike the one in the first paragraph.
The first task should be a check-off, "you know where the first-aid point is," that teams mark complete before anything else.
If three hundred families start at once, picture the whole village at the same clock tower. Let the middle chapters shuffle so each team walks a different route, and turn on crowd prevention so a team that finishes a chapter is sent to whichever chapter currently has the fewest people. Keep the first chapter fixed (safety) and the last fixed (go to the viewing area, hunt over).
Tone, and where it can live
The date has politics attached. A community trail about local history plaques is fine. Jokes about Catholics or terrorism are not. If you don't have a historian to check facts, skip the trivia and do shop-window photos the traders asked for. Turn on the shared photo gallery only if parents know pictures of children may appear; keep it off by default for schools.
A parish, a university, a high street BID, or a school PTA on the weekend either side if Thursday won't work. PTA events look big and play small, so count the phones that will scan, not the families on the list.
Tasks a parish can print: a library window QR; a photo of the high street plaque, with the instruction "the actual plaque, not a pub sign"; find a steward in hi-vis; a café code from a receipt; and "name one closed road," a typed answer you check yourself so you can see who read the council notice.
If your council needs a risk sentence, put "hunt ends 30 minutes before the display, no firework photography, steward instructions override the app" in chapter one. If you'd like a read-through, email me at hello@playtours.app.
-Mo
If you're building this in PlayTours
Time-restricted tasks for the 17:30 cutoff; QR/barcode tasks and access codes; a no-answer task for the safety check-off; Shuffle chapters and Prevent bunching; Image share off by default; a free-text task the facilitator judges; Instant Join in the library window. QuickBuild prompt: "UK village treasure hunt, six tasks, dusk finish, no fireworks, QR and photos, dry tone."