Creating Pirate Treasure Maps

In this article you'l find several tips and tricks that will spruce up
your pirate maps. Although some of the
ideas listed may apply to other themes, special attention is
given to pirates.

Use foreign languages. If your treasure hunt takes place on
the Spanish Main, then why not throw in some Spanish. None of
your participants speak Spanish? That's okay. Provide a way for
them to translate the writing on the map as a part of the hunt.
Perhaps you could have them meet someone who plays a history
professor who happens to be bilingual. This way they not only
have to obtain the map, but translate it as well. Remember,
Spain wasn't the only nation who supplied the waters with
pirates. The Dutch, English and French had their share, as
well.

For a dramatic approach, try including a bloody handprint
on your map. Take any water-based acrylic paint (cheaper the
better) and water it down a bit. Here is where you'll have to
experiment to get the desired transparency. Mix your paint and
water in a cheap pie tin, big enough for your hand. Once your
'blood' mixture is right, use any large burly hand as a stamp.
As an extra touch, put your hand on the map, then run it down
the page. The smear looks as though a bloody hand held onto it
just before the map holder died.

Typically (for budget reasons) maps are created monochromatic
(meaning one color - and that color being black). Here is a
great trick for adding color without adding too much to your
budget. Take any cheap art chalk pastels and lightly trace over
the contour of land on your map. Now, with your finger, smear
AWAY from the land, into the body of water. Red is a great
color to use for land. Blend as much as needed to create a
light and smooth highlight. Make sure that when you are done,
you spray the map with a matte finish spray (or else the pastel
could come off on the holder's fingers.) Spray finishes can be
purchased at any art/craft store. They come in 'glossy' and
'matte'. Matte simply means that it won't leave a shiny finish.

You can always download tons of images off the internet and
include them on your map. The best way to get an idea for the
design is to look at actual maps of the period. Check out
some of the link sites on antique maps in the links section on the
main pirates page.

There are different ways that you can bind the map. A
perhaps traditional way is to simply roll it up and tie a nice
bow around it. Well, how about stringing small interesting
beads on elastic string and make snap ring holders to hold the
rolled map in place. If the map is particulary small, why not
use a small plastic ring (can be purchased at any party supply
store)? Of course, you don't even have to roll it if you don't
want to (assuming the map isn't in several pieces for your
adventurers to find). You could trifold it in such a way as to
allow room for a decorated wax sealer (which can be purchased
at any mall stationary store). A variety of letters, symbols
and colors (even gold, silver and bronze) of wax are available.

Burning the edges of a map is nothing new. Try burning a
hole in the paper as though it was shot by a musket, though.

As alluded to above, your map does not have to be all in
one piece. Perhaps one of the goals for your participants is
to collect all the pieces of the map in order to finish their
adventure. But how did the one map turn into pieces. Was it
ripped over an argument? Perhaps it was in a fire. To make it
look like it was a victim of a fire, make sure to rip the map
first, then burn the edges. Of course this would be very
difficult to pull off if you need to make several (different
pieces from different maps may not all line up). It's also a
great effect to burn more from the map other than just the
edges. Allow gaping holes, perhaps where key information was
originally written - information your participants must
then find a different way.

Designing a treasure hunt around a pirate theme is nearly cliche.
However, just because a theme has been repeated dozens of times
by others, doesn't mean that YOUR treasure hunt can't be clever
and original.

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