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Puzzle lover and game designer Cliff Johnson has taken time off from his busy schedule designing the upcoming game, The Fool And His Money, to host his first ever Internet-based metapuzzle treasure hunt.

The First Annual April Fool's Day Treasure Hunt Errand, based on the structure of his previous metapuzzle games, The Fool's Errand and Three in 3, is open to all members of the public. The clues for the treasure hunt will be posted on his website starting at 12:01 AM Eastern Standard Time on April Fool's Day (Tuesday morning). The Grand Prize, which will be awarded to the first player to email in the correct answer, consists of free copies of all of Cliff's previous, current, and future games, as well as an autographed copy of the book of magic, Mysterious Stranger.

Here's a taste of what players can expect to tackle, as well as a few advance hints for interested hunters:

The First Annual April Fool’s Day Treasure Hunt Errand is fast approaching, and as promised, it’s an example of a treasure hunt metapuzzle, designed to be solved in a couple hours rather than a couple weeks, understandably.
The metapuzzle, a term coined by Scott Kim in describing The Fool’s Errand, is a tale, a set of puzzles, a set of clues revealed by those puzzles, and a mapping device in which to organize the clues, leading to the final “ah-ha!”.
In The Fool’s Errand, the mapping device is the Sun’s Map, and in 3 in Three, the device is split between the organization of the Letter Legislature and the answers for the Inside Track. Even Blaine’s $100,000 Challenge has X puzzles leading to Y clues with a unique mapping device that organizes the final solution.
TFAAFDTHE takes place at dusk on the day The Fool’s Errand ends and The Fool and His Money begins. The Sun invites the Royal families of the four Kingdoms to the palace of the Empress and the Emperor to await the return of their Treasures, once enchanted by the High Priestess and now restored by the Fool.
As night falls and the hours ebb toward midnight, the full Moon appears through the clouds and delivers a message from the Fool to the assembled Royalty.
The solution to the Treasure Hunt are the exact words of this speech. There are 16 clues and 16 pieces of a Map to be printed out and correctly assembled. The puzzles are, well, you’ll see.

Cliff Johnson's First Annual April Fool’s Day Treasure Hunt Errand

The Fool And His Money (add to watch list)

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