Ten identical lists make a queue, not a hunt
This is the whole thing. Print the same page ten times and every team starts at item one, goes to the same place, and gets there together. The teams at the back stop reading their sheet and start following the team in front, and within five minutes it is a procession.
Shuffle each sheet and the same ten items send ten teams in ten directions. It costs nothing, it is the entire difference between a hunt and a queue, and it is the one thing photocopying a single page physically cannot do.
Unless the list is too short
Three items can only be arranged six ways. Ask for ten sheets and four of them must repeat an order already used, however good the shuffle is. That is arithmetic rather than a fault, so the tool counts the repeats and tells you instead of promising something it cannot deliver.
- 3 items: 6 possible orders.
- 5 items: 120.
- 8 items: 40,320, and a repeat stops happening in practice.
Which is another reason to write more items than you think you need. Ten to twenty gives most groups half an hour and makes a repeat impossible at the same time.
Score it, do not complete it
The way a home-made hunt actually fails is not that it is too hard. It is that one item turns out to be impossible, and everything stalls on it while the whole group hunts for the thing that is not there.
Points fix that. A team that cannot find the hard one still finishes with a total, so the hunt ends when you call time rather than when the last team gives up.
Put the hardest items on the highest points and say so at the start. It also stops everybody doing all the easy ones first and then standing around, because there is a reason to go after the difficult one while there is still time.
Numbering the sheets
Not decoration. Every sheet is in a different order, so when they all come back in at once, the number in the corner is the only way to tell whose is whose and to check a score against the right list.
It is also what lets you reprint a lost sheet correctly: the same settings always produce the same shuffles, so sheet four is always sheet four.
Writing it in rather than ticking it
A tick box is right for a specific item: a feather either was found or was not. An open-ended one is better with a line to write on, because "something red" is more fun when they have to say what it was, and because it quietly settles the argument about whether they really found one.
Everything is generated on your own machine. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and the sheets are yours to print as many times as you like.
Common questions
Why is every sheet in a different order?
Because ten identical lists turn a hunt into a race to follow whoever set off first. Everybody works down the page in the same order, so they all arrive at the same place at the same time, and the teams at the back stop reading and start following. Shuffling each sheet sends the same ten items in ten directions, and photocopying one page cannot do it.
Two of my sheets came out identical.
Your list is too short. Three items can only be arranged six ways, so ten sheets must repeat however good the shuffle is. The tool counts the repeats and says so. Eight items give 40,320 orders and a repeat stops happening in practice, so more items is the only fix.
What are the points for?
Making the hunt finishable. The way a home-made hunt fails is that one item turns out to be impossible and everything stalls on it. Score it rather than complete it and a team that misses the hard one still has a total, so the hunt ends when you call time rather than when the last team gives up.
How do I set the points?
Put a number after a comma: "Something older than you, 5". Anything without a number is worth one. A year inside the item itself is safe, because "A car older than 2010" has no comma and is left alone.
How many items should there be?
Ten to twenty gives most groups about half an hour. Fewer than about six and the hunt is over before anybody has spread out, which is usually the opposite of what it is for.
What is the write-in line for?
Recording what they actually found. It suits open-ended items: "something red" is more fun when they have to write down what it was, and it settles the argument about whether they really found one.
Why is each sheet numbered?
Because with every sheet in a different order, the number is the only way to match a returned sheet to the right list when you come to score it.
Can I print the same sheets again?
Yes. The same items and settings always produce the same shuffles, so a reprint matches what you handed out. Press reshuffle when you want new ones.