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Before the Event

The setup checklist from the Organizer Toolkit, on the timeline that works: a little at two weeks out, a little at one week, and a walk-through the day before.

2 weeks out

  • [ ] Pick your date, start time, and rain date.
  • [ ] Pick your Dial setting: Cozy (all ages), Spooky (teens+), After Dark (adults), Overdrive (competitive offices).
  • [ ] Walk your space and choose 6 waypoints, 2–4 minutes apart on foot. Note anything that could move or vanish — parked cars, decorations.
  • [ ] Send the Lab your waypoint list (or take the setup call) so the quest text matches what players will actually see.

1 week out

  • [ ] Print the signs — see the print specs below. Laminate or sleeve anything outdoors.
  • [ ] Charge a backup phone battery; you'll keep the troubleshooting page open on yours.
  • [ ] Tell players: "Bring a phone, wear walking shoes." That's the whole packing list.

Day before

  • [ ] Place the signs. Tape or stake at eye level, QR facing the approach path.
  • [ ] Keep signs out of tree-canopy shade — dappled or shaded signs scan slowly. If a stop is under trees, raise the sign to about 5.5 ft or shift it ~2 ft into even light.
  • [ ] Walk the full route in order, scanning every QR yourself, in the same light you'll run in. Fix anything that doesn't scan instantly.
  • [ ] Check the forecast; decide by morning whether the rain plan activates.

The kit signs print at Letter size (8.5 × 11 in) or A4. These specs are the difference between "scanned instantly" and ten people crowding a sign:

  • Paper & protection: outdoors, print on cardstock (65–110 lb) and laminate, or slip signs into sheet protectors sealed with tape at the top — unprotected paper dies in Florida humidity. Indoors, plain paper is fine; mount on foam board if signs stand alone.
  • QR size: the code prints at about 4.2 in. Don't shrink it — phone cameras need the size at arm's length. Color is recommended; the codes also scan in grayscale.
  • Placement: mount at eye level (about 5 ft), QR facing the direction players approach from. One sign per stop, plus the start poster at the gathering point. The tree-canopy exception is above: about 5.5 ft, or a couple of feet into even light.
  • Light: avoid direct sun glare on laminated signs — angle the sign slightly downward or place it in open shade. Dappled shade is the worst light of all; moving a sign a couple of feet into even light fixes most slow scans. After dark, place signs near existing light (porch lights, path lights) or clip a small LED tea light nearby, and test with your own phone at night.
  • Test protocol: after placing all signs, walk the route in order and scan every QR with your phone. If any code takes more than 2 seconds to scan, move or re-angle the sign. This 15-minute walk prevents nearly every day-of QR emergency.

Generating signs

Your kit's signs arrive ready to print. If you're building or reprinting signs yourself, the open-source QR sign generator lives in the Organizer Toolkit (qr-kit/): it produces 7 pages — the start poster with the access-code QR, plus the six stop signs — and every sign prints its human-readable sign code as a broken-camera fallback. The full walkthrough is the toolkit's QR generator guide.