James Daviscourt

Alright @Ghideon, here is my current solution for anyone curious: Goals: -completely hide symbols -eliminate large set up time -promote replayability by having different symbol placement each game Right now I have the main board, and a separate "mini-map" to scale with the exact same spaces/zone set up. The mini-map consists of an advent calendar-like sheet of tabs ( l_l <-- cut outs this shape, so they can fold up to reveal runes) that cover an interchangeable series of rune boards (you can switch them out so each game is different). So if player enters space A5, the flip tab A5 on the mini map to reveal what rune triggers. Issues: -Even though I used a plastic thicker paper, the tabs wear over time--they don't close all the way anymore. Also, I could easily see tabs breaking over time, which makes the cover useless. -I can't see manufacturers printing more than a handful of rune boards--so eventually people will start recognizing certain layouts -The advent calendar-like cover seems like it would be a pretty complex piece to manufacture (but for now it's a game just for friends, so still enjoyable ;-) ) So that is where I'm at. Hopefully this sparks some else's creative solutions!

Nice Swansont! That is one way to solve for a potential accidental cheating issue I hadn't even thought of with the backlit method! Thank you, and everyone for brainstorming these great ideas! Ooooh, Ghideon that's another interesting idea that addresses Swansont's foreseen issue above! I think it has a lot of advantages too, because it allows for the grid to be printed just once on a separate envelope-like cover, and for each rune sheet inserted into the envelope to just be runes (saves a ton of ink if there are multiple rune sheets for replayability)! If anyone has some different ideas on ways to focus the light (and not reveal more than one space at a time) besides the box method above, no matter how out there, shout it out! For sure @Ghideon, when I get up for work in the morning I'll let you know what my current imperfect solution is and maybe that will spark some more ideas! Yes, I have separated the rune events and the board to allow for each game to have the runes in different places ;-) Thinking outside the box @peterwlocke! The pencil rub over low relief symbols feels very Indiana Jones, very cool! Currently my game has multiple rune "plates", separate from the board--so each game can use a different plate and play differently (for replayability). It would be pretty labor intensive on my end to make one such plate low relief for the pencil rub method, and if the game did someday get picked up (everyone's dream, haha) I imagine it would be very expensive for a manufacturer to make the several molds required for multiple low relief plates (I've heard it is around 25,000$ per unique die cast a manufacturer has to make for a game, so it's best to use very standard pieces and sizes). Hmmmm, what could be some solutions to this? Any ideas?

Wow Ghideon, that is a really ingenious, and easy to execute idea!! If a similar method to focus the light as the blacklight concept was used to prevent light bleed from revealing surrounding spaces, that could work! I'll play around with it for a bit~ Some potential issues I see are similar to the blacklight concept--with requiring some extra tech for a light source. Maybe if there were something elevating the page natural light could work? But that could reveal everything, and might not work at night with weaker artificial light sources in a room. Perhaps if it was elevated a flashlight could shine through the front to reveal spaces, with the same method to focus it as the blacklight so there is no light bleed--then it wouldn't be hard to target specific spaces either, which lining up a light behind the page could have been. I'll think on it for a bit! Any other out there ideas for revealing hidden symbols?

Hey Quantum T, thank you for these ideas! (and everyone else who answers too--every idea is a useful solution, nothing is too crazy, and anything could end up being that best fit for my query) Haha, yes Quantum, I wish old school could have done it! I loved the replayability from randomly placing face down symbol tiles, but as there are only four unique symbols I ran into a problem with too many similar symbols clustering on the board--as well as the long set up time, and messiness of accidentally pushed around tiles. Using an ultraviolet light reflecting ink is an interesting concept, with some sort of way to focus the light (I imagine one of those small flashlights or laser pointers) on just one space and not accidentally reveal surrounding spaces--maybe a box with the dimensions of the space, so you can shine the light in through the top and not have it bleed out to surrounding spaces. Some possible issues I see with this solution are how easy/hard it is to print in ultraviolet reflecting ink, or if including a non-standard piece of technology the game is unplayable without (like UV flashlight that could break, or run out of power) is possible on a large scale. What do you think? If the game turns out well, I'd love to see about if it could someday be published--so I'm also trying to build it with that in the back of my mind! And if it doesn't, then my friends will have fun and that is more than worth it enough! I love the options! Wow there are already more ideas too--I'll check those out next! Hey Gideon! Wow, thank you for super in depth pictures and a specific board game example! Does anyone know if there is a more advanced form of this, where there is so much density to the "color camouflage" that the color filter revealed symbol would be truly undecipherable without the filter revealer? I only have four very identifiable symbols, so it might be too easy for a player to determine what's in the next space when they aren't supposed to know. Or any other ingenious solutions! I am open to all~

Hi everyone! I would appreciate any knowledge you have to offer on this topic~ I am making a board game for my friends to play, and I need a way to hide symbols on spaces of the board---something completely invisible that can be revealed with some tool/anything when triggered. My optimum solution would be some type of lens that reveals the symbol when held over it, and the symbols are completely invisible to the naked eye, but don't let that stop anyone from proposing any other idea they have that could accomplish this! Also, it needs to be a long term method that would last indefinitely, and not become less effective after a few uses (basically permanent). I've looked into linear polarizing film: https://makezine.com/projects/spy-tech-polarized-hidden-messages/ and color filters/reveal messages: http://photonicswiki.org/index.php?title=Basic_Optics_-_Outreach_Kit#Color_filters ...but unless I'm misunderstanding things the former would require three sheets and wouldn't work on the large scale of a whole board, and the latter doesn't render the symbol truly invisible to the naked eye until the filter is used. But I could also be mistaken about how they could be correctly used, and you are all much smarter than me, haha~ Thank you all!