DIY Props
Props built from what is already in the house.
A prop changes how a child treats the game. The same clue printed on plain paper gets read and put down. Printed on paper with a torn edge and a tea stain, it gets carried around for the rest of the afternoon and taken to bed.
Almost none of this needs buying. Tea or coffee and five minutes ages paper convincingly, and a torn edge always beats a cut one. Card stock folds into boxes, gems and coins. A shoebox with a hole cut in the lid is a lockbox once there is a padlock through the flap.
The one thing worth spending on is a physical lock, because it is the only prop that does a job nothing else does: it tells the players they are right without an adult in the loop. Everything else is atmosphere, and atmosphere can be made from a printer and a cup of tea. The builds here each say what they need and roughly how long they take, and none of them needs a craft closet.
