Don’t be surprised today if you see groups of people running around Lawrence parks and landmarks, looking both confused and determined.

They’ll be on a scavenger hunt – and learning a little bit about the city in the process.

Today’s hunt is the second organized by Matt Armstrong, Kitty Mitchell and Andy Morton, three friends who call themselves the Wicked Awesome Game Group.

“Andy and I were talking one day about the KLZR treasure hunt that they used to put on twice a year in the summertime,” Mitchell said. “We used to play those while we were growing up here in town. And we were talking about how much fun they were and how much fun they’d be to do again.”

“We just started saying, ‘Why doesn’t somebody do something like that?'” said Morton, who hosts the “1 on 1” game show on Channel 6, which – like the Journal-World – is owned by The World Company. “There was that moment of looking at each other and, ‘Why don’t we do that?’ About 10 minutes later we were ready to go.”

From left, Kitty Mitchell, Matt Armstrong and Andy Morton organize scavenger hunts in Lawrence. The three are pictured at the cannon in Burcham Park, which was one of the clues in a hunt.

The first hunt, in mid-May, attracted about 50 people divided among 10 teams. The teams were given a list of 30 riddles that, once solved, led game players to locations all around Lawrence – including the Campanile, the cannon at Robinson Park, the Douglas County Fairgrounds and even the men’s room at a local crafts store, to answer some questions contained in the riddle.

Today’s game will be similar, requiring game players to draw on their knowledge of Lawrence history and geography in order to “find” a fictional music mogul and his kidnapper.

Armstrong, who moved to Lawrence in August, said he’s learned a lot about the city in a short time by working on the game.

“I’m finding, as we plant these (clues), that people who’ve lived here all their lives or since college, that they’re discovering new things too,” he said.

6News video: Residents explore Lawrence through scavenger hunt (06-10-05)

On the Street: What have you collected for a scavenger hunt?

The gamers say they plan to create new hunts monthly through the rest of the summer and into the fall.

“There are a lot of strange little nooks and crannies in Lawrence that I think people don’t even know exist, parks or monuments or sculptures,” Morton said. “We found a lot of things like that – little stuff that, even though you see it every day, you don’t know what it is.”

The hunt takes place between 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. today.