How to run a printable escape game at home
A printable kit turns the living-room table into an escape room. This guide covers what to sort out before you play: printing, timing, the players' ages, the adult's role and what to do when a team gets stuck. The examples come from two of our kits, Professor Volt's Lab and The Fireflies' Forest.
The checklist
- a printer and A4 paper, in colour if you can, though it isn't essential;
- scissors to cut out the hint cards;
- a pencil for each player, plus coloured pencils if the kit asks for them;
- a phone, tablet or computer for the final page (the lab door in Volt's kit, the spring in the forest), which works without internet;
- a few envelopes, if you want to hide the puzzles around the room.
Printing without nasty surprises
- A4 paper. The files are A4. On US Letter, choose “Fit”, as the box on the cover says.
- Single-sided. Many printers switch to double-sided on their own. Our kits allow for it: a page left blank on purpose protects the back of every piece you cut out or hold up to the light. Printing single-sided, you can skip those pages; the “How to print this kit” box on the cover lists their numbers.
- Actual size, 100%. Not “fit to page” on A4. It matters as soon as a kit has two sheets to lay on top of each other: in The Fireflies' Forest, the two halves of the map no longer line up if one is shrunk. If you reprint one half, keep the same setting.
- Colour or black and white. Colour looks nicer and is recommended for a few pages, listed in the box. Everything else reads fine in black and white: in Professor Volt's Lab, each puzzle's colour also has a symbol, and in the forest, letters stand in for the colours of the mushrooms.
For a two-sheet map, printing the second half on tracing paper or a transparency looks best. Plain paper is fine too: the players hold both sheets against a window or in front of a phone torch.
How long it takes
Allow ten minutes to set up: read the game master's guide, cut out the hints, hide the envelopes. The game itself lasts 45 to 60 minutes, and the final page shows a timer. Short of time? Each guide describes a half-hour version: you give part of the solution at the start (the colour order in Volt's Lab, the order of the path in the forest), which leaves three puzzles to solve.
Ages and number of players
One copy suits 2 to 6 players. With more, make two teams with two copies: you can reprint the files for your own games. Professor Volt's Lab is designed for ages 12 and up; no prior knowledge is needed, but players follow a small circuit and read a number in binary. The Fireflies' Forest is designed for ages 10 and up, and 8 and up with an adult in each team of two or three, following the variations in the guide (in that case, allow 60 to 75 minutes). These ages are a guide, not a rule: a child used to puzzles will go faster, and an adult who has never tried one may get stuck on the first.
The adult's role
The adult is the game master. They read the guide beforehand, keep the solutions and hint cards out of sight, read the story aloud, start the timer, then watch. In the forest kit, the last page holds the hint cards: take it out before you put the kit on the table. In Professor Volt's Lab, the game master can play too, as long as they stay away from the solutions. With 8-year-olds, play alongside them rather than supervising.
When a team gets stuck
Each puzzle has three hint cards, to be handed out in order, one at a time, when a team has been going round in circles for more than five minutes. The first points the way, the second walks through one step, the third gives the answer. Before you hand out a card, a question is often enough; the forest guide suggests some, such as “Look closely at the paws: four toes, five toes or hooves?”.
There's no point typing codes at random: after three wrong codes in a row, the final page locks for about ten seconds. That gives everyone time to wonder what went wrong.
Three small things that make a difference
- The puzzles are independent: with several players, share them out so everyone has something in their hands.
- Prop the final page against a real door, or next to a plant for the spring: it's instantly more convincing.
- Keep the ending to read aloud once the code is found. That's the moment people remember.
The kits mentioned in this guide are described on our offers page.