Printable Christmas escape room · Ages 12 and up · A4 and US Letter
The Three Visitors: a Christmas escape room for teens and adults.
It is Christmas Eve, 1843. Josiah Thorne has locked his clerks in his counting house in the City of London until the year's accounts balance. His street door has three brass letter locks, and he has told no one the letters. Then the candles burn blue and the bell strikes one. Three visitors are coming, and each one will show you two scenes from Thorne's life.
11.99 EUR
Instant download · A4 and US Letter PDFs · personal use only
The game has 6 pencil puzzles in three staves, one for each visitor, and each stave opens with a painting and the clock striking the hour. The first visitor brings a party bill from 1809 with one line blotted out, and a letter written in number code. The second brings a Christmas morning to put back in order and five Victorian parlour charades. The last brings a pawnbroker's book and a plan of a churchyard, walked grave by grave from the gate. Each puzzle gives a word, and the team writes it on the Answer Tracker.
The last page is the street door. Each of its three locks belongs to one visitor and takes that visitor's two words. A brass plate on the lock says which letter of each word to set: the first, the middle or the last. The six letters spell the word that opens the door.
One person hosts. The two-page Host Guide covers printing and setting up, and the Lockmaster Key lists every answer on one page. Each puzzle has three hints, from a small nudge to the answer itself. The host reads them out from the Hints pages, or the players open them on the free companion page, which also tells them whether an answer is right.
The puzzles sit between a children's game and a hard one for adults. No puzzle page runs past 180 words, and the logic puzzles ask you to place four or five things, not seven. Nothing in the game needs cutting out.
The game and the host's files also come on an aged-paper background, if you want the pages to look like an old ledger.
What you download
- The game, 13 pages, for the players
- The Answer Tracker, a single page
- Hints, a page for each puzzle and one for the door
- Solutions, laid out the same way
- The Lockmaster Key, every answer on one page
- The Host Guide, 2 pages
- Extras: invitations with lines to fill in, a door sign and a sign for the group photo
- Illustrated extras: the same pages on painted Victorian backgrounds, with the invitations as postcards, four to a sheet
- A copy of everything above except the illustrated extras on aged paper
There are two ZIP files, one for A4 paper and one for US Letter. Each team needs its own copy of the game and an Answer Tracker. The illustrated extras print to the edge of the paper, so if your printer can't print borderless, they get a white edge.
Is this the right one?
- Everyone playing is 12 or older.
- Someone is happy to host: read the opening out, keep the hints and check the answers.
- Everyone playing reads English well. The puzzles are built on English words.
For children aged 8 and up, try The Sleigh That Wouldn't Fly, a Christmas escape room at the North Pole.
Questions before you print
What age is it for?
Teens and adults, aged 12 and up. The puzzles are harder than in a children's game: a bill with a line missing, a letter in number code and logic puzzles with four or five things to place. One person hosts, keeps the hints and checks the answers.
Can a big group play?
Print one game set and one Answer Tracker for each team, so every table works on its own pages. A big group can split into teams and race to open the door.
What do we need?
A printer, paper, a pencil for each player and an eraser. Nothing in the game needs scissors, glue or the internet.
What is the aged paper?
A second copy of the game and the host's files on an aged-paper background, so the pages look like an old ledger. It plays exactly the same. Print one or the other.
What if we get stuck?
Every puzzle has three hints, and the third one gives the answer. The host reads them out from the Hints pages, or the players open them on the free companion page.