[hhh]

Getting around to sorting through pictures, and it's time to post some from this year's Halloween puzzle room.

books, boxes, letter, artifacts

custom vampire hunter kit

a clock for time keeping, and one of the puzzles

some scary books

people had to revive the rat

didn't end up needing the mallet, but I liked the note we had on it

This box was empty until the right code was entered

bowl of bloody muck people had to fish around in

candelabras, for spooky lighting


The final goal was to get all the locks off the coffin,

and drive a stake through his heart.


The effect of his face collapsing was a late addition, so only our post-Halloween groups got to see it, but hopefully we'll be able to find a new home for this room and get some more use out of it.

 

[chachabella]

Great job!!

 

[jgilroy1980]

I LOVE this!!! I have the supplies to make a vampire kit for next year. Just need to assemble. We decorate out entire main living space and 1 bedroom so far. Hoping to expand to the garage (a Dexter theme) next year, but I LOVE escape rooms and would love to do this (maybe in my daughter's room?). Any suggestions for a newbie?

Did you do this in your home or in an escape room business? Wondering where to find some of the cool props and how to make it look official.

Thanks for any help you can give me!!!

Jenn

 

[hhh]

We do this in a house, but we've had a different host for it the past 5 years. It's usually been in a spare bedroom.
We make nearly all the stuff, but also acquire some at curio shops and such. For the Halloween themes it feels much more appropriate to have old stuff. Modern stuff just isn't as creepy and mysterious.

I don't think there's anything that makes a puzzle room official, but to me it's more about sticking to a theme. If it's just a random collection of puzzles it's not as cool as having things that actually work together as part of story. I also like it when more of the story is discovered as people progress. Aim for it to be immersive, have a backstory about why all the stuff is here. And since it's for Halloween we like to include a few jump scares.

As for design, I find it works best to have several parallel sequences (approximately one per team member) so at any given time there's stuff for everyone to work on. Then some way to bring all the tracks together into a final puzzle to complete the room. It's useful to have a way to associate keys (not just physical keys) with their locks, so people can figure out the expected connections. If you have stuff in the room that isn't part of the puzzles, have a way to let people know that.

Also, we plan to have people win, because it's more fun that way. That means we end up watching carefully the whole time and delivering hints as necessary to keep people on track. That may not be how you want to spend your party, but it works out for me.

It's helpful to do some early test runs, get an idea of what doesn't work well, what needs to be clearer, how long everything takes, etc.

 

[Haunted Corner]

I'm impressed, I've always wanted to put together my own escape room too, so this is excited you just did it in a room at your house.

 

[hhh]

yep, we've done many now, and pretty much any room will do to hold some puzzles. If there's a secondary area (generally a closet) we'll make use of it, but it's optional.

 

[woodward55]

Thanks for sharing Crypt Keeper! We will be using some of your thoughtful ideas!

 

[lucidhalloween]

I love this! Amazing attention to detail and theme consistency!

 

[Kerimonster]

So awesome!

 

[Binxie]

This is absolutely fabulous!!! I cant even begin to imagine putting an escape room together but I know this beats anything I could think up. The detail is absolutely mind blowing. I really look forward to seeing pics of your setup and hopefully hearing about how everything works (relating to your clues).