The Haunted House Escape

What Happens

Vane House has stood empty since 1931, and you are the last tour of the season. At four minutes past eleven the front door closes behind you on its own. It is not locked. It simply will not open.

Six people lived in this house. One of them never left, and the house will not let you out until you can say which one.

You are the Escape Master, and there are no padlocks in this and nothing to buy, because you are the lock. Four rooms sit in four envelopes in your hands, and the next one is handed over when the last one is answered. A spirit board that has already spelled something. A library where the books have to go back in the order they were written. A cellar with writing on the wall that only a mirror will read. An attic with four doors and five servants.

Every room ends with the house saying one true thing about itself. Four sentences, six people, and only one of them fits all four. The six are on the table from the first minute, which means the whole hour is spent crossing names off rather than hunting for things, and every single room crosses somebody off.

It does not end with a scare. It ends with a name that was never written in a book, and an argument in the car on the way home about whether the house was ever frightening at all.

Sixteen pages to print. Nothing to buy, nothing to build, and nothing hidden anywhere in your house: about twenty minutes of setup and most of that is cutting out six cards. The Escape Master pages tell you what to say, what to hand over and when, what every room's answer is, and what to do when one stalls, gentlest nudge first, down to the four specific ways each room actually goes wrong.

For two to six players, thirteen and up. There is nothing gory in it and nothing jumps out. It plays perfectly well in daylight. It plays a great deal better at night with two lamps off.