Printable escape room kit · 7 puzzles · A4 and US Letter
The Midnight Carnival: an escape room you print at home.
The carnival that vanished in 1927 is back for one hour. The Ringmaster's ghosts are hunting for the iron striker of the Midnight Bell, and when the bell rings at midnight the gate closes on everyone inside for another ninety-nine years. The carnival's own ledgers, logs and receipts point to where the striker is hidden. Find it first and carry it out through the gate.
7.99 EUR
Instant download · A4 and US Letter PDFs · personal use only
The case has 7 puzzles in 3 acts, solved in order. You rebuild the gatekeeper's check-in ledger, seat six carved figures on the carousel, put a torn programme back in running order and work out which way the seized rings of a clockwork witness were facing. Then you match performers to the parcels they signed for and find which cabinet door each fortune sat behind. The seventh puzzle turns the answers to the first six into the place where the striker is hidden.
You need a printer, pencils and an eraser. Nothing gets cut, glued, folded or put in an envelope, and nothing needs the internet. Players write each answer on the Answer Tracker as they go, because the last puzzle needs all of them. The pages get written on, so print a fresh set for each new group. One purchase covers as many games as you like.
One person hosts. A big group can split into teams, each with its own printed set and Answer Tracker. The Host Guide covers printing, setting up and running the game. There is no built-in timer, so you can set a deadline or play without one. Hints come in three tiers for each puzzle, from a first nudge to a near solution, and the host reads out only as much as a stuck team needs. The Solutions pages explain every deduction and are worth reading aloud once the case is closed.
A free companion page for phones can take over part of the host's job. It tells the story of each exhibit, checks answers, reveals hints one at a time and saves your progress in the browser. The Host Guide has the link. Everything the game needs is printed in the kit, so you can also leave phones out of it.
A solver program checked every puzzle, and each one has exactly one answer that fits all of its clues.
What you download
Eight files, in both paper sizes.
- The game, 13 pages, for the players
- The Answer Tracker, a single page
- Hints, one page per puzzle
- Solutions, one page per puzzle
- The Lockmaster Key, all seven answers 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 backgrounds, with the invitations as postcards, four to a sheet
- Aged-paper copies: every file except the illustrated extras again, on a worn paper texture that makes the pages look like an old case file
The whole set comes twice, once sized for A4 and once for US Letter, so it prints without scaling wherever you are. The aged-paper copies use more ink than the white ones. If your printer can't print borderless, each page gets a white edge.
Running it as a party.
An escape room venue means booking a slot and buying a ticket for every guest. This one needs a printer and a table. Print one set for each team of up to 4, hand out pencils, and the host reads the two-page Host Guide before guests arrive.
For a bigger party, every team gets its own printed set and solves the same case, so you can race them against each other. The invitations and the door sign in the extras set the scene before anyone opens the case file.
The story is a carnival ghost story, so it suits Halloween best, but nothing in it is tied to the date. It works as well at a birthday or a game night.
Is this the right one?
- You are hosting a Halloween party, a birthday or a game night and want something the whole table can do together.
- Your group would rather crack word puzzles and logic grids than sit through jump scares.
- Everyone playing reads English comfortably. The puzzles are built on English words.
If you would rather solve alone, the Halloween nonogram book has 50 picture puzzles in the same spirit.
Questions before you print
How many people can play?
One printed set suits 1 to 4 players. For a bigger group, print a set for each team of up to 4 and let the teams race through the same case. One person hosts and does not need to play.
How long does it take?
About 45 to 60 minutes for one team to play the whole case. There is no built-in timer, so you can set a deadline or play without one.
What age is it for?
Teens and adults. The puzzles are word and logic puzzles built on English, and the story is spooky without any jump scares.
What do I need to play?
A printer, paper, pencils and an eraser. Nothing in the game gets cut, glued or folded, and nothing needs the internet.
Can we play it again?
One purchase covers as many games as you like, so print a fresh set for each new group. A group that has solved the case knows the answers, so it works best as a new game for new players.
Do we need the phone companion?
No. Everything the game needs is printed in the kit. The free companion page can check answers and hand out hints if the host would rather not.