Keywhistle Printable Escape Room Template
by ShuffleKit
Printable escape room for kids and families, a whole game to play at home or in a classroom: escape a wizard's tower in 45 minutes by solving seven puzzles, for 2 to 6 players aged 8 and up with an adult as the host. Seven puzzle cards carry a padlock badge, a picture and the puzzle on parchment. Each puzzle has a clue card with its answer printed upside down under a fold, and the host cards hold the story to read aloud, the rules and the answer key. Every kind of card has its own back, and the lock sheet has seven padlocks to write codes in, clue boxes and a numbered alphabet. No app and no real padlocks are needed. Every puzzle, clue and answer is a row in a sheet, so you can write your own escape room on the same cards.
Cards
- Designs
- 6
- Sample cards
- 18
- Card size
- Poker — 2.5 × 3.5 in
- 63.5 × 88.9 mm · 750 × 1050 px at 300 DPI
- Card fields
- Name
- Lock
- Picture
- Text
- Clue
- Answer
- Card
Score Pads
- Designs
- 1
- Sample score pads
- 1
- Score Pad size
- Large Score Pad — 8 × 10 in
- 203.2 × 254 mm · 2400 × 3000 px at 300 DPI
- Score Pad fields
- Name
- Subtitle
Adding a template copies its six card designs, one score pad design, their fields, 18 sample cards and one sample score pad into one project of your own, in one go. Your copy is yours, and later changes by the author never touch it.
Part of print and play games
What’s in Keywhistle Printable Escape Room Template
Cards
Six card designs, poker size, 2.5 × 3.5 in: Puzzle Card, Clue Card, Host Card, Puzzle Card Back, Clue Card Back and Host Card Back.
The cards live in a sheet of their own, one row each, with a column for every field their designs read: Name, Lock, Picture, Text, Clue, Answer and Card. 18 rows arrive filled in as sample cards.
Score Pads
One score pad design, large score pad size, 8 × 10 in: Lock Sheet.
The score pads live in a sheet of their own, one row each, with a column for every field their designs read: Name and Subtitle. One row arrives filled in as sample score pad.
Read the 18 sample cards
| Name | Lock | Text | Clue | Answer | Card |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Story | Read this aloud. You have climbed the hundred steps of Keywhistle Tower to bring back the wizard's broom, but the wizard is out. The door swings shut behind you and the key turns by itself. A voice from the keyhole says: “Seven locks hold this tower. Open them all before the candle burns down.” On the windowsill, the wizard's owl blinks. It knows every answer, but it only gives clues. | Host | |||
| How to Host | 1. Cut out the cards. Keep the story, the two host cards, the answer key and the seven clue cards yourself, and stack puzzle cards 1 to 7 face down in order. Print a lock sheet for each team. 2. Read the story card aloud, start a timer for 45 minutes and hand the players puzzle 1. 3. When the players have a code, they write it in that puzzle's lock on the lock sheet and tell you. If it matches the answer key, hand over the next puzzle. If it doesn't, tell them the lock won't turn and let them keep trying. | Host | |||
| Clues and the Last Lock | 4. If a team is stuck, give them that puzzle's clue card folded along the dashed line, so the answer stays hidden. They can unfold it if the clue isn't enough. Tick one of the clue boxes on their lock sheet each time. 5. The players escape when the code for lock 7, the tower door, is right. Write down the time left and the clues used, and see if the next group can beat their time. | Host | |||
| Answer Key | 1. BOOK: first letters, last line up 2. 826: 8 legs, 2 legs, 8 take away 2 3. WANDS: each letter back one place 4. CLOCK: a face and hands, on a wall 5. 630: 8:45 less 2 hours 15 minutes 6. 974: blue, gold, green, red, purple 7. 9566: from locks 6, 3, 5 and 2 | Host | |||
| The Owl's Scroll | 1 | A scroll is pinned inside the door. It says: Keep the candle burning bright, Only owls are out tonight, Old spells sleep inside the tower, But one will wake within the hour. Under the poem, in tiny writing: “Wizards read their spells from the bottom up.” | Puzzle | ||
| The Locked Spellbook | 2 | BOOK! On the shelf sits a fat spellbook with a brass lock, and a riddle on its cover: I am a number with three digits. My first digit is how many legs a spider has. My second is how many legs the owl has. My last is the first take away the second. | Puzzle | ||
| The Star Chart | 3 | Inside the spellbook is a star chart. Five stars are marked with letters: X B O E T Along its edge the wizard wrote: “Every star here shines one letter too far.” The alphabet on your lock sheet will help. | Puzzle | ||
| The Wand Drawer | 4 | WANDS! A drawer slides open. The wands are gone, and the wizard's cat is asleep in their place, curled round a note: I have a face, but I never smile. I have two hands, but I never wave. I hang on the tower wall, far too big for anyone's wrist. What am I? | Puzzle | ||
| The Stopped Clock | 5 | CLOCK! The tower clock stopped when the wizard went out, and its hands have fallen off. The wizard's diary says: “Went out 2 hours and 15 minutes before the broom came back.” You brought the broom back at a quarter to nine. What time did the clock stop? Write it with no dots: 4:10 would be 410. | Puzzle | ||
| The Potion Shelf | 6 | Behind the clock stand five potions in a row, with corks numbered red 4, blue 1, green 7, gold 9 and purple 2. The blue potion is on the far left. The purple potion is on the far right. The gold potion is next to the blue one. The red potion is not next to the gold one. The lock wants the corks of the middle three, from left to right. | Puzzle | ||
| The Tower Door | 7 | The tower door has four dials, and a note says: 1. The first number of lock 6. 2. How many letters the word in lock 3 has. 3. The hour the clock stopped. 4. The last number of lock 2. Set the dials to those four numbers and the door swings open. | Puzzle | ||
| The Owl's Scroll | 1 | Look only at the first letter of each line of the poem. Then read those letters from the last line up to the first. | BOOK | Clue | |
| The Locked Spellbook | 2 | A spider has 8 legs, and an owl has 2, like every bird. For the last digit, work out 8 take away 2. | 826 | Clue | |
| The Star Chart | 3 | Each letter is one place too far along the alphabet. Move every letter back one place, so X becomes W. | WANDS | Clue | |
| The Wand Drawer | 4 | It has a face and two hands, and it tells you the time. A watch would be too small, because this one hangs on a wall. | CLOCK | Clue | |
| The Stopped Clock | 5 | A quarter to nine is 8:45. Go back 2 hours to 6:45, then go back 15 more minutes. | 630 | Clue | |
| The Potion Shelf | 6 | Draw five boxes in a row. Put blue in the first, purple in the last and gold next to blue. Red fits in only one of the two boxes left. | 974 | Clue | |
| The Tower Door | 7 | Look at your lock sheet. Take the first digit of lock 6, count the letters in lock 3, then the hour in lock 5 and the last digit of lock 2. | 9566 | Clue |
How to host the Keywhistle escape room
You need scissors, a pencil for each team and a timer. One adult hosts, and 2 to 6 players aged 8 and up solve the puzzles.
- Cut out the cards. Keep the story, the two host cards, the answer key and the seven clue cards yourself, and stack puzzle cards 1 to 7 face down in order. Print a lock sheet for each team.
- Read the story card aloud, start a timer for 45 minutes and hand the players puzzle 1.
- When the players have a code, they write it in that puzzle's lock on the lock sheet and tell you. If it matches the answer key, hand over the next puzzle. If it doesn't, tell them the lock won't turn and let them keep trying.
- If a team is stuck, give them that puzzle's clue card folded along the dashed line, so the answer stays hidden. They can unfold it if the clue isn't enough. Tick one of the clue boxes on their lock sheet each time.
- The players escape when the code for lock 7, the tower door, is right. Write down the time left and the clues used, and see if the next group can beat their time.
Printing the cards and score pads
Cards: Poker, 2.5 × 3.5 in, 63.5 × 88.9 mm, 750 × 1050 pixels at 300 DPI. With an eighth of an inch of bleed on every edge, a card goes out as 825 × 1125.
Score Pads: Large Score Pad, 8 × 10 in, 203.2 × 254 mm, 2400 × 3000 pixels at 300 DPI. With an eighth of an inch of bleed on every edge, a score pad goes out as 2475 × 3075.
On the Hobby plan, export a print-ready PDF with bleed and cut lines, each part at its own size. PNG and SVG come out at the same sizes, which is what Tabletop Simulator wants. On Indie, send the game to a print-on-demand partner through Print & Ship. The export adds the bleed: let the artwork run into it and keep the text inside the cut line.
How to design a board game, from the first rule to a printed copy
Questions about Keywhistle Printable Escape Room Template
Everything you need to know before getting started.
Still have questions? Contact us
How do I make my own escape room with this template?
Write it in the sheet, one row per card. A puzzle and its clue are two rows with the same Name and the same Lock number: the puzzle row has its words in Text and a picture in Picture, and the clue row has the hint in Clue and the code in Answer. The Card column says which is which, Puzzle, Clue or Host, and the host cards hold your story and your answer key. Give every puzzle a code that fits on one line, a word or a few digits, and let one answer point to the next puzzle. Then try the room yourself before anyone plays it. With fewer than seven puzzles, the spare locks on the lock sheet stay empty.
Do I need real padlocks?
No. The host checks each code against the answer key, so paper and a pencil are all the game needs. To add real locks, set a combination lock or a word lock to a puzzle's code and lock the next puzzle card in a box or a zipped pencil case. The sample room's codes are a four-letter word, two five-letter words, three three-digit numbers and a four-digit number for the door.
What age is it for, and how long does it take?
It is written for ages 8 and up, with an adult as the host who holds the answer key. The timer runs for 45 minutes, and setting up takes about ten more: cutting out the cards and printing a lock sheet for each team. The puzzles need reading, a little adding and taking away, a letter code and one logic puzzle, and every clue card gives a hint before it gives the answer.
What happens when I add Keywhistle Printable Escape Room Template to a project?
The six card designs, one score pad design, their fields, 18 sample cards and one sample score pad are copied into one project of yours, with the fields already pointed at the designs: the cards under All cards and the score pads in a collection of their own. Nothing stays linked to this page afterwards, so the author's later edits never reach your copy.
What size does Keywhistle Printable Escape Room Template print at?
The cards are Poker size, 2.5 × 3.5 in, 63.5 × 88.9 mm, 750 × 1050 pixels at 300 DPI. The score pads are Large Score Pad size, 8 × 10 in, 203.2 × 254 mm, 2400 × 3000 pixels at 300 DPI. Those are the numbers to hand a print shop, and each part exports at its own size.
Is Keywhistle Printable Escape Room Template free?
Yes. Adding it, editing it, filling it with your own cards and playtesting it online are all free. Exporting print files starts on the Hobby plan, and Print & Ship through The Game Crafter is on Indie. No template sits behind a paid plan.
Can I change the designs?
Yes. They land in your project as ordinary layouts, so you can drag an element somewhere else, put your own art behind the frame, restyle the type or rename a field. Edit a design once and every card or score pad drawn on it follows.
Can I use my own cards and score pads instead of the samples?
Yes. The cards and the score pads each have a sheet, and the samples are rows in them, there to be overwritten. Type over them, add rows of your own, or bring a CSV and match its headers to the fields.
Can I sell a game made with Keywhistle Printable Escape Room Template?
Yes. This one is ours, and you keep commercial rights to what you build from it, crowdfunding and retail included.
Ready to build your card game?
This template is free, and so is the editor it opens in.