Escape Rooms

The House on Hallow Hill Escape Room

The House on Hallow Hill — a printable escape room you run at your own kitchen table, with six puzzles, one name, and a house that is not angry with you.

Get it on Etsy → Instant digital download · print at home

The house on Hallow Hill has stood empty for sixty years and everybody in the village has an opinion about why. You came up at dusk to settle it. The front door shut behind you at four minutes past seven — it did not slam, it closed the way a door closes when somebody is being careful not to wake anyone — and there is no handle on this side of it.

The house is waiting. Six things in it still have something to say. Work them out, take one letter from each, and you will have the name it has been holding its breath for.

★ SPOOKY, NOT FRIGHTENING ★

No gore, no jump scares, nothing a ten-year-old cannot read at a kitchen table with the lights low. The ending is closer to sad than scary, and that is deliberate — this is a Halloween game a family can actually finish together.

★ WHAT MAKES THIS ONE DIFFERENT ★

Most printable escape rooms hand you a stack of puzzles and an answer key, and if your group gets stuck the evening is over. This one is built so that never happens.

• A DIFFICULTY CARD — the same house, three settings. GENTLE deals out the first hint for every puzzle face-up at the start, so nobody has to ask. STANDARD is hints on request. SEALED gives you no hints for thirty minutes and a sixty-minute clock. Pick before anybody opens a puzzle.

• 18 HINT CARDS — three per puzzle, not one. A nudge, then a bigger nudge, then the answer. Cut them out, fold them on the dotted line, and only the label shows.

• SELF-CHECKING SQUARES — every answer has one empty square per letter, on the puzzle sheet and again on the Lock Sheet. If your answer does not fit the squares it is not the right answer, and you find that out immediately instead of at the very end.

• THREE STAGE CARDS — the house opens a little further after every two puzzles. Seal them in envelopes and hand them over as they are earned.

★ THE HOST CAN PLAY TOO ★

The answers are on the last page, and on the third hint card of each puzzle. Print the sheets, keep the Answer Key sealed, fold the hint cards so only their labels show, seal the three stage cards into envelopes without reading them, and you can solve it alongside everyone else. The Host Guide is written so you never need to know a single answer to run it.

★ WHAT THE SIX PUZZLES ACTUALLY ASK FOR ★

You cannot look inside a printable before you buy it, so here is exactly what your group is in for. No answers below — just what each puzzle wants from a player.

1. WORD SEARCH — ten things in the house, each described in a single line. Work out what the line means, then find that word in the grid. Wants reading and vocabulary. The gentlest of the six.

2. NUMBER CIPHER — numbers cut into a stone, with the key scratched on the back of it. Wants patience more than cleverness.

3. LOGIC PUZZLE — four painted faces, four frames along the landing, and statements that rule positions in and out. This is the one that most often wants an adult sitting alongside a younger player.

4. ANAGRAM — eight brass letters off the back of a frame, one eight-letter word, all the letters in front of you.

5. MISSING LETTERS — seven words scratched into window panes, one letter flaked off each. Write them in and read them downwards.

6. RIDDLE — a few scratched lines, one six-letter answer. Wants a leap rather than a method, so it is the one a group either gets quickly or sits with.

★ WHAT KEEPS IT FAIR ★

• Every clue prints its letter count, crossword-style — so nobody argues about a word that almost fits.

• Self-check squares on every puzzle: one box per letter. A wrong answer shows itself immediately, instead of five puzzles later with no idea which one broke.

• 18 hint cards — three per puzzle, a nudge, then a bigger nudge, then the answer outright.

• GENTLE mode deals the first hint for all six face-up before you start, so a younger group never has to ask for help.

★ HONEST ABOUT THE AGE ★ Built for 10+, and it is a haunted house — atmospheric rather than gory, but the story does involve a death and a village that will not talk about it. Younger players do well in a mixed group with an adult reading along; a table of under-8s on their own will stall on puzzles 3 and 6. If your group is on the young side, start on GENTLE — it is the same house, not a cut-down one.

★ WHAT'S INSIDE (19 pages, A4 and US Letter both included) ★

• Host Guide — how to set it up in ten minutes

• At a Glance — the whole house on one page

• Difficulty Card — GENTLE, STANDARD or SEALED

• The Story — read aloud to shut the door

• 6 Puzzle Sheets — a word search, a number code, a logic puzzle, an anagram, missing letters and a riddle

• 3 Stage Cards — the story between the puzzles

• Lock Sheet — where the six letters come together

• The Way Out — read aloud when they say the name

• 18 Hint Cards — three per puzzle

• ★ Full Answer Key — every puzzle explained

★ PLAYS 2 TO 8 ★

2–4 players work through one set together, or take three puzzles each and compare. 5–8? Print two sets and race — two teams, same six puzzles, first team to say the name wins. That is the best way to play it and it costs one extra print run.

★ ONLY 7 PAGES NEED PRINTING PER TEAM ★

The six puzzle sheets and the Lock Sheet. Everything else is for you, and you can read it off a screen.

★ DETAILS ★

• Six puzzles • 45–60 minutes • Ages 10+ • No apps, no screens, no batteries

• Nothing needs outside knowledge — every answer is on the sheets

• Instant download — 1 ZIP containing 2 PDFs (A4 and US Letter)

• One purchase, unlimited prints. Play it again with a different group.

★ PLEASE NOTE ★

This is a DIGITAL DOWNLOAD. No physical item will be shipped, and because of that all sales are final. Personal use only — please do not resell or redistribute the files.