I'm in the Young Women's organization in my church ward, and I recently put together an Escape Room for all of the youth (ages 12-18). Since we were anticipating around 40 kids, we made 4 identical rooms and split the kids up. It was a lot of fun, but took a lot of time to come up with the clues, and so I thought I would share it in case anyone else wants to do something similar.
When the kids arrived they were put into one of 4 teams and given Missionary Name Badge stickers. (the badges said "Elder" or "Sister" in the color of their team) Once inside their room they read the following scenario:
"You are missionaries and you are headed to a large zone
conference. Your zone leader, Elder Greenski, asks you to swing by their
apartment and pick up his scriptures. Once you enter the apartment, the
door swings shut behind you and locks. You call Elder Greenski and
his companion, Elder Redski, and they tell you that they forgot to mention they
had booby-trapped their apartment because of a crazy neighbor that kept
sneaking in and eating all of their Swedish fish. They tell you that they
have an extra key to get out but it’s hidden in the room. They also tell
you to HURRY because the zone conference is going to have AWESOME
refreshments. Elder Greenski tells you that everything you need to know
can be found in their apartment, but before they can tell you where the key is
the phone dies."
So, inside their room is the scenario (on the paper on the wall), and a Cat calendar, with meals at church member's houses listed on each day. There is also a piano/keyboard, a hymn book, a suitcase with a lock on it, and 3 pictures of Prophets of the church.
On a table that is set up like a breakfast table, there are some scriptures, bowls, and a sugar shaker. And a red bowl filled with Swedish Fish (candy).
The first thing they were supposed to solve was to notice the three pictures of the prophets. Joseph F. Smith, Wilford Woodruff, and David O. Mckay. Inside the scriptures, (the thing they had gone to the "apartment" for) was a bookmark like this:
Using that bookmark they would find the order of the prophets (1. Joseph Smith, 2. Brigham Young, 3.John Taylor, etc....), and using those numbers, and the order of the pictures of the three prophets in the room (6, 4, 9) they could then open the lock on the suitcase.
Inside the suitcase they found a variety of RED items, a journal belonging to Elder Redski, and a piece of sheet music with no words on it, just the notes labeled (ABCDE....). And a folded up pouch locked with a letter-lock.
The journal was 22 pages long and had entries for the month of April. On each page there were several letters highlighted in red, green, and blue. Here the kids had to take note of the meal calendar on the wall.
The date April 11th was circled, so in the journal, when they went to the entry for April 11th they found this:
Now they only needed to unscramble the RED letters. To make sure they guessed that they only needed to look at the red letters, every page in the journal had the word "red" written at least once, more often 2-3 times. However, I realized these were teenagers that probably wouldn't read the journal, and so the suitcase was filled with red items as a supplemental clue. (which is a pity, because the journal was the best part, I made it hilarious with lots of additional clues for them if they read it)
The red letters, once unscrambled spelled "BISHOP". However they couldn't go find the bishop until they got out of their room, so they still had to solve more clues before they could go find him.
When they play the sheet music, they get the song Teach Me To Walk in the Light. I labeled the piano and the music so anyone could figure this out. (removable circle stickers on the pianos)
At this point they know that the Hymn is Teach Me to Walk in the Light. To get the combination to their word lock on the pouch (that was inside the suitcase) they have to find the clue inside the sugar shaker. On the breakfast table, inside the sugar shaker, is a folded up piece of paper that, once removed, looks like this:
When placed over the correct hymn, the little window-cut-out shows this:
(if it's hard to see, it shows the word "pray")
And when they used the word "pray" as the code on their locks it unlocked their pouch.
Inside the pouch there was a note that said:
"Congratulations! You now have the key to escape the
apartment! Use your other clues from
this room to determine where to go next to find the zone conference. Hurry, before they pass out the
refreshments!!”
If I'd had more time, I would have found a real key to put in each pouch as well. Also I would not recommend using these types of pencil pouches (that go in 3 ring binders) because 2 of the teams just forced the zippered part open before solving the lock. (those stinkers!)
Now they can get out of the room and go find the Bishop!!
Our Bishop was wandering the halls of the church building, and when the teams found him, he gave them a UV flashlight with a piece of paper taped around it.
The piece of paper said "Ezekiel 41:24". When they looked up that scripture it reads: "And the doors had two leaves apiece, two turning leaves; two leaves for the one door, and two leaves for the other door."
All the doors inside the church (there are a LOT of classrooms) had a blank white piece of paper taped to it. When they shined their UV light on the white paper an invisible drawing became visible. The doors had hearts, stars, suns, bugs, stick people, etc.... They had to find the door that had two leaves drawn on it. (following the clue from the scripture) Inside that door were two of the Young Men leaders, just talking to each other, looking very non-suspicious. They gave the team a note that was rolled up and taped around a baggie containing a hot dog. The note read:
“Find the place where food is prepared, go out the door and don’t be scared. Give her the item inside this bag, she’ll trade you information, found near her tag.” --- Sister Yellowski.
So then the kids went to the kitchen and out the door (our kitchen has a door that leads outside, as most of our church buildings do). Outside the door there wasn't a person, but a golden retriever (my dog Ruby).
And next to her dog tag was a yellow handkerchief with 2 hymns written on it.
When they looked up those hymns they found that they were #35 For the Strength of the Hills and #194 There is a Green Hill Far Away. Which made them think of the grassy hill in the very back of our church parking lot. When they ran back there they found a giant plexiglas box filled with doughnuts. There were 4 locks on the box. If they shined their UV light on the box there was a drawing of fish. Back in their original room, underneath the candy Swedish Fish, each team had a different number written inside their bowl, which would unlock one of the locks. (This was actually the first clue most teams found, since they immediately started eating the candy when they entered their rooms!)
Once all 4 teams made it to the box, and unlocked their lock, all the youth were able to eat the doughnuts!
One of the teams solved all the clues and made it to the doughnuts in just 20 minutes! But most of the teams needed a bit more help. If I did it again, I would take all the numbers off my missionary calendar and just have the dinner schedule (all the numbers confused them). And possibly find a way to force them to have to solve one clue at a time, since having only parts of some puzzles solved before getting more clues was tricky for some of the kids. Anyway, let me know if you do something like this! I have all the files I used if anyone needs them. (I have the instructions, the calendar, the pictures of the prophets, the bookmarks, the music, the notes, etc....)
