New Year's escape room: a free printable game for work

Setup: who plays, how long, what to print

Players

4 to 30, in teams of 3 to 6. Every team gets its own printed set.

Time

30 to 45 minutes to play, plus about 15 minutes to print and stuff envelopes.

Print

One kit per team: six puzzle cards, one per page. Black and white is fine. The host keeps the two host pages.

Supplies

Six envelopes per team, pens, scratch paper and a timer. A small box with a padlock for the prize is a bonus.

Host

One person runs it, keeps the answer key and hands out envelopes. They don't play.

When

The last workday of the year, a New Year's Eve party, or the first team meeting in January.

1. 1Print one kit per team. Cards 1 to 6 go in envelopes numbered 1 to 6. Keep the host pages for yourself.
2. 2Split into teams of 3 to 6. Mix departments so no team is all the puzzle people.
3. 3Read the story aloud and start a 45-minute timer. Hand every team envelope 1.
4. 4Check answers quietly. A team whispers or writes its answer to you. Right answer: hand over the next envelope and read the line for that lock.
5. 5Give hints from the ladder. Three free hints per team; each extra hint adds 2 minutes to their time.
6. 6First team to say the last word wins. Rank the rest by finish time plus hint minutes, and read the finale together.

No time to print and stuff envelopes for 30 people? A host can run Winter Resort Vacate-tion, a ready-made escape game with a snowy mountain theme, for the whole group on video.

The story to read aloud

Read this to start the game, then start the 45-minute timer.

It's the last afternoon of the year, and the party starts in 45 minutes. Then the countdown clock on the break room screen freezes, and the supply closet with the streamers, the confetti and the party hats won't open. Nora from facilities built the clock, and she's already on vacation. She left a note taped to the screen: "If the clock freezes, don't panic. I left six envelopes, and each one opens the next. The last one gives you the word that restarts the clock. Happy New Year!" Your team has 45 minutes.

The six puzzles

Each card goes in its own envelope. Everything a team needs is on the card, and envelope 6 uses two codes from earlier, so teams should write every answer down.

1. Envelope 1 of 6

   The supply closet

   The closet has a three-digit padlock. Nora's inventory sheet is taped to the door, and every item on it is worth a number from 1 to 9.

   • POPPER + POPPER + POPPER = 21
   • HAT + HAT + POPPER = 15
   • CLOCK + HAT + HAT = 17

   The lock reads: CLOCK, then POPPER, then HAT.

   Your task: Work out what each item is worth, then put the three numbers in the order the lock asks for.

   The lock: A three-digit number.

   Hint ladder

   Hint 1

   Start with the line that only has one kind of item in it.

   Hint 2

   Three poppers make 21, so one popper is 7. Use that in the second line.

   Hint 3

   A popper is 7 and a hat is 4. Now the third line gives you the clock.

2. Envelope 2 of 6

   The countdown cipher

   Nora's sticky note is written in code. On the back she wrote: "I wrote it the way a countdown goes."

   RRFQ YJWJ TWTFDOFUU

   Nora moved the first letter 3 places forward in the alphabet, the next letter 2 places, the next 1 place, then 3, 2, 1 again to the end. Spaces don't count. After Z comes A.

   Your task: Move every letter back the same way to read the note.

   The lock: The password the note gives you.

   Hint ladder

   Hint 1

   To undo it, move letters backward: the first letter back 3, the second back 2, the third back 1.

   Hint 2

   The first word has four letters: R back 3 is O, R back 2 is P, F back 1 is E. Keep the 3, 2, 1 pattern going into the next word.

   Hint 3

   The note reads OPEN WITH and then the password, which is something you hang at a party.

3. Envelope 3 of 6

   Nora's toast

   Nora wrote a toast for the party. In the margin she added: "Four numbers hide in here. Some inside a word, some across two words."

   A quick toast before the countdown. This was the year we got good at work, at home and on video calls in between. If I've learned anything, it is even a hard week feels lighter with this team. So here's to the weight we carried for each other, and to a bright new year.

   Your task: Find the four numbers spelled out as words and read them in the order they appear. Keep this code: you'll need it again at the end.

   The lock: A four-digit number.

   Hint ladder

   Hint 1

   Ignore the spaces and punctuation and read the toast as one long string of letters.

   Hint 2

   The first number hides across "at work". Another hides in "If I've".

   Hint 3

   TWO in "at work", FIVE in "If I've", SEVEN in "is even". The last one is inside a single word near the end.

4. Envelope 4 of 6

   The resolution board

   Four coworkers pinned their resolutions for next year to the board. Their desks, numbered 2, 4, 6 and 8, sit in one row from left to right.

   1. Chloe sits at one of the two end desks.
   2. The person training to run a 5K sits at desk 8.
   3. The Spanish learner sits right next to the 5K runner.
   4. The guitar learner sits directly to the left of Ben.
   5. Amara sits right next to the guitar learner.

   The resolutions: learn guitar, learn Spanish, read 20 books, run a 5K. Each person has one.

   	Desk 2	Desk 4	Desk 6	Desk 8
   Name
   Resolution

   Your task: Work out who sits where. The code is the desk numbers of Amara, Ben, Chloe and Diego, in that order. Keep this code too.

   The lock: A four-digit number.

   Hint ladder

   Hint 1

   Clues 2 and 3 place two resolutions straight away.

   Hint 2

   The 5K runner is at desk 8 and the Spanish learner at desk 6. The guitar learner sits directly left of Ben, so guitar can only be at desk 2 or 4. Try both.

   Hint 3

   If guitar were at desk 2, Ben would be at 4 and Amara would have nowhere to sit next to guitar. So guitar is at desk 4 and Ben at desk 6.

5. Envelope 5 of 6

   Midnight around the world

   Nora's wall of world clocks shows eight cities on December 31. Each clock has a letter on its back.

   City	On December 31	Letter
   New York	5 hours behind	T
   Sydney	11 hours ahead	N
   Honolulu	10 hours behind	I
   Dubai	4 hours ahead	E
   Kiritimati, Kiribati	14 hours ahead	C
   London	London time	T
   Tokyo	9 hours ahead	F
   Auckland	13 hours ahead	O

   "Ahead" and "behind" are hours compared with London. A city 9 hours ahead reaches midnight 9 hours before London does.

   Your task: Put the cities in the order they ring in the new year, first to last, and read their letters.

   The lock: An eight-letter word.

   Hint ladder

   Hint 1

   The further ahead of London a city is, the earlier it reaches midnight.

   Hint 2

   Kiritimati, 14 hours ahead, goes first. Honolulu, 10 hours behind, goes last.

   Hint 3

   From 14 ahead down to 10 behind: C, O, N, F... It's something you throw at midnight.

6. Envelope 6 of 6

   Restart the clock

   Inside the confetti box is a drawing of the countdown clock, with a letter at every hour, and Nora's last note.

   Point the hour hand at each number of the toast code, then at each number of the desk code. Read the eight letters and say them to the clock.

   Your task: Use the codes from envelopes 3 and 4 to read eight letters off the clock.

   The lock: An eight-letter word.

   Hint ladder

   Hint 1

   You need the toast code (envelope 3) and the desk code (envelope 4). Each digit is an hour on the clock.

   Hint 2

   The toast code is 2578: the hours 2, 5, 7 and 8 give T, O, G, E.

   Hint 3

   The desk code 2684 gives T, H, E, R. Put the two halves together.

Answer key and solutions

For the host only. Every answer comes with the reasoning, so you can explain it when a team asks how.

How to run it on Zoom or Teams

Same six cards. Five changes keep a video call moving:

1. 1Send the cards ahead. Print the kit to PDF and send each team captain the six card pages, with a promise not to peek ahead.
2. 2Use breakout rooms of 3 to 6. The captain shares one card at a time with the team, starting with envelope 1.
3. 3Answers go to the host by private chat. Reply with "open envelope 3" when it's right, and pop into a room if a team asks for a hint.
4. 4Keep the codes in the team chat. Envelope 6 needs the toast code and the desk code, so ask teams to post every answer as they go.
5. 5Bring everyone back for the finale. Read the ending, post finish times and count down together on camera.

Over 30 people on video, or nobody free to host? A hosted virtual escape room runs every breakout team at once and keeps score for you.