# Lovecraft Puzzle Room



## hhh (Mar 1, 2012)

Thought I'd share some pics from our Lovecraft Puzzle Room we did for halloween.
The idea was we locked people in a room and they had to solve the puzzles to get out. We structured it around Lovecraft's Dunwich Horror
(nice adaptation here https://archive.org/details/SuspenseDunwichHorrorWithRonaldColman110145 )

One of the puzzles was to find the right ingredients to collect to make a potion to make the monster visible, and I made good use of forum tips for making the potions



































Some of the potions had other uses too. The "candlelight distillate" potion had flickering LEDs, and when you placed it on the right spot in a candleholder the candles lit up and blinked out a clue.
And the "fainting fluid" would fall over when a shadow passed over (unfortunately the animated gif is too big for the forum)







Once you collected the right potions, you put them in the "Potion Machine" and it would pump out a potion







which when sprayed would make the monster appear in the window








Another puzzle was to make the right connections between pins on the map. We had various artifacts around the room to help make the associations.





















When you had the right connections the door to the secret room popped open, giving you a few more pieces to solve the puzzle.

All the clues went into a form to reveal a chant to banish the monster.








It was pretty challenging for people to solve, but they had fun.


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## Echo Sorceress (Apr 29, 2014)

Wow, hhh, this sounds incredible! I'd love to attend something like this someday.


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## hhh (Mar 1, 2012)

Apparently puzzle rooms are actually viable business models. I went to a local one, and it was fun but didn't have any story, so we worked on making a story for ours. And plenty of Lovecraft literature involves getting a letter, newspaper clippings, coded books, and trying to figure out what it all means, so it fit nicely.

No idea what this one is like, but 
http://roomescapeadventures.com/atlanta/


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## Terrormaster (Sep 10, 2010)

That's an awesome idea. Would love to try this. Although I'd have to do it for our party and not the haunt itself. We do a walk-about-display and most all of our ToTs are impatient. They wanna grab their candy and move on to the next house.

I'd be very curious to hear some of the technical aspects involved. Were high or low tech solutions involved in the object placement puzzles? Magnets or RFID? Very curious.

-TM


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## hhh (Mar 1, 2012)

Definitely not for the TOTs, we did groups of about 5 and they each took about an hour. Though some of the props could be reused for display outside.

The candle puzzle used magnets and reed switches to activate. I considered RFID but would have been much bulkier. I also wanted the jar to sense having been placed on the candleholder so it's light could drain out and light up the candles, and the jar circuitry needed to be kept to a minimum.

The map puzzle connections were made with conductive wires. There was a circuit checking for all the right connections to be made, and then it popped a lock open.

The tipping jar used a photosensor and servo.

The potion machine used a weight sensor to detect the right things had been placed on it, and then pumped some liquid out into a spray bottle.

To tell when people had sprayed the potion we just watched on video, and we triggered a sound and light sequence.


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## Greenwick (Apr 25, 2013)

Wow! This is totally amazing! I need to think of something like this for next year, but with riddles.


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## hhh (Mar 1, 2012)

Greenwick said:


> Wow! This is totally amazing! I need to think of something like this for next year, but with riddles.


Let us know what riddles you come up with!


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## Terrormaster (Sep 10, 2010)

Wow, that's pretty simple but clever, especially the weight sensor on the potion machine.


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## hhh (Mar 1, 2012)

Terrormaster said:


> Wow, that's pretty simple but clever, especially the weight sensor on the potion machine.


We tried to keep the triggers as simple as possible, but it still took a lot of engineering time to make it all come together.
It paid off though, because people were not expecting stuff to actually happen in response to solving a puzzle. It was fun watching people as they figured out how they needed to connect the pins on the map, but the reactions were great when they actually finished and the door popped open.


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Very clever and impressive!
My wife wanted us to have a different kind of a scavenger hunt here in 5,000 sq. ft. of house.
There already are many features here to make it very interesting for most people.
But then , just having them play Hyde & Shriek is simpler...but then....hhhmmm?


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## celipops (Jul 23, 2011)

Love this idea! Would like a little more detail on the candle blinking out a clue. This might be what I've been searching for to complete my murder mystery. 

I have the plot, and characters polished and an ending. It's the clue dropping for the evening that I've been wracking my brain on. Would you mind sharing with me?

Thanks


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## thenightmarefamily (Nov 20, 2014)

Nicely done, and very creative. I take it that this was a Halloween party and not for TOT.


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## hhh (Mar 1, 2012)

I took some used candles and stuck a pair of leds in each (a pair so the "flame" can waver as well as flicker), and made a stand to hold the candles that could fit an arduino underneath. Then i stuck a piece of wood on the front with a slot for a uniquely shaped jar with a magnet at the bottom, and put a reed switch inside the board. When the jar was put in, the candles would "ignite" and flicker, then about once a minute they would all go out and sequentially blink the code. The first one would blink some number of times, then the second, etc, and then all start flickering again. The 3 numbers would unlock a 3 digit lock. Symbols on the jar, candle holder, and lock all matched up.

here's a picture of the setup.








Yeah, this was for a party, too involved for TOTs


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## lucidhalloween (Feb 23, 2017)

I know I'm out of date on this one, but I just wanted to say I love your Work!


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## margaret (Aug 19, 2013)

This is amazing ... would it be alright to use your ideas for a party I would like to throw?


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## a_granger (Oct 21, 2012)

hhh said:


> Thought I'd share some pics from our Lovecraft Puzzle Room we did for halloween.
> The idea was we locked people in a room and they had to solve the puzzles to get out. We structured it around Lovecraft's Dunwich Horror
> (nice adaptation here https://archive.org/details/SuspenseDunwichHorrorWithRonaldColman110145 )
> 
> ...



Wow what a great idea! I really love the blinking candle idea I have to say I will be using this for inspiration!!! Thank you!


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## hhh (Mar 1, 2012)

Glad you guys like it, I had fun with it.
The character of our escape rooms have definitely changed over the past few years, this year I'm hoping to get more of these old and spooky elements back in.

There's no problem in anyone using these ideas, but I'm always interested to hear how things turned out.


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## vrub01 (Jun 26, 2019)

Wonderful. Reading stuff like this excites me just like I did when I first tried an escape room in Chicago called Fox in a Box. Learning new stuff is fun!


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## Haunted911 (Jun 27, 2019)

Incredible! I love escape rooms and the engineering knowledge to pull this off is beyond me. I'm a major prop building girl, but old school pumping pipe, chicken wire, basically anything I can buy at home depot and glue, rope, zip tie or nail together, but this is amazing!


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