# A puzzle hunt or escape-room night — puzzles, answers, staged hints and a players’ link Recipe No. 59, Hobbies and play. From The know.sh Cookbook: https://know.sh/cookbook/puzzle-hunt A puzzle hunt is two books that must never meet. Yours holds the flow from the signal lamp to the door, a board of every puzzle from drafting to ready, and each puzzle's hints in tabs, from a nudge to the answer. The players get one link: the story, the rules and each card's text, and not one answer. - For: someone writing an escape-room night for friends - You get: a control page, staged hints and a players’ pack with no answers - Time: two evenings and two playtests - Made with: Shelf, Document, Your AI assistant, Elements, Public link, The iOS app ## How it works 1. **Give your assistant the theme and the puzzles.** Ask for three documents: *Hunt control*, *Answers and hints* with a section per puzzle, and a *Players' pack* holding only the text on each card. No answer ever goes in the pack. 2. **Draw the flow and the board.** Ask for a flowchart element of which puzzle opens which, down to the word lock on the door, and a kanban board of each puzzle from *Drafting* to *Ready*. Then solve every puzzle by hand. 3. **Stage the hints in tabs.** In each puzzle's answer section, ask for a tabs element: *Nudge*, *Method*, *Nearly there* and *Answer*. After each playtest, rewrite the hints where people stalled. 4. **Share the pack and run the night.** Press **Share** on the *Players' pack* alone, with a password and an expiry the day after. On the night, open one hint tab at a time on your phone and read it aloud. ## Try this prompt Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model): > Using know.sh, make a shelf called The Keeper’s Last Night with three documents: Hunt control, Answers and hints, and Players’ pack. From my notes [paste], give each puzzle a section in Answers and hints with the answer, the solve path and a place for playtest notes, and a section in the Players’ pack with only its card text. No answer, hint or solve path goes in the Players’ pack. Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model): > Using know.sh, add a tabs element to the section “Puzzle 4 — The chart” in Answers and hints: four tabs, Nudge, Method, Nearly there and Answer. The nudge points at the grid without naming it; the method names a Polybius square without solving anything; nearly there solves the first pair; the answer gives WAVE with every step. Change nothing else. ## Elements in the specimens Written as your assistant writes them through the know.sh MCP server. Each reads as plain words until you turn elements on (Account → Elements). Flowchart, specimen 1: ```element flowchart { "caption": "How the night runs: which puzzle opens which, from the briefing to the door", "description": "After a ten-minute briefing, two puzzles are open at once: puzzle 1, the signal lamp, answer HULL, and puzzle 2, the logbook, answer ROCK. HULL opens the box holding puzzle 3, the tide table, answer TIME; ROCK opens the drawer holding puzzle 4, the chart, answer WAVE. All four answers feed the meta, the keeper’s last entry, whose answer HOME opens the word lock on the door.", "direction": "TD", "nodes": [ { "id": "brief", "label": "Briefing, 10 minutes", "shape": "stadium" }, { "id": "p1", "label": "1. Signal lamp: HULL", "shape": "rectangle" }, { "id": "p2", "label": "2. Logbook: ROCK", "shape": "rectangle" }, { "id": "p3", "label": "3. Tide table: TIME", "shape": "rectangle" }, { "id": "p4", "label": "4. Chart: WAVE", "shape": "rectangle" }, { "id": "meta", "label": "Meta: the last entry", "shape": "hexagon", "emphasis": "key" }, { "id": "door", "label": "Word lock: HOME", "shape": "diamond" }, { "id": "out", "label": "The door opens", "shape": "stadium" } ], "links": [ { "from": "brief", "to": "p1", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "brief", "to": "p2", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "p1", "to": "p3", "label": "opens the box", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "p2", "to": "p4", "label": "opens the drawer", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "p1", "to": "meta", "line": "dotted", "head": "arrow", "length": 2 }, { "from": "p2", "to": "meta", "line": "dotted", "head": "arrow", "length": 2 }, { "from": "p3", "to": "meta", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "p4", "to": "meta", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "meta", "to": "door", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" }, { "from": "door", "to": "out", "line": "solid", "head": "arrow" } ] } ``` Kanban board, specimen 1: ```element kanban { "caption": "Where each puzzle stands, three weeks out", "description": "Drafting: the meta, the keeper’s last entry, top priority, and the four-letter word lock still to buy, high. Playtesting: the tide table, last tested in test 2, and the chart, in test 1, high because the meta needs it. Ready: the signal lamp and the logbook, both through test 2.", "columns": [ { "label": "Drafting", "cards": [ { "label": "Meta: the last entry", "priority": "very-high" }, { "label": "Buy a word lock", "priority": "high" } ] }, { "label": "Playtesting", "cards": [ { "label": "3. Tide table", "ticket": "Test 2" }, { "label": "4. Chart", "ticket": "Test 1", "priority": "high" } ] }, { "label": "Ready", "cards": [ { "label": "1. Signal lamp", "ticket": "Test 2" }, { "label": "2. Logbook", "ticket": "Test 2" } ] } ] } ``` Tabs, specimen 2: ```element tabs { "caption": "Hints for puzzle 4, in the order to give them", "tabs": [ { "label": "Nudge", "body": "Every digit in the margin is between 1 and 5. What on the chart has five of something?" }, { "label": "Method", "body": "The grid in the corner has five rows and five columns. Each pair of digits points to one square in it." }, { "label": "Nearly there", "body": "Read the first digit as the row, counting down, and the second as the column, counting across: 52 is row 5, column 2, which is W." }, { "label": "Answer", "body": "**WAVE.** 52 W, 11 A, 51 V, 15 E. Its fourth letter, E, goes to the meta." } ] } ```