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Crack the safe
The host sets a combination and the clues. Players work it out and turn the dial.
Made by the PaperCarnival team · Updated
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3 digits
How many digits
The combination
Between 3 and 6 digits. It is hidden by default so the panel can be open in front of a room, and it is never put into a link.
Clues, one per line
Up to 8 clues. They stay hidden until the host gives them out one at a time on the stage, which is what makes them worth something.
Lockout
Tries before it locks
Wrong tries are counted but never stop anybody trying again.
Up to 20. A locked-out safe says nothing else at all, so nobody gets a hint out of the way it refuses.
Sound
A flourish when the door opens and a flat note on a wrong try. Both are announced in words as well, and the door shakes for anybody who cannot hear it.
Type digits, Backspace to delete, Enter to try
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A puzzle whose answer is a number
The reason escape rooms are full of combination locks is that a number is a perfect answer: it is either right or it is not, nobody has to adjudicate, and the lock itself tells you. That is hard to reproduce with paper, because a sheet with the answer on it can be read, and a host who knows the answer is a host who can be asked.
A safe on a screen gives you the lock without the lock. Set the combination, hide it behind the toggle, put the screen where the players are, and the only way in is the right number. A wrong try says wrong and nothing else, because a lock that told you how close you were would not be a lock.
For a box with contents rather than a door with a number, the treasure chest is the page next door, and it can take a code too. For a lock opened by collecting things rather than working something out, that is keys and locks.
Kept in this browser under pph.safe.setup and pph.safe.muted, and nowhere else. Accounts, printing, storage and what the page loads are answered on the FAQ.
Questions
- Can the players see the combination?
- Only if somebody shows them. It is typed into the Safe panel behind a show toggle, so it is hidden while the panel is open, and it is never put into a link. A shared link carries how many digits and whether the lockout is on, which is exactly what a second host needs and nothing more.
- How do the clues work?
- You write them one per line and they stay hidden. The button under the safe gives out the next one in order, so the host controls the pace: one after two minutes, one after a wrong try, one when a group has genuinely stopped. They appear on screen and are read out.
- What does the lockout do?
- After a set number of wrong tries the safe stops accepting anything and says so, and the host has to reset it. It is off by default, because a locked-out safe ends the puzzle rather than making it harder, and that is a decision a host should make on purpose.
- Does a wrong try give anything away?
- No. It says wrong and how many tries are left, and nothing about which digits were close, because there is no such thing as close here. A locked-out safe says only that, so nobody can learn anything from the way it refuses.
- Does it remember the setup?
- Yes. The combination, the clues, the length and the lockout are kept in this browser. The wrong-try count and which clues have been given are not, so reloading the page is a clean start for the next group.
More from Collect and unlock
Inventory tray
A tray per player for items and resources, with a shared bank and a move that takes from one and gives to another.
OpenSet collection board
Sets you define, pieces handed out one at a time, and a board that shows how close each player is to a full set.
OpenCrafting table
Recipes you write, ingredients players hold, and a table that spends the inputs and hands back what they make.
OpenEverything in Collect and unlock, and every family on the tools page.