The coded note
A message in cipher that tells them where to go next. One station of an escape room, or the whole of it.
When to use it
One station of a classroom escape room, where the decoded line sends the group to a shelf, a drawer or a locked box. A starter before a lesson on codes and letter frequency. A table at a team day where each cracked note points to the next clue.
What makes it this
Built on the Cryptogram generator with these changed. Everything else is the default.
- Sentence to encrypt
In the builder: Sentence & cipher
- Letters given for free
Characters left unencrypted, as a way in.
In the builder: How it plays › Solving aids
Preview
View only — copy it to play.Escape room station: the coded note
One station on an escape-room trail: every letter of the note has been swapped for a number, and cracking the code tells the room where the next key is. The vowels are filled in already, to give you a way in.
Why the example is built this way
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The decoded note is an instruction.
The reward isn't a score, it's a sentence players can act on. Write where to go or what to look for next, so cracking it moves the room forward.
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Two short sentences, about sixty letters.
Punctuation isn't encoded, so a full stop shows where a sentence ends. A common short word that comes back several times opens the board once it's spotted, and sixty letters can be cracked against a clock.
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The vowels are given for free.
With Letters given for free set to The vowels, about a third of the letters are standing from the start. None is a cold start on a note this short, and the most common letter alone is barely a foothold.
Build it yourself
- 1 Open the Cryptogram builder and fill in the Sentence & cipher tab.
- 2 Change the settings under What makes it this. Each one says where it is in the builder.
- 3 Share the link with your players, or embed the activity in your own site.
Or skip the building: copy this example and swap in your own content.