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A number pyramid beside the cover of Escape the Night Train, a puzzle adventure gamebook.

Field Notes

Escape the Night Train: The Story and a Look Inside

2 min read
  • Book story
  • Escape gamebooks
  • Paperback

Escape the Night Train is a puzzle adventure gamebook, so do not read it in order. You solve a puzzle, and the answer in the door brick is the page you turn to next.

The story

An old sleeper train crosses the desert to Pyramid Halt, where it stops at sunrise beside the pyramids. At ten o'clock the doors between the carriages lock, each with a puzzle lock set by the Lamplighters.

With Wink the barn owl you work forward from the Observation Car at the back through nine carriages of five chambers to the cab, one carriage an hour through the night. The map shows the whole train curled round a page, with 45 numbered windows.

How it plays

Every chamber is one page: a short story beat, a puzzle, and a Next Door box. Solve the puzzle, find the number in the door brick, and turn to that page. A wrong answer sends you to a dead end that tells you which brick to recheck, so a slip costs you a minute and not the whole game.

A look inside

The front cover of Escape the Night Train.
The cover.
The first chamber page of Escape the Night Train: story text, an empty number pyramid and a Next Door box.
The first chamber, as printed. Nothing is solved.

At a glance

  • 45 chambers through nine carriages
  • A night-long journey from 10 pm to dawn
  • Carriage Lamps, a lock built on row totals
  • Ages 10 to adult; paperback, 138 pages

Books mentioned

Escape the Night Train cover

Escape the Night Train

A puzzle adventure gamebook, paperback, 138 pages. 45 chambers through nine carriages.

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