EXIT: The Game – The Abandoned Cabin
2016
Use creativity, deduction, and teamwork to crack codes, solve puzzles, and escape a mysterious abandoned cabin.
120
minutes
1 - 6
player(s)
12+
Medium
About this board game
EXIT: The Game – The Abandoned Cabin is a puzzle game for 1–6 players with a 120-minute play time, first released in 2016.
What begins as a simple overnight shelter quickly becomes a desperate escape attempt. When morning arrives, the cabin door is secured by a combination lock, and nobody knows the number sequence needed to open it. The windows are barred as well, leaving the group with no obvious way out.
To make progress, players must work together and examine the limited clues available inside the abandoned cottage. An enigmatic spinning code dial and a mysterious book provide the starting points for a series of challenges that demand careful thought.
- Crack codes hidden within the cabin’s mystery
- Solve puzzles using creativity and deduction
- Collect objects that help reveal the next step
- Work with your team to earn freedom bit by bit
Every discovery can bring the group closer to unlocking the door, but the route to freedom depends on combining observations, sharing ideas, and interpreting the clues correctly. The game encourages team spirit as players search for connections and decide how each finding might help solve the larger mystery.
With its locked exit, barred windows, mysterious book, and code dial, EXIT: The Game – The Abandoned Cabin turns a night of shelter into a race to escape. Gather your group, put your powers of deduction to work, and see whether you can uncover the combination that leads to freedom.
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Board Game Rules for
EXIT: The Game – The Abandoned Cabin
For 1–6 Players, Ages 12 and up
CAUTION: Do not look at the playing materials (cards, book, etc.) yet!
First, read this manual together out loud and carefully follow all of its instructions.
What’s the game about?
You and your friends are in the car on your way to a well-deserved vacation. Your spirits are high as you talk about spending a few relaxing days on the beach and lively evenings playing games in your vacation rental. The last thing you need is for your car to break down …
You find yourselves on a lonely road at the edge of the woods. Maybe call a tow truck on your cell phone? Not a chance, no coverage here. It is already late, and a storm is brewing. The rain is getting heavier. It’s starting to really pour. You leave your car to get to shelter. You discover a cabin in the woods. It looks run-down and possibly abandoned. Luckily, the door is open — you have found shelter for the night!
The next morning, you discover that the door has been locked with a combination lock. All of the windows have thick iron bars. You didn’t notice them in the dark of night, of course.
In front of you, there is a book and a strange disk, like a decoder. It dawns on you that you will not be able to leave this cabin until you have worked together to solve a series of riddles and open the lock. But hurry! You will have to get away before your creepy “host” returns …
IMPORTANT: Do not look closely at any of the game materials before starting the game! Do not leaf through the book yet, and do not look at the fronts of the cards yet. Wait until “the game” tells you to.
Game Materials
- 86 Cards:
- 23 Riddle Cards
- 30 Answer Cards
- 33 Help Cards
- 3 Strange items (red, green, blue)
- 1 Book
- 1 Decoder disk
Additional Playing Materials
In addition, you will need something to write with (ideally pencils and an eraser), one or more sheets of paper and a watch (ideally a stopwatch), to keep track of the time. If you like, you can use a pair of scissors. The scissors will make the game easier, but won’t be absolutely necessary.
In addition to the materials contained in the box, you will need:
- A pencil and paper for taking notes.
- A watch/stopwatch.
IMPORTANT: You can write on, fold, or tear the materials …
All of this is allowed and sometimes even required. You can only play the game once — after which you will know all the riddles, and won’t need the game materials any longer! If you like, you can also use scissors to cut the materials rather than tearing them.
Game Setup
- Get the book and the decoder disk ready on the table.
- Leave the “strange items” in the box for now.
- Sort the cards into three piles in accordance with what is written on their back sides:
- Riddle Cards
- Answer Cards
- Help Cards
- Be sure not to look at the front sides of any of the cards yet.
- Check to be sure that the Riddle Cards and Answer Cards are arranged in ascending order according to their letters or numbers.
- Sort the Help Cards according to their symbols, and then place them on the side of the table. Place cards with the same symbol, one on top of another, such that the “1st CLUE” card is on top of the “2nd CLUE” card and the latter is on top of the “SOLUTION” card.
Where is the game board?
This game has no game board! You will have to figure out for yourselves what you have to find in the game and what the rooms look like. At the beginning of the game, you will have only the book and the decoder disk available to you.
As the game continues, you will add the Riddle Cards — either to be found in illustrations, or referred to in the text. Whenever this happens, you can pick the corresponding cards from the Riddle Card pile and look at them.
Likewise, you can only use the “strange items” in the box when explicitly told that you have found them. Until then, leave them untouched in the box!
Example:
If you find an illustration like this, you may immediately pull the corresponding Riddle Card out of the pile and look at it.
Course of Play
Your goal is to escape together from the abandoned cabin as quickly as you can.
That would definitely be easier if not for the fact that every lock in the room is secured with a riddle. During the course of the game, you will keep finding objects that are locked with a three-digit number or color code. To access them, you will have to figure out the matching code and enter it into the decoder disk. At the edge of the disk, you will find 10 different symbols. Each symbol stands for a code to be cracked. But you will have to figure out for yourselves which symbol belongs to which code. Be sure to pay attention to every detail. If you think you can crack a code, enter it under the corresponding symbol on the disk. Then, look through the viewing window on the smallest wheel to see a number.
This number indicates the number of the Answer Card that you are then allowed to look at. If the code is incorrect, you will have to keep searching for a solution or switch to another riddle for the time being. If the code is correct, the Answer Card will tell you how to continue.
Example:
For the riddle with the 
symbol, you came up with the digits “8 7 4” as the solution. You enter this combination under the symbol on the decoder disk.
In the little window, you will see the number of the Answer Card that you are then allowed to pull out of the pile and look at.
Checking Answer Cards
Is the code incorrect?
If so, the Answer Card will tell you. In that case, simply return the card to the pile and take another look at the riddle that you failed to solve. Maybe there’s something that you overlooked. Or it may be that you simply don’t yet have the hints that you need to solve it. Then you will just have to continue someplace else.
Is the code possibly correct?
If so, the Answer Card will look like this:
Where will you see the code symbol?
Good question! To answer it, you will have to take a close look at the pictures in the book or on the Riddle Cards. All possible locked objects can be found in those places.
All of these objects are marked with a symbol. Our example involves the safe with the symbol on it.
To continue with this example scenario: Next, you will take a look at the Answer Card pictured next to the safe on the card. You will see that you should now retrieve Answer Card 1 from the pile.
Is the code really correct?
If so, the Answer Card will tell you how to continue. You will find one or more new Riddle Cards which you will be allowed to pull from the pile and look at immediately.
Is the code actually incorrect?
Well, in that case you must have made a mistake. You will just have to think about it some more and come up with a different answer.
IMPORTANT:
- Whether right or wrong — return all Answer Cards to the Answer Card pile.
- All codes can be solved logically. You shouldn’t just try all possible combinations on the disk.
One final tip
Any game materials that you successfully used to help solve a riddle should be set aside, but not put away. You might need some materials again. But this way, you will be able to keep track of the materials more easily and won’t get them mixed up. For several of the riddles, the only things that you will need are the illustrations of the cabin.
Need some help?
Of course, the game can provide you assistance if you get stuck. For each code, there are three Help Cards that can be identified by the symbol on their back sides.
- In addition to giving you an initial useful clue, each “1st CLUE” Help Card also tells you which Riddle Cards you must have found in order to be able to solve the corresponding riddle.
- The “2nd CLUE” Help Cards will give you somewhat more concrete assistance in finding a solution to the corresponding riddle.
- The “SOLUTION” Help Cards provide the solution to the riddle.
IMPORTANT: Always take the Help Cards for a specific Riddle Card or riddle in the book. These riddles are usually identified with a symbol (matching a symbol on the decoder disk). It won’t help you to use Help Cards if you have not found a riddle with the corresponding symbol.
Have a little patience — some of the riddles can only be solved with the help of several Riddle Cards. You won’t always have all of them available to you right away. Sometimes, you will first have to grapple with other riddles to get more cards. But don’t be shy about using Help Cards if you get stuck.
Once you have used a Help Card, place it on a discard pile.
The game begins
What are you waiting for? Start the stopwatch and get out of the cabin before it’s too late! Now you are allowed to look through the entire book and begin solving the riddles. If anything is unclear, don’t be shy about looking something up in this manual during the game.
When does the game end?
The game ends when you have solved the last riddle and escaped from the abandoned cabin. A card will tell you that. Start a stopwatch (or check the time) at the beginning of the game so you know how long you needed.
You can look at the table on the next page to see how well you did. When calculating the number of Help Cards used, only the ones that gave you new hints or solutions should be counted. If a Help Card only had something that you knew already, do not include it in the calculation.
| Time | No Help Cards | 1–2 Help Cards | 3–5 Help Cards | 6–10 Help Cards | > 10 Help Cards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| < 60 Min. | 10 stars | 8 stars | 7 stars | 5 stars | 4 stars |
| < 90 Min. | 9 stars | 7 stars | 6 stars | 4 stars | 3 stars |
| < 120 Min. | 8 stars | 6 stars | 5 stars | 3 stars | 2 stars |
| > 120 Min. | 7 stars | 5 stars | 4 stars | 2 stars | 1 star |
CERTIFICATE
The following players:
- ______________________
- ______________________
- ______________________
- ______________________
- ______________________
- ______________________
on ______________ in ______________ successfully escaped from the abandoned cabin.
What an outstanding accomplishment, and how fortunate that they now won’t have to be locked up forever inside the cabin!
- To do it, it took them: ______ Minutes and ______ Seconds
- They used a total of: ______ Help Cards.
- This earned them: ______ stars in the assessment!
- The coolest riddle was: __________________________________
- The trickiest riddle was: _________________________________
- The player who solved this riddle was: _____________________
Credits
Inka & Markus Brand and Kosmos thank all the test players and rule readers.
The Authors:
Inka & Markus Brand live with their children Lukas and Emely in Gummersbach, Germany. They have published many children’s and family games together and won numerous prizes. Of course, they are avid riddle and escape game fans.
EXIT concept: Kosmos (Ralph Querfurth, Sandra Dochtermann)
Illustration: Franz Vohwinkel
Cover illustration: Silvia Christoph
Title graphics: Michaela Kienle
Graphic design: Sensit Communication
Editing: Ralph Querfurth
Translation: David Gamon
English edition editing: Camille Duhamel, Ted McGuire
© 2016 Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. KG. Pfizerstr. 5-7, D-70184 Stuttgart, Germany. Phone: +49 711 2191-0; Web: kosmos.de
© 2016 Thames & Kosmos, LLC, Providence, RI, USA
Thames & Kosmos® is a registered trademark of Thames & Kosmos, LLC. All rights reserved.
Printed in Germany / Imprimé en Allemagne
Distributed in North America by Thames & Kosmos, LLC. Providence, RI 02903. Phone: 800-587-2872 Web: thamesandkosmos.com
Distributed in United Kingdom by Thames & Kosmos UK, LP. Goudhurst, Kent TN17 2QZ. Phone: 01580 212000 Web: thamesandkosmos.co.uk
Share your Exit experiences using #exitstrategies
Overview & Story
For 1–6 Players, Ages 12 and up
CAUTION: Do not look at the playing materials (cards, book, etc.) yet!
First, read this manual together out loud and carefully follow all of its instructions.
What’s the game about?
You and your friends are in the car on your way to a well-deserved vacation. Your spirits are high as you talk about spending a few relaxing days on the beach and lively evenings playing games in your vacation rental. The last thing you need is for your car to break down …
You find yourselves on a lonely road at the edge of the woods. Maybe call a tow truck on your cell phone? Not a chance, no coverage here. It is already late, and a storm is brewing. The rain is getting heavier. It’s starting to really pour. You leave your car to get to shelter. You discover a cabin in the woods. It looks run-down and possibly abandoned. Luckily, the door is open — you have found shelter for the night!
The next morning, you discover that the door has been locked with a combination lock. All of the windows have thick iron bars. You didn’t notice them in the dark of night, of course.
In front of you, there is a book and a strange disk, like a decoder. It dawns on you that you will not be able to leave this cabin until you have worked together to solve a series of riddles and open the lock. But hurry! You will have to get away before your creepy “host” returns …
IMPORTANT: Do not look closely at any of the game materials before starting the game! Do not leaf through the book yet, and do not look at the fronts of the cards yet. Wait until “the game” tells you to.
Components & Materials
Game Materials
- 86 Cards:
- 23 Riddle Cards
- 30 Answer Cards
- 33 Help Cards
- 3 Strange items (red, green, blue)
- 1 Book
- 1 Decoder disk
Additional Playing Materials
In addition, you will need something to write with (ideally pencils and an eraser), one or more sheets of paper and a watch (ideally a stopwatch), to keep track of the time. If you like, you can use a pair of scissors. The scissors will make the game easier, but won’t be absolutely necessary.
In addition to the materials contained in the box, you will need:
- A pencil and paper for taking notes.
- A watch/stopwatch.
IMPORTANT: You can write on, fold, or tear the materials …
All of this is allowed and sometimes even required. You can only play the game once — after which you will know all the riddles, and won’t need the game materials any longer! If you like, you can also use scissors to cut the materials rather than tearing them.
Setup
Game Setup
- Get the book and the decoder disk ready on the table.
- Leave the “strange items” in the box for now.
- Sort the cards into three piles in accordance with what is written on their back sides:
- Riddle Cards
- Answer Cards
- Help Cards
- Be sure not to look at the front sides of any of the cards yet.
- Check to be sure that the Riddle Cards and Answer Cards are arranged in ascending order according to their letters or numbers.
- Sort the Help Cards according to their symbols, and then place them on the side of the table. Place cards with the same symbol, one on top of another, such that the “1st CLUE” card is on top of the “2nd CLUE” card and the latter is on top of the “SOLUTION” card.
Where is the game board?
This game has no game board! You will have to figure out for yourselves what you have to find in the game and what the rooms look like. At the beginning of the game, you will have only the book and the decoder disk available to you.
As the game continues, you will add the Riddle Cards — either to be found in illustrations, or referred to in the text. Whenever this happens, you can pick the corresponding cards from the Riddle Card pile and look at them.
Likewise, you can only use the “strange items” in the box when explicitly told that you have found them. Until then, leave them untouched in the box!
Example:
If you find an illustration like this, you may immediately pull the corresponding Riddle Card out of the pile and look at it.
How to Play
Course of Play
Your goal is to escape together from the abandoned cabin as quickly as you can.
That would definitely be easier if not for the fact that every lock in the room is secured with a riddle. During the course of the game, you will keep finding objects that are locked with a three-digit number or color code. To access them, you will have to figure out the matching code and enter it into the decoder disk. At the edge of the disk, you will find 10 different symbols. Each symbol stands for a code to be cracked. But you will have to figure out for yourselves which symbol belongs to which code. Be sure to pay attention to every detail. If you think you can crack a code, enter it under the corresponding symbol on the disk. Then, look through the viewing window on the smallest wheel to see a number.
This number indicates the number of the Answer Card that you are then allowed to look at. If the code is incorrect, you will have to keep searching for a solution or switch to another riddle for the time being. If the code is correct, the Answer Card will tell you how to continue.
Example:
For the riddle with the symbol, you came up with the digits “8 7 4” as the solution. You enter this combination under the symbol on the decoder disk.
In the little window, you will see the number of the Answer Card that you are then allowed to pull out of the pile and look at.
Checking Answer Cards
Is the code incorrect?
If so, the Answer Card will tell you. In that case, simply return the card to the pile and take another look at the riddle that you failed to solve. Maybe there’s something that you overlooked. Or it may be that you simply don’t yet have the hints that you need to solve it. Then you will just have to continue someplace else.
Is the code possibly correct?
If so, the Answer Card will look like this:
Where will you see the code symbol?
Good question! To answer it, you will have to take a close look at the pictures in the book or on the Riddle Cards. All possible locked objects can be found in those places.
All of these objects are marked with a symbol. Our example involves the safe with the symbol on it.
To continue with this example scenario: Next, you will take a look at the Answer Card pictured next to the safe on the card. You will see that you should now retrieve Answer Card 1 from the pile.
Is the code really correct?
If so, the Answer Card will tell you how to continue. You will find one or more new Riddle Cards which you will be allowed to pull from the pile and look at immediately.
Is the code actually incorrect?
Well, in that case you must have made a mistake. You will just have to think about it some more and come up with a different answer.
IMPORTANT:
- Whether right or wrong — return all Answer Cards to the Answer Card pile.
- All codes can be solved logically. You shouldn’t just try all possible combinations on the disk.
One final tip
Any game materials that you successfully used to help solve a riddle should be set aside, but not put away. You might need some materials again. But this way, you will be able to keep track of the materials more easily and won’t get them mixed up. For several of the riddles, the only things that you will need are the illustrations of the cabin.
Help Cards
Need some help?
Of course, the game can provide you assistance if you get stuck. For each code, there are three Help Cards that can be identified by the symbol on their back sides.
- In addition to giving you an initial useful clue, each “1st CLUE” Help Card also tells you which Riddle Cards you must have found in order to be able to solve the corresponding riddle.
- The “2nd CLUE” Help Cards will give you somewhat more concrete assistance in finding a solution to the corresponding riddle.
- The “SOLUTION” Help Cards provide the solution to the riddle.
IMPORTANT: Always take the Help Cards for a specific Riddle Card or riddle in the book. These riddles are usually identified with a symbol (matching a symbol on the decoder disk). It won’t help you to use Help Cards if you have not found a riddle with the corresponding symbol.
Have a little patience — some of the riddles can only be solved with the help of several Riddle Cards. You won’t always have all of them available to you right away. Sometimes, you will first have to grapple with other riddles to get more cards. But don’t be shy about using Help Cards if you get stuck.
Once you have used a Help Card, place it on a discard pile.
Game Start, End & Scoring
The game begins
What are you waiting for? Start the stopwatch and get out of the cabin before it’s too late! Now you are allowed to look through the entire book and begin solving the riddles. If anything is unclear, don’t be shy about looking something up in this manual during the game.
When does the game end?
The game ends when you have solved the last riddle and escaped from the abandoned cabin. A card will tell you that. Start a stopwatch (or check the time) at the beginning of the game so you know how long you needed.
You can look at the table on the next page to see how well you did. When calculating the number of Help Cards used, only the ones that gave you new hints or solutions should be counted. If a Help Card only had something that you knew already, do not include it in the calculation.
| Time | No Help Cards | 1–2 Help Cards | 3–5 Help Cards | 6–10 Help Cards | > 10 Help Cards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| < 60 Min. | 10 stars | 8 stars | 7 stars | 5 stars | 4 stars |
| < 90 Min. | 9 stars | 7 stars | 6 stars | 4 stars | 3 stars |
| < 120 Min. | 8 stars | 6 stars | 5 stars | 3 stars | 2 stars |
| > 120 Min. | 7 stars | 5 stars | 4 stars | 2 stars | 1 star |
Certificate & Credits
CERTIFICATE
The following players:
- ______________________
- ______________________
- ______________________
- ______________________
- ______________________
- ______________________
on ______________ in ______________ successfully escaped from the abandoned cabin.
What an outstanding accomplishment, and how fortunate that they now won’t have to be locked up forever inside the cabin!
- To do it, it took them: ______ Minutes and ______ Seconds
- They used a total of: ______ Help Cards.
- This earned them: ______ stars in the assessment!
- The coolest riddle was: __________________________________
- The trickiest riddle was: _________________________________
- The player who solved this riddle was: _____________________
Credits
Inka & Markus Brand and Kosmos thank all the test players and rule readers.
The Authors:
Inka & Markus Brand live with their children Lukas and Emely in Gummersbach, Germany. They have published many children’s and family games together and won numerous prizes. Of course, they are avid riddle and escape game fans.
EXIT concept: Kosmos (Ralph Querfurth, Sandra Dochtermann)
Illustration: Franz Vohwinkel
Cover illustration: Silvia Christoph
Title graphics: Michaela Kienle
Graphic design: Sensit Communication
Editing: Ralph Querfurth
Translation: David Gamon
English edition editing: Camille Duhamel, Ted McGuire
© 2016 Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. KG. Pfizerstr. 5-7, D-70184 Stuttgart, Germany. Phone: +49 711 2191-0; Web: kosmos.de
© 2016 Thames & Kosmos, LLC, Providence, RI, USA
Thames & Kosmos® is a registered trademark of Thames & Kosmos, LLC. All rights reserved.
Printed in Germany / Imprimé en Allemagne
Distributed in North America by Thames & Kosmos, LLC. Providence, RI 02903. Phone: 800-587-2872 Web: thamesandkosmos.com
Distributed in United Kingdom by Thames & Kosmos UK, LP. Goudhurst, Kent TN17 2QZ. Phone: 01580 212000 Web: thamesandkosmos.co.uk
Share your Exit experiences using #exitstrategies
