The Red Herring: 12 Ways to Effectively Mislead Players

Red herrings come in forms from irrelevancies and dead-ends to cryptic clues and false solutions. They increase difficulty, extend play time, and encourage thinking outside the box. While too many frustrate, the right amount creates moments of revelation in predictable rooms. They represent the art of leading astray to forge breakthroughs arising from locked doors.

This guide provides 12 techniques for effectively misleading players. Examples show how rooms employ each method to creatively challenge teams and hide solutions in plain sight. Applying these tricks takes rooms from straightforward to uncrackable yet solvable. When designing, red herrings should be thoughtful – deterring progress but rewarding flexible thinking. Rooms should be challenging yet solvable, with epiphanies emerging from each dead-end. The ultimate room transforms limitation into possibility through twists turning confusion into catalysts for out-of-the-box thinking.

Red herrings initially seem to lead nowhere but ultimately reveal how limitations inside ourselves rather than rooms alone – determine outcomes. They forge open and discerning minds able to filter useful information from noise and see possibilities where others abandon hope.

While escape may be the end goal, the real objective of any room worth its salt comes through connecting clues into meaning against improbable odds. Red herrings represent the locked doors we encounter in life barring progress until some flash of insight transforms barriers into pathways. The question is whether we possess the patience and vision to work until every lock opens.

12 Ways to Effectively Mislead Players

Red herrings initially seem to lead nowhere but ultimately reveal how limitations inside ourselves rather than rooms alone – determine outcomes.

They forge open and discerning minds able to filter useful information from noise and see possibilities where others abandon hope. While escape may be the end goal, the real objective of any room worth its salt comes through connecting clues into meaning against improbable odds. Let’s go with the 12 red herrings!

1. Hide Clues in Plain Sight:

Place clues and components critical to escape right out in the open, relying on players overlooking them. Hiding solutions where they seem too obvious enhances the “aha!” moment of discovery.

2. Plant Irrelevancies:

Include clues, puzzles or keys unrelated to escape to mislead and waste time. Reveal their irrelevance to compel re-examining assumptions and searching for truly useful insights.

3. Set Up Rabbit Holes:

Send players down paths that ultimately lead nowhere but initially seem promising. Rabbit holes add challenge through confusion and backtracking. The ideal rabbit hole hides the correct route in its false starts.

4. Provide Cryptic Clues:

Use intentionally vague, confusing or misleading wording and clues that could signify anything. Cryptic clues demand intuition to decode and determine usefulness through trial and error.

5. Include Dummy Puzzles:

Add puzzles, locks or components that activate no mechanisms and open nothing to enhance difficulty through wasted effort. Requires deductive reasoning to determine meaninglessness.

6. Hide Detectable Clues:

Use clues not immediately obvious that can be found through close examination, object manipulation or special detection methods like UV light. Rewarding observant, curious players.

7. Stage Wild Goose Chases:

Set up trails of clues leading to dead-ends that initially seem right before revealing themselves as false starts. Wild goose chases compel persistence and revising assumptions to escape.

8. Offer Too Many Combinations:

For locks, keys, or codes provide so many possible combinations the correct one seems improbable. Demands patience, logic and process of elimination to solve.

9. Present “Solutions” That Don’t Actually Work:

Include keys, clues or answers that seem useful but ultimately prove incorrect to enhance difficulty through trial and error.

10. Require Intuitive Leaps:

Use clues that make sense only once solved to demand intuition and creative thinking under pressure. Intuitive solutions emerge from confusion.

11. Hide Clues Behind Clues:

Stage a progression of clues, codes or puzzles that must be solved to reveal the next piece of the escape path. A rewarding gauntlet for determined players.

12. Add Physical Obstacles or Barriers:

Include mechanisms, doors, walls or other physical impediments barring progress that must be navigated for escape. Escape is not just a mental challenge but requires physical interaction and manipulation of the space.

What do you think?

How’s this listing of techniques for misleading players in escape rooms through red herrings and additional challenges? Please provide your feedback on the content or structure. Are these 12 ways compelling and cover a good range of options for stumping players, extending time in rooms and enhancing difficulty? What else could be included or removed from this list?

We aim to provide an overview of the key methods escape room designers have for leading players astray before ultimately guiding them to escape. But please suggest how I can strengthen or clarify this listing further with any recommendations you have for improving the content or format. Your input helps shape a helpful and concise reference on applying red herrings in escape rooms. I appreciate your guidance on including the most impactful techniques and examples in this guide.