[Closed] Those escape room things.

I'll bare that in mind for Mother's Day 2019. Hopefully the M.I.L. might die of fright.

That's Game Over isn't it?

Was it your first one?  I've not done a horror one yet, but I'm slightly escape room obsessed.  I'm up to 14 now I think, only failed to escape two of them, and was on the last puzzle in each one.

This is not the Joseph Fritzl thread I was expecting

or maybe it is

Yes cougar it's game over. Really good fun and the guy who was running it was a cracking bloke.

I did one in Nottingham- Brilliant fun

I did one in Edinburgh- and hour wasted and couldn't wait to get out.

Naming venues would help!  Escapologic in Nottingham is very well regarded.  Not really looked at Scottish venues at all yet, bit off the beaten track for me.

Good to know, cheers Wrighty.

Bought a few vouchers fir birthday pressies and everyone loves the experience.

Cougar the Aztec type archaeology one at derby has a very low success rate of only 12 percent according to  the guy running the show,  so that's probably the one for you as you're a bit of a veteran. He's a great bloke though and his enthusiasm for the whole thing really is infectious and properly gets  you in the mood.

Cheers.

One thing I've noticed is that it does seem to be a very friendly industry.  Passionate owners are quick to recommend competitors.  The counterpoint to that is that there's a few "chain" ERs that are... eh, the fast food joints of the ER world.

Just been looking at some overseas rooms.  The US has some great room theming.

I'd just whisper a series of bad jokes and sarcastic comments through the door.

An hour of that and they'd soon throw me out. Job jobbed.

Gronda gronda rangdo.

what happens if you need a wee?

Urine big trouble?

I have literally no idea what this thread is talking about

I did "Operation Odyssey" at "Can You Escape?" in Edinburgh

It was set on a doomed space station, damaged by meteor strike, we had to get the escape pod working.

The scenario was for up to six players but I did it with one mate and we escaped in just time, despite tackling it with hangovers on New Year's Day!

Really enjoyed it. Been meaning to do another one ever since.

Mrs Dubs did one for her 40th with her mates. It was near London Bridge IIRC.

They enjoyed it, but I think they had lots of help!

Gronda gronda rangdo.

Doogy rev.

what happens if you need a wee?

You should've gone before you started.

You can leave the way you came in at any time (there's probably H&S issues / laws with actually locking you up).  Whether you're allowed back in afterwards or not is down to individual venue policy but you usually can in my experience.

I have literally no idea what this thread is talking about

Escape rooms. (-:

The premise, broadly, is that you're "locked" in a room filled with puzzles, and you have to solve the puzzles within a set time (an hour is typical) in order to escape.  It's a bit like The Adventure Game (as Perchy hinted at) or, to an loose extent, The Crystal Maze.  Puzzles could simply be observational, logic puzzles, maths, physical... solving one generally gives you a prop or code or other piece of information you need in order to proceed to the next one.

Rooms are typically themed, to varying degrees of effectiveness, and the industry has grown beyond simple "locked door" rooms now so your objective might not be to (just) escape.  You could be escaping from a jail cell, raiding a Mayan tomb, hunting a serial killer, or whatever else the room designers have dreamt up.  The last one I did was where we were detectives on the hunt for a "notorious criminal," in the backstory we'd tracked him down to his lair but it was a trap and he'd rigged the place with a bomb.  The fuse on the bomb was an hour, in which time we'd to find it, defuse it and get out.

They're a lot of fun, as I said I'm a bit addicted.  A typical room might be playable with a team of 2-6, I've found 4 to be a sweet spot.  You're looking at about £20/head, but it varies a little depending on venue, peak / off-peak, and number of players (a larger team is usually more expensive overall but cheaper per person).

Can you use dowsing rods to find the clues?

You can, but they won't work.

They might work, but you can't prove that they will or won't

Do the clues/puzzles/answers/whatever change each time it's done?

Do the clues/puzzles/answers/whatever change each time it’s done?

Not usually no. Many venues have multiple rooms and periodically change the scenario being played.

You wouldn't really want to do the same one twice, as even with different answers it would be like doing a crossword you've already solved.

You wouldn’t really want to do the same one twice, as even with different answers it would be like doing a crossword you’ve already solved.

Yeah, the one downside of them is that replay value is low.  Though I suppose if sufficient time has past there could be merit in redoing one (there's one in particular I'd love to redo, but I want to forget more about it first).  Would you retry a crossword you almost completed two years ago?  Possibly.

One side effect here though is that it means that IME room owners are happy to recommend other venues in the area.  They're not really "losing custom" by sending you to other companies in the same way that, say, a bowling alley would be.  It does seem to be a very friendly and close-knit industry, owners tend to be enthusiasts too and the staff are generally really into their work.  Certainly amongst the smaller chains and independents anyway, I've had better experiences there than at the hands of the major chains (there's one in particular I'm unlikely to ever go back to).

A good venue generates a lot of goodwill.  At a local venue we really like, we'd done all the rooms so can't really go back any time soon.  At the back end of the year they ripped out one old room and built a new one, last week I booked in to play it and the earliest sensible time slot available is in May!

Surely there's a market for touring rooms in that case?

Would I be right in thinking that these places are not a good place to go to meet a lady? Unless she were called Dobby, perhaps.

Unless she were called Dobby, perhaps.

Or Annie Wilkes