Escape Rooms

[carlos]

This weekend we went to a escape room and had a really great time. The basic notion of this kind of activity is that you are locked into a room (usually set to a theme: a castle, a spaceship, a prison cell...) and have to resolve a series a puzzles and riddles to get out.

 

In our case, it was a Sherlock Holmes-based room. The detective asked us to sneak into Moriarty's hideout and find some incriminating evidence. But we only had 60 minutes before the villain came home and caught us by surprise. We were given his diary where we found some clues and from them we had to resolve all kinds of riddles and series of numbers, put together the pieces of a map, play some notes in a piano in the right order, find several keys and objects, and activate several steampunk-inspired mechanisms. We had to organize our group so that each one was taking care of a different task. In case we got stuck we could ask the game master (who watched the game through a camera) for some help. This was our first time so we had to do that several times. But we made it and succeeded to get out when there were still four minutes left! Phew!

 

We had a wonderful time together and it was really exciting. Besides, it's an activity that can strengthen team spirit, with all cooperating to resolve the enigmas. Of course you need to ask in advance since some escape rooms themes may be related to the occult or feature macabre elements. But once you make sure the theme is ok, they are a clean way of exercising your brain and enjoying some thrilling moments with your family or friends.

 

Did you ever try a escape room? How was your experience?

Edited July 29, 2019 by carlos

[Bek]

Wow, that is an interesting activity. I don't think have them where I live, but that is not something to be sad about, because living in former Soviet countries in itself is like being in a never-ending giant escape room.

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Hun

[New World Explorer]

1 hour ago, carlos said:

Did you ever try a escape room? How was your experience?

Yes..... that was during shopping in a big Shopping Centre,  while my wife shopped......LOL 

Had to sweat a lot to think about ways how to “ rescue my princess” from it. LOL LOL LOL 

[carlos]

What a realistic theme! 

[shali]

We have a substitute CO and his wife and another couple that did an Escape room and were telling me about it.  It does sound like a lot of fun!  It's nice to finally have another avenue of entertainment that Jehovah's people can enjoy with a clean conscience!  I would love to do something like that but Escape rooms in my area are a ways away (only those who can afford the travel expenses can enjoy).  I would be nice to get a hold of a plan and try to make one yourself and have the friends over - make it a Bible based type thing. There are a lot of numbers and dates and stuff involved in the Bible one could use. 

[coony77]

4 hours ago, carlos said:

Did you ever try a escape room? How was your experience?

Yes, Carlos, I tried this last year with some colleagues. We had lots of fun and realized once more how important teamwork is. And although we were 5 women, there was no "cat fight" 

[carlos]

2 hours ago, coony77 said:

Yes, Carlos, I tried this last year with some colleagues. We had lots of fun and realized once more how important teamwork is. And although we were 5 women, there was no "cat fight" 

What was the theme of the room?

[coony77]

22 minutes ago, carlos said:

What was the theme of the room?

It was called "the abandoned hut in the forest". The story was about a certain friend who disappeared after a visit in the hut. We should solve the riddles in order to find him. Some hints for the solutions were written in the friend's diary. In the end, we escaped from the hut and found his "skeleton" in the garden 

[carlos]

2 hours ago, coony77 said:

It was called "the abandoned hut in the forest". The story was about a certain friend who disappeared after a visit in the hut. We should solve the riddles in order to find him. Some hints for the solutions were written in the friend's diary. In the end, we escaped from the hut and found his "skeleton" in the garden 

Wow! That sounds funny and a bit scary! 

7 hours ago, shali said:

I would be nice to get a hold of a plan and try to make one yourself and have the friends over - make it a Bible based type thing. There are a lot of numbers and dates and stuff involved in the Bible one could use. 

This is a wonderful idea!

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

We made it with seconds to spare

Just Older

[New World Explorer]

I am visiting Niagara Falls and they have escape rooms here ....

[Qapla]

I had not heard of these before ... looked after I read the OP 

 

Found out there are several in the area ... if we are willing to drive between 30 minutes and an hour and a half.

 

There are some that have acceptable themes ... and there are a few that I would not think would be good.

 

The bottom line ... since the ones around here cost $25 per person for one hour - I will probably not be doing one any time soon.

[New World Explorer]

18 minutes ago, Qapla said:

since the ones around here cost $25 per person for one hour -

That gives extra motivation to break out from an escape room fast! LOL 

[New World Explorer]

I like this one based in Melbourne, 

The Imperium SPACE Station will annihilate planet Earth and self-destruct in 50 minutes. What will you choose? Escape while you can or save the planet?  

[Nirex]

I've only gotten to go to one because they're too expensive here >.<. So when the board-game club in my city put on FB that they were looking for people to go to one that they had a free pass for, I signed up. It was some Escape room based around the Revolutionary War. So a lot of ciphers, maps, secret cabinnets, and one puzzle where you wrapped a ribbon around a rifle and where the ribbon crossed was the letters you use. Then there was also a magnetized table drop.

 

It was awesome though. As a Cyber Security major (former) I was always looking for atbash ciphers, and ciphers that wouldn't be in the revolutionary period, thinking too modern day. But I got some of them, like the Caesar and Substitution ciphers. In the end we were only 3 minutes over time so the guy gave it to us anyways and let us put our photo up with the "We Escaped" sign.

 

I want to do more totally though. I love puzzles, riddles, scavenger hunts, and code cracking. It's like being on a real world quest in stories.

 

This was the one:

https://www.exodusescapegames.com/#our-rooms

Quote

You and your team are spy hunters working for George Washington in the Colonial Army. Over the course of the war, General Washington has been hunting one specific British spy that has been posing as an American soldier. General Washington has been called to battle, but he has entrusted you with access to all of his gathered intelligence.

It's the night before the battle of Yorktown and time is running out. Can you save the Revolution before it's too late?

 

Edited July 30, 2019 by Nirex

[coony77]

This was our team picture as a memory of our successful escape

 

 

[carlos]

9 hours ago, Nirex said:

It was some Escape room based around the Revolutionary War.

That sounds like a nice setting. I think those games are more enjoyable when they are set in past times.

Our game master told us all the puzzles are quite straightforward. If you find yourself doing logarithms or trigonometry, you are on the wrong track. Hard to keep in mind though for someone who works with cryptography, isn't it?

 

10 hours ago, Qapla said:

The bottom line ... since the ones around here cost $25 per person for one hour - I will probably not be doing one any time soon.

I agree, they tend to be quite expensive. Not an activity you can do every weekend. But maybe once in while, on a special occasion.

[jayrtom]

WOW!

I'v never hear of this, but will surely look to see if there is one around me or in the country...

23 hours ago, shali said:

We have a substitute CO and his wife and another couple that did an Escape room and were telling me about it.  It does sound like a lot of fun!  It's nice to finally have another avenue of entertainment that Jehovah's people can enjoy with a clean conscience!  I would love to do something like that but Escape rooms in my area are a ways away (only those who can afford the travel expenses can enjoy).  I would be nice to get a hold of a plan and try to make one yourself and have the friends over - make it a Bible based type thing. There are a lot of numbers and dates and stuff involved in the Bible one could use. 

You just gave me a very good idea!

I'l l try to make a variation of it on my garden and invite some friends over!

 

16 hours ago, TonyWenz said:

We made it with seconds to spare

Just Older
 

Are you the oldest one on the photo ?

[shali]

8 minutes ago, jayrtom said:

You just gave me a very good idea!

I'l l try to make a variation of it on my garden and invite some friends over! 

 

I have a lock on my garage door that requires a number input in order to unlock it.  I could always clear the cars out of the garage and turn it into an escape room where eventually, thru clues, someone has to punch in the right number on the keypad to get out of the garage! I can also change the number of the keypad to go along with the game.  I would definitely need a sharper mind than mine to do this though, and since I've had no experience with an escape room, someone who has would be helpful too.  But I think it would be fun.  You can schedule friends to come every hour and a half or so (give time to reset the room and clues) and then have a nice cookout in between for everyone who has already done it!

[Luezette]

On 7/29/2019 at 7:59 AM, carlos said:

This weekend we went to a escape room and had a really great time. The basic notion of this kind of activity is that you are locked into a room (usually set to a theme: a castle, a spaceship, a prison cell...) and have to resolve a series a puzzles and riddles to get out.

 

In our case, it was a Sherlock Holmes-based room. The detective asked us to sneak into Moriarty's hideout and find some incriminating evidence. But we only had 60 minutes before the villain came home and caught us by surprise. We were given his diary where we found some clues and from them we had to resolve all kinds of riddles and series of numbers, put together the pieces of a map, play some notes in a piano in the right order, find several keys and objects, and activate several steampunk-inspired mechanisms. We had to organize our group so that each one was taking care of a different task. In case we got stuck we could ask the game master (who watched the game through a camera) for some help. This was our first time so we had to do that several times. But we made it and succeeded to get out when there were still four minutes left! Phew!

 

We had a wonderful time together and it was really exciting. Besides, it's an activity that can strengthen team spirit, with all cooperating to resolve the enigmas. Of course you need to ask in advance since some escape rooms themes may be related to the occult or feature macabre elements. But once you make sure the theme is ok, they are a clean way of exercising your brain and enjoying some thrilling moments with your family or friends.

 

Did you ever try a escape room? How was your experience?

Wow! I've never even heard of it.

 

The closest I get of such a room is when I play a game of checkers online against the computer, and I try to anticipate the computer's next move, lol. 

 

The escape room sounds exciting though and quite mentally challenging. How do I find one? 

Edited July 30, 2019 by Luezette

[shali]

All we need are a couple of sharp minds (and you know who you are ) to collaborate together and come up with a Bible themed Escape Room - and then share it with the rest of us!  This could be a lot of fun.  Someone could start a "club" or a chat and we could all join and outline the steps and answers and what we could use as props and such, create the overall "tone" of the room.

 

If you have a lot of sci-fi buffs in your congregation, it could be fun to do a Star Trek or Star Wars themed room too or a combination of both (and really drive them nuts! haha!)

Edited July 30, 2019 by shali

[Luezette]

29 minutes ago, shali said:

I have a lock on my garage door that requires a number input in order to unlock it.  I could always clear the cars out of the garage and turn it into an escape room where eventually, thru clues, someone has to punch in the right number on the keypad to get out of the garage! I can also change the number of the keypad to go along with the game.  I would definitely need a sharper mind than mine to do this though, and since I've had no experience with an escape room, someone who has would be helpful too.  But I think it would be fun.  You can schedule friends to come every hour and a half or so (give time to reset the room and clues) and then have a nice cookout in between for everyone who has already done it!

Well well! I went to Google and found quite a number of Escape Rooms right here in NYC, and I'm quite delighted! Just in time too, because by mid August '19, my 2018 service year time will be done, and I'm planning a few things to do for the remainder of August '19. I really want to take the Greyhound bus to Virginia, but alas! Not enough funds for the trip plus hotel fees for a couple of days. Oh well, that'll teach me not to think I need ice cream, etc, yet in reality it's just an "I want." Lol. Plus last year during one of my bipolar depressive episodes I signed up at a fancy gym, knowing good and well that Planet Fitness has serve me quite well for years, and I pay only a total of $23 a month, plus with the extra $11 with Planet Fitness (it's really only "10 a month provided you wouldn't mind going to the same one all the time, which, yep, I mind).But I can go to any PF in the nation, and it has everything I need that the fancy one has. Oh well, in the New World there'll be no mental illness that could/can influence you to make stupid decisions. 

 

Anyway, back to the Escape Room. Quite interesting. Yep, my "Bucket List" is growing for the last half of August'19. 

 

Thank you. 

Edited July 30, 2019 by Luezette

[jayrtom]

I've played similar games but on my mobile phone (which I love) but in the real life it must be awesome!

 

[Luezette]

5 minutes ago, jayrtom said:

I've played similar games but on my mobile phone (which I love) but in the real life it must be awesome!

 

Yes, it does sound awesome doesnt it! 

[jayrtom]

I just found out there's an escape room at 30Km from my place and it is paid by group. It can be as low as 8€ per person

60m to escape from Mars!

Thanks for bringing this @carlos I wouldn't have thought it could exist