Current Events > Doing my first escape room today. Any tips?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Going with 4 other friends. None of us have done this before.
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Do the easy ones if you have zero experience
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oh shit is this one of those things where you find the key? and you're timed?
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Pancake posted...

oh shit is this one of those things where you find the key? and you're timed?

Probably.

I'm thinking Resident Evil style puzzles.
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Make sure to look under stuff or into stuff. If there are small objects you can pick up, flip them around to check their underside and such.

Most importantly, have fun! Those games are awesome. I've been to quite a few by now and had a blast every time.
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escape

The one I played used electrical currents, magnets, lights, and light sensors to do some cool things, so don't exclude things that seem "magical" from the possibilities you consider.
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do not break into song if it is timed.
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Call the cops and tell them you were kidnapped

Take out the weakest member of your group
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KILBOTz posted...

Take out the weakest member of your group

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Just came back. We solved it but I was the dead weight of the group.
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InstaReturns posted...

KILBOTz posted...

Take out the weakest member of your group

Did the rest of them follow this advice then?
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Wait. This is in real life? Where?
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Laserion posted...

Wait. This is in real life? Where?

any major city should have them. usually there's like 3 - 5 rooms depending on the size, varied themes (the one I did last month was pirate themed, but they have an area 51, dracula castle, and an 1849 california mine as well) and difficulty.
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Oh, this is for Halloween? We only have scare mazes in my area. I'll do a search to see if they have something more interactive, like what you guys say.
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Laserion posted...

Oh, this is for Halloween? We only have scare mazes in my area. I'll do a search to see if they have something more interactive, like what you guys say.

No, year round.

GOATTHlEF posted...

Don't overthink them. That was my problem when I went through mine.

Exactly what I did.

Didn't even consider the obvious, like looking in the toilet cistern or lifting up the stack of weights on the floor.
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Damn, to think the flash games I played back in 2002 would evolve into something like this.

Just like some geniuses took those old online clan games and made stuff like clash of clans.
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Honestly unsure how these guys make money:

It is $30 pp and there are only two rooms on at any given time.

Each room seems to have an average of 4 to 6 people ( min 4 / max 12 ).

Sessions go for an hour and run every 2nd hour. (e.g. 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm, 9pm, etc.)

There are eight sessions a day and assuming each session was booked out with four people per room, that would be $240 per hour or $1920 a day, minus wages, running costs and rent.

Rent would be murder since it is right by the city wharf.

Can only conclude that there is money laundering in these secret rooms.
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Last time i went, it was a bad experience. When trapped inside an escape room, your friends will be arguing and trying to talk over each other on how the puzzle is suppose to be solved. It's especially bad when you need to coordinate each other to solve the puzzle (e.g. have each person pull a lever simultaneously)
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i've done 'escape the room' a few times with a couple different friend groups. never once did we start arguing
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My advice to anyone doing these in the future who haven't done them before (since TC already did) is to work together. When I did mine everyone instantly scattered and started looking for clues on their own. Eventually it came to the point where I didn't know what was going on because some had solved some clues over here and some had solved this clue so I wasn't sure where we were in the progression. Ultimately it's because we didn't work together that we weren't able to escape. I recommend everyone stick together and work on one puzzle at a time so everyone knows where you are in the puzzle solving.

Also, don't go with too many people. I think 2-4 is the sweet spot. Having too many people actually makes it harder to solve.
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My advice would be to give everyone cool code names.

And bring a pen and paper to take notes. The most important thing to note is the where the locks are that have certain numbers of digits as the answer, such as 3 number combination by the door, 4 digit combination by the shelf.

I did one with my wife, and we beat with 30 seconds left. It was action movie clutch. I think it might actually be easier with less people because them everyone is on the same page.

There's one near me in charlotte that I just found out about like a week ago. Had no idea those things even existed and have no idea why anyone would even want to do it. Just seems awful.
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I got disappointed because my Resident Evil puzzle knowledge didn't come to work. There was so much literature but not a single one of them was relevant to the puzzles. Most of it was finding out a sequence or code using some kind of pattern.

The books seemed to have a theme so I spent time trying to figure that out. But it turned out to be a red herring. Doh!
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Ludwig Von 2 posted...

My advice to anyone doing these in the future who haven't done them before (since TC already did) is to work together. When I did mine everyone instantly scattered and started looking for clues on their own. Eventually it came to the point where I didn't know what was going on because some had solved some clues over here and some had solved this clue so I wasn't sure where we were in the progression. Ultimately it's because we didn't work together that we weren't able to escape. I recommend everyone stick together and work on one puzzle at a time so everyone knows where you are in the puzzle solving.

Also, don't go with too many people. I think 2-4 is the sweet spot. Having too many people actually makes it harder to solve.

it's funny you say that, i've found the best option is to partner up and have everyone search and solve clues separately (but with their partner)
you have to call out when you find a key, but this way you solve more clues faster and can actually get your group name on the plaque for the speedrun
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Speedrunning? Have to earn my rights to take the training wheels off before I go MLG.
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