Room Escape Artist

A compact chronicle.

Location:  at home

Date Played: February 2024

Team size: 1-5+; we recommend 1-3

Duration: About 2 hours

Price: $30 CAD (approximately $22 USD)

REA Reaction

Scarlet Envelope is a 13-part puzzle experience made up of stand-alone games in various genres, each of which comes in a single letter-size envelope. In Game VII. Tale of a Golden Dragon, we navigated a fantasy kingdom and enlisted help from its citizens in order to track down a rampaging dragon.

In addition to the paper components, Scarlet Envelope’s games also take place on a website, where the story unfolds via text, audio (with transcripts), and video (with captions). Between the multimedia elements and the elaborate world building, Tale of a Golden Dragon felt surprisingly expansive for such a compact game.

As for the puzzles, mostly they felt like part of the story and contributed to a sense of progress, but we sometimes stalled on a vague or ambiguous puzzle. The hints on the website kept us going, but we felt the puzzle aspect would truly shine with a little more refinement.

This was our first Scarlet Envelope game, and playing out of sequence worked just fine. The games are part of a monthly subscription model, but they can be also be purchased separately or as a “catch-up” set. Players who are particularly attracted to the theme can play Tale of a Golden Dragon without worrying about missing anything from the earlier games.

Scarlet Envelope offers two difficulty levels for each of their games. For Tale of a Golden Dragon, the only difference in the “Experienced” version is an extra puzzle to unlock the hints. We played the “Starter” version and I wouldn’t have known anything was missing—it felt like a complete experience.

Tale of a Golden Dragon was fun despite a few stumbles, and it made me curious about the other games in the series. I’d recommend it for people who are interested in play-at-home escape games with a multi-part structure or those who enjoy story-forward puzzle games.

Who is this for?

• Story seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Any experience level

Why play?

• Compact design
• World building
• Serialized subscription structure

Story

A golden firedragon was on the loose in the kingdom of Severin, and the prince and princess needed our help finding a way to stop the destruction without harming the dragon.

Setup

The entirety of Tale of a Golden Dragon fit on several pieces of paper in a single scarlet envelope. As the game advanced, we unlocked new components and used them in conjunction with website interactions, including audio and video clips.

There was a hint system available on the website once the game began.

Scarlet Envelope’s games are available in two difficulty levels, Starter or Experienced, so you can customize them based on your desired level of challenge.

Gameplay

Scarlet Envelope’s Tale of a Golden Dragon was a play-at-home puzzle game with a moderate level of difficulty. 

Core gameplay revolved around reading, observing, making connections, following directions, and puzzling.

Analysis

➕ Between the lengthy location descriptions on the website and the documents we found along the way, Tale of a Golden Dragon involved more reading than the average escape game. Scarlet Envelope’s world building was effective and would be a great match for people who like when puzzles are connected to a greater story or world.

➖ We encountered several instances of typos and missing words on the website—nothing that tripped us up, but it made the game feel a bit less polished.

➕ Otherwise, the materials were charming and professional, and they created a cohesive gameplay experience. For a game made only of pieces of paper that fit into a letter-size envelope, Tale of a Golden Dragon provided an impressively grand presentation.

➕ We especially enjoyed using one particular small, simple device to reveal the answer to a late-game puzzle.

➖ Overall, the puzzles were a bit uneven. Some felt under-clued or over-clued. A couple times the answer was ambiguous. We didn’t get lost or stuck for long (partly thanks to the hints), but another round of testing might help smooth out a few rough edges.

➕ Despite how much flavor text and artwork the game included, Tale of a Golden Dragon had few if any red herrings. We rarely strayed off the intended path.

➖ We found ourselves wanting a bit more fanfare at the end, something more rewarding than a paragraph of text describing the outcome of our efforts.

➕ This was our first time playing a Scarlet Envelope game, but it’s a cool concept. We appreciated that the games stand alone as well as fitting into a larger connected arc.

Tips For Players

• Space Requirements: a small table
• Required Gear: pen and paper (or another way to take notes), internet-connected device, scissors
• Many of the components are meant to be cut or written on, so Tale of a Golden Dragon seems meant to be a single-use game.

Buy your copy of Scarlet Envelope’s Tale of a Golden Dragon, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Scarlet Envelope provided media discounted tickets for this game.