Room Escape Artist

Because we love…craft

Location: Belmont, MA

Date Played: May 17, 2025

Team Size: Tables were set up in groups of 8 and played as a team. A small number of 4 person tables were available, but they did not participate in the crafting track.

Duration: 2 hours

Price:  $79 per player

Ticketing: Public event for about 80 people. You chose your table and seat at time of purchase.

Accessibility Consideration: All players climbed stairs to enter the building.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

REA Reaction

There are a few companies that have earned a level of automatic trust when they release a new game or experience, and Green Door Labs is on that list. Back in March, the company – best known for their yearly Club Drosselmeyer show – sent an email to their mailing list announcing a new show: Cthulhu Luau. Because of the trust I have in Green Door Labs and their overall positive track record, tickets for the Luau were an instant purchase.

Immersive events can be a bit strange to plan for. Before the show even began, expectations were set in a very helpful FAQ that addressed many of the burning questions people might have had before an event like this. Not just the where and the when, but also how to dress in-theme (with pictures!), what to expect in terms of interactions and puzzling, and accessibility considerations. This pre-show information was helpful to me and I’m sure to all other guests as well. Every guest at my showing was dressed in at least some luau appropriate attire, and it helped to sell the idea of a tropical party.

Upon our arrival, we were handed a lei and directed into the hall to attend the 1962 Belmont Ladies’ Auxiliary Luau. We met the others seated at our table of 8, and our hostess. Each table had one of the Belmont Ladies assigned to it. Throughout the night, our hostess helped us along with puzzles, provided story beats, and interacted with the other characters – including Edna. Edna was the interim club president and the main antagonist of the story. As we discovered through puzzles and scripted scenes, Edna had become possessed by an eldritch spirit and it fell on us participants to stop her.

The main interactive portion of the game was twofold: working together with our table to solve puzzles and, uniquely, crafting special items that Edna demanded. There were three somewhat standard crafts to make – a candle holder, a bowl, and a centerpiece – but each had an arcane twist. At the end of each crafting session, Edna walked among the tables and levied her judgements. The winning table was celebrated; the losing table had their hostess banished for a short time into the void. These crafting challenges were a low-stakes way to get non-puzzlers involved in the game, though I did find myself wanting there to be more of a payoff for the table that won a challenge.

The puzzles were integral to the story, as they revealed details about what was happening to Edna and how to stop it. They were primarily paper-based, and took the form of newspaper clippings, family trees, and old records from the club. They came in various types, calling on our skills in codebreaking, logic, papercraft, and finding connections. Each puzzle felt purposeful and had meaning with regard to the overall story. Given that the puzzles were active at the same time as the crafting, it was not easy to help with both. Not that I’m a deft crafter, but it felt like it was easy to have the table be divided up between the two tracks with little crossover.

At its core, Cthulhu Luau had many commonalities with Club Drosselmeyer. Teams worked to solve puzzles that advanced the story, while a live band (Lulu and the Cephalopops) played entertaining and infectious original music in a grand party atmosphere. There were delicious themed drinks, actors to interact with, and the entire space was decorated in a way that harkened back to the kitschy 1960s. Cthulhu Luau was a smaller affair than Club Drosselmeyer, and it didn’t reach the same levels of majesty and grandiosity – but that was by design. It was a delightful time, and one I look forward to attending again. While there currently are no plans to stage Cthulhu Luau again next year, Green Door Labs has revealed that they do have plans to remount Save the Munbax in April 2026, so stay tuned for that!

Who is this for?

• Story seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Eldritch horror fans
• Crafters
• Fans of a kitschy 60s tropical setting
• Any experience level
• Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle

Why play?

• Green Door Labs is a trusted company that makes quality games.
• Puzzles, crafting, sing-alongs, tiki drinks…the list goes on.

Story

We were gathered for the 1962 Ladies’ Auxiliary Luau. Unfortunately, the interim president wanted to use the celebration to summon an eldritch spirit into the world.

Setting

Cthulhu Luau took place in the meeting hall of a small fraternal organization both in the real world (the Belmont Odd Fellows Lodge) and in-universe, as the home of the Belmont Ladies’ Auxiliary. The event took place entirely in the main hall of the Lodge with the exception of one puzzle which took one pair of solvers per team to a different room. The lodge hall was decorated like a kitschy 1960s tiki party.

Gameplay

Green Door Lab’s Cthulhu Luau was a ballroom game with a moderate level of difficulty. Gameplay ran along two tracks: a crafting track and a puzzle track.

The crafting track took place over three rounds. Each table was given materials, basic instructions, and a directive to create a different arcane object each round. After the allotted time, Edna went around to each table and judged them in the style of a Lovecraftian Great British Bakeoff.

The puzzle track was the driving force of the story. Tables were provided with a series of paper puzzles and some artifacts to use in puzzle solving. Each layer of puzzles provided more information about what was going on with Edna and how she could be stopped.

While the two tracks ran concurrently, no one was locked into being on a specific track at any time; crafters and puzzlers were able to switch back and forth at any time.

Analysis

➕ The FAQ was very helpful for experienced immersive show veterans and newbies alike.

➕ As they typically do, Green Door Labs provided multiple avenues for entertainment, allowing non-puzzley folks to participate in other ways.

➖ The puzzle track and the crafting track overlapped for a significant portion of the event, and there was a clear division at our table between the two tracks. We could have been more deliberate about fixing this, but having the events alternate a little more would have allowed the whole table to work together more consistently.

➕ The puzzles were numerous and varied. This allowed every solver at the table to contribute based on their strengths.

➕ Using the table hostesses as the hint system felt natural to the setting. They were knowledgeable about the puzzles and their story implications, and the hints they gave were both subtle and helpful.

➖ I wanted to see more meaning and perhaps story implications from the craft track, especially as a payoff for my teammates who did the crafting.

➕ The 60s luau theme was baked into nearly every aspect of the event.

➖/💃 There was a surprising lack of dancing space given the live band and previous Green Door Labs events. This was at least partially an effect of the relatively small venue.

➕ The original music from Lulu and the Cephalopops was wildly entertaining and helped to put us in the luau headspace.

Tips For Visiting

• Street parking only, and it may involve some searching and sign reading.
• There were a few small restaurants, mainly pizza places, within easy walking distance on Trapelo Street.
• The ice cream at Art’s Creamery came highly recommended.

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