Room Escape Artist

Vending the rules

Location: Cincinnati, Ohio

Date Played: June 20, 2025

Team Size: 1+; we recommend 1-2

Duration: ~90 minutes per modules; 2 modules currently available

Price:  $10 per module (only 1 copy required per team)

Accessibility Consideration: Players must walk up to a mile around an urban environment

REA Reaction

I firmly believe that the world would be a better place if there existed more public vending machines that dispensed mysterious side quests.

CXD began exactly as such. In the heart of Findlay Market in Cincinnati, OH, next to an ATM and a CPR training station, sits a vending machine marked with the words: “You’re right on time.” Decorated in hacker chic, neon green on black, this machine was intriguing yet ambiguous to the casual passerby. It clearly didn’t contain snacks, but perhaps it held any variety of non-food items, like electronics or LEGO sets or mini artworks?

The CXD vending machine diverged from any potential expectations: it held not products, but experiences. In its current form, CXD consists of 2 sequential “modules” that function as trailheads to the wonderful world of alternate reality games, or ARGs. There’s no need to reserve or book anything in advance; just swing by Findlay Market during its open hours, pay $10, and you’ll receive all the materials you need. Created by RECON 2021 ARG Master Michael Augustine (aka Auggie or OkapiKid), CXD was perfect for adventurous locals and out-of-town tourists alike, requiring no prior background in puzzles or escape rooms and providing a playful exploration of the amazing art that fills downtown Cincinnati.

An Intro to ARGs

The 2 modules of CXD currently available in Cincinnati are explicitly presented as training missions. But what are they training players for? Essentially, they provide an on-ramp to the vocabulary of ARGs, to the idiosyncratic puzzles styles and transmedia interactions you’d commonly encounter. These include things like visiting websites, calling or texting phone numbers, and investigating physical locations, as well as certain conventions specific to CXD‘s world and architecture.

While this focus made CXD particularly accessible to newer players, these training modules didn’t just feel like a placeholder tutorial level. They presented fun, substantive gameplay and meaningful worldbuilding — remarkable value for $10 a pop (per team, not per player.) Even for someone like me who has years of experience diving deep into ARG and treasure hunt rabbit holes, CXD still provided an engaging 2-3 hours of entertainment.

Puzzles in the Field

CXD particularly stood out for its elegant twists on simple puzzle formats, all centered around a deck of custom cards. I appreciated how almost every puzzle included a satisfying aha, utilizing and transforming the cards in a diversity of tactile ways all while focusing our attention on interesting details in our surroundings. It took advantage of some nearby features right in Findlay Market before prompting us to venture out into the surrounding blocks. While much of CXD was site-specific, the experience overall required relatively minimal walking, and the longest distance between locations (around 0.4 miles) could easily be driven if necessary.

The design of CXD was tightly polished, though not always perfect. For one puzzle, non-locals especially might find the hints necessary in locating certain items, though I questioned whether that supplementary information should have even been presented in the hints instead of as a more robust clue structure. That said, for players with no time restrictions, this sequence provided a delightful framework for local discovery. For another puzzle, I expected a more concise extraction, given that every other puzzle had a meaningful answer. There was also opportunity to make the finale of module 2 just a bit more climactic and magical.

The Future of Micro ARGs

Back in 2017, CXD originated as a full-blown ARG, with a large mass of players, an elaborate story, and one-off events and interactions. Years later, the new incarnation of CXD embodies a similar ethos, but with a shifted focus toward scalability, longevity, and sustainability. The 2 training missions are intended as the foundation for something much bigger. In speaking with the creator, I learned that he’s working on adapting the training missions to other cities, and plans are also underway for more physically integrated, story-driven full missions specific to each city.

While the broader world of ARGs is flourishing, there’s still a relative dearth of micro-ARGs that can be played in small groups. (I commented similarly in my review of the Solano Human Project, which targeted a similar audience, albeit with a more unsustainably hands-on approach.) While “site-specific ARG that’s available on-demand” quickly starts to overlap with the outdoor escape games or street quests that increasingly many brick-and-mortar escape room companies offer, I’d argue that there’s immense value to interconnected, episodic storytelling and the style of distributed web-based storytelling idiomatic to ARGs. I can’t wait to see CXD — and other experiences like CXD — fully take off and become as common a sight as the more mundane vending machines we pass by everyday.

Tips For Visiting

• We recommend bringing a fully charged mobile device with internet access, an extra power brick, and some hydration.
• There are also outlets to charge and plenty of places to grab a snack in Findlay Market. I highly recommend a visit to Harmony Plant Fare, a scratch kitchen that prepared one of the yummiest sandwiches I’ve had in recent memory.

Book your hour with CXD, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: CXD comped our tickets for this game.