Category: Player Tips

I moderated a panel of international escape room owners at ERIC 2019.

The panel consisted of 6 creators from many of Europe’s most renowned escape room companies (and some of my personal favorites):

• Chris Lattner (The Room/ Berlin, Germany)
• Dmitri Varelas (Paradox Project/ Athens, Greece)
• Lukas Rauscher (Crime Runners/ Vienna, Austria)
• Sheena Patel (Time Run & Sherlock: The Game is Now/ London, UK)
• Tomáš Kučva (The Chamber/ Prague, Czech Republic)
• Victor van Doorn (Sherlocked/ Amsterdam, Netherlands)

In the middle of the mostly unplanned conversation, a question popped into my mind:

“Raise your hand if you think record-setting teams have more fun in your games?”

None of them raised their hands.

Savoring The Moment

There is a type of escape game that I really believe is best savored.

We mentioned this recently in our review of Rabbit Hole’s Mystic Temple. After realizing what we were playing, we slowed down quite a bit for Rabbit Hole’s second game, Paradox. Sometimes a game has so much detail that the optimal experience is to slow down and take it all in.

This can be a tough transition because we’re encouraged to move quickly by timers and escape room tradition.

I’m not going to tell you how to play your games. If you want to blaze through things, by all means, do it.

That said, I’ve been on many record-setting teams and I find that there’s a hollowness to it when the game was truly special. I can’t help but look back and wish that I had made more of the time rather than put up a good time.

I think that we’re going to start noting this in our “reaction” section.

For An Overview of ERIC

Our friend Stefan from the escape room blog Two Bears Life wrote up a lovely overview of ERIC 2019. I recommend checking it out.

Many of us travel all over in search of amazing escape rooms.

Starting on October 1, 2020, American citizens will need a “REAL ID” compliant form of identification for domestic airplane travel.

That is only 1 year away.

Background

The law dates back to the post 9/11 security freakout of 2005. Rollout/ enforcement has been delayed repeatedly, but October of 2020 is the drop-dead enforcement date.

Some states adopted this law a few years ago. Others, like my adopted home, the great State of New Jersey, just started rolling it out.

I am out today, literally renewing my license as a REAL ID as this publishes.

We’re going to set aside whether this is a good or bad idea and look at the facts as they pertain to escape room tourists.

Is My License a REAL ID?

It’s pretty easy to tell if your license is a REAL ID. It will have a star in the upper right quarter that looks like one of these:

What Happens on October 1, 2020?

If you don’t have a REAL ID as of October 1, 2020, the TSA will require you to fly domestically with a valid passport. Otherwise they won’t let you through security.

Take a look at your license and make sure that your future travels won’t be disrupted by this Bush-era law that took over a decade to roll out.

Visit the TSA for more information on REAL ID.

Note that you will still need a passport for international travel, now and after October 1, 2020. For Americans attending our escape room tour, Escape Immerse Explore: Montreal 2020, make sure you have a passport. And if you have a passport, but not a ticket to this event, there are just a few left!

A while back, I was asked to describe the defining characteristics of an advanced escape room player.

I’ve thought about this often. I’ve watched players that I respect and tried to figure out what makes them strong players. There are a lot of characteristics that I like to see in fellow players.

Characteristics of A Great Escape Room Player

These are in no particular order.

Player Traits

• Observant
• Strong puzzle skills
• Willing to search
• Able to accurately input solutions
• Communicative

Personality Traits

• No ego about the game
• Willing to take hints when needed
• Aware of their own strengths and weaknesses
• Kindness
• Able to step back and let others have their moments

Deeper Skills

• An eye for what is and isn’t a puzzle
• Knowledge of the various mechanisms that show up in games
• Advanced puzzling skills of all kinds

These are all things that I love to see in a fellow player. These traits describe the type of players that Lisa and I strive to be.

The more I think about them, however, none of these are a bright-line indicator of advanced play.

The Defining Characteristic of An Advanced Escape Room Player

For me, the defining trait is simple:

Can the player continue to play an escape room effectively if the game’s sequencing has broken?

Sequence breaking can come from a bad reset, a technology failure, accidental opening of a lock, or solving a puzzle too early. This stuff happens, even in well-designed games.

A truly advanced player will do 1 of 3 things when met with this kind of challenge:

• Call the gamemaster in to resolve the issue
• Fix the problem themselves and continue to play
• Acknowledge what’s going on with the team and work around it

All of these options are viable solutions. (The optimal one shifts based on precise circumstances.) The catch here is that any of these solutions requires a player to identify the problem. That is often difficult to do.

Identifying the problem in the first place indicates awareness and understanding of the mechanics of an escape room. Additionally, a novice might notice a bypassed puzzle and simply think, “one less challenge on our path to victory.” An advanced player will realize that broken sequence is a potential hazard for the team and not necessarily an advantage.

To me, this awareness and understanding sets the advanced escape room players apart.

What do you think?

Am I right? Am I wrong? Are there other traits that I missed?

We’d love to hear additional thoughts on what makes an advanced escape room player.

Rex, one of our top Patreon supporters, asks:

“What do you guys think about opening locks when you have all but one digit discovered (which is easy to do and helps with time) – does it matter? Is it a bit of a party foul? It’s a question that comes up in a lot of rooms.”

This is a recurring question. Our opinions on the subject have evolved quite a bit over our escape room careers.

This is a simple question, but the answer is nuanced.

The Simple Answer

Guessing the last digit (or spinning the last disk) when you think that you’ve solved the rest of a combination is fair play. 

At that point you’re down to a 1 in 10 chance of having the right solution. It’s really more like a 1 in 9 shot because whether you want to or not, you have one digit inputted. Hell… there’s a 10% chance that the lock just falls open because you’re accidentally on the right solution.

Cool. We can call it a post and go home?

Nah… there’s more to this.

The Complex Answer

I’m going to stand by, “spinning the last disk” is generally fine, but I’ll explain why it’s fine.

Then I’ll explore the finer points of how to handle “spinning the last disk.”

Brute Force

Brute force, or the act of guessing solutions until one works, is a tried and true cryptographic technique. Blindly guessing works. It’s just a function of time and probability.

To be clear, brute force is a concept far older than escape rooms. It should not be confused with breaking things.

Probability

On a typical lock, which will have 10 possible digits on each individual disk, the probability of blindly guessing the right solution looks like this:

2 digit lock = 100 number sets

3 digit lock = 1,000 number sets

4 digit lock = 10,000 number sets

5 digits = 100,000 number sets

6 digits = 1,000,000 number sets

Sensibility

In an escape room, you’ve paid for the game. You can choose what to do with your time in the game, within reason.

If you think that spinning the disks on a $10 lock to randomly guess the 1 in 1,000 solution is a smart way to spend $30 for an hour in an escape room, then can I take a moment to rock your world with this 4 pack of combination locks?

I don’t think this makes any sense at all. Guessing against even moderately bad odds is a waste of time.

Spinning a 1 in 10 disk after you’ve already solved the overwhelming majority of the puzzles, therefore having played that aspect of the game… that feels better than fine. That feels logical.

Human existence is complicated, however, so there’s also etiquette to keep in mind.

Etiquette

If I’m inputting the solution into a lock for my team while the solution is being derived, I’m absolutely going to spin the last disk. 100% guaranteed.

How I handle it might vary based on the puzzle, the team, and the circumstances.

Just Open It

If time is running low, or the puzzle is taking too long and I can tell that no one is having fun with it, I’ll just open the thing, announce the last digit to the room, and distribute the new clues.

The same goes for counting/ search puzzles. If we’ve found most of the items and know that the code is close, I’ll fiddle with the disks, adding a number or two on each wheel until the thing opens.

No one I know will be upset about missing out on the opportunity to do a little more searching.

Let The Team Earn Their Solve

If my teammates are working hard on the puzzle and seem to be enjoying themselves, I’ll spin the last disk, quietly open the lock, and then wait until they shout out the right answer before saying, “Great! It’s open,” and distributing the clues to the team.

It’s better to lose a few seconds over a puzzle that you know will be solved than to damage team morale over something unnecessary.

The Finer Points

The bottom line here is that there is a balance between gamesmanship and etiquette.

You should:

• feel free to spin the last disk.
• read the room and hold back on announcing the solve if the team is enjoying the puzzle, especially if you’re not feeling time pressure
• announce the solve to your team and distribute the puzzle pieces among the players

You should not:

• spend your time randomly guessing blindly on locks that you have no clues to, not because it’s bad form but because it’s silly
• silently spin the last disk and then quietly leave your team behind

For more on this subject

This is an updated thought process on one of our earliest player/ design tips. I still think that a lot of that post holds up. Feel free to give it a read if this is a subject that you enjoy.

Patreon

Finally, a big thank you to Rex and all of our other Patreon supporters.

This website has been a passion project for almost 5 years now and running it takes a ton of time, energy, and brainpower. The money that we receive from our supporters at all levels helps to fuel our engine.

Please consider joining the ranks of our Patreon supporters.

Having played my fair share of horror escape rooms, and having recently lurked as a team played one of my personal favorites, Dark Park’s Honeymoon Hotel, I’ve come to a few conclusions about how to build the right team for a horror escape room.

It’s All About the Mix

You need the right mix of bravery and fear among the teammates to maximize the fun for the entire group. 

If Everyone is Terrified

When everyone is paralyzed by fear, the team will seriously struggle to play because no one will be able or willing to search and solve puzzles. 

If Everyone is Brave

When everyone is unflappable (or pretending to be), then the horror escape room quietly transforms into a regular escape room… just with low lighting, jump scares, and probably lots of gore. 

This can still be a cool game, but something is missing.

Balanced Teams

Strive for a team with a good mix of players who are varying degrees of terrified and brave.

Terrified players need brave players to advance the game (and possibly to cling to). 

Brave players need terrified players to protect, and through whom they can experience the fear vicariously… because empathetic fear is a great substitute for the real thing. 

The right player mix keeps the game moving and maximizes the emotional experience for everyone.

If you’re on the fence about playing a horror game, find a brave player or 2 with whom you can create a symbiotic relationship for an hour or so. 

The REA Duo

We’ve had some of our best escape room experiences in horror escape rooms.

While I’d attribute much of this to the games themselves – we’ve played some horrific masterpieces – some of that definitely had to due with our team composition. Lisa was terrified. I was … not so terrified. Our responses to horror complement each other. We strive to build out teams that are equally balanced.

Horror in Baton Rouge this July

As part of this summer’s Escape, Immerse, Explore tour to New Orleans and Baton Rouge, we will get to play The Asylum, the newest game by 13th Gate, and their first horror escape room.

We don’t get to play together on our tours… so this will be the first horror escape room where Lisa won’t be able to cling to me and I won’t be able to feel through her. Some of you will get to play those roles for us instead. Curious about this game? There are only a few tickets left… and the last day to buy them in Tuesday, May 28th.

You exit an escape room and walk down the street… and everything that you look at feels like it has hidden meaning. You’re hyperaware. It’s an oddly pleasurable feeling.

I suspect that any engaged escape room player knows what I’m talking about. Call it what you want; we call it post-escape room hyperawareness.

After playing more than 700 escape games, we often get asked if we’re bored with escape rooms… and the answer’s still the same as the last time we wrote about it: The highs are higher, the lows are lower, and we really love novelty and thoughtful design.

One thing has changed: we don’t get that hyperaware feeling anymore… and we really miss it.

Where did it go?

I’m not really sure. I’d venture to guess that becoming really practiced at escape rooms, and having learned to parse the signal from the noise in any given room, has focused our awareness. I think in our earlier days of playing, escape rooms would kick our awareness into overdrive.

I also suspect that it might be adrenaline-related. After playing so many, an escape room has to do something really special (and frequently frightening) for us to trigger that particular neurological reward.

What about you?

What’s your escape room play count? Do escape rooms send you on your way in a state of hyperawareness?

Earlier this winter, we were thrilled to learn that Audrey Pendleton-Chow, owner of Curious Escape Rooms in Fitchburg, MA and an escape room enthusiast herself, had launched escape room passports.

We loved the idea of collecting stamps at the end of each game in these beautiful passports. We recently caught up with Audrey to learn more about what these passports offer players and how owners can get involved!

Tell us about your passport!

The We The Enthusiasts Global Escape Room Passport is a collectable to preserve your escape room escapades!

I’ve been archiving my escape room history in an Excel sheet. I know I’m not the only escape room enthusiast who does this. I thought it would be more fun to have something collectable! Why not stamps for every game from a participating event or escape room? That’s why we made a universal escape room passport.

I designed this small, durable booklet with a leatherette and gold foil cover, a profile page, and a unique ID. It provides 56 boxes for stamps and small spacing for notes and completion times. Stamp filler pages are available as well because, you know, 56 games could go by pretty quickly!

What makes for a great stamp?

It’s been amazing to see the different designs that escape room companies have created.

A great stamp is like an icon. It should be clear, one color, unique, and have thick lines.

The design should symbolize the theme of the game so when enthusiasts look back at it they remember their experience!

It’s nice to have the name of the game on the stamp too.

How do players buy a passport?

Players can buy our passports online at WeTheEnthusiasts.com. They are also available at many participating escape room businesses. Pricing and promotions may vary if you purchase from an individual participating business.

Who are the participating companies?

We’ve got 187 games, 63 companies with stamps, and 25 locations selling passports. 🙂 So far we’re in USA and Australia.

The full list of companies and their games is available here. It’s growing every week!

How can a new company get involved?

See Become a Participating Business for more information. There, interested companies can read the FAQ, purchase passports wholesale to sell at their own business, and register.

It’s free to be listed on our website as long as the business agrees to stamp passport-holders with your special stamp for your participating game or event.

You get to choose and purchase your own stamp. You can even design the image that will represent each of your games!

If we wanted to make a stamp for our Escape, Immerse, Explore tours, could we do that? 

Absolutely! This would be perfect for an escape room tour! We welcome any experiences related to puzzles or mystery solving. We’ve reached out to puzzle/ scavenger hunts, mobile escape rooms, and immersive plays, such as the annual immersive theater and puzzling eventClub Drosselmeyer.

When and how did you come up with this passport idea?

In 2015 my partner (now husband) Jeremy Pendleton-Chow and I visited Portland, Oregon. We went to a McMenamins, which revitalizes unexpected spaces to become different themed bars.

As we entered the 1960s elementary school building, passing the cigar bar “Detention,” a small bar “Honor’s Hall,” and the movie theater that used to be the school auditorium, we found that part of it had been turned into a hotel. The check-in desk had one sheet of novelty McMenamins passports, encouraging customers to visit all their locations and collect different stamps. I thought it was a great idea!

I was in the process of opening Curious Escape Rooms in Fitchburg, MA. I began talking to other escape room owners about the idea of a global passport.

After a failed attempt of making less-than-quality samples of passports last year (which lasted merely a month in my bag), I put the idea on the back burner until I discovered a way to create the durable and beautiful passports I had imagined. They had to be fully brag-worthy and long-lasting to be worth it.

In November 2018 we began selling We The Enthusiasts passports and rallying escape rooms to join us in creating stamps for each of their games. Every week, new businesses join us and we add them to our website.