"Escape room" games

[fredtoast]

Anyone ever done one of these before. I just bought a pass for me and my kids to try one.

I have been racking my brain to find something to do with them over their fall break. There are tons of attractions nearby in Pigeon Forge, but my kids are in high school now and most of the "family" attractions are more geared to younger kids. There are also a few really cool cave tours in east Tennessee, but we have already done all of those. Same for every aquarium within 200 miles.

I am also going to take them for a weekend in Ashville NC. No real big attractions there, but tons of arts, crafts, and history type stuff. It is like a little pocket of hippyville in the middle of the bible belt.

[Benton]

(10-08-2020, 07:56 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Anyone ever done one of these before.  I just bought a pass for me and my kids to try one.

I have been racking my brain to find something to do with them over their fall break.  There are tons of attractions nearby in Pigeon Forge, but my kids are in high school now and most of the "family" attractions are more geared to younger kids.  There are also a few really cool cave tours in east Tennessee, but we have already done all of those.  Same for every aquarium within 200 miles.

I am also going to take them for a weekend in Ashville NC.  No real big attractions there, but tons of arts, crafts, and history type stuff.  It is like a little pocket of hippyville in the middle of the bible belt.

We do them from time to time. Matter of fact, the last time we did one was in Pigeon Forge (The Escape Game at that mall thing The Island). It was one of the better ones we've done.

The key is teamwork and prioritizing. Which is why we do them from time to time. My wife tends to want to take charge and she's got ADHD like a 6-year old with handfuls of sugar cubes and cocaine. 

Wife: "We got a stick of gum with the letter 'G' on it"
Me: "Wife, we already figured that out. Just set it aside."
Wife: "No, we have to use it."
Kids: "Yes, but we figured it out without that clue. The other two sticks were 'U' and 'N' so we knew it was the gun."
Wife: "I HAVE TO USE THIS STICK OF... wait, what's that over there? Is that something in blacklight?"
*throws gum down and runs three rooms back to find the blacklight we were told we wouldn't need any more*
Five minutes later:
Wife: "WHY ISN'T ANYONE HELPING ME FIND THE BLACKLIGHT!? WHERE'S MY GUM!?"


Word of advice: If you're bad at math (my family is horrible there), tell the bookers. Some rooms are covered up with it. Others are more word problems, some are just following clues.

[fredtoast]

(10-08-2020, 08:31 PM)Benton Wrote: We do them from time to time. Matter of fact, the last time we did one was in Pigeon Forge (The Escape Game at that mall thing The Island). It was one of the better ones we've done.

That is the one we are doing.  The Prison Break game.

[Benton]

(10-09-2020, 02:47 PM)fredtoast Wrote: That is the one we are doing.  The Prison Break game.

Prison Break at The Escape Game?

I wanted to try that one, but it was a bit advanced and we had two 11-year olds. We did two there and enjoyed them both (beat one with about 5 minutes, got stuck on the last clue on the other).

[fredtoast]

So this ended up being the most fun I have had with my kids in a long long time. They are both very smart and love puzzles. We did the hardest game (Prison Break) and it was brutal. We would not have been able to do it without the clues they provided. Most of the stuff we could have figured out with more time, but there were a couple that I don't think I could have ever found. For example at one point you remove certain books from a bookshelf and the answer we were looking for were numbers created by the shapes of the spaces left when we removed the books. It is hard to explain but basically imagine all the books were black and the wall behind the shelves was white. The answer was created by the shapes of the white portions you would see when the books were removed.

The last thing we had to do was cut a wire and we made it with just 7 seconds left. They have a big digital clock with red numbers counting down from 1 hour. It was just like a movie. We cut the wire and the clock stopped at 0:00:07.

There were only three of us, but I honestly believe that any more than 4 would just lead to more confusion. And most of the stuff was way too complicated for anyone under high school age.

[jfkbengals]

I've heard they are a ton of fun and wanted to try it. There are several here in RVA.

[fredtoast]

(10-11-2020, 07:05 PM)jfkbengals Wrote: I've heard they are a ton of fun and wanted to try it.  There are several here in RVA.

They are fun for people who like puzzles.

[Fan_in_Kettering]

Ask Joe Burrow. He’s in an escape room every time he drops back to pass.

[Benton]

(10-11-2020, 03:28 PM)fredtoast Wrote: So this ended up being the most fun I have had with my kids in a long long time.  They are both very smart and love puzzles.  We did the hardest game (Prison Break) and it was brutal.  We would not have been able to do it without the clues they provided.  Most of the stuff we could have figured out with more time, but there were a couple that I don't think I could have ever found.  For example at one point you remove certain books from a bookshelf and the answer we were looking for were numbers created by the shapes of the spaces left when we removed the books.  It is hard to explain but basically imagine all the books were black and the wall behind the shelves was white.  The answer was created by the shapes of the white portions you would see when the books were removed.

The last thing we had to do was cut a wire and we made it with just 7 seconds left.  They have a big digital clock with red numbers counting down from 1 hour.  It was just like a movie.  We cut the wire and the clock stopped at 0:00:07.

There were only three of us, but I honestly believe that any more than 4 would just lead to more confusion.  And most of the stuff was way too complicated for anyone under high school age.

My daughter just turned 12. We did one a couple years ago and got out in half the time because her hand was small enough to fit into a locked box which had the final key.