A Missive From Your Most Humble Game Master
Dearest Gentle Players,
It has not escaped this author’s notice that the ton of escapees possess an uncommon appetite for the solving of puzzles — a passion this author finds thoroughly commendable, and indeed rather charming.
Yet one must be reminded that, concealed just beyond the wall, your GamesMaster keeps a faithful and ever-watchful vigil with headset in place, prepared to offer the occasional nudge should fortune prove unkind.
A single triumphant cry upon the cracking of a fiendish lock is, of course, entirely forgivable — nay, expected. But the ton has lately taken to greeting each and every discovery — however modest — with the volume and fervour typically reserved for the arrival of a duke at a ball.
The finding of a key? Splendid.
The opening of a drawer? Charming.
The uncovering of a clue? Positively thrilling.
And yet, dear players, these small victories need not be proclaimed with such force as to summon the Watch. One might celebrate a hidden compartment without alerting the whole of Mayfair.
Pray, continue your merriment, your laughter, your delight — they are, after all, what makes this establishment such a joy to keep. This author merely begs that your triumphs remain a touch more drawing-room, and a touch less field of battle.
Yours in puzzles, propriety, and the gentle preservation of hearing,
Your Devoted Lady GamesMaster
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Mission Identity
For years, you faithfully served Section 9 as elite agents, never questioning the organisation that shaped your lives.
But everything you’ve ever known has been carefully constructed.
You are not who they say you are… or even who you believe yourself to be.
The truth lies hidden within Section 9. Your mission is to uncover your identity before it’s lost forever.
Please note: This game was designed by Expedition Sydney and relocated from Gladesville and Canberra. Narrow Escape Rooms have added our own twist, with approx 20-30% of change to the the game.
Duration: 60 Minutes
The Magician’s Encore
Something’s wrong with the lead act of the famous Mystic Theatre… Her magic is otherworldly, her abilities impossible… Cross the threshold to free what’s been stolen, before The Magician’s Encore calls curtains!
Players: 2-6
Difficulty: Not specified
Suggested Ages: Escape Manor is intended for all ages (although some of our rooms are creepy and not suitable for young kids). Please note that we are a licensed establishment. We ask that all groups aged 16 years old and younger to have written parental permission before joining us.
Duration: 50Minutes
The Outsider
There have been weird lights and sounds coming from your neighbours house, everyone that kicks a ball over into the yard is too creeped out to hop the fence. You’re tasked by the neighbourhood watch to finally solve a local mystery: Who lives in the house at 52 Crescent lane?
Players: 2-5 people
Difficulty: Very Challenging – sitting at around a 10% escape rate!
Suggested Ages: 18 and above. If you are under this age you must attend with your own parent, and that parent must accompany you in the TRAPT experience.
Best For: Decoding & Analytical Thinking
Duration: 50 Minutes
The Dollmaker
The Dollmaker lost his wife in a tragic accident. Driven mad by grief, he’s trying to bring her back using a hybrid of doll parts and human parts. The dolls are in his workshop. The human parts? That’s where you come in.
Note: some flashing lights occur in this room. Please check with other participants for suitability and contact us for more detail if required
Players: 2-6 people
Difficulty: Hard
Suggested Ages: This room is for participants aged 15 and above. Participants under the age of 16 must have a parent/guardian or premises for the duration of the experience. Due to premises restrictions, this room is located up a flight of stairs.
Fear Factor: High
Duration: 75 Minutes
Lost Temple
Deep in the jungle lies a massive temple built by an ancient civilisation, rumoured to hold a powerful relic hidden for centuries. Many have tried to claim it, but the temple is filled with challenges designed to keep intruders out.
Now it’s your turn. Navigate its passageways, uncover its secrets, and reach the relic before the sun sets. Only those who prove themselves worthy will make it out with the prize.
Players: 2-8
Difficulty: 3/6
Suggested Ages: 14+
Duration: 60 Minutes
The Orphanage
On the edge of town stands a building the locals avoid. Years ago, it housed dozens of children. Until one night, they all vanished. Some say the headmaster had a dark secret, but nobody knows for sure.
You entered expecting only dusty rooms and broken furniture. But you quickly realised something was very wrong…
Players: 2-6
Difficulty: 4/6
Suggested Ages: 16+
Duration: 60 Minutes
Knightfall
⚔️👑 THE KING HAS FALLEN. THE KINGDOM NEEDS HEROES. 👑⚔️
The castle is in chaos.
Your king is dead, his murderer still walks the halls, and the kingdom edges ever closer to ruin. Rumours spread that The Wolf Runner was seen fleeing with the late sovereign’s sword—the very symbol of the crown’s power.
A mysterious spirit offers one final chance to restore hope.
Recover the stolen sword. Hunt down the traitor. Escape the castle before time runs out.
The fate of the kingdom now rests in your hands.
🛡️ Explore a medieval castle
🗡️ Solve challenging puzzles and uncover hidden secrets
👑 Track down the king’s assassin
⏳ You have just 60 minutes to save the realm
Will you restore honour to the kingdom… or let darkness claim the throne forever?
Players: 2-6
Difficulty: 3/5
Suggested Ages: For all ages
Duration: 60 Minutes
Click Image for Answer
The Adventure of the Crooked Players
Hello readers. A curious approach in this edition as we look at cheating in Escape Rooms. Yes, cheating, defined as: “the violation of rules or regulations; taking a test in a dishonest way, with improper access to answers”. What does it mean for our industry, and how much should we actually care?
Phone a Friend
For some players, the invitation to leave their precious phone behind in a locker for an hour may be too long to be apart, and they keep it with them. Ideally, no one has put a walk-through online of your room for them to find, but with the golden rule of design being that everything you need is found in the room, any question posed shouldn’t be answerable online. (Have you made your room with a well-known code like Morse? Mix it up so they have to do decode it properly!)
What a Tool
We appreciate, and even reward, thinking outside the box. But bringing your own tool – be it a pocket knife, sonic screwdriver, or lockpicking set – isn’t the kind of lateral approach the puzzles have been designed for. It’s only a short step to damaging the props, and this is what we really want to avoid.
Spinning The Dials
Let us say that making an attempt at a singular number on a combination padlock takes one second per number. At this rate, a person could go through every combination on a three digit lock in just under 17 minutes, while a four digit lock would take nearly 3 hours. Good luck to whomever wants to try and brute force a lock entirely this way.
But spinning to find a correct number for just one dial remaining? Suddenly this isn’t the same moral dilemma. A lot of groups confronted with time running out as they work their way through the last part of a puzzle to reveal a final value may well choose to just rotate through the ten possibilities instead. Does this undermine the legitimacy of their escape?
Why Does It Matter?
Forcing the wrong lock open will get a team out of order, not only missing part of the game, they’ll be confused by the loose ends created.
A team should hopefully self-monitor any problematic individual players, and gently calling it out in a post-game debriefing can help them ditch the troublesome member and come back without them.
But ultimately, the group have already spent their money, how they want to spend their time is now up to them. As long as they don’t break anything, how fussed should we really be if we have their money? We can choose to leave them off any high score charts, or go as far as putting a fake walkthrough video online.
My advice: focus post-game on the players who put in the effort despite the presence of cheaters. Win them over and they will be the ones coming back with people they can hopefully get a better experience with.
Happy (legitimate) escaping!
Define, Decipher, Decode
Hello code friends! This issue is going to be a bit different: we’re going to play dictionary corner and talk about many of the different words and what they actually mean in cryptology. This will be by no means complete, and won’t extend to the world of digital encryption algorithms and computer based magic. Partly because that’s way over my head, but mostly because this is a column for Escape Rooms, and we aren’t going to be finding that in a 60 minute room…
So what is cryptology actually? It’s the scientific name for what this column is all about. Taken from the Greek kryptos (hidden) and logos (word), it covers making messages secure (cryptography) and uncovering them (cryptanalysis).
Cipher Contrast Code
Although often used to mean the same thing, a cipher is when each part of a message is exchanged directly for something else, while a code has a whole word or phrase being represented singularly. For a code example, the set of letters ‘XGJFZN’ could be sent as an instruction to ‘leave town tonight and go straight to Berlin’, but both you and I would need to know this meaning beforehand.
We can use more helpful terms of the two classical cipher types:
Substitution ciphers: the direct swap of an alphabet for a replacement (think Pigpen https://eramag.com.au/sep-21/; “”) ), and
Transposition ciphers: changing the order a message is presented in (think Route Cipher https://eramag.com.au/sep-24/ )
Essential Explanations
Cleartext: the original message, nice and simple.
Ciphertext / Codetext: the message transformed into cipher or code. Will usually appear as nonsense.
Plaintext: the answer once you have unscrambled the ciphertext, and should be the same as the cleartext.
Practical Products
Cryptogram: another word for the altered message of ciphertext or codetext that is sent out where the reader needs to recover the original message.
Ideogram: a symbol that represents concepts in language (such as numbers, $, &).
Pictogram: an image of an idea (street signs, emojis or Rebus https://eramag.com.au/jul-24/) “smartCard-inline”))
Constructive Concepts
Mono/polyalphabet: making Substitution Ciphers using only one alphabet (see Atbash https://eramag.com.au/jun-25/) “smartCard-inline”)) or many (see Vigenere https://eramag.com.au/apr-22/).. “smartCard-inline”) )
Frequency Analysis: counting how much something appears. Consider that ‘E’ is the most commonly used letter in English, and work from there (the article on this one is coming I promise!).
Key: no, not our little metal door-opening friend, but the piece of information vital to solving the secrecy of a message. It could be a phrase, word, or number, that is used to unlock the process, by shifting an alphabet along. (as seen in this image shifted with “Wyoming”
Further Forms
Steganography: hiding the whole message rather than changing it: think about using invisible ink (another future article coming up).
Concealment ciphers: using a special rule that references seemingly normal text that would be near impossible to guess just by looking at the message (for example, ‘read only the 4th letter after any full-stop’).
No Escape Room should ever actually require you to know these terms, but being aware of what could be present can only be an advantage.
Happy Escaping!
