Escape the Room For Reals

September 3, 2012 5:57 PM

Metafilter loves escape games. Why not come to Beijing and play one for real?
posted by hawkeye (18 comments total)

These rooms aren't safe! A few years ago, Chan-wook Park made a Korean-language documentary about how things can go very, very wrong. The name escapes me at the moment.
posted by griphus at 6:03 PM on September 3, 2012 [12 favorites]

Is alcohol allowed?
posted by parmanparman at 6:11 PM on September 3, 2012

Oh god I would love this so hard.
posted by FirstMateKate at 6:14 PM on September 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

I want to go to there.
posted by koucha at 6:38 PM on September 3, 2012

It occurs to me that you wouldn't really need to fly to Beijing to try something like this. Somebody could just write up a "room escape" version of one of those live action roleplay campaign deals. (Please excuse my vagueness and clumsy phrasing. I may be a geek, but I haven't played D&D since I was like 9.) One person could be the designated jailer or keeper or whatever, and they could set up a room with locked drawers, hidden keys, notes stashed between the pages of old books, stuff like that. You could probably put most of the props together for less than $10.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:44 PM on September 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

It occurs to me that you wouldn't really need to fly to Beijing to try something like this. Somebody could just write up a "room escape" version of one of those live action roleplay campaign deals. (Please excuse my vagueness and clumsy phrasing. I may be a geek, but I haven't played D&D since I was like 9.) One person could be the designated jailer or keeper or whatever, and they could set up a room with locked drawers, hidden keys, notes stashed between the pages of old books, stuff like that. You could probably put most of the props together for less than $10.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:44 PM on September 3 [+] [!]

I HAVE FRIENDS THAT WOULD DO THIS YAY
posted by FirstMateKate at 6:51 PM on September 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

I suppose snapping off a chair leg and hammering my way through the drywall is an option. A bit extreme, but keep in mind that the host has this to say about himself:

the club has developed different scenarios, including one based on American horror movie Saw that requires two chained men to escape a bathroom..."A lot of people initially thought our club presented a life-death situation..." chuckled Huang... "Although some scenarios seem terrifying, we only make them appear like that to enhance the experience."

Before I let a chuckling man lock me in a Saw-like scenario I'd a least want to leave a note with a friend about where to send the cops if I don't return.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 7:27 PM on September 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

Room escape games are the bane of my existence. Accordingly, I have to know where this club is, so I can avoid even contemplating any trips to the immediate area.
posted by LSK at 7:51 PM on September 3, 2012

Every solution should be:

> TAKE OUT MATCH
> You remove a small matchbook that you picked up from the Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant
> USE MATCH
> It takes a couple of attempts, but you manage to use the unfinished bottom of the desk drawer to light a MATCH
> HOLD MATCH TO SMOKE ALARM
> You resist every urge to drop the MATCH as the flame slowly burns to the tip. Just as your sense of pain is about to force your fingers apart, a loud beeping fills the room. The door to the WEST opens
> EXIT
posted by FJT at 8:20 PM on September 3, 2012 [7 favorites]

I mean, for the Escape the Room club they have set up. Not in the computer games. :P
posted by FJT at 8:29 PM on September 3, 2012

FJT: There's a game where you do that. Trilby's Notes by internet snarky-man Yahtzee.
posted by BiggerJ at 9:44 PM on September 3, 2012

I have a two year old and a newborn. I would just lay on that bed until they kicked me out.
posted by jimmythefish at 10:59 PM on September 3, 2012 [2 favorites]

ARGH - CANNOT SHOW ROOM ESCAPE THEMED HOLIDAYS TO PARTNER AS WE HAD TOTALLY PLANNED ON RAROTONGA ALREADY, AND SHE WOULD WANT TO BOOK TWO TO SEE WHO GOT OUT FIRST.

which would totally be me
posted by Sparx at 4:29 AM on September 4, 2012

No.
Come and visit Cube world.
Killer fun, eh?
posted by Mezentian at 4:53 AM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

These rooms aren't safe! A few years ago, Chan-wook Park made a Korean-language documentary about how things can go very, very wrong. The name escapes me at the moment.

Reasons I love Metafilter: #384
posted by ersatz at 6:10 AM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

If you're in the Bay Area, you can come play one this November as part of Come Out and Play SF. Full disclosure: I'm one of the festival organizers, and Mrs Intended Effect and a friend are creating the room escape.
posted by intendedeffect at 8:08 AM on September 4, 2012

It's weird, from the screencaps it seems like the solution to every puzzle would be

>BREAK WINDOW
>LEAVE
posted by FatherDagon at 9:54 AM on September 4, 2012

There are invisible venomous carnivorous snake-birds outside the window. The window is what is keeping you alive.
or something...
posted by anonymisc at 11:32 PM on September 4, 2012