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Escapes with Others
Sandy Springs, GA - Mastermind Escape Games – Bank Heist
With Nathan - Success - 11/11/2019
Rose had been working at Mastermind and needed to practice doing a room on her own. She offered Nathan and me to do room for free. We completed it with a lot of help from her, since it seems like one of the harder ones.
Vienna, Austria - Vienna Mysteries - Poison Alert Mystery/Scavenger Hunt
With Peter and Game Master Kimberly - Success - 12/9/2019
This wasn’t really an Escape Room but kind of a scavenger hunt finding clues to solve a mystery.
First we showed up to a Gasthaus (like a pub, but Austrian/German version) and went into the basement. There we met Kimberly our Game Master who gave us a bag full of stuff for our mission.
We had to go to 11 locations in Vienna and find some information and get the answers to 11 questions.
Basically, a scientist who had developed a deadly virus was murdered and the virus was stolen. There are 3 suspects and we need to identify which one was the culprit and find the virus because there is a threat it will be poured into the major water reservoir in Vienna and kill everyone (other than the beer drinkers).
Rose was sick and stayed at Peter and Hanni’s house while Peter skipped work (he’s the boss) and went with me.
Though we both know Vienna well and knew where we were going, we found and saw things we hadn’t seen before. Our first stop was the St Stephan’s Cathedral and what we had to find was the plaque commemorating the Austrian Resistance during World War II - the plaque was not mounted until the year 2000 and I had left in 1981, so though I felt stupid for not knowing about it at the time, I now realize that I wasn't even there then. Still, an moving tribute to the folks who gave their lives:
We then proceeded throughout the inner city from location to location picking up clues and solving puzzles based on those clues. At one point, we had to count the windows of a house and use it in a calculation, so I suggested we go into a coffee house and have a coffee and a pastry. It was just above freezing and had started drizzling a little and I didn’t want the papers to get wet (my excuse for having a Topengolatche):
Even with the break, we got back within one hour and 50 minutes. We had 2 hours. Then we sat there for 20 minutes figuring out the answer which we got right. With that answer, we were able to unlock the safe containing the virus. Yay! Success!
This was such a fun activity! I wish more cities had something like this. It works well in Vienna because the inner city is fairly small with a lot of things to see and also all pedestrian zones (well, almost other than the delivery trucks).
Alpharetta, GA - Odyssey Escape Games – Towering Inferno
With Jenny and her family - 11/22/22 - Success
I invited Jenny and her family to do a room at Odyssey - Michael comped us the room since I have been editing his books.
Duluth, GA - Cypher Escape – Starship Desolation
With Jenny, Katie, and Ryan - Success - 1/12/2023
I had the greatest team for my final class at Gwinnett Tech - it was the Capstone Project and we rocked the class with our presentation and all got A's.
I invited the team to my favorite pastime which is Escape Rooms and the team once again rocked it! I loved working with this team during our class as well as in this room. I regret my college days are over, because I would have loved to have a common goal we could all pursue. Maybe I can invite them again in the future to an Escape Room.
Bellevue, WA - Reality Break Escapes - Cyperspace
With 6 Randos - Game Master Tati - Success - 2/11/2023
Doing rooms solo is a downer for me. It's so much more fun to collaborate on puzzles and challenges instead of doing them alone which is just so sad.
Prior to Covid, the only way to get a private room was to pay extra or be lucky. Rose and I had some bad experiences with public rooms but we also had some good experiences. Basically, you don't know if you will get assholes or angels. With Covid, all rooms went private and many cities still only have private rooms.
There was an Escape Room place in Seattle that had opened up to the public. Since this was a Saturday, I booked it for a popular time (7 PM) and I lucked out with 6 others. This was a foursome and a couple who did not know each other, but we all worked together as if we had known each other forever. I think I may have worked with each of the others on one puzzle or another. 2 were newbies and the other 4 had done 1 to about 5 rooms, but everybody worked together and nobody was greedy or prideful and we managed to solve the room with a minute or so to spare. There were a LOT of puzzles so lots to do.
The GM even mentioned that she thought we had known each other prior because of the way we all just worked together.
This was a super experience but it's still hard to find public rooms (this was the last one I had found on my travels.)
Vienna, Austria - ExitDoors - Mr Tesla
With Peter and Game Master Andreas - Success (hah!) - 3/17/2023
Peter and I did an Escape Room called Mr Tesla. Hanni, Peter's wife, does not like Escape Rooms and unlike when Rose was with us in 2019, it was just the two of us.
We totally sucked but the Game Master, Andreas, gave us a lot of extra time, until we solved it (45 minutes extra.) That's why I have "hah!" after success - finishing it qualifies as a success - but only in the given time limit - well, I'll take success wherever I can get it!
It was an interesting room with the premise being that Tesla's soul was trapped in a machine he had built and we had to free him. It had a puzzle in LATIN! We had to listen to Latin to get the Latin words in the correct order and that alone probably took us 15 minutes.
Bogota, Colombia - Escape Room Colombia - Cientifico Loco
With Laura and Rodrigo and GM Alejandra- Success - 6/4/2023
Laura selected this room after contacting the Escape Room place asking for a room with limited Spanish required and this room fit the bill 99%. Rodrigo was late (traffic sucks in Bogota) but made it just as we were going into the room.
Nobody told our Game Master Alejandra that I had done over 100 rooms until AFTER we succeeded the room with 17 minutes to spare.
This was an okay room with a lot of puzzles. The story was a bit lame - a crazy scientist had locked us up and would be coming back in an hour to dismember us and perform experiments on our bodies. I guess incentive enough to get out.
There was only one room and it was sectioned off into a jail section with a mannequin in it that had arrows on it. We really had a hard time figuring out the FIRST thing to do, so almost immediately asked for a hint. We got it and were able to go into the next room (shirt on the mannequin that had strategic holes so we could see the correct arrows for the directional lock.
When we got to the next room, we may have used one more hint almost immediately (we had 8 total) and after that, the GM started giving clues in Spanish. She did not understand my English so perhaps she felt sorry for the others because I was constantly chattering and giving my own clues to Laura and Rodrigo. Also perhaps because I was this big old fat Gringo walking around and just looking at stuff again and again without doing anything other than blabbering.
In any case, I didn't understand Alejandra's Spanish (so we were even) and actually had to hit Laura on the shoulder so she would translate it for me because she was so busy trying to do what Alejandra had just explained. In one case, it was not quite the right thing and I guided them on what to do.
Only the last part was in Spanish - it was the spelling of numbers. I understood it but not at first, because it was a garbled recording. Then when I realized it, I told the team they were numbers and to figure it out. It was the exit code which was kind of lame, but it was nice getting out.
Vienna, Austria - Locks and Clocks - The Secret Study
With Peter and Game Master Yogi - Success (with an extra 5 minutes) - 11/18/2023
The premise of this game is that we are studying to become spies and have to pass a final test by breaking into the President's office and finding some secret documents in a safe.
At one point, someone sees us on camera and comes in asking for an explanation while I was supposed to hide. Peter's story had me in tears while trying to hide behind a curtain.
Yogi was so nice and gave as an extra five minutes so we could complete the room.
Project Escape - Vault 202
With Escape Room virgins Susan, Laura, and Andy H - 12/10/2023
Excellent Game Master and daughter of the business, Sydney
This game has us trapped in a kind of fallout shelter with one minor problem - there is an atomic bomb in it that will explode in an hour and we have to diffuse it. Leaving the vault is not an option. The newbies did well and we finished in time.
There were 2 others there as well who helped out.
Breakout Escape Vienna - The Legacy of the Casa Nosta
With Peter and Game Master Michel - May 5, 2024
Once again, I dragged Peter to an Escape Room. It was based on a Mafia type of family that has to pass on the "Don-ship".
We had to figure out who the new Don would be and how they were making their money. Oh, and get out alive.
Our GM Michel was really awesome and gave us hints all the time, which were much appreciated. We were able to finish the room with 5 minutes to spare.
Return to Vienna May 2024 Page
