The Liberal Gun Club Forum

Anyone ever try one of these? I just heard about them and am wondering about them -- what makes them fun?

Merkwuerdigliebe wrote:Anyone ever try one of these? I just heard about them and am wondering about them -- what makes them fun?

There's one nearby but I haven't done it yet.

I think the attraction is the same sort of puzzle-solving, lateral-thinking enjoyment you get out of the old school Infocom text adventures, or even later graphical games like Myst, except you get to do it all in real life.

Huh wuh?

workinstiff wrote:Huh wuh?

This.

PiratePenguin wrote:

Merkwuerdigliebe wrote:Anyone ever try one of these? I just heard about them and am wondering about them -- what makes them fun?

There's one nearby but I haven't done it yet.

I think the attraction is the same sort of puzzle-solving, lateral-thinking enjoyment you get out of the old school Infocom text adventures, or even later graphical games like Myst, except you get to do it all in real life.

xyzzy!

PiratePenguin wrote:

Merkwuerdigliebe wrote:Anyone ever try one of these? I just heard about them and am wondering about them -- what makes them fun?

There's one nearby but I haven't done it yet.

I think the attraction is the same sort of puzzle-solving, lateral-thinking enjoyment you get out of the old school Infocom text adventures, or even later graphical games like Myst, except you get to do it all in real life.

I'd probably be eaten by a Grue.

PiratePenguin wrote:

Merkwuerdigliebe wrote:Anyone ever try one of these? I just heard about them and am wondering about them -- what makes them fun?

There's one nearby but I haven't done it yet.

I think the attraction is the same sort of puzzle-solving, lateral-thinking enjoyment you get out of the old school Infocom text adventures, or even later graphical games like Myst, except you get to do it all in real life.

Pretty much. I've done one and I really enjoyed it. Eventually do it again.

senorgrand wrote:xyzzy!

A hollow voice says "Fool."

Awesome.

senorgrand wrote:...xyzzy!

I've been to Zzyzx, is it anything like that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zzyzx,_California

I played a pretty hard one with friends in Dublin last spring. The real fun was in the collaboration necessary to work through a complex puzzle with numerous clues in a set period of time. Our time limit was one hour. We escaped.

BKinzey wrote:

senorgrand wrote:...xyzzy!

I've been to Zzyzx, is it anything like that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zzyzx,_California

Nope: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xyzzy_(computing)

For any that don't know what they are, they are kind of a variation on a live person Clue game except the goal is you escape from a room. You are locked in a room with clues all over the place which you have to solve. I imagine (not having done one myself) that a room key is hidden inside the room somewhere and you have to use the clues to help you find it. If not the key, I guess the procedure needed to get out of the room. You go in them with a bunch of friends, coworkers, or I guess strangers and you have to work together to find the solution.

They come in themes and difficulty ranges. It's a new thing and they are getting pretty popular. Here is a directory I found of them. Most major cities have at least one at this point....

https://intervirals.wordpress.com/tag/e ... directory/

They're a decent amount of fun if well crafted. My fiancée worked at one for a while.

A good explanation is that it's a combination of logic puzzles, lateral thinking and hide-and-seek. Usually they're built around some theme, so one that I did was to enter the oval office and stop a nuclear strike. To get past the first room we had to find a key behind a photo. But at the same time there were a bunch of random dossiers on fictional gov't officials scattered about. So we collected those. The next room required we plot a bunch of coordinates on a map to get the combination to a lockbox holding a nerf gun. But that didn't open the door, so we also had to sort out a pictographic code to get into a button which opened a flap in the door. And then we had to use the Nerf gun to shoot a target that finally opened the door.

It's a lot of things like that, and clues aren't always immediately used. The dossiers are for the final clue, to know which code is the right one you had to read the dossiers and figure out who was still alive.

We've had them in Orlando for a few years now, and the fad is starting to settle down.