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What Is An Escape Room? – A Game Master’s Guide

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Happy New Year, everybody! It’s that time again; Time for resolutions, new outlooks, new plans, and of course new adventures. If you are looking for something new to shake up your everyday routine, perhaps you should join the hundreds of thousands of people who are turning to escape rooms as their number one choice for interactive fun.

If you’ve never played before, you probably have some questions about what an escape room is. If you have played before, then you already know how difficult it is to explain an escape room without giving away any spoilers. Well don’t worry, I’m here to help. In this blog, I will be explaining what an escape room is as well as providing hints to help beginners approach their first escape game.

So… what is an escape room? An escape room is an interactive adventure where you must find clues and solve puzzles to escape a room within a set time limit.

Of course, this is a very broad description of an escape room. As all enthusiasts discover, each escape room is a little different; with different themes, puzzles, requirements, or strategies. For example, here at Cross Roads we currently have two different games with two very different themes. The Fun House is a kooky, zany circus-themed non-linear room, while The Hex Room is an intense horror-themed room where you are separated into individual rooms and must work together to escape. No matter the theme, each escape room is designed around the same ideas: the players are going to need to find clues, connect them (sometimes physically, sometimes not), and use them to solve a series of puzzles.

Why would I choose to play an escape room? An escape room is a way to get out of the house and have fun with your family and friends of all ages.

Instead of being stuck in a movie theatre for a few hours, unable to interact with the rest of your group, escape rooms provide the opportunity to talk, joke, interact, and socialize with your team mates. If you have kids with you, no problem! Some rooms, like Fun House for KIDS, are designed to provide fun for the whole family! If you want to read a more in-depth post on how to choose the best escape room for your family, check our earlier blog post.

And finally, in a special edition of Confessions of a Game Master, our game masters provide some tips on how to optimize your game while playing an escape room. These tips come directly from watching many players struggle in our rooms and make the same mistakes over and over.

I hope this blog has helped you to understand escape rooms a little better. If you’ve been thinking about trying an escape room, want help convincing someone to join you on your next escape room adventure, or are looking for tips on how to improve your games, I hope this has been a good start.

And of course, if you like our Confessions of a Game Master video, you can find them all on our YouTube Page. Have a question for our Game Master? Leave a comment on our blog below or on our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube pages and you may see the answer in a future video.

Wishing you all a great and exciting New Year. Have fun escaping!

Geoff Durham
Manager, Game Master
Cross Roads Escape Games

Game Master at Cross Roads Escape Games

Confessions of a Game Master: Escape Rooms with Family

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Welcome back to Confessions of a Game Master, your inside look at the minds of the men and women running your games. This month, we ask our game masters to tell us about a time they played an escape room with their family.

If you are looking for something out of the ordinary to do with your family, taking them to an escape room is a great idea! It’s a way to get people of all ages to have fun, interact, and use their minds. It is an interactive experience that will keep the group active, but at the same time not be physically demanding (depending on the game, of course) and nobody will spend the whole time with their eyes glued to a cellphone screen. It’s a time to be present, together. To read a little more and for tips on how to choose the best escape room for your family, check out my previous blog here.

My family loves to play games and put together puzzles when we get together for the holidays, so it was only natural that we should graduate to playing escape rooms as well. I know that we’ve all made lasting memories while getting to be active and use our minds. This holiday season, I hope you get to do something memorable and extraordinary with your family.

Tell us about a time you’ve played an escape room with your family! Why do you think playing an escape room is great idea for a night out? We’d love to hear from you here or on Facebook!

Do you have a question for our Game Masters? Leave us a comment below or on our Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr! If you haven’t seen our other Confessions of a Game Master blogs, you can check them out here, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel!

Geoff Durham
Manager, Game Master
Cross Roads Escape Games

Escaped The Hex Room

The 6 Types of People Every Great Escape Room Team Needs

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Every escape room has a varying skill set that is needed to complete each mission. When gathering your team, make sure to get a diversity of creative thinkers so you have all your bases covered. Here is our list of the 6 types of people every great escape room team needs! Which one are you?

Detective in The Hex Room

The Leader

O’ Captain my captain! Every good group needs a fearless leader! Someone to help settle time wasting disputes and support their team mates when they need an extra set of hands. The Leader is usually elected into the role, either consciously or by habit, and others react and respond to the Leaders suggestions with little to no argument. The Leader doesn’t stick to any one puzzle though and can often be seen running about the room checking in with the rest of the team.

 

Prom Queen in The Hex Room

The Finder

This is the person you call when you lose the T.V. remote and need help finding it. This person is the one that pops up every three seconds while in the room and shouts “I found something!” The Finder is usually the one who finds most of the clues and puzzles and helps to figure out what things goes with what. They are also normally the keeper of keys and the knower of clues. They will sometimes also act as a courier running their new clues back and forth between team mates to trying to figure out if it can help solve any active clues.

 

The Nerd in The Hex Room

The Thinker

The brains of the group. Usually this player is a natural puzzler. Often, they are referred to as the smart one and they derive the most enjoyment from being the one to crack the puzzle’s code! However, Thinkers do tend to have a really bad habit; The Thinker likes to focus on one puzzle until it is solved and hates it when they need to leave a puzzle half solved to try and solve a different puzzle. In extreme cases, this can lead to the Thinker being that one player who spends half the game in a corner by themselves working on a single puzzle.

 

Jock in The Hex Room

The Worker

Do you have to look through several volumes of an encyclopedia? No problem! Bag full of puzzle pieces? No problem! Other process of elimination puzzles? No problem! This tireless worker doesn’t get frustrated by meticulous tasks and can finish up the busy work on puzzles that have already been “solved” while their team mates move on to other tasks!

 

Rebel in The Hex Room

The Leaper

Oh Leaper… What can we say about the Leaper other than this: every group has one and every group needs one. The Leaper is that one person on the team that chooses to ignore clues and make huge leaps in logic when trying to find a solution to a problem. The Leaper embodies the age old saying that “there is no such thing as a dumb idea.” They will leap to strange and confusing conclusions that often end up being wrong. However, whenever the thinker gets stumped, it becomes the leapers job to attempt to find new out-of-the-box ideas for the Challenger to work with. When the clock is ticking down and everyone else starts panicking, the leaper is always there with another solution.

 

Virgin in Hex Room

The Challenger

The Challenger works in tandem with the Thinker and the Leaper and acts as a grounding force for their brainstorming. Simply put, the challenger challenges the solutions put forth by the Thinker and the Leaper to help them come up with solutions that actually makes sense. The Challenger’s role is not to shoot down ideas, but rather to prioritize ideas with highest chance of success. They are the ones saying things like “We can try that, but first let’s see if this works instead…” They also help the Leaper turn their crazy idea into a plausible one by working through the Leapers thought process and forcing them to think about certain ideas in greater depth. If the team is a factory that produces ideas, then the Challenger’s role is quality control.

You also may have some team mates that can take on multiple roles, but it is fun to figure out which habits fit your team mates and friends. Let us know what roles each of your team mates fill in the comment section below! Also, make sure to play The Hex Room and put your teamwork to the test!

Jason Sakal
Game Master and Manager
Cross Roads Escape Games

Family in the Fun House

Tips For Finding The Best Escape Room To Play With Your Family

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The Holiday season is fast approaching, and for many people that means family gatherings. There’s always a lot of fuss during these next few months, dealing with travel schedules, cleaning, lodging, dining, and most importantly, entertaining. Though I cannot help you with everything, allow me to suggest some entertainment that can include the entire family and leave a lasting impression.

Last Christmas I got to visit my parents in San Antonio, Texas. My brother, my cousin, and his wife joined us for an early Christmas Eve dinner. After we finished eating, we were looking for something fun to do as a family. My brother suggested trying a local escape room, so we set off to solve a mystery aboard a pirate ship. We had a great time.

Escape rooms are a great idea for families getting together during the holidays. They provide an opportunity for groups of all ages to interact, to share, to laugh.

Unlike going out to see a movie, you are not confined to a seat in the dark, unable to talk with everyone else. In an escape room, you are free to move around. You can talk to each other, joke to each other, and sometimes even act silly together. For those who have trouble striking up conversations, the puzzles in the room provide an easy starting point.

To plan the perfect escape room outing with family, I have a few tips:

  1. Find a game with a medium difficulty rating. With a medium difficulty, first-timers and enthusiasts alike can contribute. The first-timers will be able to understand and solve puzzles, while at the same time the enthusiasts can still find the game challenging and engaging.
  2. Try finding a non-linear game. Non-linear games hold many puzzles that can be worked on simultaneously. This means that your group can split into smaller teams, giving everyone something to do.
  3. Find a theme that appeals to everyone. There are plenty of silly, kooky, fun games that you can play, just be sure to check the age limits for the rooms. Also pay attention to limits on group size. Find one that can hold your entire group, and see if you qualify for a private room.
  4. Include others. If you consider yourself an escape room master, sometimes it can be frustrating playing a room with those who have no idea what they’re doing. Just remember that you, too, were once a first-timer. Try guiding your family members in the right path. If an answer seems obvious to you, try helping your family come to the same conclusion as you instead of simply answering the puzzle. If you have a family member standing in the back not participating, even something as simple as “try this combination on this lock” could be enough to get them involved.
  5. Adjust your goal for fun. Working as a Game Master, I have had many groups whose only goal is to escape. We all love winning, but we can’t win 100% of the time. Approach your game with your number one goal being to have fun with your family. If you focus more on including everyone and having a great time, you’re going to come out on top. Escaping would just be a bonus. Especially if you are playing with a large group of first-timers, there’s the possibility of tensions running high. Take a step back, breathe, and look at the room as a bonding experience.

If you are in the Anaheim area during the holidays and need something fun to do with your family, The Fun House is the perfect game for you. Your group will enter a wacky carnival to prove yourself as worthy magicians before time runs out. As a non-linear game with a medium difficulty, there are plenty of puzzles for everyone with any sort of experience. If your group has kids 13 and under, we even have a special version of the game with puzzles designed for younger players.

This holiday season, you can relieve a bit of stress by planning an escape room outing for your family.

Geoff Durham
Game Master and Manager
Cross Roads Escape Games

Cross Roads Escape Games Gift Card in puzzle case

Escape Room Holiday Gift Ideas

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Are you looking for a unique gift for your friends and family this Holidays? Well you’re in luck! Cross Roads Escape Games has what you’re looking for!

Whether your friend is someone who has always wanted to play an escape room but needs an extra push; or someone who can’t stop talking about escape rooms; or if they are just someone who is always down to go do something fun and adventurous, then our gifts are perfect for them!

Cross Roads Escape Games Gift Card in puzzle case

Gift Card in complementary puzzle case: $35- $350

Love Cross Roads and want your family and friends to come experience the fun? Then get them a gift card! Any gift cards with at least two tickets on it comes in a complementary puzzle case that must be solved to retrieve the card! You can order one on our website, or pick one up at our location in Anaheim.

 SoCal Escape Room Passport: $10

The SoCal Escape Room Passport is like an interactive discount book. 8 SoCal escape rooms have their own page in the passport and on that page, is a puzzle. Players must solve the puzzle on each of the pages to receive the exclusive discount code for that company! There is well over $10 worth of discounts in the passport. Once you play a game in the book you can have it stamped with specialty-designed logo of each of the games. If you successfully escape the game you get the stamp in green, if you are unable to make it out in time, you receive the stamp in red. Once players get 10 green ‘escaped’ stamps in their passport, they win a free “Escape Room Master” t-shirt! There are 8 participating escape room companies in the passport but over 25 games to choose from!

Hex Room T-shirt- $20

Have your friends and family already played The Hex Room and LOVED it? Get them an exclusive Hex Room t-shirt sold only in store! Designed by the talented pop artist, Dan Litzinger, these fun shirts show that you have played our award winning ‘Hex Room’ game and lived to tell the tale.

For a limited time, buy a gift card and t-shirt in store and get an escape room passport for free!
Grab your gift card online, or additional merchandise in store while supplies last!

Madison Rhoades
CEO, Co-Owner, and Creative Director
Cross Roads Escape Games

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Confessions of a Game Master: Favorite Moments

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Welcome back to Confessions of a Game Master, an inside look at the life of the men and women who run the rooms here at Cross Roads Escape Games.

The number one question that everyone asks me is, what is it like to be a game master? “It must be so much fun watching us play,” they say. I smile and agree. Being a game master is a fun and exciting job, but there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that our guests don’t see.

As I’m sure you can imagine, every group is different. Some puzzles that seem straight-forward to some groups seem to confuse others. Sometimes the players will overthink a puzzle or miss something in their room they need. As a game master, we want to help everyone but we also must give the players time to discover and think on their own before intervening. It’s during these times that we talk to our computer screen, as though saying it will somehow give the players the right idea through the power of suggestion.

In this episode of Confessions of a Game Master, we delve further into the often-unseen world of our Game Masters at Cross Roads Escape Games. Our game masters describe some of the most common phrases they yell at the screens during games. They also share some of their favorite memories from watching people play the games.

Every now and then we will get some groups that stick in our mind. Choosing to support others over leaving them to die, believing in magic, and really getting into character are just three ways some groups have ingrained themselves in our memories.

If you haven’t seen our previous Confessions of a Game Master videos, check them out on our YouTube playlist. If you have any questions for our game masters, leave a comment on our blog, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram. And of course, stay tuned for the next episode of Confessions of a Game Master!

Geoff Durham
Game Master, Manager
Cross Roads Escape Games

Team Building at Cross Roads Escape Games

#1 Team Building Outing is at Cross Roads Escape Games

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Are you looking for a thrilling experience that will test your team’s wit, communication, and teamwork? Perhaps you are looking for an event that will allow your team to bond by working together to overcome obstacles? Or maybe you are just trying to be the coolest boss in the world. Either way, Cross Roads Escape Games offers a fun and exciting take on team building that will engage and excite every member of your group.

Our games offer unique challenges to test team cohesion, communication, critical thinking, and creative problem solving. With two different themes, we can offer two different experiences sure to thrill and include everyone on your team.

The Fun House is a kooky non-linear game that emphasizes the importance of team work, time management, and communication while brainstorming creative solutions to new challenges. Everyone starts out in a topsy-turvy room filled with hidden clues, optical illusions, and tons of puzzles that can be solved in any order. It is up to you and your team to work together to make heads or tails of all the clues and prove yourselves as Magnificent Magicians!

In The Hex Room, your team is split into six different rooms based on a personality test that is taken before the game starts. The Hex Room has an intense atmosphere and each room is designed to make the player feel like they are the star of their own horror film. It is imperative that your team works together and learns to communicate through the physical barriers separating them. Employing a clever use of stress and isolation, The Hex Room highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each team member.

Both rooms are designed to test your team’s communication and problem solving skills while also revealing a team’s true dynamic. In the Fun House, players are exposed to wacky ideas and are forced to think outside the box. Each player must add their brainpower to the group to find the solution to a challenge. In the Hex Room, communication becomes paramount and failing to do so could have dire effects. In both rooms, the dynamic of the group will become apparent; Natural leaders will rise to the occasion to lead their teams to victory and team cohesion will form around those leaders.

The Hex Room and The Fun House are both excellent tools for team building that allow players to identify their own strengths and weaknesses.

 

Team Building at Cross Roads Escape Games

Often, it isn’t until someone is put to the test that they realize their strengths to cultivate or the weaknesses that they can mend. It is through these fun and thrilling adventures that people discover their desire to lead.

Team Building here at Cross Roads is a thrilling experience for everyone. We have a friendly and enthusiastic staff that can offer a wide range of team building services including Game Master talk backs. During these talk backs, your game master will sit down with your team after the game to discuss the group’s strengths and shortcomings. They will offer advice on how to improve team work, communication, and overall cohesion.

Cross Roads Escape Games Lounge
Rentable private lounge area for team building talk backs

If you want a truly memorable and exciting way to discover your team dynamic, want to strengthen critical thinking and problem solving, or are just looking to take your team out for a fun and thrilling bonding experience, Cross Roads Escape Games can help with top-quality games and engaging experiences. For more information on what we can offer for your next team building outing, check out our team building page.

Jason Sakal
Manager and Game Master
Cross Roads Escape Games

Confessions of a Game Master Horror Special

Confessions of a Game Master: Horror Special!

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Welcome to the second installment of Confessions of a Game Master! If you haven’t seen our first installment, click here to watch what being a Game Master means in seven words and the most important skill for a Game Master to have. Since October is the scariest month of the year, this video has our Game Masters confess their favorite “scary” moments they have seen in the games.

Many people react differently when faced with fear, and because we lock many people into a room multiple times a day, we get to experience a cornucopia of reactions. I often look forward to the reactions of unsuspecting players in The Hex Room, but it’s the reactions I don’t expect that are the funniest and most memorable.

We also get to see people reacting to things that, frankly, aren’t scary. What seems commonplace outside of an escape room can suddenly become a bit frightening to those who don’t know what they are getting into. Though it is most likely to happen in a horror-themed room such as The Hex Room, it’s not the only place we’ve seen people scared. Even in The Fun House, where nothing is designed to be scary, some guests can psych themselves out and convince themselves that they are going to be scared.

Finally, we finish off the video by asking our Game Masters what horror movie they would want to survive, if they had to choose.

Have questions for our Game Masters? Leave a comment on our blog, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and we may answer your question in a future video!

If you want to see if you have what it takes to survive a horror film, try The Hex Room where you are cast as one of six horror movie characters in your very own horror film. It’s a perfect choice for Halloween fun!

Geoff Durham
Game Master and Manager
Cross Roads Escape Games

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Cross Roads Ranks Third Best Escape Room In The Nation!

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On August 28th we were notified by USA TODAY that we were of the 20 escape rooms nominated for best escape room in the nation! Rules allow the public the right to vote online for one nominee per category, per day. Because of YOU and your dedication to voting every day that we are proud to announce that we rank in the top 3 BEST ESCAPE ROOMS IN THE NATION and #1 in Southern California!

Congratulations to the top ten winners in this category:

  1. Komnata Quest- New York
  2. Enchambered- Sacramento, CA
  3. Cross Roads Escape Games- Anaheim, CA
  4. 5 Wits- New York
  5. Escape Code- Branson, MO
  6. 60 to Escape- Gurnee, IL
  7. Breakout Lawrence- Lawrence, KS
  8. Escape Room Insomnia DC- Washington, DC
  9. Omescape, San Jose, CA
  10. 60OUT- Los Angeles, CA

Cross Roads Ranked Third in the nation!

Nominees for all categories are chosen by a panel of relevant experts which include a combination of editors from USA TODAY, editors from 10Best.com, and highly respected escape room reviewers: Escape Authority, Room Escape Artist, Escape Room Tips, and Esc Room Addicts

10Best.com provides users with original, unbiased, and experiential travel content of top attractions, things to see and do, and restaurants for top destinations in the U.S. and around the world. The core of the site’s uniqueness is its team of local travel experts: a well-traveled and well-educated group who are not only experts in their fields – and their cities – but discriminating in their tastes. These local experts live in the city they write about so the content is constantly updated. 10Best.com averages 5 million visitors per month. It was acquired by USA TODAY in January of 2013.

USA TODAY is a multi-platform news and information media company. Founded in 1982, USA TODAY’s mission is to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation. Through its unique visual storytelling, USA TODAY delivers high-quality and engaging content across print, digital, social and video platforms. An innovator of news and information, USA TODAY reflects the pulse of the nation and serves as the host of the American conversation – today, tomorrow and for decades to follow. USA TODAY, the nation’s number one newspaper in print circulation with an average of more than 1.6 million daily, and USATODAY.com, an award-winning newspaper website launched in 1995, reach a combined 6.6 million readers daily. USA TODAY is a leader in mobile applications with more than 16 million downloads on mobile devices.

Madison Rhoades
CEO, Co-Owner, and Creative Director
Cross Roads Escape Games

The Hex Room

Escape Rooms vs Haunts- What to choose this Halloween Season?

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Horror goes hand in hand with escape rooms, in fact, most of our guests think all escape rooms are scary. While not all escape rooms are horror-themed, Halloween is a great time to seek out the ones that are.

Escape Rooms are designed to be thrilling experiences that involve teamwork and communication. Only those with a level head, common sense, and calm under pressure can make it. What better way to test those skills then with a life or death situation?

Describing an escape room almost sounds like describing the plot to a movie from the SAW franchise: you are locked in a room where you must solve puzzles to escape. Other horror movies with similar trapped or hostage plots reinforce the idea that escape rooms can be scary places. Indeed, horror helps increase the tension, suspense, and urgency. This is what people love about horror themed escape rooms: the stressful situation tests your skills just like you are in a real horror film.

Hex Room review

This Halloween season, you probably have a few haunts already planned, and although haunts are fun, escape rooms really take the intensity and realism to the next level. In a haunt, you are probably going to be in a train of people with masked monsters jumping out at you from the left and right. As fun as this is, it does get dull rather fast. Horror themed escape rooms put you right in the action. You are completely immersed; you can go wherever you want and touch whatever you want.

You can’t make choices and you can’t lose in a haunt. Horror escape rooms are a thrilling experience with a payoff in the end. Escape rooms give you a sense of accomplishment when you finish. Whether you win or lose, your team can look back at what you accomplished in the time allotted.

Our horror themed game, The Hex Room, puts you right in the center of your own horror film. First, you are cast as a stereotypical horror movie character: Jock, Prom Queen, Virgin, Nerd, Rebel, or Detective. From there you are placed in a room on your own. It is up to you to rejoin the rest of your teammates or be left behind. Who will live? Who will die?

I highly recommend adding a horror escape room or two to your list this Halloween season. Make sure to book your Hex Room game early, we will sell out!

Madison Rhoades
CEO, Co-Owner, & Creative Director
Cross Roads Escape Games

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