One of the most important considerations for us — alongside entertainment — is that our players feel completely safe throughout the game. Even when they are fighting for their lives in a Psychopathic Killer’s trap , or have to find their way out of a dark dungeon in irons and handcuffs.
This can only be achieved if every minute of play, every corner of every room and of course every player inside it is protected at several points. Here we go through the toolkit that serves this purpose:
The option to ask for help
From the first minute of the game to the last, players are in contact with the game master and can ask for help at any moment. Any time. As often as they like. About anything. Whether it’s a small nudge on one of the puzzles, help opening a padlock, or solving any other problem that comes up.
We have several tools even for this simple task: in most of our rooms players receive a two-way radio (walkie-talkie) at the start of the game, whose counterpart is with the game master. We only depart from this where the room’s theme calls for it: in one of our rooms, for example, the same communication happens over a wall-mounted telephone.
Plan B: if Murphy’s law strikes and the radio fails for any reason, the game master can activate the microphones on the cameras in the rooms, hear the players’ questions, and answer them through the installed speakers.
The cameras
With the cameras placed in the rooms the game master can see every corner of the playing area, and so can follow the players’ every action and the progress of the game. If the game master judges that the players are stuck or on the wrong track and will run out of time, they can offer help. The cameras also let them notice if any puzzle or task fails, stops working as intended, or if the players breach the safety rules explained at the start.
Our cameras NEVER RECORD, under any circumstances; they transmit a live image to the game master’s monitors and nothing else.
Plan B: the cameras are useful but not essential to the game. If they fail, the radio can take over their role: with one or two targeted questions the game master can work out where the players have got to and help accordingly. In extreme, strongly justified, exceptional cases the game master can go in and join the players to help and supervise them. (A real example: a small team of 8–10-year-olds was deep in the Wizard Prison, fighting for their escape, when their single adult chaperone had to leave for certain reasons. So the children played the second half of the game with the game master present, alongside them.)
The game master
The game master’s role in safety begins with a room check before the game starts: they verify that the padlocks, locks and other devices in the room are working as intended.
It also matters that during the pre-game briefing they explain the general and, where relevant, room-specific safety rules and information, demonstrate how certain devices are used, gauge the team’s experience and answer any questions. A well-prepared, helpful game master adds a great deal to a team’s sense of safety — after all, they are the person who is about to lock the players in a room.
Beyond that, the game master follows the progress of the game with the help of the cameras mentioned earlier. This matters so that they can offer relevant help when needed, or spot in good time if any device fails or players are using it in a way it wasn’t designed for.
Plan B: without a game master there is no game. It would be pointless to try to replace them entirely, but we have minimised their role in the gameplay itself: in our rooms EVERYTHING works, opens, closes and arrives automatically, and we have supplied instructions for the less everyday padlocks and locks. So in the ideal case every one of our rooms can be played through without any outside intervention, and the game master’s job is limited to answering players’ questions, helping them, and ensuring and supervising a smooth game.
