Escape Room Etiquette

I'm so sorry to have to mention these things. Really, truly, I wish I didn't have to. It shouldn't be necessary. But experience has taught me otherwise. So put on a smile, laugh it up, and get ready for some escape room etiquette.

Communicate, But Don't Over Communicate

Just about every list of escape room tips tells you to communicate, and they are absolutely right. But there is such a thing as over-communicating, and that should be avoided. Here are some examples:

• Expressing an idea about solving a puzzle while someone else is already in the middle of solving it.
• Talking over people. Communication happens sequentially, not all at once.
• Shouting out numbers when other someone else is trying to open a lock.

Be Civil

That's what this is all about, right? Here are some examples of what being civil entails, because it is impossible to make a list that is all-inclusive.

• Don't grab things out of other people's hands.
• Don't be a puzzle hog. You're not impressing people; you're pissing them off because you're in the way of them enjoying the game.
• If you are in the room with your family, spouse, friends, significant others, etc., and you have longstanding issues with them, and there are other people in the room who are not familiar with your deeply-troubled personal history, perhaps you should save those differences for another occasion like, maybe, Thanksgiving.
• Also, escape rooms are about puzzles, not about you performing your own personal comedy special that you are rehearsing for Netflix. Focus please.

This all comes with one caveat: If people are rude to you for no reason, feel free to put them in check.

Don't Dismiss Other People's Ideas Offhand

This falls under the previous category, but deserves its own place on the list. It is frequently the result of a Type A personality gone wrong.

When game masters talk to players after a game, they frequently hear them say some variation of this: "I was going to do that, but they talked me out of it."

A great example of this comes from the 2015 TV show Race to Escape on the Science Channel. Race to Escape was a one-season series in which, every episode, two teams were placed in identical escape rooms where they competed against other to see who got out the fastest, provided they escaped at all. In an episode called "Barbershop Breakout," the players started the game wearing barbershop capes. When they took off the capes off and examined them, they found letters spelling out the word "LAMP." One team walked over to the lamp and turned it on, revealing the code they needed. But when a player on the second team pointed out the word "LAMP," another player immediately dismissed it, saying that they weren't looking for letters; they were looking for numbers. The team spent the rest of the game floundering around the room trying to solve a single puzzle, because everyone listened to a dismissive player. Don't "LAMP" your team.

Encourage People, Share, and Be Complementary

Encouraging people, sharing, and being complementary will make you less likely to fall into the other traps I've mentioned above. All else being equal, a non-combative, non-stressed team is far more likely to succeed.

So go out there and kick some ass. Figuratively, that is.