February 1, 2022 Part escape room, part interactive museum: Room Escapers plans literary adventure for Old Corner Bookstore
Hello there, Jeff Boyer here – Guest blogger for Historic Boston this month and Chief Joy Instigator of Room Escapers Boston! We are a small and local Escape Room company that has two locations in downtown Boston – one of these being inside the beautiful Old Corner Bookstore which was saved and restored by Historic Boston! In this article I will give you a brief overview on what “Escape Room Games” are along with the history of our company and the exciting future we have planned.
Overview
Traditionally Room Escape Games began with the premise that you were inside of a themed, locked room (e.g. you are trapped at your work office) trying to find the way to escape. In order to do so you had to work together with your team to solve a series of riddles and puzzles that would finally reveal the key for you to escape. After trying one out I was hooked and wanted to spread the joy that they brought to me! One of my favorite things about them is that we have found them to fun for almost everyone from children to grandparents. They are great for a unique family event, birthday parties for those younger and older, a night out with friends, and even corporate team building events!
While Room Escapers Boston is rooted on this general idea, from our beginning in 2015 we have meshed local history and exciting themes together creating one-of-a-kind experiences you cannot take part in anywhere else in the world! While our adventures are definitely puzzle and riddle heavy, our adventures vary from the traditional model in that they are more of a “break-in” as opposed to a “break-out.” You are never locked in and the game space you are in actually gets bigger as you unlock new rooms and progress towards your goal(s). For example, in “Panacea” you are exploring an old Apothecary that was inside the Old Corner Bookstore in the early 1700’s. Your goal is not to escape from the room, but to find the Panacea – an ancient “cure-all” potion.
Current and Future Adventures
Most of our themes have been rooted and designed around true events in New England’s rich history. Our first theme had you and your team break into a MIT scientist’s lab to activate a newly created time machine. It was utilized to go back in time and board the legendary ship the Whydah to find a lost treasure map!
Room Escapers Boston has 3 themes open with several more under construction. All of our adventures are completely private, so it will only ever be you and your group playing! Our current experiences are:
• Panacea – Panacea takes place inside of an old Apothecary that once inhabited the Old Corner Bookstore in the early 1700s. It is thought to contain the Panacea, an ancient cure-all of old. In order to obtain it and complete your goal you and your team must master the 7 Principles of Alchemy!
• Organized Chaos – Organized Chaos is set in the early 90’s in Boston when Organized Crime is running rampant. You have been brought in on behalf of the FBI to search a known front business of a notorious gang for any evidence to link them to several heinous crimes. This is our take on an “escape room whodunnit” and is great for larger groups.
• The Pirate’s Booty II: The Lost Ship – This is a sequel and completely rebuilt adventure to our original game at our original location inside the Historic Boston Stone Building. After activating the time machine and finding the treasure map we were able to locate the location of the Whydah off the coast of Cape Cod! Now you and you team will be exploring the shipwreck to find Captain Black Sam Bellamy’s lost treasure chest!
• Streaming (Coming Soon) – Streaming isn’t based on a single historical event, but there are plenty of references weaved into this exciting and humorous adventure. While watching your favorite streaming show you dozed off and when you awoke you found yourself stuck inside of your streaming service! You must work your way through Streaming Land in order to make it back to reality!
• Unpublished (Construction Beginning 2/15/22) – Unpublished is another theme based on history that took place in the very building we are in now, the Old Corner Bookstore. While not many details have been released for this theme yet is is based around Ticknor and Fields, a publisher that opened shop in 1832 and worked with the likes of Dickens, Emerson, Thoreau and many other legendary writers of that time.
“Unpublished” celebrates publishing at Old Corner Bookstore
While we have had some delays on construction of our newer games due to the Pandemic, we have recently completed an awesome crowdfunding campaign program by the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation (MGCC). This is to help construct our newest game named “Unpublished” based around the famed publisher Ticknor and Fields that once operated in the Old Corner Bookstore. We’ve reached our goal, so MGCC will match it in order to aid us as a small business in our recovery efforts from the on-going pandemic. We are offering discounted gift vouchers, group reservation rates, and same day reservations any current or future themes across both our locations through this campaign!
Thanks in advance for any support and thanks for reading! On behalf of myself and everyone here at Room Escapers Boston, we hope to host you and your group sometime in the near future!
Jeff Boyer
Chief Joy Instigator
www.RoomEscapersBoston.com
Jeff@RoomEscapers.com
857-400-9144