Your first escape room: a calm guide for nervous people

If you’ve been invited to an escape room and your first thought was “oh no”, this one’s for you. Lots of our players arrive nervous. Almost all of them leave asking when they can come back.

You are not actually locked in

Let’s get this out of the way. The door you came in through opens from the inside, always. You can step out for a breather, a loo break or a phone call whenever you like. The “escape” is the story, not the situation.

What happens on the night

Here’s the whole evening, start to finish:

• You arrive 10 minutes early and we take your coats

• Your host explains the rules and the story, usually with a terrible joke

• You go in, look around and start finding things

• Your host watches and sends hints whenever you ask

• You get out (or nearly), and we take the team photo

That’s it. No running, no climbing, no being put on the spot.

If the dark worries you, tell us when you book. We can keep the lights up, skip the jumpier effects and make sure your host checks in a bit more often. None of that changes the game for the rest of your group, and nobody else needs to know.

“But I’m rubbish at puzzles”

Good news: escape rooms aren’t really about puzzles. They’re about noticing things and telling people. The person who says “there’s a number on the back of this clock” is just as useful as the person who works out what it means.

“Some of our best players were dragged here by friends and spent the first five minutes by the door.”

Aisha, game master

If you’d like a gentle start, try The Pickle Factory or The Last Tram. Neither has any scares, and both are full of things to touch, open and laugh at. Bring a friend, ask for hints and enjoy it. Nobody is keeping score except the clock.