Cryptid Grove Update: Our Most Enchanting Challenge Yet!

Gather round, intrepid explorers and puzzle aficionados! The whispers through the woods are true: Cryptid Grove is gearing up to mystify you! Our journey, from the sun-soaked beginnings of summer to the frost-kissed edge of winter, has been a tapestry of love, creativity, and a touch of cryptid mischief.

The seed of this magical concept took root last year, and since then, our team at Escape Room Herndon has been masterfully crafting this experience. We've translated sketches and daydreams into a reality of tangible walls and enigmatic puzzles.

More than mere builders, we're storytellers, artists, and occasionally, cryptid experts. Our deep dive into cryptid lore has revealed fascinating tidbits and surprising talents within our ranks. For a bit of whimsy—did you know there is a quirky tradition involving bean offerings to the Mothman statue in Point Pleasant, WV?  Our imaginative ERH have embraced this playful spirit, and even  concocted their own legendary beings, and you might just spot one of these exclusive creatures lurking in the final design of the game.

The build process? Oh, it's been an odyssey—a delightful dance between design and implementation, with more twists than a Jersey Devil's path.

Remember the days when a couple of lockers and basic furniture were enough to whip up an escape room in a mere two months? Those simple times have transformed into an era of sophistication where we pour our hearts and souls into crafting each puzzle with intricate care, using a thoughtful approach to ensure every puzzle bears the distinctive mark of ERH's wonder.

A proud 90% of our fantastical gift shop is born from our own hands. Yes, we've woven in a thread of technological magic from outside sources to keep you guessing, but the core—the essence, the laughter, the triumphs—blossoms from the ERH family's ingenuity.

We're diligently working to unveil Bigfoot’s cryptid gift shop extravaganza by late November. However, due to the ambition of this project and an ill-timed out-of-state trip, we're aiming for a mid-December grand opening—adding an element of enchantment to your festive season.

A few more puzzles await their perfect place, and some tech remains to be tweaked before we reach that climactic "Eureka!" Rest assured, we'll roll out the red carpet for our soft opening with the swiftness of a Sasquatch sighting.

We’re brimming with excitement to welcome you to Cryptid Grove, where the line between myth and reality blurs in the most playful of ways. Get ready for an escape room experience that’s sure to be legendary!

Keep your eyes peeled for tantalizing previews and the lore behind Cryptid Grove. We're perched with bated breath, and eager to welcome you to a world of wonder where Bigfoot is just another shopkeeper, and the fantastic is merely... usual. 

Join us soon at Cryptid Grove, where myths come to play and into a realm where folklore frequents the shelves and the extraordinary becomes the norm. Prepare for an escape room experience that promises to be unforgettable!

The Pirate's Life for Us: How We Are Expanding Our Adventure

Ahoy there, fellow escape room enthusiasts! It's time for some exciting news from the ERH crew! As much as we love creating new escape rooms, saying goodbye to old favorites is never easy. We recently faced this dilemma with Maritime Mutiny, one of our most beloved and visually stunning rooms. It had been around for four incredible years and had become a fan favorite among our guests, especially for birthday parties.

At ERH, we're passionate about creating escape rooms that excite and challenge our guests. However, with limited space, to make new rooms we need to retire older ones. It's a difficult decision, but one that we make so we can explore new ideas and themes that keep our rooms fresh and exciting.

But saying goodbye to a beloved room is never easy. When we retired The Mystery of Room 213, it felt like we were losing a piece of our family. The memories that were created in that room by our guests and staff were priceless, and we couldn't help but feel a tinge of regret. If we could go back, we would save Room 213 so that more people could experience its magic.

When it came time to retire Mutiny, it was still as popular as ever, if not more so. It was often the first Escape Room experience for many of our guests. And yet, technically it was time for us to create a new game so in theory it was time for it to retire.

But this time around, we just couldn't bring ourselves to let go of Mutiny. It still had so much life left in it, hosting young adventurers eager to try their hand at escape rooms. It was the first experience for many of our guests, and we knew we had to find a way to keep it around while still creating new games.

That brings me to our special announcement. We found the solution! We're excited to announce that we'll be opening a second location later this year! Raven's Nest will be just a few doors down from ERH, with enough space for two large 10+ player games and a themed party room for hosting birthday parties with cake (because who doesn't love cake?).

Raven's Nest will feature all the same thrilling gameplay you've come to expect from ERH, but with new and exciting twists. And who knows, maybe we'll even find a way to bring back some of your old favorites.

We can't wait for you to join us at our new location and experience the thrill of Raven's Nest. It's going to be epic! So keep an eye out for updates and mark your calendars for the grand opening in the fall of 2023. Let the countdown begin!

The Secret Story of Tanya, the ghost of Room 213

This post will have several spoilers in it. So, if you haven’t played Room 213 yet, I recommend saving this post until you’ve played or it’s officially retired.

Spoilers Incoming, last warning.

Room 213 is split into four sections; the Main room is meant to be a hotel room.  There is a tunnel that leads out of it into the Operation Room, and from there you get into the last room with the body freezer and furnace.  As the story goes, Holmes would gas the hotel room, then sneak in through the wardrobe to gather up the bodies.  Cut them up in the operation room, and either hang them in the freezer or burn them in the furnace (what a jerk).

When you play Room 213, you need to crawl through the tunnel out of the first room.  Inside that tunnel, you discover the missing doll from one of the guests Holmes had murdered. In our game, the ghost that haunts Room 213 can’t rest until she’s gotten her doll back.

As part of the fun from building this room, we needed to shop for a whole bunch of Porcelain Dolls to fill the role of “The angel Sue, searching for her bow of blue”.  This means I had to go from thrift store to thrift store buying all the dolls they had. Without any context, I’m sure this raised at least a few eyebrows.

These dolls would never last since guests would throw them into the furnace, at the floor, or sometimes at each other shattering them in the process. So they broke all the time, which meant I had to always go back out to get more.

For months this wasn’t a problem, but the supply started running low after some random dude kept buying all the porcelain dolls they had (it was me), so I had to venture out further to find them. That’s when I met Tanya.

Tanya was in a thrift store I hadn’t visited before and she was the only doll there.  Immediately I felt this one was a bit different. Just look into Tanya’s eyes…. You can almost feel her looking back. So much so that I had to take a picture of her to show the team.

When I bought her, the lady at the front commented to me, “Oh that was is creepy, it's been here for a while”.  I laughed and told her we needed a scary one so it’s perfect.

At first, everything was fine, and people would get freaked out by her as intended.  But then she broke.

This is when things got weird and props stopped working.  In the beginning, it was basic things like a sound didn’t play when it should, but then things would stop working altogether and need to be replaced (The mirror for one). Then things started acting up in all the rooms. Most people would chalk this up to regular wear and tear, but we knew differently, it was her and she wasn’t happy.
We had fixed her with glue and tape but things kept getting weird. It wasn’t until we gave her a name, Tanya, that it stopped (or didn’t, can’t really tell)

All the dolls we purchased are secondhand, so we don’t know the story of them before. So here is the 80’s horror movie version of her story that I have running in my head.
She was a mischievous person from decades ago, let’s say she was accused of being a Salem witch. When she died her spirit was captured inside of a Doll by some powerful magic. The owner of the doll locked her away in an attic to never see light again.  However many years later when this owner passed away, their relatives were cleaning out the attic and they found her.  Along with the rest of their things, Tanya was donated to charity. She rotted away on a high shelf in the back of an old antique store. Then one day, a random business owner comes in and finds her sitting there. When he purchases her, the owner of that store gives a vague warning about the doll's vibe. The owner laughs it off and leaves with the doll in hand. As he walks out, Tanya looks into the camera and smiles…

So next time you visit ERH, make sure to say hello to Tanya, her spirit is around somewhere being mischievous. 

The Story behind Mystery of Room 213

The Story of Room 213

The Mystery of Room 213 will be retiring in a few weeks, so now may be a time to give you all the story of Room 213.  This story isn’t complete though without telling you about Tanya, but more on her later. I’ve split this into the Non-Spoiler post for those who haven’t played yet, the next post will contain spoilers (so go play it while you can!)

Non-Spoiler Section: The Source of the Story

The Mystery of Room 213 was originally built at Escape Room RVA in Richmond.  The story at the time was centered around a haunted Asylum. Our team from Herndon played it on a trip down to visit the crew.  One of the GM’s at the time, Ash, scared me so much at the end of the game that I’m pretty sure I gave a high-octave yelping jump back 3 feet. (Thanks Ash)

We loved the scares so much that when it was time for Mind Trap to retire we wanted to bring Room 213 up to Herndon.  Once in Herndon, we also wanted to change the story and puzzles to stay with our goal of making each room better. Our team wanted to move beyond the use of an Asylum and come up with something new. I felt like a haunted hotel would be a good fit for the layout of Room 213, we just needed a story for the “why”. I have a passing interest in True Crime and wanted to bring that into one of our games. One of the most famous Hotels in True Crime is the Chicago Murder Castle of H.H.Holmes.

(credit: hollycarden.com)

For those that don’t know, H.H. Holmes was a business owner in Chicago during the 1890s. He is considered to be one of America’s first serial killers. During Chicago’s 1893 World Fair he welcomed guests to his hotel, sometimes taking insurance policies out in their name, and killing them in his gas chamber.  He’d then sell their bodies to doctors for science.  It’s believed he was responsible for over 200 deaths! He was PURE EVIL. The book Devil In The White City tells his wicked tale and was the source for much of the story we tried to tell in this game.

In our intro story for Room 213, Holmes is the hotel owner that invites you to investigate the strange happenings.  He then “locks” you into the room, cause, you know, he’s probably planning to kill you. As the game progresses, the players will learn more about his plans for you. You’ll discover clues and remnants of his past sinister crimes. You will also “meet” some of the former guests of the hotel.

This is as far as we can really go into the story without Spoilers.  The next post will reveal the reasons for some of the props in this room as well as how the rooms relate to the story. I will also introduce you to Tanya, and why we believe she not only haunts Room 213, but all of ERH!

The History of Why We Retire Rooms?

In the past, people have asked why we retire a room when we do.  This post is to share some history and reasoning into this as we get ready to retire our 7th room at Escape Room Herndon, The Mystery of Room 213.

First the history.  We started ERH as part of Ravenchase Adventures and as the sister company to the great Escape Room RVA (in Richmond). To open quickly, we designed two rooms ourselves (Mary In The Black and Dreamscape) and adapted two former RVA rooms (Crypt and MindTrap).  Mary In the Black was the first room I developed primarily on my own, it was based on a story from the movie Ex-Machina. I loved that room and the story twist it had, but this was so “early years” escape room tech and puzzles.  It would not look good today, but in 2016 it felt amazing.

As a team, we learned so much by building Dreamscape and Mary’s. So many new puzzle styles, narratives, and technical props that we wanted to apply to a new room.  Around this time (late 2016), Supervillain's had retired at RVA.  It was one of their top rooms and we wanted to bring it up to Herndon.  We took the shell and added in some new tech we had been working on (lasers!).  It was a blast and the improvements made a lasting impression on our guests as well as our team.

With the retirement of Dreamscape in 2017, it gave us a chance to make a whole new game from scratch.  We followed our passions and created LAST HOPE, our own personal homage to Star Wars.  We were able to take everything we’d learned from the previous rooms and apply it to the building on this new game. We used tech and puzzles we wouldn’t have even imagined of just 1 year prior (more lasers, videos, human circuits, electric glass, and holograms!)

LAST HOPE was the validation for me.  Each new room CAN be an improvement on the one it replaces. It has been our goal since that we will build a room if we think we can improve its predecessor. And so, with each new build, we have tried to use things we’ve learned along the way to make the next room even better.

This brings us to the “why?”.  The main reason is, to improve upon the games we make and to create new stories along the way. Each new game can build on the shoulders of the before it and tell a story that sends the player on a new journey. At the end of the day, we’re just guides through an adventure into something unexpected. We hope The Island of Dr.Moreau will continue on this tradition and offer a moment of magic (and terror) to you all very soon.

A Time To Be Thankful

It's that time of year, where we come together with loved ones to celebrate each other and the things we're thankful for.

This year is different. We are navigating a difficult environment and facing challenges to celebrating that few of us ever thought we would go through. As the joke goes, this year was a tough decade. With so much that has happened, and so much lost, it is more important than ever to find things to be thankful for.

I would like some time to share a few of mine as it relates to Escape Room Herndon.

I am thankful to be working somewhere that is always presenting opportunities to learn. There is so much to learn from working at our escape room. I definitely feel my horizons expanded.

I am thankful to have an avenue for creativity, and encouragement to exercise it. My ideas may not always be implemented, but they are never dismissed offhand. There is the freedom to create fun puns when giving clues, and I also have the chance to express my creativity in this blog.

In a similar subject, I am grateful to work somewhere that encourages listening to our customers. When we hear issues with our rooms, we always check it out at our first opportunity and look for ways to improve upon the experience. Customers are valued at ERH, we are rooting for our guests to escape.  Generally, it is a very positive experience.

I am grateful to be working somewhere that takes our health seriously. We are given supplies to clean the rooms thoroughly and the schedule was adjusted to give us the time to do so.

Finally, (for this blog anyway) I am extremely thankful for the people I work with. We have a lot of fun working together. The team is diverse, with rich experiences and stories to share, giving plenty of opportunities to see life from perspectives that can be wildly different from my own. There is also an eagerness to accept and help each other that is truly touching. The Cheer's theme is an apt description in many respects for how I feel coming to work.

Taking a moment to reflect on things I am thankful for really helps to provide some positivity in my day, something that has been greatly needed this year. I hope this holiday season we can all find some things, no matter how small, to be thankful for.

HOW WE PICK A NEW ESCAPE ROOM

As you may know, all of the rooms at Escape Room Herndon are designed and built in-house.  So, you may have wondered in the past, how we get our room ideas. Well, it’s a long and sometimes overly complicated approach, but can best be compared to a monkey throwing chalk on a board to see what sticks.

In our operations room, there is an entire wall made out of a black chalkboard. It gets a ton of ideas scratched onto it throughout the year. Sometimes, we pick a room by vote (Magician’s Workshop), and sometimes it will be based on a scene from a movie we like (Cursed Crypt, Mary In the Black). On some rare occasions, the mere idea gets everyone onboard immediately (Last Hope).

Most of the time, we will throw around ideas with the staff and see what gets the most interest. With the retirement of Mystery of Room 213 coming up early next year, we’ve been long discussing what will replace it. We thought we had an answer all the way back in February but over time that idea, Bloody Mary, faded in excitement. So, we had to start back at the beginning.

Once we have an idea, we ask ourselves a few simple questions.

First and foremost, does this room sound fun? This is the more important question and the first thing we ask. For instance, playing on a haunted island sounds more fun than playing in a haunted office.

Can we create a story around this idea?  What is the purpose of the game, what are you escaping from or trying to solve? It’s nice to have a goal when you’re solving puzzles, even if it’s as simple as finding why weird things are happening in a room. Most of our rooms have an underlying story that goes beyond the introduction. It’s our guide as to what kind of aesthetics, designs, and puzzles we will create.

What “WOW” moments can we create? Each room should have at least a few unexpected surprises. This is probably the most fun aspect of the room to design. We love treating our guests to a few “whoa” moments in their game.

Can it be done professionally and well? We aren’t professional carpenters but what we do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills we have acquired over a very long career. We need to make sure what we imagine we can also create with those skills.

Finally, in the case of the replacement for Room 213, will it be scary? When replacing our scary room we need to make sure the next one is just as creepy, if not MORE!

After a few months, we think we’ve come up with the theme for our next upcoming room.
Details coming soon…

Technological Harmony at Escape Room Herndon

One of the ways we try to integrate magic into an escape room is with the cunning use of technology. Light sensors, powered-locks, cell phone props, the possibilities are limitless in theory, and can significantly enhance that magic wow-factor that gets people talking and players smiling.

In reality, to apply tech in an escape room, a good game designer needs to consider 3 things.

·  Will it withstand abuse?

·  How can it be operated when it breaks?

·  Can we afford it?

Any puzzle in an escape room is going to be worked over and over again on an operational day, and in unexpected ways by puzzled players. A piece of technology will need to be able to withstand this constant use.  At ERH, we do routine maintenance and touch-ups to help mitigate breakages.

But no matter how hard anyone tries, prop breaks will happen, it is inevitable.  So, what then?  This is a critically important question when designing the room.  I once played a room that involved using a spyglass to look outside. When I played, it worked brilliantly and I loved such a unique puzzle.  But a friend played when it was cloudy, and the puzzle became unsolvable, they had to be given the answer. What could be a magic moment, now comes across as a huge detriment to the room and a source of complaints. 

At ERH, we have multiple redundancies built in and treat our puzzles like an airplane.  If a player's actions don't trigger the result, we are watching and ready to press the backup switch.  What happens if the backup fails? We can run to the room and trigger the switch from outside. If all that fails, we understand our technology well enough that we can force a result, it is not an ideal fix, but better than a puzzle failing. To use an example of forcing a result from a different room, a cell phone had texts that added ambiance and one text contained a clue.  The cell phone was dead when we played the room, the game master brought a backup phone with the required text written on a paper note on the screen.  It gave us the result we needed, bypassing a failed piece of technology.

Which brings us to the last question, is the technology affordable?  I have played some low tech escape rooms that had a lot of heart and passion poured into them, and I enjoyed the experience immensely. To someone new in the hobby, those rooms can potentially feel underwhelming. Having a high tech room can wow players, but it is significantly more expensive and may be out of the budget for some escape rooms. As ERH has grown, we have been able to incorporate more technology behind the scenes to up that wow-factor. Our newest room, Magician's Workshop, really exemplifies this.

At the end of the day, each escape room needs to find technological harmony, a balancing act between budget, vision, and reliability. Most importantly though, it should give the players a unique experience that will inspire wonder and the belief in escape room magic.

Escape Room Magic

One of the most fascinating things for me about being a game master is learning about what goes into the making of an escape room.

All of our rooms can be completed in just a single hour, but behind that one hour is hundreds more hours of meticulous design and planning. I had never really thought about it before joining the ERH team, but every element in each room has been extensively developed to uphold a balance of challenging puzzles and fun gameplay/ambiance. Certain puzzles in every escape room rely on eyesight, so even the colors and images we use are selected.

The most interesting thing to learn about so far has been the mechanics behind my favorite escape room props. For those of you who have been to escape rooms before, you may have seen objects open or move on their own, as if by magic. Each of those moments is its own unique feat of electrical and mechanical engineering; it may not be the kind of magic you’re thinking of, but I find the innovation and creativity involved to be enchanting in its own way. 

For some, knowing the secrets behind escape rooms may dispel the magic that is “the suspension of disbelief”. However, I've also seen many people come to ERH who are just as (if not more) enthusiastic about room mechanics as I am. Everyone finds an escape room to be magical in their own unique way, but one common thing I’ve noticed is that each player experiences one moment or prop in a room that makes them say “whoa, that’s so cool!” It’s the thing I look forward to hearing the most whenever I run a room, and I can say with confidence that those moments are what make my escape room experiences truly magical.

Whether you’d rather escape rooms remain mysterious, or if you’re interested in what goes on behind the scenes, I hope you can come and experience your own magical "whoa" moment (whoa-ment?) here at ERH!

Halloween At Escape Room Herndon

Come celebrate a safe and sanitized Halloween at Escape Room Herndon! Play one of our rooms in costume and you’ll go home with a full sized candy bar, (and one of our Escape Room Victory pins, if you’re lucky enough to make it out alive, bwahaha).

Looking for something spooky? Great, in The Mystery of Room 213 your team becomes paranormal investigators, called upon by a local hotel owner to investigate strange happenings inside room 213. The hotel owner, H. H. Holmes, brings you up to the room, where he swiftly closes and locks the door behind you. This is where your adventure begins. We dare you to uncover The Mystery of 213. 

Already have Halloween plans, but dying to try your hand at solving The Mystery of 213? No worries! 213 will be up and running through the rest of 2020, so you and your crew can keep the creep going long after all the normies have hung up their spiders and skeletons. But don’t wait too long, because The Mystery of 213 is going to be the next room to be retired to make way for a brand new scary room!
Escape Room Herndon has Halloween fun for the whole family. If creepy is not your thing, try one of our other three rooms. Add some mysticism to your Halloween by exploring the Magician’s Workshop. Get groovy traveling back to the 80’s to search for your lost video games in 8-bit Escape. Gather your mateys and steal back your rightful treasure from Captain Ravensbeard in Maritime Mutiny!

We hope to celebrate the spookiest of seasons with you soon!

The Mystery of 213 is recommended for ages 13+