Next-Gen is moving, now in less than a month!
For our upcoming escape room game at our new 7718 N First St location, we as the game designers decided to introduce a new game mechanic. In various team-based games you’ll find certain players have specialized roles which help them perform a specific function for the team. Roleplaying games! The idea for our new escape game is a Class-based system, where players choose from a selection of different classes which have their own personal items and puzzleline.
All the classes we chose are traditional choices from popular roleplaying games, with our own twist on top. Of course, as with any great thrilling room there are a few twists I’m leaving out here.
The Classes:
Alchemist
A local shopkeep turned adventurer. Owns a copy of the popular book, Lessons on Liquids and Lipids, and seeks to revitalize the tavern using alchemical methods. Complexity 4/5
Bard
A disgraced musician from the School of Barding. Uses a musical instrument to solve a school-wide mystery from clues uncovered at the tavern. Better for a player with any musical talent. Complexity 3/5
Cleric
A spiritual healer from a renowned holy order. To complete the quest, they will enshrine a holy object which can be used to fulfill your order’s vision. Complexity 3/5
Druid
A powerful mage enhanced with runic power. Place rune idols to unlock ancient magick stored in the tavern. Complexity 4/5
Fighter
Sole survivor of a Warrior Clan. Carries a heavy shield, and recites their familial oaths. Complexity 3/5
Ranger
Loner from the northern wastes. Consults the bestiary, a family heirloom which possesses advanced knowledge of the creatures of the world. Complexity 5/5
Rogue
A secretive member from the Thieves Guild. Skillfully uses a lockpick to complete their initiation. Complexity 3/5
Wizard
Student of Children’s University. Utilizes a powerful slate of knowledge to cast hand-gesticulation magick spells. Complexity 5/5
Designing around corners
It was difficult to tell what the right call would be for groups of less than 8. Each class has a set of puzzles tied to the player, so what happens if we aren’t at max capacity for a booking?
Our previous location had an average booking size of 4.3 players, and it tells us that most groups will not be at our maximum capacity. Therefore, if players didn’t choose a class they would thereby be “locked” out of a certain set of puzzles unless they returned and had enough players to choose all classes or got locked out of different puzzles on the next playthrough. It’s great to reinforce the idea that this is a replayable escape room, but I would feel like I’m blocking my players from puzzles/content in the name of making money. Additionally, I know that escape room superfans want to solve 100% of a room. If after solving every puzzle they can in a room, and they only ended up doing 75% of a room they’d be disappointed. Evenmoreso if they had time remaining on the clock!
If your group has less than the maximum number of players, then the puzzles from the unchosen classes will still be available in the room. Instead of immediately having access to the puzzleline, you will need to discover it by playing through the game.
Creating the 8 Classes
The goal is to make each class interesting, and give enough variety to where groups could return and replay the room and still experience fresh content. I don’t think it will be an experience where you return to “master” a class, but if you wanted to get quick points I don’t see why picking the same class twice would be an issue. Play the game the way you want to play!
Some classes are made to be more beginner friendly, while others are promoted as being for experienced players. This characteristic is mostly based on the number of components and complexity of puzzles they experience. We’ll recommend players to choose a class that seems most interesting to them, but consider their complexity.
Future plans
With this being said, it isn’t clear right now if other rooms will contain classes. It was an important design goal for this room to have classes so that there would be a scalable level of puzzles available to groups. In my opinion of the few I've played, too many hi-capacity rooms of 8 or more max players often don’t have enough for everyone to be actively working on something during the game. Classes should help alleviate this by giving players something personal to work on, and actively keep an eye and ear out for.
Scrapped idea
I thought of adding characters to the classes, but ultimately decided against it. It would be a lot on top of everything to have a backstory to manage, a personal plotline, and an entire escape room on top of it. Maybe one day that will happen, but not now. Also, I have to assume some of our players have their own RPG characters they love to play as, and we want to enable as much of that fun as possible.
FYI: These ideas are all works in progress, and subject to change. Not sure why I felt like putting a disclaimer here, but I thought it should be noted somewhere. The most accurate information about the room will be the room's booking page when it becomes available.Coming up I’ll write about our book The Escape Room Traveler, an update on the Next Escape show, and how we use AI in the escape room!
Thanks for reading!
-Calvin
