Bill Parslow

Introduction

Ask somebody who is just starting up an Escape room what they do in their spare time and you’ll likely get a very quizzical look - that is if they have time to turn around and consider the question. So when I asked a question like this …

It’s always worth making your Escape Room group photos stand out from the crowd. One way to that is through the easily created but interesting modification, called the vignette effect. Users of Buzzshot can have this effect applied automatically of course, but here we'll look at how you …

Yep, those heavy handed over-enthusiastic “over-stimulated” players that smash and crash and clatter around. Until surprise, surprise, something breaks. So what do you do? Here’s my take on it - it is something that every escape room owner should plan for. Right from the design of the room …

Nothing in this article or on this site is legal advice. Specialist legal advice should be taken in relation to specific circumstances.

The GDPR is creeping up on you…

It’s not a monster though- in fact it’s a fairly sensible bit of Data Protection law designed to ensure …

Things usually heat up at Xmas in the entertainment business and escape rooms are no exception. Sometimes you’ll have resets that are full of glitter and sparkles - oh what joy! In the more adult end of the spectrum the groups are drunker, noisier and just have that …

A few weeks, or was it months ago I wrote a piece on training GMs - and I said (sorry to repeat myself)

Obviously when you recruit a GM you’re looking for someone personable, adaptable, able to think in the moment and improvise and so on - essentially …

Customers - Why?
The customers - what keeps them entertained. It’s always a mystery to me why some people come to Escape Rooms. I guess there is a certain amount of excitement in trying to solve the puzzles. There are those eureka moments when you get the answer. …

I’ve not posted anything for a while for two reasons. One was a holiday in Croatia, the highlight of which, in this strange twisted mind set that the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik instills in a certain kind of person like me, was a day kayaking around and …

I’m sure that every GM gets tired and fed-up of people who come late. People who cannot follow the simplest of instructions, who cannot tell the time. One of the saddest texts I ever had, on a busy Saturday afternoon, four weeks before Christmas, arrived only ten minutes …

Speaking as a GM who occasionally (ahem) misses something on a reset I have to say that it does happen. I've made checklists (which were helpful for new GMs), but the main thing is going round and re-checking everything as you go round the room. Also when I …

There’s been a bit of discussion in one of the escape room Facebook groups recently about troubles that people have had with putting strangers together despite the fact that “the small print clearly states that others may join you.” !

“Despite the fact” ? - there lies the …

“Freshness!” It’s far more than air fresheners and holding a lot of people in a confined space and whether you go for the fresh scented bouquet of a just washed urinal or let the natural odours of all mingle and ferment together. Room hygiene? Well yes that’s certainly …

The Bad Day

Lady Chastity’s Reserve, variously and colourfully described with gratuitous reference to psychedelic drugs, as “Crystal Maze on Crystal Meth” is a rather naughty, very atmospheric and very immersive experience currently available in Brighton and London. I talked to founder and owner Ben Tucker about starting up an …

At some time most escape rooms will get a less than favourable review - maybe it’s because something went wrong like the A/C failed or maybe it was a slightly off day for your GM.

There it is sitting at the top of all your five star reviews, …

This story of my trousers is slightly off topic for an Escape Room GM, but bang on for customer care ( but don't forget this post!.) Three months ago I bought some quite expensive trousers from Spoke - ones that I can wear for smart but still …

First of all you should be quite clear that you will not accept people arriving in a dysfunctional level of inebriation - it should be clearly laid out in your terms and conditions. It is a sad fact, especially since Escape Rooms are becoming more and more popular …

Everybody knows that Customer Care is vital in any Escape Room - we all know that you have to be nice to your customers, it’s just a business truism nowadays. The thing about real customer care - the care that benefits your business properly is that it goes …

I am a GM in a very Gothic, atmospheric room - it’s eerie decor, weird soundscape and little scares (Nervous Player “ Is there anything scary in there?” Me: “Madam, I will have to refer you to my lawyers to answer that”) are part and parcel of the …

Of course no one would be a Escape Room host if it wasn’t for the huge number of entertaining and just downright nice people that you meet and interact with. And interact with is the key word.

Glancing through escape room reviews there is a common theme - …

There comes a time, for every game master when it isn’t that the group you have in are desperately rude or drunk or unpleasant, but there is something about them, something about them that you just don’t like. Now it could be said, and probably quite rightly so, …

While obsessionally looking at other Escape Room feedback and pictures I did find some real beauts. I particularly laughed in a knowingly, unkindly way, at the bearded winners of one Escape Room as they stared glumly out from their winner’s sofa, their mouths set firm against the ordeal …

I touched on the GM manual in my last post. Many escape rooms have them but, and this is something I mentioned last time, they are so seldom up to date. We’re all busy people, and escape rooms change all the time - things get broken, new …

Obviously when you recruit a GM you’re looking for someone personable, adaptable, able to think in the moment and improvise and so on - essentially the qualities needed to run a large company with the acting and improvisational skills of the combined cast of Who’s Line Is It …

We all want feedback from the games we’ve run, of course we do. Except. Except for those groups that turn up every once in awhile that are really just mouths and lungs with legs to move them around, mostly at random.

These are the groups that make knowing …