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Escape rooms and DnD are connected, but many escape room enthusiasts are unfamiliar with role-playing Games (Dungeons & Dragons is the quintessential role-playing game, but it is not the only one!) and vice versa (D&D escape room).
The issue might not be surprising if it were not for the fact that there are more ties between the two worlds (escape rooms and DnD) than one would expect, especially when comparing escape rooms with the Old School style of play (which is now making a comeback thanks to the Old School Renaissance movement).
So let us try to see the points of contact between these two pastimes of escape rooms and DnD, trying to learn more about both.
In both cases, we have a hobby (or a hobbit) in a group. You play together with friends, collaborate to overcome challenges and have fun together.
This applies to both escape rooms and DnD. So yes, if your friends come back from their D&D session (or an escape room), don’t ask them “Who won?” By now, even if you are a “boomer,” you have no excuse and should know better: it’s a collaborative game.
The only difference from this point of view is that in role-playing games (as a rule) one of the participants covers the role of “referee” and “narrator” (commonly called the Master), who, precisely, describes the scenes, manages the characters that do not belong to the players, and resolves regulatory issues.
In contrast, in an escape room, we have a person who introduces us to the mission, sometimes tells us something as the story unfolds, and tends to check to make sure no damage is done and gives hints if we get stuck; however, the actual challenges will not be narrated, but we will be physically presented with them (if you play in digital format. all this will be done via PC).
Then, sure, in classic role-playing games, each player plays a specific character, i.e., an alter ego whose actions they manage and whose exact abilities they know since they are written in clear parameters on a card.
While in an escape room, you sometimes fall into a part, but it is certainly not a foundational component of the game.
As the name suggests, the escape room is usually a room from which one must exit by passing certain tests.
It could be a pharaoh’s tomb, a stalled spaceship, or a haunted castle. There are all kinds. Over time, slightly different approaches have developed, so you are not necessarily imprisoned: the goal might be to explore a place or find a secret hidden in it.
One of the topos (not the Spanish term for the little rodent chased by cats) typical of Old School role-playing games is the dungeon. That is, an enclosed construction isolated from the rest of the world (ancient ruins, castle dungeons, caves, and so on) in which adventurers will carry out their explorations, fights, and various challenges.
I am not using the terms “closed and isolated” at random. In both cases we use (broadly speaking) the same criterion as in physics: we eliminate undesirable interactions in order to focus on the details that interest us.
In D&D, they wanted to eviscerate combat and exploration, leaving out complicated social relationships, interactions with groups of people, and so on (this, again, was true in the 1980s or so).
In the escape room, you want to emphasize riddles and mental challenges, making abstraction from everything else.
This is probably why for both escape rooms and DnD, the birth and first steps took place in segregated rooms separated from the outside world.
As mentioned earlier, escape rooms are basically a series of riddles of various kinds embedded in a unique plot.
You may be wondering what the point of contact with role-playing Games should be. Aren’t those games where you fight, beat up goblins and throw fireballs at orcs? The answer is both yes and no.
In the good old days (allow a bit of nostalgia for this old dinosaur) it was very common to alternate between dungeon fights and a few riddles. Perhaps a door blocked by magic could only be opened by solving a cipher, or to avoid a mysterious trap one had to proceed in a certain way within the room; or a powerful mysterious being appeared out of nowhere who came to submit riddles to the adventurers (the great sphinx cliché, right?).
The practice has fallen somewhat out of favor, due to changes in the founding purposes of role-playing, but I will not bore you with the details for this time. However, if you find groups of players no longer in their twenties (and maybe even over 35), you may come across challenges of this kind.
I hate the word nerd. It means everything and nothing. However, by the commonly understood meaning, both pastimes are part of the so-called nerd culture (i.e., practically unrelated to sports, discos and drugs).
So if by any chance you want to brag about being a great nerd (because it has become a boast now, you are no longer ostracized for it) you should try both activities.
After this semi-serious coda, I refer you to the conclusions.
I show the cards: with what I wrote I aimed to convince fans of one pastime to try the other as well because the points of contact are there, both escape rooms and DnD are connected and you seriously risk having a lot of fun.
My goal is certainly not to make a comparison to decide whether escape rooms are better (or escape room online) or role-playing games. Also because the question wouldn’t make sense, would it? It depends on taste!
So start documenting!(can be addictive, play in moderation)
