![]() But at the very least, show the threat of the present world and then the moment of discovering that if we do X, the world will be better. Just because there’s been an apocalypse does not mean you have to show the apocalypse (although that would be very cool!). You can start at the moment that a usual world becomes unusual or from within an unusual world. But an event does happen that starts you on the adventure to save yourselves. How did the world come to be this way? They don’t show that-they don’t even tell that. In Hatch Escapes’s Lab Rat, you are cast as rat-sized humans in a human-sized rat world. But what if you want a more complicated casting of the players and a less reality-based world? We like to craft stories that hew close to reality. The Man From Beyond starts at the beginning of your story before arriving at Madame Daphne’s, your life was normal. And because you are the ones who happen to be there, you have to do something. Then something goes wrong in the séance that has never happened before. In The Man From Beyond, Strange Bird invites you to a Houdini séance hosted by Madame Daphne. But if you cast the players as previously-motivated characters rather than giving them the spur on the spot, they’re going to have trouble feeling properly motivated. You can encounter characters that are in media res in escape rooms, and that can make things exciting. They are second-person narratives, first and foremost-you are at the center of the story, and what happens to the world depends on you. That’s what’s so cool about escape room stories. ![]() Immersive theatre can use i n media res when the audience is purely passive, but escape rooms cannot, as the players are far more than viewers. The witches’s prophecy in the Hotel Lobby (Sleep No More)īut inciting incidents are necessary for the characters, not you, the guests. The characters do experience an inciting incident… You are not called to be heroic, nor is there anything you can do to help. Think of Sleep No More: there’s no inciting incident for you, the viewer. In media res works if you are using the players as viewers. Think Luke finding the droids on Tatooine in Star Wars-the story doesn’t begin with the Empire takeover.) (Note that usually in media res still has an inciting incident for the plot. It challenges the viewer to piece together what has happened before and gives the opening a strong sense of urgency. In media res is a storytelling technique that plunges the reader/viewer into the middle of a story that has a long chain of events preceding it. ![]() I can’t tell you how many games I’ve played that ended in “Yay…we got the…thing…that somehow helps a problem I’ve forgotten about…?” Things that happen to us have a lasting power that things told to us do not. Telling the inciting incident results in a conclusion that has no weight. Showing the inciting incident makes escaping, obtaining the McGuffin-whatever the game goal is-meaningful. Without that moment, they could go about their lives, but with it, they must do something to right the world that will transform them into heroes.Īll of these moments are moments of surprise. The inciting incident is the moment where something changes in the world that spurs our heroes (the players) to action. Mistoffelees strikes again!Īre you having fun yet? I am, just imagining these games. You have no idea what she’s talking about! You didn’t do it! Nooooooo! An actor-or large projected video-of a judge sentences your team to life for murder. The game master takes you down a dark hallway where your team stands trial. It takes more work, but imagine how magical experiencing an inciting incident could be! That’s like skipping the foundation of a house. Most escape adventures start in Act 2 and skip Act 1. What if we follow the mantra of all writing-and show rather than tell? The right is a far more exciting thing to experience than the left. “You were wrongly imprisoned for a crime.” “You got lost in a cave.” “You awoke the tomb’s curse.” “The cat stole your keys and ran into the neighbor’s backyard!” Most escape rooms take the easy way out for beginnings: they tell you the opening part of the adventure, whether through a game master reading a script or through a polished video. I’d argue the beginning bookend is more crucial than the end, and could be the difference maker between just another escape room and an immersive adventure. ![]() The bookends of the experience are off-the-clock and where you can invest the majority of your story-telling, since there is no game to compete for player attention. In Bookends and Bottlenecks, I explored the structure Strange Bird Immersive uses to tell stories within the chaos of an escape room.
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