Count Town – Freak Show

Dimitar: (might contain mild spoilers that won’t ruin your game, I promise)

Let’s start this one with a disclaimer (as one does) – we don’t play scary rooms. And by we, I mean – most of us. We put a lot of value on all other aspects of a room, and being scary is (most of the time) not one of them. I like solving neat puzzles, and not having someone scream in my face while I try to do a Sudoku (mostly a true story for another time).

That being said – I loved this scary room.

When Nadia made the schedule for Thessaloniki and said we’re going to play a scary room, I wasn’t bothered. It was a problem for the “future me” to solve. I guess the nerves got to me as I was frantically trying to find some reviews on the internet for this room so I could go in “prepared” and put my mind at ease. I found a couple of them – didn’t help. It got worse when Ivan and Angel (scary room aficionados) got hyped up right before we went in.

We had a clear understanding with the GM that we wanted a “lighter” version of the game if possible. The usual – No touchy-touchy for the women and “do whatever you want with the men” (oh why was I born a man?!). Well, the game has a “safe zone” of sorts, so we committed to having the women there and everyone else would do the “scary” stuff.

And we went in. And the lights were out. And then they were on. And out again. The experience was disorienting in the first half and very, very fun the rest of the way. Was it scary – yes. Was it manageable – also yes. It was a dash of terror combined with a lot of comedy and laughs (the room might not be advertised as “funny”, but the performance inside had comedic flourishes as in every great circus act).

The performers were the highlight for me in this room. They quickly “got” into the groove of our team and played very much to our respective likes and dislikes. The experience was as hands-on as it was “cinematic” at parts. There was acting, there was room for improvising together with the performers, there were alright puzzles (not great, not terrible), and once the rules and mechanisms of the room were apparent, it was easy to let go of everything and simply enjoy the ride. Also notable – one of the few rooms I’ve ever played with a well-designed puzzle that uses taste, not just a heap of time-wasting mumbo-jumbo (I’m looking at you, Molly’s game).

If someone from “Count Town” is reading this – You have to give a raise to your performers, they deserve it.