Trapp’d: Dead Man’s Cove (Kettering)

The Highlight of our Day

The waves slam and crash against the old rickety wood of the famous pirate ship; The Pillager of The Damned as it sails across the seven seas. The sound of the waves like a lullaby after being a desolate, abandoned prisoner for 7 years. So lonely, forgotten. The bars so familiar and friendly, your home for so long. The echo of the crew above your head, working, fighting and singing all to satisfy the cruel Captain Storm Jackson. Given his name for the thunder and despair that he rains down on anyone to cross his path. Always intoxicated and giving away secrets that only a locked away companionless soul could overhear. The plans to steal the legendary pearl…tonight.

Our sixth and final room of the day was Dead Man’s Cove, and after leaving VX2.0 feeling a bit flat I was very much looking forward to this one – you can’t go too far wrong with a pirate themed room!

Our GM took us up the stairs and stood us outside the entrance to the room, where she gave the room briefing and the health and safety talk. Surprisingly to us she then handed us blindfolds before taking us into the room.

In all honesty, I hadn’t done much reading around this room or the story; I saw ‘Pirates’ and I was sold, so they may have mentioned that this was a split start room somewhere and I may have just missed it. We did this room as a team of two and I think this was the perfect number, I definitely wouldn’t do more than four as it would get very cosy at the start.

PUZZLES

There was a good mix of puzzle types here, and as you’d expect from a pirate ship there was some searching required, but this was minimal.

I’d say the room was skewed more towards logic puzzles and some of them were longer puzzles rather others, we found that one of us was often tied up for a while doing one puzzle while the other was able to get on with other things – yes, the room wasn’t massively linear.

Out of place on a pirate ship was the number of padlocks that were around. But I’m not sure if tech-driven solutions would have felt even more out of place? Perhaps. Even though there were padlocks, the puzzles needed to get the codes were all on theme.

There was one physical puzzle that fell to Liz to do and it seemed to be touch and go as to whether she made it or not. I’d imagine there must be a manual override that the GM can trigger or the game would be over before it really began.

One thing you need to do later in the room appears to rely on the GM watching on camera and then triggering a response, but there is also a fun bit of tech that is in the room later that doesn’t feel even remotely out of place.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

I loved this room; as soon as I took off my blindfold I was impressed. I know it’s hard to really get a pirate room wrong, but Trapp’d got it very right.

In places it was dark. We were provided with a lantern which we found perfectly adequate for what we needed, although one per team member would have been nicer.

The room had a nice flow to it and they had designed the room to fit with the story well. The only thing I wasn’t sure on was the ending; I think it worked, but it felt a bit odd. It was a very clear ending and you knew that you had succeeded but it just seemed like an odd way to exit a pirate ship – but I really am just being picky.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

We didn’t actually need any clues for this room but I believe that they would have been delivered in character via a friendly parrot in the room. The GM was responsive when we did the puzzle that we think they had to trigger manually and I have no doubt she would have been with clues also. At one point she chimed in with a “You got this, girl” when Liz was struggling with the physical puzzle. OK, it broke the immersion but it was fun and actually may have worked.

To help keep the immersion there was no clock in the room, although this seems to be something that Trapp’d don’t do anyway. I’m still torn on if I prefer knowing the time or not, but Liz doesn’t seem to care either way.

ANYTHING ELSE

This room was the highlight of the day for me. I know VX2.0 seems to be getting more love right now, but this room is fun, traditional, and just well put together

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in 37:08

Address: 143 Regent St, Kettering NN16 8QQ

Website: https://trappd.com