That really got me to thinking, though…what would a real TUG (bondage, even) themed escape room look like? What kind of scenarios would there be, and what kinds of gear would be used? Would/could something like this even be possible, given safety/liability concerns? If so, do you think people (i.e., the general public) would be inclined to sign up and participate?
The latter questions aside, here’s just one idea for a scenario/“room†that I’ve been envisioning:
Participants: 2+
Room: 15 ft x 20 ft. At one end of the room is a queen-size mattress situated on the floor, surrounded by hook points at all corners. The exit door is on the opposite end of the room. In between, there is a foam pit with several pillars on which players must jump (from one to another) in order to make their escape. A small ledge exists between the pit and rest of the room.
TUG Gear: Handcuffs, chain, ankle cuffs, and/or locking leather cuffs, gags (e.g., tape, ball gag), blindfolds, leather bondage hoods
Time Allotted: 1 hour. Additional time can be selected as an option if desired. (Hey, maybe they just want to enjoy being tied up for a while!)
Preliminary Discussion/Options: Players choose material to be bound in as well as level of intensity. At the lowest level of intensity, players are not gagged or hooded. At the highest level, players are hooded and possibly gagged. Players may also choose if they want to be provided some initial clues to help them get started. Clues can also be provided during the event as well if as required and requested.
Mission/Goal: Just escape the room!
Scenario: (For the sake of this particular event, there are only 2 players, and the highest level of intensity was selected. Heavy leather was chosen as the preferred material, due to the ability to struggle and move around without causing pain or possible injury.
Prior to entering the escape room. Both players are placed in locking leather hoods and gagged (with either a ball gag or front-buckle stuffed gag, through an open mouth hole in their hoods). The first player is brought into the room through a one-way entrance, and locking leather cuffs are applied to her hands and feet. She is placed on the mattress, and her hands and wrists and locked to the four hook points, placing her in a tight spread eagle position. She struggles and moans in her hood and gag, but she’s rendered completely helpless.
The second player is led into the room and made to lay on his back in the middle of the floor, just a few feet away from his partner. His hands and feet and likewise secured in heavy leather locking cuffs. He is then placed in a tight hogtie position using a short chain extending from both sets of cuffs. He struggles and tries to call out to his partner, but the gag proves to be quite effective.
With both players completely secured and all guards/safety staff in place, the attendee announces: Game begins now. You have one hour to escape…good luck!
Escape Details:
First, a discussion as to how the players can successfully escape. Every bit of gear has been locked on to both players, so there’s no escape without finding the required keys—so that is the first task. As the first player is tied spread eagle on the mattress, she is rendered completely immobile. It is up to the second player to perform all the initial work.
There are four keys scattered around the room (somewhere between the ledge by the pit and the mattress). He must wiggle and squirm around to find and gather all of them. Once in his possession, he can make his way over to his partner and begin unlocking each cuff. This is made extremely difficult, not only in that he is still hogtied (but can still access all necessary locks), but also because each of her cuffs corresponds to one of the four specific keys. This is will be a time-consuming (and hopefully arduous) process.
With that, partner two is (mostly) free. She can now remove her gag and is now able to speak—but, remember, she still has her locking leather hood to remove. One of the clues that was initially given, perhaps, is that keys can be either be found “up high, or down lowâ€. With some searching, she is able to feel a key hanging just above the mattress. Once the hood is removed, she is completely free!
However, her partner is still fully hogtied at this point (and, I would imagine, very exhausted!). She must search the room, high and low, for all the other keys (which are out of his reach) required to successfully free him. (This could be made more difficult or time-consuming by making the player solve a small puzzle for each additional key.). Once found, she can then remove his chain, leather cuffs, gag, and hood. Finally, they are both free.
Both players jump over the small ledge and nimbly pounce across each raised pillar in the foam pit to finally reach the exit door.
Final thoughts:
If it wasn’t obvious, the purpose of the foam pit was is ensure that both players are completely unbound before they can exit the room. The purpose of the ledge is to ensure that, while hooded, neither player accidentally wanders (or rolls) into the foam pit!
Lastly, I think an interesting take on this would be that, during the initial discussion, the players have the option of letting others watch their entire game unfold through several windows located around the room. Perhaps, this may even take place in a viewing area while other parties are waiting for their turn! Of course, this would reveal critical aspects on how to escape—but, perhaps, some important details (such as locations of keys or answers to puzzles) can be changed to ensure a “new†environment is created with every game.
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Well, that was longer than I had anticipated it to be when I started writing. Hopefully, this is still the right place for this post. Either way, I’d love to hear about other’s thoughts on other types of potential escape scenarios. What would this look like for a group of more than two people? What about a solo adventure?
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