BACKGROUND

In 2008, there was a series of missing person cases in the Urbana/Champaign area. Naturally, people were alarmed by this news, but what made the situation especially unsettling was the seemingly random nature of who went missing: A mother and her 12-month old infant, a student, and an alumna.

Unfortunately, these people were never found.

However, while doing some research on these cold cases, Cameron, a journalism student at Illinois, discovered a small detail that investigators had overlooked: All the missing persons had participated in experiments in the Department of Psychology. Moreover, Cameron has noticed that Room 154 in the Psychology Building has been sealed off for over a decade, raising suspicion that there may be clues within it--clues that could be critical for cracking open these cold cases.

Cameron is asking for your assistance in investigating Room 154.

Cameron is involved in a work-study program with a professor who has keys to the various labs in the psychology building. Fortunately, the professor often has meetings across campus, which gives Cameron just enough time to "borrow" the keys to Room 154 for a while.

Your objective is to help Cameron investigate Room 154. You will need to find answers to three questions:

    ♦ What experiments were conducted in Room 154?

    ♦ What went wrong in those experiments?

    ♦ Is there any physical evidence that the missing persons were in Room 154 at the time of their disappearances?

You have exactly 50 minutes to answer these questions and to figure out who was responsible for these disappearances.

SIGNUP

Room 154 is an escape room adventure, but with a few elements that make it different from a traditional escape room. Most importantly, the goal is not to escape from Room 154, but to solve a fictional crime in the allotted time. Moreover, we have deliberately avoided creating puzzles for puzzles' sake (e.g., puzzles that require you to place odd objects in just the right order in a location that only makes sense if you know the correct number of moons orbiting Jupiter). Instead, you'll be thinking like a detective, gathering clues, and trying to make sense of what happened and who was responsible. In other words, when you enter Room 154, your goal isn't to look for puzzles; your goal is to look for clues. As an added bonus: There is an educational component: Be prepared to learn something about classic experiments in psychology!

Sign up here:

Register for a session

(Click the link and choose the "fill out new form" option.)

RULES

- The first rule of Room 154 is no talking about Room 154. Leave some crime for others!

- Room 154 is for two people--no more, no less. Registration information for both people is required when signing up.

- No food or drink is allowed in Room 154.

- Cell phones are fine, but please do not take photos.

- Please be on time. If you are late, the session will still need to end at a hard ending time to accommodate our schedule; a 50-min session may turn into a 30-min session.

- You will obviously need to move some things around if you're searching for clues in Room 154. But, please keep in mind that Cameron is sneaking you into this space. You don't want to make it obvious that you were there. There is no need to move furniture, dump the content of desk drawers onto the floor, remove ceiling tiles, etc.