Julia Morris

Escape this Podcast is a free, story-based escape room role play in which the game master reads out the backstory and the description of the room and the players say what actions they want to perform and the game master then tells them what they find or what happens, sometimes in the form of pictures. You can either listen to the podcast by Australian couple Bill and Danni and find out if their guests manage to solve it, or you can download the script for free from their website to play with friends (over Zoom or in person) and as they have been going for 3 years or so, there are quite a lot of stories to play, set in all kinds of places from the dentist's office to a submarine. I especially enjoyed their 3 story arcs which consist of 10 connected rooms that form a story with an interesting twist at the end.  

For this game you don't need any resources apart from your phone (and maybe a computer), so it makes it easy to set up and you could easily play it with an online group over Zoom. You get your clues in the form of text messages from the detective and weblinks to the police archive with case files and security footage. You then do research or study the material you are given to find clues about the criminal and text it back to the detective. 

You pay per device, so you could have the whole family playing on just one device if someone reads out the text messages you receive.

It was quite different from other play-at-home escape rooms I have done because it felt very realistic as it felt as if you are texting a real person and you had to use real websites likes Twitter and maps to find out clues. The only snag was calling a hotline which kept on hanging up on us, but I guess it is also very realistic that you get frustrated when calling a hotline...

Definitely recommend it, and not too expensive either.