Co-op Days: Rusty Lake Untold - The Lab

This short, pre-written pen and paper escape room game was one of the most unique gaming experiences I've ever had

Played on: Pen and paper (and a computer and tablet for me as the GM)
Play time: Around 2 hours

I’ve always enjoyed Rusty Lake games ever since I discovered them thanks to Youtube so many years ago. I’m a scaredy cat, and I can never play a horror game or even a game that has any horror elements.

However, Rusty Lake is an exception. The lore is super interesting (albeit confusing), the puzzles are fun, the atmosphere is eerie but aside from a few jumpscares here and there (and they actually reduced the amount of jumpscares as time went by), it isn’t that scary. At least, it’s not scary just for the sake of being scary. It can get weird, supernatural and even gross at times but it’s always intriguing.

When I heard that the studio released a new game for free, I was so happy. Then I checked it out and I was elated when I saw that it was a pen-and-paper escape room game that you can play with others. All you needed was a Game Master and some friends.

Rusty Lake Untold brings the classic Rusty Lake experience to your living room with this new tabletop escape room adventure. The game consists of a pre-written adventure with its own game master guide and cards that are now available in Early Access after signing up.

I was so excited because I was going to be hosting some close friends that we always play tabletop games with on New Year’s Eve, so I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to play this game even though these friends didn't have any idea what Rusty Lake was or played any kind of game with a GM.

My only reservation about the plan was that the guide said it could be played with 4 people plus the GM, but we were 5 people plus the GM. I figured we would wing it somehow but it ended up being totally okay.

As soon as I got the documents for the game, I got to work and read through the whole thing, and started translating the important parts to my language for a smoother experience. Preparing to GM was also a fun experience! I opened up the GM file and my translations on my laptop, and downloaded the cards to my tablet so that I could show the players the cards easily when prompted.

How my screen looked while GM’ing. The players were not allowed to see this.

This was also my first time GM'ing a game so I was nervous. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to convey the atmosphere. I really wanted them to get into it. Thankfully they did! Some of them were even creeped out by the Corrupted Soul, I was so excited about that. I won’t spoil where and how they appear, but Corrupted Souls are a staple of the franchise.

One of my friends never wanted to go anywhere without the group after some of the creepier stuff happened. She kept saying stuff like 'We go to the kitchen while holding hands', ‘I want to check the fuse box but I won’t go there alone’. I felt so accomplished!

A corrupted soul, an iconic imagery of the franchise

There were times that the players wanted to do things that were not included in the guide, so I had to wing it. Those moments made me realize how difficult it is to GM a game where any action is possible, because you have to stick to the scenario and make up a narrative that includes the player’s action, but doesn’t deviate from the actual story. It’s fun but requires a lot of spontaneous thinking.

Afterwards, they told me that I was a really good GM, and I never gave them any hints. I really did my best, even though I fumbled one time and jumped a little ahead, accidentally giving them a solution to one puzzle. But it was still a blast! A friend said that she got so into it that when she went to the bathroom, she wanted to check the vent for any clues!

If you can set aside 1 or 2 hours with a group of friends, I absolutely recommend you to try out this game! It’s free, short, and has some really clever puzzles! The instructions tell you to play the game with 2-4 friends, but I found that 5 people also work perfectly well. You can even play it with just one other person.

The only thing is that, as the GM, you might need to spend some time to prepare and read through the stuff. I even had to translate the important parts to my language beforehand because I didn’t want to force my brain to do simultaneous interpretation that that moment. But I found that process to be really fun as well.

If you want to check it out, here is their website. You need to sign up for it and they’ll send you the game documents shortly - for me it was within a day. I know that I will be checking out the future installments for this series. I think a game like this would be even more fun with even more branching paths and options, which is what I think the future games will be like. This was sort of like a demo. In any case, being a GM was a blast, and who knows, maybe one day I’ll actually try my hand out at being a Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master too?