Self-Guided The Deventer Syndicate City Escape Game

The Broederenplein in Deventer is the meeting point, and the first clue sends you straight into the lanes around it. From there the route runs past the Grote of Lebuinuskerk and on to Museum De Waag, then loops back through the narrow streets in between. It is an outdoor escape game: the puzzles are tied to places, and you have to be standing there to solve them.

Deventer has a small centre, largely free of cars and easy to cross, which makes it forgiving for mixed groups with children or grandparents along. Teams of two to five share one phone, and every player is handed a character and a task that belongs to them alone, so the group has to talk to get anywhere. Anything larger than five splits into a second team. No guide walks with you and no departure time is fixed.

How to play

Before the first riddle in Deventer, work through these four steps.

1. Book the City Game
2. Check the instructions email
3. Download the Loquiz app
4. Start playing whenever you like

Magnus is the man you are after, and the formulas he took are somewhere in the network of alleys he used to cover his tracks. You break codes, untangle riddles and shoot the photo tasks the app sets, dividing the roles as you go. The trail climbs towards the Bergkerk before it gives up the last of what it knows.

Two teams on the same route makes the afternoon a competition, and the scores are worth arguing over afterwards. Nothing stops you breaking off for an hour and returning to the story later. The last of it plays out in Deventer.