What started as a way to stay busy during the coronavirus pandemic has become much more for Krissi Reeber.
A physician associate by day, Krissi Reeber spends her nights as the “gamemaker” for Break From Reality, a family-run hub of escape rooms that celebrated its grand opening in Fairfax City on Jan. 18.
“We had done all the [escape] rooms in the Fairfax area, so we kind of ran out of the rooms near us,” Reeber told FFXnow. “And then one day, I was just in one and I said, ‘You know what? I think I can do this.'”
Located at 11230 Waples Mill Road, Suite 110, Break From Reality currently offers two escape rooms: “Madame Belladonna,” which is centered around a soul-trapping psychic medium, and “Botched,” where players work to escape a face-stealing plastic surgeon. Others coming soon include the Viking-inspired “Chasing Valhalla” and the apocalyptic “Doomsday,” as well as “The Order,” which is themed around a secret society.
After finding a touch of inspiration, Reeber dives into mounds of research before putting projects in motion. She prides herself on the details, like how “Madame Belladonna” features constant rhyming in spells in accordance with traditional Wiccan law.
“I think if you find a topic that you like, it all kind of comes together,” Reeber said. “I never had to force something in, like I never had to make a puzzle just because I needed to get it to the next puzzle, or it was a puzzle that I wanted to put in the room. I just let the actual theme push the puzzles so it actually hasn’t been hard.”
The additional rooms have already been designed and are currently “just sitting in my basement,” Reeber says, but installing them is a different hurdle. Since the business is staffed only by family members, including her husband, Todd, Reeber’s progress is limited to only what can be accomplished in the family’s free time.
Nonetheless, the storefront can accommodate up to six of the rooms. If Reeber has her way, they’ll all be full very soon.
“Ultimately I want to just focus on creating fun rooms,” Reeber said, “so I would see myself in six months hopefully having at least the main five rooms that I’ve already created in place. Then, being able to bring in employees so that potentially, we can run more games at it at any given time [and] open our hours up even more.”
Break From Reality is open on weekdays from noon to 6:15 p.m., as well as on weekends from 10 a.m. to 7:15 p.m., by appointment only. Both active rooms take about 60 minutes to complete.
