What is it about Arctic scientists? If board games are anything to go by, they always seem to be disappearing in mysterious circumstances. We'd only just resolved the mysterious disappearance in Back Stories: Alone Under The Ice (La Boite de Jeu/Lucky Duck) when we learned of another mysterious disappearance in the Arctic, courtesy of Puzzle Post.
The Disappearance, and its sister game The Secret Set are the latest in Puzzle Post's series of 'Escape Room in an Envelope' games. They are family friendly but they're primarily designed to be played as dinner party games. Without giving away any spoilers, when you open up the large brown cardboard envelope for The Disappearance or The Secret Set you'll find a letter to start you off and a whole bunch of documents from which you and the other players are collectively trying to find codes which will together solve the mystery.
In the case of The Disappearance you'll be trying to find out what's happened to an environmentalist. Depending on your dinner party guests, you may prefer the theme of The Secret Set. In that 'Escape Room in an Envelope' game, you're all at a music festival where, rumour has it, there's a secret set that's not on the official schedule. From our plays at Board's Eye View we found that The Disappearance landed particularly well with those who enjoy 'murder mystery' games, while The Secret Set proved to be the more immersive among those players who enjoyed falling into role as festival goers.
Whichever of these Puzzle Post games you choose, you'll have nine puzzles to solve, and there's help online if you and your dinner guests get stuck. The 60-90 minutes estimate on the envelope is about right. The envelopes also suggest the games take 1-8 players: as with most cooperative games, you can play solo but much of the fun comes from the interactions and exchanges as players bounce ideas and suggestions off each other. We wouldn't suggest overly extending the player count but there's no intrinsic reason why you need to strictly limit yourself to a maximum of eight players. With most Exit and Escape Room board games, the number who can all pore over a clue is a limiting factor; Puzzle Post have thoughtfully tho' included in these packages two copies of each of the clue documents, so you can have one at each end of a long dinner table.
Up till now, The Disappearance and The Secret Set have been a well-kept secret. 20 March marks their first public appearance. If they're not yet on your local retailer's shelves, click here and you should be able to order them direct from the publishers from 26 March.