Murder at the ROM
A curator at the ROM has been murdered –
it’s up to you to discover whodunit!
by Joanna Orland
Scavenger Hunt company Urban Capers have taken their latest adventure to the world famous collections found at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum. As a team (we were known as ‘ROM-ancing the Stone’), each group of 2-6 participants has to follow the clues in the handbook given out by Urban Capers, to fill in word puzzles related to various artifacts in the museum. Once all the clue puzzles have been solved, the team can then unravel the anagram which leads to the answer of who the murderer is. As far as the ‘why’ goes, that’s a bit more tricky and requires some elaborate imagination as well as reading between the lines of the handbook’s story.
The fun in Murder at the ROM is not solving the murder itself, but gathering the clues around the museum within the given time restraint. We ran from exhibition to exhibition looking for particular artifacts that could potentially match the clue descriptions to help us reveal the word we were looking for. Some answers were rather straightforward and obvious, while some objects were hidden away amongst a clutter of similarity, making them very challenging to find! Oh, but the satisfaction you get from finally finding what you’re looking for is brilliant! Especially when you realize that it’s been right in front of you the whole time! (I’m talking about you – Bull Head’s Revenge!).
While the word clues are easy enough for anyone to complete given enough time, the ‘why’ of the narrative is the tricky part. Full disclaimer, I expunged all of my fun and patience on the clue-gathering (the best bit, right?) and couldn’t be bothered writing down the full answer as to why the murderer did what they did. My partner in crime, however, totally guessed it, resents me forever for my lack of effort at this stage in the game, and should have won full points while I hung my head in shame. Alas, it doesn’t work like that and he’ll just have to hold it over my head forever.
While the game itself is good fun, the best part is that the ticket includes the price of admission to the Royal Ontario Museum where you’re welcome to further explore the collections at a leisurely and cultured pace. That is very much bang for your buck!
Murder at the ROM is not the only scavenger hunt that Urban Capers curate. I look forward to seeing what else they have in store for us Toronto hunters.
www.urbancapers.com/murder-at-the-royal-ontario-museum
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