NoPro’s 2022 Gift Guide for Immersive Fans & Makers

Each and every year we survey our intrepid staff and ask them that age old question: What do you want for the holidays?

Okay, okay, in seriousness(ish): the NoPro Review Crew and staff have put together a list that we hope will help you find that perfect gift for the immersive fans or makers in your life, and maybe even help an immersive Grinch or two’s heart grow three sizes this season.

Word to the wise: we’re not entirely sure if these are the gifts they would give or if they are the gifts they want.

As we noted, we’ve done this a few times, so if you want more check out the 2021, 2020, and 2019 guides. (And no, we’re not getting referral link kickbacks from any of this.)

THIS YEAR’S CATEGORIES

• EXPERIENCES IN A BOX
• ROLE PLAYING AND TABLETOP GAMES
• VIDEO GAMES
• BOOKS
• COLLECTIBLES
• BEAUTY
• LIVE EXPERIENCES & GETAWAYS

EXPERIENCES IN A BOX

Sometimes what you really want is to wake up to a box under a tree and have it lead to an adventure.

The Light in the Mist

A Tarot-based puzzle game

Price: $32

Perfect for: Puzzlers, Mystery Fans, Tarot Appreciators

Postcurious’ The Light in the Mist is a lovely thing. Your friend has gone missing and you need to find her by using a gorgeous deck of Tarot cards where you’ll use the Major and Minor Arcana to solve puzzles. Those puzzles range from relatively easy to fairly hard, but an excellent hint system can help you if you get too stuck. The puzzles are meant to be played in any order, which creates a CYOA story. As you shuffle through your friend’s story, you’ll begin to understand more about what’s going on. Great on your own, and great as a group, this makes for a wonderful post-holiday treat.
— Kevin Gossett

Welcome to Meadowlark Falls — The Very Merry Christmas Contest

A handmade at-home Christmas adventure

Price: $75 plus shipping, Bonus Yulegarou Kit — $25 plus shipping

Perfect for: Christmas fans, Hallmark rom-com movie aficionados

Once upon a time our own Kevin Gossett called TVMCC “a delightful addition to the Meadowlark Falls series that once again captures the charm of a holiday movie while maintaining the love and care of a handcrafted Christmas gift.” This 40 page handmade scrapbook, with online video and audio moments, is a postal play that’s perfect for single players or for groups of ages 10+.

The 2022 edition offers up a bonus mini adventure The Yulegarou Wish Kit.
“Forget leaving cookies out for Santa. This kit comes with everything you need to perform a unique wish granting ritual for Meadowlark Fall’s own Christmas Cryptid the Yulegarou. Along with candle, acorn shaped bell and Yulegarou lore, this kit includes bonus content as a postscript to The Very Merry Cookie Contest and as a mini adventure for those looking to learn a bit more about the Meadowlark Falls universe.”

Enter code NOPRO25 for 25% off all Meadowlark Falls items.
— Noah Nelson

ROLE PLAYING AND TABLETOP GAMES

The game’s afoot.

Alice is Missing

Game changing RPG

Price: $22 physical, $12 digital

Perfect for: LARP Fans, Story Tellers, Phone Fiends, Separated Friends

This beautiful TTRPG came into it’s own over the pandemic, with a well thought out and implemented set of online resources to allow separated friends to experience this story, but this fantastic game is just as special in person. Told entirely in silence, Alice is Missing sees your group of friends text each other as you search for your lost friend in a small all American town. It’s a hard hitting game (which can be calibrated to your group’s comfort), and with a whole host of endings, meaning no two games will be alike, there’s a ton of replayability with this game. It’s one of the most moving games I’ve played, and told through a unique medium, this is a must play for any ambitious story tellers.
— Edward Mylechreest

EXIT Games Advent Calendar

Home Escape Room meets Advent Calendar

Price: $49.95

Perfect For: Families, Puzzle Nuts, Buddy the Elf Wannabes

EXIT has long been one of the kings of at-home escape rooms, translating the in person escape experience to a tabletop combination of cards, cipher wheels, and puzzle booklets that all combine to a narrative puzzle adventure requiring the same sort of lateral thinking an escape room does (and providing the same addictive ah-ha moments). Their escape Advent Calendar brings families on a quest to recover Santa’s book of Christmas wishes. Stretching the adventure from Dec. 1 to Christmas day by releasing a clue or two daily, it’s a neat way to bring immersive fun to the holidays, and perhaps pass on your love of escape rooms and immersive storytelling to the next generation.
— Blake Weil

VIDEO GAMES

Sometimes you actually do want to immerse yourself in some quality screen time.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

A dark, broody, adult Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game

Price: $29.99

Perfect for: Horror/suspense cinephiles, Dark Ride enthusiasts, People who love moral quandaries

During the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, four Americans and one Iraqi find themselves trapped in an ancient Akkadian temple deep underground. As tensions rise, they discover they’re not alone, being hunted by massive, horrific vampire-like creatures. House of Ashes is the third entry in this video game series, and by far the strongest. While featuring a fantastic amount of accessibility options, from display to controls, it’s House of Ashes’ story and performances that steal the show. Rather than playing as stereotypical dumb teenagers like in the other games, each character is a well-rounded adult, with real, palpable desires and flaws. A great sample of how “video games can be art.” (Ed. note: the fourth episode in the series just released and reviews are calling it the best yet.)
– Patrick B. McLean

Immortality

A multi-layered mystery narrative for cinephiles

Price: $19.99 (PC, XBox Series S|X, also on GamePass; available for iOS & Android via Netflix)

Perfect for: Puzzlers, People Who Know That Heartbreak Feels Good in a Place Like This, Mystery Fans

What happened to Marissa Marcel? That’s the hook of Half Mermaid’s game, which sees you searching through footage of the actress’s three lost films. Using full motion video and the idea of match cuts, you’ll work to uncover new scenes or BTS footage that help flesh out Marissa’s story. The unique interface feels pretty immersive as you scan backwards and forwards through footage looking for something new to match on. Eventually…something…will happen (IYKYK) and Immortality will sink its hooks in even deeper as you try to figure out what the fuck is actually happening. (Ed. note: between the sex and the violence, this is definitely not for kids. Don’t say we didn’t tell you.)

— Kevin Gossett

Return to Monkey Island

A legendary creator returns to a classic series

Price: $24.99 (All platforms; Also on GamePass)

30 years after the debut of the original Monkey Island game, Ron Gilbert returns to this influential point and click adventure series. Although filled with nods and easter eggs to past games in the series, this latest installation is new-player friendly, with a simple story that leads straight into the pirate tale. Clever puzzles abound throughout this 10 hour game, that feels like the much needed modern day update to the puzzle genre, with enough help on offer just in case you might need it. A great throwback experience for the video gamer in your life! (Ed. note: between the pirates and the treasure, this is definitely rated E for Everyone. ;-) )

— Edward Mylechreest

XBOX Game Pass Ultimate/PC Game Pass

The Netflix of video games

Price: $14.99/9.99

Perfect for: those who have indie game FOMO, gamers with commitment issues

Wait, why are we telling you to play video games in the first place? Well, the simple answer is that video games are the richest playground for interactive narrative. There are hundreds upon thousands of developers both large and small who are constantly creating incredibly engaging new stories and brand new ways to experience them. Whether you are looking for inspiration or just looking to be moved, the sea of games has gems waiting to be found.

The Game Pass team has curated a dynamic cross section of games, often having the latest indie darlings that we go gaga about — games like Immortality, Signalis, and Norco — releasing day and date on Pass with their regular sales. Dollar for dollar the PC Game Pass and its Ultimate companion are the best value in gaming. When you throw in the fact that Ultimate includes Cloud Gaming support then you take away the need for an expensive PC. There are a gajillion games — from Microsoft’s first party titles to Assassin’s Creed to those indie games we love so much — that will stream in-browser even to an Android or iPhone. From a consumer perspective, you really can’t go wrong with Game Pass.
— Noah Nelson

BOOKS

The original immersive technology: come stare at a tree’s corpse and hallucinate thanks to the magic of words for a while.

House of Leaves, by Mark Danielewski (2000)

Before there were ARGs, there was the House of Leaves

Price: $25

Perfect for: Bookworms, Punchdrunk Junkies, Puzzlers

Can a book haunt us? Could a story-within-a-story-wrapped-in-puzzles backed up by a tangle of verified and fabricated sources cause us to stare for minutes into dark closets, hallways, alleyways in the real world, edging a toe past the threshold while praying nothing is staring back? House Of Leaves opens as an unassuming spooky story and then unfolds into an all-consuming narrative that will ruin the reader. Perfect for winter reading in the long shadowy hours, but perhaps not when alone in the house…
— Shelley Snyder

Obsids Diary (BOTO)

Collectible Book from NYC’s beloved BOTO

Price: $35.00

Perfect for: BOTO Fans, FOMO BOTO Fans, Immersive Collectors

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The NYC darling of immersive this past year, BOTO is preparing to close its doors this Christmas season. As such this may be your final chance to take home a lasting memory of the show, in the form of Obsid’s Diary. One of the otherworldly cast of characters you meet during the show, this mischievous specter has a hidden backstory that can be dived into briefly during the show. This beautiful handmade replica of the show’s prop, offers BOTO fans a chance to dive further into the world post-show, with it’s spellbinding illustrations collected in this unique collectors item.

— Edward Mylechreest

Recursion (2019)

Memory makes reality

Price: $17 — $27

Perfect for: Horror & Science Fiction Readers, Suckers for a Mind-Bending Plot Twist, Science Nerds

Have you ever felt a shift in time, a glitch in the matrix, a tear in dimensions, just from reading words on a page? You will when you read this book. I picked it up after reading the author’s highly acclaimed page-turner Dark Matter, which has incredible mass appeal if you’re looking for something less heady than Recursion’s scientific manipulation of memories and time. It’s a fascinating, terrifying take on “why we can’t have nice things” and what happens when powerful technology falls into the hands of bad people.

— Danielle Look

Dark Factory (2022)

Reality is customizable

Price: $17.95

Perfect for: Club Kids, Poetry Fans, Playa Die-Hards

When I first reviewed Dark Factory, Kathe Kuja’s talented novel, I thought I would be done with it. Dense and confusing, I managed to find joy in it nonetheless from its beautiful sensory language and mirror on the immersive world. I find myself thinking about it time and again though. As someone who doesn’t indulge in the all night revels of Burning Man or Berghain, the book manages to illustrate their magic, the sense that anything is possible and that every partygoer is linked as one freely dancing beast.

— Blake Weil

COLLECTIBLES

Gotta catch ’em all!

BOTO Merch

Wearables from the closing darling of NYC Immersive

From $16.50

Perfect for: NYC Cool Kids, Immersive Patrons,

If Obsid’s Diary isn’t enough to satisfy the BOTO fan in your life, take a look at the wide range of other paraphernalia available from the hit New York show. From T-shirts, totes, caps, phone cases and even one piece swimsuits, these unique items will definitely meet that “if you know, you know” craving, as you join the select group of fans of this unique Brooklyn show. Sport the Sine Wave and see who gives you a knowing nod next time you’re out and about.
— Edward Mylechreest

Particle Ink: Speed of Dark Merch

A momento from that trip, or a way to pretend you were there when…

Price: $25–35

Perfect for: Folks who’s hat stayed in Vegas, signaling to other immersive fans in public without saying a word, people who like to answer questions about their cool hat and what it means, people with heads

Particle Ink: Speed of Dark is one of the most special shows I’ve seen in years, and frankly, I wish there was time to catch it again. With the show closing in December, now’s a good time to grab that momento for the Particle Ink fan in your life who wishes they had grabbed more. Say, another hat maybe. (Hint: I already have the Symbols Cap.)

— Noah Nelson

BEAUTY

Pomegranate Noir Cologne

Sensuous fragrance speculated to be used by Punchdrunk

Price: $80 10 ml, $110 30 ml, $155 100 ml

Perfect for: Burnt City Superfans, Mythology Obsessives, Style Gurus

Those who followed dour, spooky, and yet oh-so-alluring Hades at this year’s triumphant The Burnt City may have noticed his incredible perfume. While Punchdrunk is keeping their secrets as locked up as Tartarus, sharp-nosed superfans have deduced that it’s likely Pomegranate Noir by Jo Malone. With notes of pink pepper, guaiac wood, and Casablanca lily mingling with juicy pomegranate, this fragrance is sure to bring you or your loved one back to the neon-drenched streets of Troy. And for those of us who haven’t been lucky enough to see the show, it’s still a scent designed to put you in a mythic state of mind.

— Blake Weil

LIVE EXPERIENCES & GETAWAYS

The heart of what we do here.

Heresy 1897

The best new Escape Room Experiment in NYC

Price: from $75

Perfect for: Escape Room Fans, Story Tellers, Series Fanatics

Widely praised as a fantastic next step in Escape Room Experience (covered by NoPro here), Heresy 1897 is a must do experience for anyone visiting the Big Apple. Although a great stand-alone experience, the beauty here is that Doors of Divergence has an ongoing interweaved series of escape rooms, with the results of one running into the next chapter of the experience. Give this gift card to get your loved one hooked on this first show, but just be ready to join them for the rest of the story!

— Edward Mylechreest

Pennhurst Asylum Horror Campout 2023

Interactive Horror Summer Camp Experience in Pennsylvania

Price: $150/ticket (Ed. note: 2023 tickets not on sale yet, so ready some IOUs, or send cash, cash is always good!)

Perfect for: Horror Fanatics, Haunted House Enthusiasts, Adrenaline Junkies, Horror Escape Room Players Looking to Level Up

Show your loved ones just how much you care this holiday season with tickets to Camp Crab Hill, a summer camp built right next to the Pennhurst Asylum! This one-of-a-kind horror campout combines all the right elements of immersive entertainment to create the stuff that nightmares (or dreams, depending on who you ask) are made of. Pitch your tent (but don’t plan on sleeping) and buckle in for 12 hours of madness as you and your friends embark on quests that involve puzzles, physical challenges, and even a real ghost hunt on one of the nation’s most haunted properties.
— Danielle Look

Hobbit’s Dream

Vacation in the Shire, by way of Virginia (AirBnB rental)

Price: $350+ a night

Perfect for: Hobbits, LOTR Fans, Fantasy Fanatics, Wandering Istari

This one’s expensive but worth it. Hobbit’s Dream is a perfectly built Hobbit Hole in Fairfield, Virginia. Your booking includes the house and grounds, which is what makes this experience so unique. Imagine having a hobbit-themed Disneyland all to yourself! Enjoy acres of woodland (with lots to discover), take tea in the garden, or carve wizard pipes with your host. The waitlist is a few years long, but if you start planning now you’ll have a magical world waiting for you when the time comes.

— Leah Davis

Lennox Mutual

An ongoing, unfolding experience realized through telephone calls

$5+ (PWYC)

Perfect for: People with phones, conspiracy theorists

Book a call with Lennox Mutual for all of your friends and enemies! Lennox Mutual is an ambiguous corporation dreamed up by Candle House Collective. The 20-minute show lets users explore a simulated phone tree that hints at a larger story behind the scenes. The call is frustrating, heart-breaking, and hilarious in turns — and it definitely requires multiple calls for you to get anything out of the show. There’s a robust group of people digging into the narrative on Reddit, but your journey is your own. Fair warning: you might be kicking off a dangerous addiction to corporate phone calls.
— Leah Davis

40 Watts From Nowhere

Run a pirate radio station in LA’s Silver Lake neighborhood

Price: $70

Perfect for: former college DJs, record collectors, 90’s music fans, friends who love going to immersive things together

Look, you’re gonna need to make this an EARLY present (if Christmas is your target) because at present this show is only booking through Dec. 18th. (So many presents!)

40 Watts From Nowhere is the much-buzzed-about show from immersive wizards Jeff & Andy Crocker, aka Mister & Mischief, which puts the audience in the role of real-life Silver Lake radio pirate Sue Carpenter. It’s an utterly delightful and truly unique show that is a great night out for a group of friends. We love it here at NoPro and want all of LA to know it!!!
— Noah Nelson

Camp Christmas

Denver’s quirkiest Holiday Tradition

Price: starting at $12

Perfect for: Christmas fans, artists, installation art fans

There’s a double entendre in “Camp Christmas” as Denver artist Lonnie Hanzon mixes campiness with the form of a summer camp. Only this is Christmas: and how!

There really is something for everyone, well except for those for whom Christmas is strictly about the religious aspects of the holiday. But anyone who knows their history knows that Christmas itself was appropriated from earlier pagan festivals of light. This is a huge celebration of the turning of the dark of the year into the light, and frankly I’m jealous of those who are in Denver to enjoy it. (I got to do an early BTS walkthrough, and with only a fraction of the displays I was already delighted.)

— Noah Nelson

(Disclosure: Lonnie is a sustaining backer of NoPro.)

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