Dragon’s Lair — a place to escape or smash things

Chasing — or being chased by — zombies? Or mummies, or evil knights? Battling it out with lasers?

“Good family fun is what we’re looking at,” Aaron Laird said.

Laird opened Dragon’s Lair Family Entertainment Center in June 2017 after he and his family experienced adventure role-playing games in other cities.

“Cedar Rapids needs more entertainment,” he said. “We wanted to do something that was going to engage people’s minds and be active and keep you moving.

“There’s way too many kids who just want to play video games 10 hours a day, and this is just a way to get them out, and think.”

The video game influence isn’t entirely negative. Laird said many customers come in for tactical laser tag after playing online versions.

“That’s exactly it,” he said. “It’s a form of paintball and real video games, all in one.”

Paintball, in which participants blast away at each other with air-propelled paint capsules, is one game you won’t find at Dragon’s Lair.

“If we did it, it goes on outside” he said. “The city council doesn’t want anything like that going on outside, and right over here over the hill is (Interstate) 380.”

Customers select their challenge. Laser tag sessions are based around defined missions.

Archery tag uses foam-tipped arrows that don’t leave a bruise, unlike paintball.

Escape room scenarios include the mummy’s tomb and Trygor, that evil knight.

While Laird tries to accommodate the occasional walk-in player, most come in groups. There’s a maximum of 18 participants for laser tag, 10 for archery tag and six for the escape rooms.

The Lair is popular with bachelor and bachelorette parties, birthdays, and corporate events.

Laird and his staff frequently devise new variations or completely new missions, which run 70 minutes for laser tag and an hour for archery. Escape-room scenarios take about 40 minutes.

Employees outline safety practices and mission objectives before each session.

“There’s 15 games, or modes, we have,” Laird said. “It only takes about 10 minutes to get everybody up and going, then it’s off to the races.

“The employees explain every game. There are certain games we encourage the employees to play with the customers, and they enjoy that.”

Most of Laird’s 10-person staff once were customers.

“Most of them started out playing, and then they get hired,” he said.

They’re also all part-timer workers, as is their boss — Laird still drives a daily route for Anderson Erickson Dairy.

“It was kind of a gamble, and it’s been a learning experience the last three years,” he said. “Now we consider ourselves professionals.”

Laird and his staff also can devise made-to-order plot twists.

“Last weekend my daughter was involved in an escape room, and there was a proposal at the end of it,” he said.

“We got to work with the gentleman and make it exactly the way he wanted his proposal to be. Then afterward we let them do the smash room.”

The smash room is Laird’s latest attraction, opened about six weeks ago. In it, two people don protective gear and take out their frustrations on plates, glasses or personal items they bring themselves.

“It’s something new ,” Laird said. “We call it smash therapy.”

Last year’s pandemic precautions closed the Lair for about four months.

“We had every (precaution) everybody else had” upon reopening, Laird said. “All the plastic barriers, and we had enhanced cleaning.

“We had UV (ultraviolet) cleaning lights we use to clean the guns and the taggers and all the equipment. We did all that — we still do, actually.”

Business recovered nicely, even in what’s usually the Lair’s slower summer months.

“Before COVID, we were very busy,” he said. “Since we opened up after COVID, we’ve rapidly been selling out, so business has been doing very well.”

Which gives Laird and his staff plenty of opportunities to hone their craft.

“People throw themselves into the reality, and it’s pretty crazy some days,” Laird said one afternoon this past week.

“It’s kind of fun to watch people transform from the real world to the not-so-real world.”

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