The Racket

San Francisco, United States

5

10 reviews

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Telephone:
+1 415-269-0078
Website:
www.theracket.net
Address:
3240 26th St, San Francisco, CA, 94110
SoMa
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Description

Specialties

The Racket is a Neo-​Noir adventure starring you. A Murder-​sans-​Mystery for 15 – 200 that’s more Grand Theft Auto than Clue. It’s a game of deception, intrigue, and (of course) murder without the hokey scripts and fake accents.

Step through the door and into a new profession in a city of upstanding citizens and underhanded crooks. Will you be the Doctor? The Detective? The Thief? Once inside, wheel and deal with other guests in the rat race to be the player with the most money at the end of the party. Smuggling rings, mafia inductions, and bank heists are all par for the course over the course of the evening, and every guest might end up a murderer, a victim, or both.

Designed for private parties and corporate events, The Racket is a novel way to meet new people or get to know your friends and coworkers in a new and intriguing way. Our specialties include:

* Team Building Events

* Company Offsites

* Birthday Parties

* Conference Events

* Fundraisers

* Holiday Parties

We’re happy to come host an event at a venue of your choice anywhere in the Bay Area, and are always happy to answer your questions via phone or email.

History

Established in 2014.

Our founders have been playing games since before they could walk. In 2009, they met on a shuttle bus to the children’s science museum where they both worked. To kill time on the ride, they talked about games, and they’ve been talking about them ever since. Since 2010 we’ve been playing and creating games designed around the belief that YOU are the hero of your own adventure. Part Clue, part Mafia, part Monopoly, The Racket is our longest-​running event: A Neo-​Noir solution to the classic Murder Mystery, starring you.

Meet the Business Owner

Rebecca P.

Business Owner

Rebecca Power is La Doña at Quixote Games as well as an artist in the field of immersive games and participatory theater. In the past she’s worked on audience interaction and managed event space for Boxcar Theater’s «The Speakeasy», designed special projects for The Go Game, and is currently an artist in residence at the SFMOMA.

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10 reviews of The Racket

No registration required
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
I’ve played The Racket three times and each event was great in a different way. So, when the opportunity presented itself to host a game for my favorite arts organization, I jumped at the chance.
Working with Rebecca and Justin was entirely seamless. They answered all of my questions, made it clear how I’d need to prepare the space (it was very straightforward), and communicated all the important details to the players via email.
On the day of the game the team arrived promptly, set up the space quickly, and showed the perfect mix of professionalism and frivolity. Our game had 82 players, and they made sure to staff it appropriately so that everyone could get their questions answered quickly and focus on bringing in that cold, hard (fake) cash.
People got super into dressing up, which really made the photos something special. Do note, though, that dressing nice isn’t required for the game to be fun.
Oh, and the game? People absolutely loved it! It was super fun, and I’m pretty sure everyone talked to someone they didn’t know before. I heard people telling stories about it for weeks afterward, and some of them have already begun looking for ways to play again.
It’s rare to encounter an activity that would entertain a private party with 50 of my closest friends, that I’d purchase a ticket for and attend solo, or that would make an effective team building event for my company. Somehow, The Racket is all of those things.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
I’ve played the racket twice, with two different organizations. It’s really fun! The cool thing is: it doesn’t matter how many times you play, it’s a totally different game every time.
Not to mention, given the ‘every day is casual Friday’ vibe across SF company culture, it might be the only time you ever see your coworkers dressed to kill. It also might be the only time you get to swindle your CEO and get off scot-​free.
Totally recommend for team building, it’s about the most fun team building event I’ve ever done.
Place rating: 5
Livermore, CA
An absolute blast. I’ve played The Racket twice now. Once for a team building event at work and more recently for my husband’s 50th birthday party. The game is great for teens to adults and everyone will have a great time. Great way to break the ice, build intrigue and mystery into your evening, and just have an all around great time. Rebecca and Justin and their staff are absolutely terrific to work with! Highly recommend this amazing experience.
Place rating: 5
Oakland, CA
How much to reveal? How much to hide? It’s hard to say. Not everyone is who they say they are. Someone out there has what you need and vice versa. Someone out there wants what you have and isn’t afraid to kill you for it. Better double count every trade. There are no rules here, except the few you’re given (which you should totally follow).
The Racket is a game where it’s hard to win alone, it’s harder to earn friends, and it’s hardest to tell your friends apart from your enemies.
I’ve had the good fortune of playing The Racket three times. Each time I adopted a radically different strategy and the game became totally different.
The only problem with The Racket is that you can’t do it over. If you’re lucky enough to play more than once, you can only do it differently.
Place rating: 5
Wick, United Kingdom
The Racket is the future of parties. If that sounds TOO FUTURE, which might be fine, let me assure you that The Racket is wonderful in that you can have different levels of involvement with it, and still have fun. I’ve played The Racket twice, and due to attempts to be dastardly have spent a fair share of my time in purgatory/​jail, which also tends to be a bar, chatting with other lost souls.
The Racket is superbly designed by very clever people. I strongly believe you learn the most about new people by playing games with them. The design of the Racket is such that it is easy to get into, but if you put more effort in, become a bit of a deal-​maker, you can rise your way to the top of the cat-​and-​mouse game. Remember how Settler’s is still fun when you aren’t winning, in the way that that isn’t true for Monopoly? The Racket is like that — helping someone else get all the dubloons is just as fun as getting all the dubloons yourself.
Place rating: 5
SoMa, San Francisco, CA
Have you ever found party games to be too nice? Have you ever wanted to connive and cutthroat in a safe and controlled environment? Have you ever wanted to sell out your friends to the man, or steal a stranger’s money, or murder a chief of police?
The Racket is an incredibly fun game to play with friends, coworkers, or strangers. You’re given an envelope that details your character (thief, police officer, coroner, etc.) and your abilities in that capacity to steal, smuggle, murder, and embezzle your way to the top of the food chain. You’ll spend the rest of the evening making and breaking alliances, stabbing some people in the back and others in the front, and generally being as a deceitful an SOB you can manage until you’ve collected all the cash.
Highly recommended, A++ would play again.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
So imagine you find yourself in a rat race with not a whole lot of time, a room full of strangers (and a few friends you know you might especially want to watch out for) and you find out that you need to sell a ton of drugs. Like a bunch of drug deals. Because it turns out that’s your racket, and that’s your way to make things go. Luckily this is a world where little red tokens count as drugs and so things are a might easier than they would be if you normally had to sell this many drugs in this short of time. Also some of these people are cops, but you aren’t sure who. You’ll want to find out, if you can.
So suddenly you find yourself feeling out the room quickly and with each new person go from «Hi, what’s your name?» to «Is this a person I can trust?» and/​or dealing drugs in a surprisingly short time. You quickly find every little dark corner in the space where you can trade things quickly with people without attracting too much attention. Well actually you may not have to do any of that, this is just the situation I found myself in when playing The Racket. You may have some completely different goal, anything from stealing, to planting a sticker on someone (and «killing» them) or maybe it turns out you’re one of the lawful types and you’ve got to clean up the streets from people like me.
Personally, I sometimes find some types of social interaction awkward and it can be hit or miss whether I enjoy things that involve a lot of required social interaction. So a game where someone hands me a character, tells me the goal is to make money and oh also some of my friends might be trying to kill me?
Turns out was a quite a bit of fun. More than I usually expect to have in a large group of people!
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
A well-​run game and a good mix of people. I didn’t know what to expect but I had a great time. If you’re on the fence, check it out.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
We hosted The Racket at Gamenest, and everyone who came had an amazing experience. I was there, too, and wheeling and dealing with friends and strangers has never been as fun — or as classy. What a great experience!
Place rating: 5
New York, NY
Here’s the deal: The Racket hosts dynamic games that pull even the shyest wallflowers out of the woodwork. They’re professionals and always work their hardest to make every party engaging for everyone. They’re experts at what they do because they’ve spent countless hours on iteration after iteration of their games, fine-​tuning the setup, characters, story line, and back-​end organization. Sometimes I almost forget that the games are planned because the interactions between people — which is what the parties are all about — happen so fluidly and naturally.
My one disclaimer: I used to volunteer to work with The Racket and I’m friends with the owners. That being said, why should you trust me?
As someone who’s been to many of their parties as both a participant and a worker, I’ve seen both sides of the party. I wouldn’t have supported The Racket for so long if their parties weren’t as fun, well-​planned, and exciting. The owners are down-​to-​earth, quick, and always on top of their game.
If you’re interested in an unforgettable murder mystery experience, contact The Racket and they’ll make a deal with you!