In China, it’s bigger than Dungeons & Dragons and easier to find than a McDonald’s. But in the U.S., Jubensha — a character-driven mystery game that began taking off just a decade ago — has flown almost entirely under the radar.
That’s beginning to change, thanks to Rabbit Hole Recreation Services, a Louisville-based entertainment company launched in 2018. Known for its three elaborate escape rooms, Rabbit Hole recently expanded its offerings in January by opening the country's first dedicated Jubensha venue: Studio 五.
“Being in the gaming industry, we’re always keeping up with what’s around us,” says Katie Goforth, Rabbit Hole’s operations manager. “When we learned how big this was in China, we kept wondering why it hadn’t made it to the U.S. yet.”
Translated as “script murder,” Jubensha sits at the intersection of immersive theater, tabletop gaming and murder mystery parties. Each player, dubbed "Jubenturers" by Rabbit Hole, assumes pre-written roles informed by detailed backstories and then spends hours piecing together a mystery with the assistance of theatrical effects. Games are hosted by a facilitator called a Jubensha Master, and while murder is often on the table, the format accommodates a range of genres.
In China, 15 million active players frequent more than 45,000 dedicated venues nationwide, buoyed by a groundswell of Gen Z enthusiasm. But bringing that concept to America wasn’t as simple as importing a few scripts.
“A big barrier to getting it into our market is translating and localizing it,” says Cody Borst, director of technology innovation for Meow Wolf, who helped build Rabbit Hole’s three escape rooms. “Now that Rabbit Hole has done that, it could spread quickly. With escape rooms, it took time before we saw really high-quality experiences. But with all the polished content already developed in China, we might immediately get access to a ton of amazing games in the U.S.”
Coming to America
This immersive roleplaying craze made its Colorado debut with the help of Scott Lininger, a longtime tabletop gamer who now serves as Rabbit Hole’s Jubensha creative director. Together with Goforth, they sourced Chinese scripts, started translating and began building what would become Tree Rings, a moody supernatural Jubensha mystery set in a haunted Chinese village and the first game in Rabbit Hole’s growing catalog.
Adapting Tree Rings, originally written by 阿尘 (Ah Chen), was no small feat. Lininger — who helped create a custom translation workflow, including an internally produced software to translate the stories from Mandarin — spent “hundreds of hours” developing the game with the Rabbit Hole team, then rewriting major portions to make it more accessible and appropriate for American audiences.
“Even if they are translated and themes work, there is still a large amount of work that goes into making the games [because] there are also portions of the story we have to rewrite,” says Rabbit Hole owner Kurt Leinbach. “The challenges we’ve had translating the games are one of the primary barriers why I believe this hasn’t been a thing [in the U.S.] yet.”
Before opening Studio 五 for general booking in January, the team spent months running internal tests and beta sessions. “It was really important that we verified it was something we wanted to share with our audiences through tests,” Goforth says.
Unlike most escape rooms or mystery parties, playing a game of Jubensha can take up to four hours. Players spend the first 45 to 75 minutes reading their character’s script, and then progress through a series of game stages that involve evidence collection, group discussion and increasingly intense roleplay.
While Jubensha games in China typically rely on paper scripts and minimal staging, Rabbit Hole saw an opportunity to elevate the format. Each game takes place in a custom-built "Scene Machine," located in a separate unit within the same strip mall as the Rabbit Hole complex, complete with lighting effects, surround sound and custom props.
“We’ve taken it a step further,” Leinbach says. “By physicalizing the experience, we want to have these games be a performance art piece that you participate in instead of being just a tabletop game that you play under fluorescent lights at a coffee shop.”
Rabbit Hole currently offers two games: Tree Rings is akin to the emotional, serious games popular in Chinese parlors, while Snow Manor is a more accessible, silly Knives Out-style whodunit set in the 1920s. A third game, Half Past One, a modern horror experience centered on phobias, is currently being beta tested and slated to open this month.
“Our plan is to keep adding new stories so that people can keep coming back and playing new games,” Goforth says.
The next move
Rabbit Hole’s ambitions don’t end with a few new games. The company plans to open a second location at 575 S. Broadway in Denver in the summer of 2026. The new location will triple its operational footprint, including new escape rooms and a dedicated Jubensha area.
The new space includes 5,200 square feet for six immersive game rooms — three carryovers from its Louisville location and three originals — plus an additional 2,000 square feet for Jubensha. At the same time, Rabbit Hole is building a new permanent Jubensha studio near its current Louisville location, complete with a dedicated lobby and more food and beverage options.
“We are going to make it a one-stop destination,” Leinbach says. “It all depends on how long it takes to finalize the deals and the permitting process with the City of Louisville, but we hope to open our Jubensha studio quickly.”
In the meantime, Rabbit Hole reports a growing mix of roleplayers, escape room fans and curious singles joining their games — often with no prior experience.
“This is something our community is hungry for,” Goforth says. “New ways to meet people. Places to talk that aren’t bars or bowling. People want to connect in cool environments and talk with others with shared interests.”
It’s a notable cultural import at a time of heightened tension between the U.S. and China, as tariffs and trade disputes continue to dominate headlines. Because Rabbit Hole isn’t licensing these games in the traditional sense, the business has so far sidestepped financial barriers — but as more American companies explore this space, questions of intellectual property and international regulation may follow.
Jubensha’s blockbuster success in China may be hard to replicate, but Rabbit Hole has laid the groundwork for its U.S. debut. And if Borst is right, the format might not stay niche for long.
“Since there are very low barriers to entry in the market, that means growth will be able to happen quite quickly,” Borst says. “Escape rooms were really fast-growing, and this is easier to set up than an escape room. The barrier isn’t the tech — it’s the awareness. But once more people know about it, it’s going to cascade.”
ON THE TABLETOP: Jubensha. Rabbit Hole Recreation Services, 1156 West Dillon Road, Unit 1, Louisville. 18+. $400 (for five-player experiences) | $480 (for six-player experiences)