Facilitating Alice is Missing

Text messaging and RPGs can work

Purchased a physical copy of Alice is Missing by Hunters Entertainment and wanted to facilitate a game. Finally rounded up three other players and we played over Discord. I know there are digital options out there, but I didn’t want to do the Roll20 thing and teach another system, and the Discord bot had been retired.

An immersive RPG played entirely via text message.

Alice is Missing is a silent role-playing game about the disappearance of Alice Briarwood, a high school junior in the small town of Silent Falls.

The game is played live and without verbal communication. Players inhabit their character for the entirety of the 90-minute play session, and instead of speaking, send text messages back and forth to the other characters in a group chat, as well as individually, as though they aren’t in the same place together.

Hauntingly beautiful, deeply personal, and highly innovative, Alice is Missing puts a strong focus on the emotional engagement between players, immersing them in a tense, dramatic mystery that unfolds organically through the text messages they send to one another.

Setup for this took a long time. Even though we’ve gone through character selection, lines and veils, and the X-card before game play, it still took about 45 minutes to answer questions, establish links, do the voicemails, and go through the guide.

I was Charlie Barnes (The One Who Moved Away).

The other characters were Jack (the brother), Evan (the one with the crush), and Dakota (the best friend).

The Game is Afoot!

Finally, we started. I streamed the evocative soundtrack and countdown timer. Things started slow, with the posts a bit tentative. As Charlie and also the facilitator, I juggled playing and sending cards. I had the cards laid out and flipped them over to give myself some element of surprise, then took photographs and sent them to the other players. That really kept me busy, particularly when there’s just a 5-minute gap for some of the cards.

After sending the text message, we were all anxious. It wasn’t easy to get into the mindset of teenagers in an American town, especially for the older players.

Charlie waited at the train station, believing that Alice was going to meet me there. I messaged the other characters, throwing suspicions and accusations, particularly at Jack. (“Dude. She’s your sister. She goes missing for three days and you don’t know ANYTHING?”)

Evan went the lighthouse, while Dakota headed to the barn.

I emphasized that the characters weren’t ever to be at the same location at the same time, and I think that might have made Jack not want to move from the house. Eventually, Charlie guilted Jack to head to the park to search for Alice.

The creep popped up early amongst the suspects. Things did start to flow, and the players got into the coming up with stuff groove. Charlie found a creepy mask at the station, though that didn’t mean much.

As it turned out, the creep was the responsible for Alice’s disappearance was at the park, and Jack had to confront the guy. The cards determine certain outcomes through a flip of a coin, and as it turned out, Alice was still alive but unfortunately, Jack died saving her.

Do the clues matter?

Others have pointed out one of the game's flaws. The investigations don't really matter that much, since the cards determine Alice's fate. However, you do bend the fiction towards it with the clues you pull and they add to the narrative of the game. For example, we integrated a broken switchblade into the fiction.

That said, the players enjoyed the game and there was a lot of tension in the last twenty minutes when the story comes together.

Alice is Missing is an excellent game and works, despite its flaws. The experience will depend on whether the other players get into the skin of the characters, and I can see why it would be hard to replay it. Even though there are three events to draw from at each section, I think the game would likely play out the same, particularly if you know that Alice’s fate is more random and what you do early in the game has little impact.

Quinns from Shut Up & Sit Down has done an excellent review of it. It’s really the most emotional game you’re ever likely to play, as you get invested into discovering what happened to Alice.

Overall, it took about three hours, including the audio messages and then the debrief. Of course, we listened to Jack’s message last. RIP; you were a good brother after all man.

Rating: 5/5

A unique, haunting game that needs the players to buy-in to the gameplay. With the right group, it’ll be a truly memorable and unique RPG experience.