Alice Is Missing expansion deepens the silence of the tabletop RPG

When screenwriter and tabletop game designer Spenser Starke suddenly lost his mother in 2016, he immediately shouldered his father’s emotional burden, as well as that of his grandmother and maternal aunt. In an interview with Polygon, Starke stated that his complacency and reliance on others for support meant that there was no room in his heart to grieve.

Starke was the first to design it. Alice Is MissingA collaborative storytelling role-playing game (RPG) that takes place in a fictional town in the Pacific Northwest where friends are searching for their friend. You will be told the mystery through playing cards. The soundtrack is a mix of indie songs that are moody and nostalgic.

Starke has begun crowdfunding. Alice is Missing: Silent Falls, an additional collection of cards — clues, locations, suspects, and more — that nearly doubles the original count and complicates the search for Alice. The core deck can have as many as players want. The additions are not required and all have been made to work seamlessly in the small box, which was a huge hit since its launch in 2020.

These new ideas were there since the start and have been cut from the initial production. Alice Is Missing to create what Starke referred to as an MVP, or “most viable product,” for Kickstarter.

“I’ve been tweaking the cards in the expansion literally since the game launched as a way to give people the opportunity to tell new stories with the game and to provide an added level of narrative challenge,” Starke said. “It was a game I never thought people would play because it’s just weird and emotional and Type-2 fun. But it comes from a very real place.”

Hunters Entertainment

Hunters Entertainment

Alice Is Missing follows the disappearance of Alice Briarwood, a Northern California high schooler with a group of friends — created and embodied by the players — hellbent on discovering what happened. Players will discuss what happened in a one-on-one text chat over the course of three hours. As more clues and suspects become apparent, they’ll be able to share their thoughts with each other. Guided by card prompts and an ever-ticking timer, the group will discover how someone’s absence can tear through a community, revealing uncomfortable truths along the way.

“[The game] was originally born out of this desire to make a game that captured the emotional landscape I was traversing during that time, which is why you’re not going to solve it on your own,” Starke said “The game has to play out. You’re not going to Sherlock Holmes this thing. That’s purposeful.”

Hunters Entertainment

Hunters Entertainment

Starke said he’s always been drawn to “emotional, indie video games” such as It’s Strange What Life Has to Offer, Oxenfree, And FirewatchAnd Alice Is Missing consciously draws on the “cozy but also fucked-up” vibes to construct its atmosphere of the familiar made strange, a cracked mirror through which you might view your own past. It’s not so much about pulling rugs as being a means of vulnerability. Alice Is Missing’s tendency to evoke surprisingly strong reactions while sitting dead quiet in a dim room has earned it quite a reputation within the tabletop community.

It Silent FallsAfter a few sessions of the core game, expansion can be tackled by groups. He doesn’t agree that this return should be called his director’s cut or definitive edition. He doesn’t generally enjoy touching his creative works again after they’ve been released into the world and the hands of an audience. Starke says this project is different. It felt just right.

Hunters Entertainment

Players will find three new suspects that might be tied to Alice’s disappearance, and each throws a wrench into how veteran players understand Silent Falls’ social fabric. The first is Officer Prescott, the town’s sheriff, whose implication means players can likely not turn to the police for assistance. Another, Alice’s estranged father, John Harwood, raises the specter of domestic trouble and rotten family dynamics. Alice’s last friend is a student new to campus. She quickly became friends with Alice, and she inserted herself in the group. It made the atmosphere raunchy and caused everyone to reflect about their own relationships to the girl.

Starke clearly has an interest in investigating power structures through the simulacra from Silent Falls. How does this translate into the fact that some people you are supposed to trust could be using their authority in order to cover up a horrible crime? What happens when traditional family roles are used to sever a relationship after years of bitterness? How do we think about those closest to us? What are their fears of revealing the truth, so we don’t judge them?

Starke stated that Revisiting Silent Falls will hopefully be like igniting the fire within players. Starke admits that he feels more anxious than ever while creating the original experience, even after the feedback and playtesting. It’s an electric energy he craves from the creative process.

“The stuff that scares me is the stuff that I’m most excited about. If I’m not, then I haven’t done my job. I haven’t pushed myself,” Starke said. “It’s going to be really exciting for me to watch people use the prompts that I’ve given them to tell me stories. I love having that opportunity again.”

Alice is Missing: Silent FallsLaunches on Kickstarter starting February 14th and will be hosted at Hunters Entertainment by Hunters Entertainment. Children on bikes, Altered carbon The Role Playing GameAnd Outbreak: Undead.