Quickstart Guide

This guide assumes familiarity with the rules and gameplay of Alice is Missing. To purchase a PDF copy of the game, including the rulebook, click here.

If you have not yet installed the bot, see Installation

Playing the game

Running the bot

To run the bot, open a shell window and enter the following:

$ python /path/to/src

Where /path/to/src is the path to the src folder in the bot’s root directory.

Game setup

For setup, join the voice channel and have players join you.

Note

All bot commands should be entered into #bot-channel. The bot will not respond to commands in other channels.

To begin setting up the game, type !init into the channel titled #bot-channel in your server. This will distribute the various character, suspect, and location cards to their respective channels. Have players navigate to player-resources. Read the introduction card out loud, and introduce Alice from the poster. Now, have players navigate to #character-cards and introduce the five characters with their brief taglines (directly underneath their names on the cards). Tell players you will be playing as Charlie Barnes, and have them pick the characters they would like to play amongst themselves. To claim a character role, use !claim <Player>, e.g., !claim Charlie.

Note

The bot cannot change the server owner’s nickname because of a limitation set by Discord. If the server owner is playing, they should set their own nickname to match their character.

Once all players have claimed their character roles, run !setup_clues to assign clue times to each player. Continue following the checklist at the top of #charlie-clues to explain the mechanics of the game to the players. Remember to keep Charlie’s background (also at the top of #charlie-clues) in mind when describing your character.

Finally, have each player type their voicemails into the #voicemails channel, with spoiler bars on each side, e.g., ||Hey Alice, ...||. This will keep the voicemails hidden until players click on them, which should happen at the end of the game, and allow the bot to find the voicemails when exporting the PDF.

Starting the game

To start the game, run !start. The bot will automatically send clues to the appropriate clues channel along with the corresponding suspect/location at the times previously assigned. The only command that needs to be run after the game has begun is the !10 command, which is used to assign the 10 minute clue card to the player who is going to Alice’s location near the end of the game, e.g., !10 Dakota. Should a player need to draw a searching card, have them run !search.

Note

Some clues may ask players to flip a coin. The bot will generate this flip automatically and send the result at the appropriate times. There is no need for players to flip a coin themselves.

Other settings

The bot has a few gameplay-related settings available, including displaying a timer and running in manual mode. For more information on these, see Changing Gameplay Settings

Note

For a list of all available bot commands, use !help

End of game

At the end of the game, each player should read their voicemail out loud to the group, and the other players can follow along by reading the messages from the channel directly.

You may also wish to allow your players to see the other characters’ clues and messages. To do this, run !show_all. (Note that this command is only available to those with admin permissions on the server.)

You can also export the game content to a PDF using !pdf. This will create a folder titled “exports” in the bot’s root directory, where you can find the .pdf file. The bot can upload this file and send you a download link. For more information, see Exports.