Alice Is Missing vs Vampire: The Masquerade
Compare Alice Is Missing and Vampire: The Masquerade side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Alice Is Missing | Vampire: The Masquerade | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Modern | Horror, Modern |
| Play Style | GM-Less, Diceless, Narrative, Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Collaborative, Mystery, Investigation, Atmospheric, Drama, Character-Driven, Experimental | Social Intrigue, Drama, Roleplay-Heavy, Atmospheric, Faction Play, Investigation, Collaborative, Character-Driven, Urban Fantasy, Corruption, Lore-Heavy, Noir |
| Core Mechanic | No dice, no GM. One player facilitates setup, then all communication happens via text messages on players' phones for 90 minutes. A timed playlist sets pacing — when the timer hits the number on the back of a face-down Clue Card, that player flips it and follows the prompt, drawing a Suspect or Location Card and weaving the new information into the group text conversation. Characters exchange messages in a group chat and in private, building the story of what happened to Alice Briarwood. The 10-minute card determines the ending. | Roll a pool of d10s (attribute + skill), count successes (6+). Hunger dice replace regular dice in the pool — their 10s trigger Messy Criticals and their 1s trigger Bestial Failures, making the Beast an ever-present threat. |
| Dice | Diceless | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Very Low | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Runnability | High | Medium |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Cost | $ | $$ |
| Publisher | Hunters Entertainment / Renegade Game Studios | Renegade Game Studios |
| Year | 2020 | 2018 |
| Best For | Groups looking for a unique, emotionally intense one-shot experience played in complete silence through real text messages on their phones. | Drama-heavy campaigns exploring themes of addiction, power, and losing your humanity. |
| Highlights | Played entirely in silence through real phone text messages — no speaking after the game begins, timed playlist structures 90 minutes of play with Clue Cards triggered at specific intervals, voicemails recorded during setup are played at the end as a group debrief, won three Gold ENnie Awards in 2021 including Product of the Year | Hunger system mechanically integrates the vampire's predatory nature into every dice roll. Detailed social and political frameworks with clan-based faction play. Humanity and Stains system tracks moral erosion with narrative consequences. |
| Considerations | Requires all players to have phones and each other's numbers, designed as a single-session experience with no continuation — replaying with the same group revisits familiar territory, emotionally heavy content including themes of loss and violence requires safety tools and player buy-in, facilitator must thoroughly understand the rules beforehand even though the role is lighter than a traditional GM | Hunger dice introduce high randomness at critical moments, dense lore spanning 30+ years can overwhelm new players, predator type and clan choice during character creation require setting knowledge to make informed decisions |