Last Tea Shop: The Game Moves

This story was made using the solo RPG: Last Tea Shop (Classic), by Spring Villager. The one-page RPG gave very little in the way of guidance, and the rolling was quick, so the game ended up quite quick and easy to play. The following is a list of the rolls and actions taken during play that resulted in the transcribed narrative:

Location = 3 = Beside a River in a Mountain Pass

Affinities = Mice and Lost Things

Supplies:

Roll	Die 1	Die 2	Supply
1	3	3	Quartz Crystal
2	5	4	Feather Moss
3	3	6	Giant Puffball

The Game

Day rolled	Guest	Weather	Question 1	Tea	Question 2
2	2 = Stablehand	1	1	Comforting Brew	6
6 (+2)	10 = Tailor	3	9	Distance Tea	2
5	15 = Hermit	4	7	Draft of Recall	2
4	19 = Diplomat	3	2	Gumboot Tea	1
5	24 = The Veiled One	5	9	Comforting Brew	2

Final Thoughts

It’s always interesting when a random die roll tells a story. In this case, the meta-narrative was how the tea-shop owner really wanted to know where everyone lived. It’s too bad, because that’s the least interesting question of all the ten that were offered.¹ Nevertheless, I think I managed to work them in just fine.

I noted that I was fairly “lucky” with the day rolls. If I had rolled unluckily, I might have rolled a 1 or 2 every time, and this story could have involved ten or fifteen guests instead of just five. I think five to seven was a good range for the type of story I was telling; more than that might have been too plodding. On the other hand, more variety with the questions and weather might have made the story fit in more of a vignette model.

Really, the one game-mechanic I didn’t quite truck with was the one question you were always supposed to ask: “How did you know my last customer?” While I appreciate the desire to chain characters together, to say they were all in some way connected, not every story supports such a framework. Perhaps I might have gotten more mileage out of the whole story if I had gone into it with the goal of linking all the characters together, rather than trying to create individual stories?

Either way, this was a delightful little exercise, and I may find myself coming back to this last tea shop some time in the future.