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kylewithann · 1 year

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Waffles for Esther: a Solo TTRPG Liveblog

Today I'm playing Waffles for Esther by Pandion Games. I will be playing a waitress looking for clues to uncover the secrets behind a diner guest's sudden disappearance. Along the way, small-town hijinks will ensue. Can we piece together this puzzle and save our missing patron?

Making Our Character

Firstly, we have to flesh out our waitress by answering some starting questions.

What is your character's name? - Mavis Matthews

What brought them to this town? - The big city was too expensive. Who knows? A change of pace might be good for her.

What aspirations do they have? - An aspiring actress. She just needs to save up some money while she waits for her big break.

What is their favorite mystery novel? - One that's equal parts tropey and smutty.

Our waitress also has two skills--Waitress and Detective--that we need to assign dice to. One will get a d12 and the other a d10. Here's what each stat covers:

Waitress - Keep the waffles safe, avoid contact with people, make polite conversation.

Detective - Investigate, uncover, discover, ask questions, get into places you don’t belong.

I'm going to choose a d12 for Detective and a d10 for Waitress.

And with that, our waitress is ready to go!

How to Play

Now that we're essentially done with setup, it's time to move to the next portion of the game: the Investigation.

Our little town has 13 locations where we can gather clues from. Each time we gather a clue, we'll roll for a complication, figure out which skill we can use to handle the complication, and roll again to figure out if we get consequences, hijinks, or a clue. Gameplay ends when we have visited all 13 locations or when we're satisfied with the number of clues we have. The first location is always the diner, so let's get started!

Location #1: The Diner

We're going to build out our diner first before we jump into the rolling.

What is the name of this place? - Curly Moe's

Who works here that you know? - Larry, the owner and head cook. Rosie, the night shift waitress.

What is unique or unusual about this place? - The diner inhabits a decommissioned train car.

Now time to get into the gameplay.

Complication - Something very heavy is causing an impediment to finding your next clue. What is it? How do you overcome it?

Chosen skill - Detective (d12)

Outcome - 10+ (Success! Find two clues)

Clues - A hidden compartment, a fake passport

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It was another slow shift at Curly Moe's. Even on the busiest hours, time in the diner moved slow as molasses. Only a couple of patrons inhabited the restaurant: a trio of old men playing some card game over half-eaten burgers, and Esther.

Mavis was heading to the table with her favorite regular's standard order: A coffee with one sugar and a splash of milk and waffles with two sliced strawberries served with apple jam syrup on the side. Later on, she would get hashbrowns with extra ketchup to round out her meal.

Much to her confusion, as Mavis approached the table, Esther was nowhere to be found. Odd. She didn't want her customer's food to grow cold, so Mavis decided to look around for her.

The first place Mavis decided to check was the ladies' room. A polite knock on the door was met with silence. Mavis gave the door a gentle push and it swung open easily, revealing nothing inside.

Next, Mavis headed out into the parking lot. As she scanned the horizion, she made another discovery: Esther's car was nowhere to be found. This was getting strange.

As Mavis stopped to ponder her present predicament, an idea popped into her head. Inspired by the mystery novels she loved to read, she decided to search high and low for clues as to where Esther might have gone. Maybe she left something on the table? A napkin note, perhaps?

Mavis scanned the tabletop, finding nothing. Peeking under the table, the only thing she spotted was dried chewing gum stuck to the underside. Well, why not check under the booth?

Mavis struggled to move the seats, but she was persistent. She was finally able to move the booth, but only by a few inches. As Mavis ran her hands along the floor to see if she could find anything, she brushed across a loose tile. Curious, she gave it a more forceful push, revealing a little hidey hole underneath.

The compartment contained a single item: a passport. Mavis thumbed through the pages--filled with stamps--until she stumbled across something most curious. Esther's picture was there, yes. This must belong to her. The only problem was, a different name was attached to her portrait: Lydia Smart.

A true mystery was afoot! With equal parts excitement and concern, Mavis rushed to clock out, say her goodbyes to Larry (and apologize for leaving early), and hurried to her car with Esther's order and falsified passport in tow. It was time to investigate.

Location #2: The Post Office

What is the name of this place? - The Cedar Creek County Post Office

Who works here that you know? - Melba, the front clerk. Joe, the delivery driver.

What's unique or unusual about this place? - Only one P.O. box is in use right now.

Complication - Why did the school decide this was the place for a field trip? There must be a hundred kids running around and screaming.

Chosen skill - Waitress (d10)

Outcome - 5+ (Success! Find one clue)

Clue - Hints about the society

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There were only a couple of places in town where you could get a passport, and the post office was the closest one. Mavis figured she could interrogate ask Melba if she knew anything about this "Lydia Smart."

However, her plans were thrown off by the yellow school bus, parked in almost every spot of the tiny parking lot, offloading what appeared to be a sea of unruly children. Of course, Mrs. Johnson's third grade class just had to schedule their post office field trip for the same day.

As she carefully navigated past the swarm of elementary schoolers inside, Mavis tried to see if she could grab Melba's attention. No such luck. Looks like she was too distracted by giving a tour. There was no way Mavis was going to be able to snag her attention on this one.

Instead, Mavis decided to take the investigation into her own hands once more. Using her waitressing skills, Mavis was able to weave through the third graders without missing a beat and without being seen. She made her way behind the desk to look for anything useful. She scoured the area to see if their was anything tied to Esther or Lydia Smart, but her snooping turned up nothing of the sort. She did, however, find something intriguing. On the document listing the P.O. boxes, only one was actively in use. The name tied to it was "The Black Rose Society." Mavis had never heard of this name before, and Cedar Creek was a small town. She made a mental note of this before hurriedly heading off to her next location.

Location #3: The Town Hall

What is the name of this place? - Cedar Creek City Hall

Who works here that you know? - Susie, the front clerk. Horace, the town mayor.

What's unique or unusual about this place? - The halls are so echoey that unless you speak in hushed tones, it'll sound like 10 people are talking at once.

Complication - The friendliest person in town approaches, and you know if she is acknowledged, you are stick here for an hour at least.

Chosen skill - Waitress (d10)

Outcome - 10+ (Success! Two clues)

Clue - Scribbled notes by Esther, a cooked society ledger

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Mavis sped off toward the city hall. Her reasoning for heading there was twofold: she could possibly find out more about this funny passport business and/or the Black Rose Society. She wasn't sure how this tied in to the case, but something about it definitely smelled fishy. She headed into the town hall. Maybe she could convince Susie to let some details slip.

As she made her way to the front desk, she heard the noise of clicking heels making their way down the hallway. She turned to see Cathy Reynolds. Oh no. There was a reason why all of Cedar Creek called her "Chatty Cathy." This woman was blessed with the gift of gab. If Mavis got stuck in one of her conversations, she knew the trail would run cold--and so would Esther's waffles.

Using some quick-thinking and finesse, Mavis tucked away behind one of the pillars, holding her breath. At the same time, Susie was leaving her desk. What a fortuitous moment. Mavis sneaked her way towards the county clerk's desk as Chatty Cathy began to rope Susie into what was sure to be a lengthy conversation. Cathy's droning filled up the echoey chamber, providing the perfect cover Mavis needed to do some reconnaissance.

Once again, Mavis could find no trace of records leading to Esther or Lydia Smart. Where did this passport come from? Mavis was frustrated with this dead end.

As she continued to snoop, a tiny black book fell out of one of the desk drawers. Mavis bent down to pick it up and began to flip through the pages. Initials, dollar amounts, cryptic messages--Mavis couldn't make heads or tails of what appeared to be some sort of mysterious ledger.

As she continued to turn through the pages, a small note that had been co-opted into a bookmark gently drifted to the ground. Mavis unfolded it and scanned the contents. It looked like latitude and longitude coordinates, signed with an E at the bottom. A spark of recognition--Mavis had seen this handwriting before. The E looked exactly like the beginning of Esther's signature!

Slipping the note back into the black book, Mavis silently snuck her way out from behind the front desk and out towards the parking lot. All the while, Cathy's chatting covered up her escape.

Location #4: The Warehouse

What is the name of this place? - Whatever markings this building once had have been completely lost to time.

Who works here that you know? - This place has long since been abandoned. No one works here anymore.

What is unique or unusual about this place? - No one knows who owns it.

Complication - The local band is putting on a live show, and they’ve asked you to join in as they’re down a singer.

Chosen skill - Detective??? (d12)

Outcome - 5+ (Success! Find one clue)

Clue - Misleadingly named files

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Coordinates in hand, Mavis raced towards the location. Time was of the essence. After all, the waffles in the back seat were growing cold.

Mavis pulled up to an ominously abandoned warehouse. But this was a classic shady organization move--and this Black Rose Society was shaping up to be that way. Her head was filled with thoughts of all of the dark, illicit dealings that could be taking place inside.

As she snuck in through a side door, she immediately tumbled to the ground as she tripped over a length of wires. She had fallen into one of the Society's elaborate traps! Now they would take her as a prisoner and interrogate her until she spilled all of her dirty secrets. She was doomed!

She looked down around her and found....guitar cables? Looking up, she noticed a band set up on a makeshift stage. This wasn't a secret base at all, nor was it a bad guy's trap. This was....a concert venue?

An individual came running up to Mavis, checking in to see if she was all right after her spill. He introduced himself as Piers, lead singer of Spatter Pattern. It was a name that Mavis was vaguely familiar with. They were a local punk rock band who were trying to make it big in Cedar Creek's very limited music scene. He then began to plead with her: they were down a backup singer and desperately needed a replacement for their show. They would pay her back any way they could.

Mavis sympathized with this young man. After all, she was also searching for her big break. She figured why not round out her performing portfolio and help out these fine folks at the same time? Sure, they weren't exactly her genre, but you take any gig you can get, right?

Piers taught her a few of the basic harmonies--just enough for her to scrape by for the performance. Then it was time for her big debut,

The crowd wasn't exactly packed, but it was a better turnout than Mavis was expecting for an early afternoon show at a nondescript warehouse. As the lights went up and Piers began to hype up the crowd, Mavis felt a nervous feeling creeping up her throat. But she couldn't back down now as the set kicked off.

It wasn't her finest display, but Mavis put on a passable performance. Enough for Piers and the rest of the band to be pleased. When they asked how they could help her out, the gears in her head began turning. She asked if they found anything out of the ordinary while setting up for their show. Piers replied that they found some files randomly strewn about on the floor, but they didn't think anything of it. Mavis begged them to let her get ahold of the documents.

Once they collected them and handed them over, she began to scour them immediately. The outside looked inconspicuous, but when she opened them up...bingo. More dirt on the Black Rose Society. This was exactly the big break she needed. She hurriedly thanked them as she ran off to her car. She had a case to close.

Deduction Phase

Although we didn't visit all of the locations, I'm satisfied with the story and the number of clues we've collected. Now, we'll be heading into the deduction phase. Here we make our hypothesis for what happened and roll to see the outcome/consequences.

Hypothesis - Esther has gotten caught up in some bad dealings with a nefarious underground organization known as the Black Rose Society, as detailed in the ledger and in the secret files that Esther herself must've lead her to (she must've known that Mavis would come looking for her). In over her head, Esther has to wring herself from their clutches by becoming untraceable. With her alias as Lydia Smart, Esther bought a one way ticket out of this joint. Her only problem is that she left her fake passport at the diner. So the only place she could possibly be was at the airport, awaiting her passport and her waffles.

Deduction roll (d12 for 6 clues) - 5+ (you were right, and you can successfully deliver Esther’s waffles and solve the mystery.)

Conclusion

With passport and to-go box in hand, Mavis sprinted into the airport. Coming here was a big risk given how long of a drive it was. If she was wrong, there would be hefty consequences. However, Mavis stayed optimistic. All the clues up to this point had led her here, so she had to be right. She only hoped that she wasn't too late.

Her hope waned as she scanned the sea of people, finding only unfamiliar faces. Had she made the wrong choice? Just as she was about to give up, she spotted her through a break in the crowd: Esther, looking incredibly fidgety and nervous. Using her refined waitressing skills, Mavis masterfully weaved her way through the group towards her worried patron before she handed the waffles and the passport to her.

"Your order, ma'am."

Just as a stunned Esther was about to speak, Mavis shushed her and gave her a wink.

"It's on the house. Now hurry along, Miss Lydia. You got a flight to catch."

CASE CLOSED.

Final Thoughts

This game did not go how I expected it to at all. Who knew there were so many sinister clues on the table (and that the stars aligned and we got almost all of them)? We also got only successes, which really padded our chances of solving the mystery. Definitely not the silly rural hijinks and bumbles that I was assuming would occur.

This was a fun game! It has an interesting theme and was really easy for me to pick up. I would recommend checking it out!

Hope you enjoyed reading along!

Now go order some waffles.

#Waffles for Esther #solo ttrpg #solo rpg #journaling ttrpg #journaling rpg #single player game

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