THE GREAT TEA ROBBERY

“The Great Tea Robbery” offers an extraordinary immersive experience that blends history, mystery, and sensory exploration. This adventure features over 200 pages of dossiers, most of which are based on authentic writings by Robert Fortune and genuine botanical illustrations. Many of these documents are exact reproductions of Fortune’s original work, while others have been thoughtfully altered to fit the narrative and craft over 30 intricate puzzles. This careful balance ensures an experience deeply rooted in real events, facts, and materials while providing engaging gameplay.

The game’s 9 lbs of hand-crafted components are tailor-made to enhance immersion and authenticity:

• 100s of ephemera
• Solid Wood Box
• 1 Porcelain ’Gaiwan’ tea-set (bowl, lid, base)
• 2 porcelain cups
• 1 porcelain peach shape tea holder
• 2 porcelain tea samples holder
• 2 bamboo tea cup coasters
• 1 bamboo fountain pen
• 1 bamboo tea mat
• 1 customized Puerh tea ‘cake’
• A set of customized ceramic tiles and bag
• 5 different tea varieties
• 2 set of different real scented flowers
• A variety of real dry-pressed flowers
• Silk-like embroidery bags
• 1 tea filter made out of real leaf

The game features hundreds of pages across four volumes, offering hours of immersive play. Each chapter is a self-contained puzzle, allowing you to progress at your own pace without feeling overwhelmed. It’s like reading a captivating book while interacting with tangible artifacts that bring the story to life.

No, the adventure is completely offline. The hint system is uniquely designed as part of an immersive dialogue between Wilson and his assistant as they work through the case. Spanning about 100 pages, these hints not only guide you step by step but also enrich the narrative, making them feel like a natural extension of the story rather than a disruption. This ensures you stay fully immersed while solving puzzles.

While retracing Robert Fortune’s journey through China, Ernest H. Wilson stumbled upon a startling revelation. Inside his predecessor’s field desk, he found a fragile piece of paper bearing dry tea leaves and a cryptic message scrawled across it, ‘I’m sorry.’ It also had an unusual dark purple stain resembling dripping blood.

This raised numerous questions: What was Fortune hiding? Did he truly collect tea plants from the renowned tea districts, as he claimed, or was this entire mission a sophisticated deception? Could his scheme have been intercepted and manipulated by the Middle Kingdom Emperor, leading to the question of whether high-quality plants ever left China?

You’ll step into the shoes of Ernest H. Wilson as he investigates and examines all the artifacts, notes, journals, and personal belongings of Robert Fortune, discovered in his portable field desk. Wilson’s investigation didn’t lead to a conclusion, so it’s up to you to solve the case and bring it to a close.

Most components are meticulously handmade, making each box unique and ensuring limited availability.

Each component is meticulously handmade, making every box unique and ensuring limited availability.

Our business model is designed around limited, one-time production runs. We produced enough boxes to fulfill our Kickstarter pledges, plus a small number of extra boxes for late pledges. Late pledges purchased now will be shipped together with the Kickstarter orders.

We’ve been working on this project for over a year since the campaign in October-November 2023, and the wait is finally over. Shipping will begin at the end of February and continue through mid-March. All orders, including late pledges, will be shipped via sea freight to a fulfillment center in the U.S., with delivery expected approximately two months after shipping begins.