Some narratives emerge as whispers that reshape worlds. 21 Telford Lane is one such roleplay, transforming a simple letter-writing premise into a delicate exploration of communication and a meditation on human connection.
Welcome to Curtain Call, a brief retrospective about a recent roleplay after interviewing the head moderators for their thoughts. For this article, we’ll be tackling 21 Telford Lane. It was created and run by Coby Cua and Jakey Tiu. Both of them have been with Lacie’s Box for a while now and have been part of many moderating teams at this point. The first time they worked together on a roleplay was with Goliath: Birds of Prey, a private spin-off that explored the commercialization of war after the events of Goliath by focusing on a mercenary company and their many wild antics.
21 Telford Lane was a private roleplay that ran from February 10 to March 30, 2025. Here, the players are homunculi who work in the Whiteford Manu Vocas Company, a writing company that aims to make letters more affordable for the people in Oldea City. Compared to their previous works, it can feel a lot more subdued and introspective in comparison but arguably explored a lot more.
The Epilogue of 21 Telford Lane
Here is an excerpt from their epilogue post:
After the events of the visit to Fleocan, things are relatively silent. Relatively. It was one thing to live with such national fame considering your work in Fleocan. It’s another thing to see that the fruits of your labor had made Amac move to improve its aging national postal system to mimic that of Wright Manu Vocas Services.
It won’t be long until this once very small company will become the template for all regional postal services moving forward. The Manu Vocas services especially being a highlight of such change, allowing more of the illiterate and the lower classes to avail of writings. Talks of teaching the lower class how to write and read are rumored to be in the works, met with some backlash but also with its wave of support. Talks as well to formally make classes that allow those willing to become Manu Vocas has been making the rounds, to each their own opinion on such.
The immediate future may not see any change, yet your success will become a template for months, years, or even centuries to come in Amac. Words will save the world, and you have proven your words more than enough to push even a country in the right direction. Yet, as this change unfolds slowly, a new battlefield of words and blood arises in the continent you just left. In the weeks that follow the bloody Fleocan Civil War would begin. But, that wouldn’t be all that unfolds in Spoisia.
Just a little bit further inland, further towards the mountains that divide the continent, the country of Hjotagille faces a new crisis. As the day dawns the week following the start of their neighbor’s civil war, the country’s trusted advisors hurriedly gather at the King’s castle. All to discuss the news that both Agrana and Miran, have simultaneously declared war on their country.
Stay tuned for, Lacie’s Box : The 4th Hjotagille Express
Narrative Explorations in Intimacy
“[Jakey and I] agreed that Telford is about telling and exploring stories,” Coby stated. By making the player characters homunculi that existed at the periphery of society, it transformed the framing of every interaction. These artificial beings, tasked with listening and writing, became a lens through which broader social dynamics could be examined. It was not their job to dissect or to lecture; it was their job to dig deep, to explore the motivations beneath each letter, and to uncover the hidden stories lurking beneath seemingly mundane requests.
By using the smaller space that private roleplays offer, they were able to provide room for intentional intimacy. “The small player base — and even smaller as time went on — made it a breeze to manage this… paired with a small and tight-knit player base with a relatively similar schedule made it easy to be patient…” The limited number of players also made it easier for them to provide personalized attention to each letter request. Jakey noted that “the flexibility we afforded ourselves by not making a rigid storyline for each letter … alleviated a lot of pressure from the shoulders of ‘getting things right’ when we adopted an approach that focused on the client and the client alone.”
The roleplay also stripped away a lot of mechanical complexity that is typical of many Lacie’s Box roleplays in order to focus on this narrative experience. Each letter was an opportunity for genuine connection between characters, a bridge sparking further understanding. Players were encouraged to learn more about their client, to not be satisfied with a surface level understanding, and inviting them to coax the stories hidden in what they truly wanted to say.
“I think the roleplay also explored themes of discrimination and the feeling of being ‘othered,’” Coby reflected, “Our two most active players, really leveraged their race to deeper explore how the world treats Homunculi and how they might be able to change the perspective of not just individuals but society at large.”
The result was a structure that stressed empathy and avoided lecturing, creating a narrative ecosystem that facilitated dialogues and allowed personal experiences to breathe and speak for themselves.
Inclinations: Subtleties and Subtext
Because of how narrative-heavy the roleplay is, could you imagine navigating a written conversation where you aren’t able to read the other character’s mood, body language, and reactions? That’s the challenge that most roleplays face since we navigate our spaces solely on text: the inherent ambiguity of written communication. Jakey summed up the issue perfectly: “Written words are tone deaf no matter how hard we try.”
The mechanical heartbeat of 21 Telford Lane comes from adapting the inclinations system from Heirs of Pirouz. The inclinations mechanic allowed for them to focus and guide players by signposting what topics and ideas their clients are receptive to or care about. It was a system that explicitly stated what a character was feeling at the moment and what might catch their attention.
Inclinations in 21 Telford Lane
While conducting an Interview or Investigation, when the NPCs reply, or when the moderator processes the narrative actions taken, players will be presented with Inclinations or Information discovered by their Manu Voca.
Inclinations revolve around the NPCs, and highlight certain facts regarding them that are relevant to the current letter request. Things like characteristics, habits, traits, and even likes and dislikes may be uncovered while interviewing NPCs. However, do note that Inclinations related to the letter will only appear, and any other miscellaneous fact not related to the letter will not appear as an Inclination.
Information details important observations in the environment and other important discoveries that do not specifically pertain to NPCs. These are discovered mainly through Investigations, but may also appear during Interviews with NPCs. Both Inclinations and Information are tools by the moderators to guide the player. Highlighting more relevant information to the letter request aims to prevent players from getting lost amidst the sea of exposition they might find themselves in.
At its core, the system provided a meta-layer of context that helped reduce misunderstandings. Roleplays centered around communication can get bogged down in long descriptions for behavior or back-and-forth clarifications. This approach cut through that noise. The important context was highlighted without breaking the narrative rhythm, allowing the duo to explicitly frame the emotional underpinnings of each interaction. As Coby attested, “inclinations were really too good to implement. It helped both mods and players keep track of important information and provided a good way to highlight certain things without disrupting narrative flow.”
Players could still choose to misinterpret, to play against the inclinations. The system didn’t have any mechanical constraints. “Since there weren’t mechanics backing this system,” Jakey added, “players still could freely and confidently choose to act like they misinterpreted it or act like their character.” The system wasn’t a straitjacket; it was additional information that created room for players to contribute more freely.
“Watching the players try to figure out words and prompt more and more was fun to watch.” Jakey recalled. “Some dug deep and some were just so reassured from presence alone that information came out naturally. Presenting these heartfelt stories to eager players was such a joy.”
Inclinations served as a flexible framework for players to explore the motivations of their clients. Coby described it like setting up a house with no furniture: “You have the general shape and structure down, but leaving enough space to decorate during the roleplay. Don’t be afraid to take what players give you and run with it. You might know that you need a bed in the bedroom, but if a player presents you a waterbed, then say ‘why not’ and go with it. A roleplay and its world are not solely written by the mod team but rather built by them and the player base together.”
The result was a storytelling technique that felt organic and responsive, subtly nudging the players to discover more at their own pace and discretion.
Space Through Communicating
Coby and Jakey kept Telford small. Really small. This was the second roleplay in Lacie’s Box to only have two people moderating the entire project (with the first being Blood Group: Louvain ’83). What could have been a significant challenge became the roleplay’s greatest strength.
When they set a maximum of 8 players for the roleplay, it was about creating breathing room. They wanted to make sure that the two of them could handle the number of players. “We made sure to have a small player base,” Coby explained. “Even when one [of us] was busy, the other could easily take over if needed.” After all, they weren’t planning to run a tight operation; they were building a creative space for telling stories. Their teamwork made everything run smoothly. “For the most part, I simply just trusted Coby to do what he wished to do,” Jakey said. “And if he needed my help, he could trust what I could add, [and] he would adapt too.”
The two were also upfront about their schedules and limitations. Both of them established clear availability windows, transparent scheduling, and open lines of communication. “We also made our schedule clear,” Jakey said, “so everyone was aware that we were more available in the evenings and after certain times.” There was no mystery when they would get back to players. The players knew when and how often they could expect a response. If they weren’t able to reply soon, Jakey said that they “simply [sent a message] that [they] will reply the following day.”
Their management philosophy emphasized transparency and setting more realistic expectations. The magic was in its simplicity. Two people, clear communication, and a lot of trust and respect. In doing so, they created a low-pressure environment for everyone. “Keep things simple,” Jakey advised, “so you won’t be ripping your hair out on getting a litany of bullet points across in a short span. Less is more; set low and achievable objectives, so everything else afterwards will be a bonus.”
Words Will Save the World
The conclusion of 21 Telford Lane can be summed up with a single thematic line from their epilogue: “words will save the world.”
Each epilogue for the customers of the Whiteford Manus Vocas Company was like a love letter to their transformation. They were labelled as if addressed to the glimpses of their potential futures. whispers of what might happen next — such as with ‘To the Night Sky Whose Weight is on my Shoulders,’ ‘To the Ones that Loved Me Yesterday and Today,’ ‘To the Distance Between the Four of Us,’ and ‘To Death, I Send My Regards.’
“Writing all of the letter epilogues was a fun send-off done for the roleplay.” Coby remarked. “Making it so that every request had one last scene to close it out felt super rewarding and put into perspective the work we did for the RP, but also the effort of all the players as well … it was only possible in Telford due to the way it was structured.”
Jakey saw it similarly:
“The letter epilogues and sending everything off in one night with a neat bow at the end of the roleplay was rewarding. The immediate aftermath was one thing, but showing where the characters they helped were now was a nice idea that came out both in paper and in practice.”
What sets these epilogues apart is their commitment to showing growth. Rather than being summaries of their lives at the final moments of the roleplay, the final scenes are recontextualizations of their entire journeys. They are bookmarks signalling the end of one chapter along with the promise of more stories to be told, more worlds waiting to be explored.
The final letters that detail the civil war in Fleocan won’t immediately stop the bloodshed. Instead, it demonstrated how small acts of understanding can shift entire landscapes. How these published reports created shifts in the general conversation, the decisions to take people in, and the objections of those in power.
21 Telford Lane shows that change doesn’t always look like what we expect. In a world torn apart by conflict, these letters showed something radical: that meaningful change happens in conversations, in the moments of listening. This roleplay reminds us that true connection comes through by listening intently to the stories told between the lines.
“Words will save the world” isn’t just a nice phrase, it’s a blueprint for hope.
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