The landscape was full of machines and scrap metal connected to the facility in one way or another. Always present on the horizon were the colossal cooling towers, with their green obstruction lights. If you put your ear to the ground, you could hear the heartbeat of the Loop - the purring of the Gravitron, the central piece of engineering magic that was the focus of the Loop’s experiments.



What’s the premise?

It’s the ‘80s, but it’s not quite the decade we remember. Magnetic-powered hovercrafts move through the skies ahead and industrial robots clomp through the streets. You are all children who live in the suburbs near the Loop, a massive particle accelerator built for unknown research purposes. Strange things happen around the Loop, sometimes even dangerous things, but the adults would never believe you. The primary Loop is in the Mälaren Islands of Sweden, the default setting for the game, but there’s also setting material for a Loop in Nevada. The setting is based on the artwork of Simon Stålenhag, drawing from the art book of the same name.

The children investigate mysteries stemming from advanced technology, Loop-induced dimensional anomalies, abandoned facilities, and research projects gone awry. You might deal with malfunctioning robots, eerie transmissions, sinister new inventions, or even time-displaced dinosaurs, alongside the stresses and triumphs of mundane childhood. You might even end up saving the world - but, again, the adults will never believe you.

You’d like it if you’re into: ‘80s kids adventure movies, Stranger Things, Dark, The X-Files, Eerie, Indiana, The Breakfast Club

Why do you recommend it?

Like the best ‘80s kids adventure movies, Tales from the Loop inspires wonder and terror in equal measure. Playing ordinary children grounds the fantastical elements and introduces some very real emotional stakes. In addition, the ‘80s Swedish setting provides a specificity of place and time that’s fascinating to dig into, both familiar and unfamiliar to those who didn’t live through that particular decade in that particular place.

What are the rules?

Any time something prevents you from doing something, you’re in Trouble. To resolve Trouble, describe how you’re overcoming it, choose the appropriate attribute and skill, and roll that many d6s. Each 6 is one success. Typically you only need one, but extremely difficult situations might take two or three. If you fail, you can retry by Pushing it and taking a Condition (Upset, Scared, Exhausted, or Injured). Some Troubles give you a Condition when you fail - for instance, failing to get past the school bully could leave you Injured. The more Conditions you have, the fewer dice you roll, and if you have all four, you’re Broken and automatically fail all dice rolls. Kids can’t die in this game however - that’s a basic story principle.

Particularly dramatic situations are portrayed by Extended Trouble, which requires successes equal to twice the number of kids or more. Each Kid gets to use their own individual skills to contribute to the plan to overcome it (and the pool of successes). If the Kids get a partial success, they can take Conditions to make up for the successes they need and come up with a partial victory that achieves some of their goal.

There’s no combat in the traditional sense - either everything gets resolved in a single Trouble roll or it’s portrayed as Extended Trouble that everyone gets to participate in. NPCs don’t roll anything.

What’s my character like?

Each Kid is built around a particular archetype - Bookworm, Computer Geek, Hick, Jock, Popular Kid, Rocker, Troublemaker, or Weirdo. That archetype determines which skills you’re best at. You’re between 10 and 15 years old. The younger you are the luckier you are, and thus more generally successful overall, but the older you are the stronger your attributes, which makes you more successful in specific areas.

Your character’s primary attributes are Body, Tech, Heart, and Mind, and each of them has three different skills that represent the kinds of actions you can take with them (like Sneak, Force, and Move for Body). You also have a pool of Luck Points that give you the ability to reroll dice. Each Kid has an Iconic Item that says something about who they are, gives bonus dice when used, and never disappears or breaks unless the player wants it to.

Kids are further fleshed out by choosing a Problem and a Drive, which provide backstory, and a Pride, which is a strong point in their character that can be used to succeed automatically on a related roll once per session. The Kids all have defined Relationships with each other, and each has an Anchor that they can go to for safety, support, and care, and to heal Conditions. The players collectively design a Hideout shared by the Kids that can be used the same way. Finally, you pick a song from the ‘80s that represents your Kid.

What’s the campaign like?

There are two ways to play the game - through individual Mystery Stories (which can be linked together or run as standalones) or through the Mystery Landscape, which is more freeform and offers the Kids a chance to explore particular locations and their Mysteries.

Games start with the Kids each getting to play out a scene from their everyday life, then introducing the Mystery. From there, the Kids search for clues as to what’s going on and how to stop it. Mysteries typically have a Countdown that advances in steps as the GM wishes and describes what happens if the Kids don’t intervene (with potentially town-destroying or even apocalyptic consequences). There might also be a Retribution Countdown if someone’s actively trying to stop the Kids, which advances to more serious attempts with each clue the Kids find. The Mystery generally ends in a dramatic showdown, and then an aftermath.

Afterwards, you determine if the Kids have changed their Problems, Pride, Iconic Item, or Relationships in some way, then spend XP to increase skills. Kids can grow older over the course of an extended campaign, and if they turn 16 they move on in life, stop solving Mysteries, and the player rolls up a new Kid.

What books should I get?

The core book lays the rules and setting and provides a four-episode campaign that can be used for either Mälaren or Boulder City, as well as a Mystery Landscape. The supplement book Our Friends the Machines and Other Mysteries has more adventures as well as some basic guidelines on how to place a Loop in your town, but is mostly inessential.

Things from the Flood, the recently released standalone sequel, presents a darker ‘90s version of the setting with older characters - and the possibility of death. You can carry over characters from Tales from the Loop into that game (or vice versa if time travel is involved, I suppose).

What equipment do I need?

All Tales from the Loop uses are d6s, about 8 or so per player. The GM doesn’t need any. A way to play music would also be useful to play the Kids’ theme songs.