Tabletop_Gaming__April_2019

Tales from the Loop’s beautiful art, exciting premise

and subtly Scandinavian tone helped the game sweep

roleplaying awards and top countless ‘Best of ’ lists.

Get ready to meet its darker, moodier teenage cousin

Words by Richard Jansen-Parkes

STRANGER THINGS

50 April 2019

Y

ou don’t get too many follow-ups

in the world of roleplaying. You

get new editions, designed to

wipe away the old and welcome

in the new, but rarely do you get

something that feels like a direct continuation

• the Dark Knight to a Batman Begins. And
  yet, that’s exactly what ings from the Flood
  feels like.
  “We call it a sequel game,” explains Tomas
  Härenstam, CEO of the RPG’s Swedish
  developer Free League. “It’s completely
  standalone but it continues to expand the
  universe – in time if not in space. We actually
  have the same thing with our Mutant: Year Zero
  games, with four standalone titles in that range.

“Perhaps you could call it a sister to Tales

from the Loop. It’s hard to work out the

exact terminology.”

As you might expect from two games tied

so closely together, ings from the Flood has

roughly the same premise as its progenitor: a

bunch of youths investigating weird goings-

on in an alternate, sci--tinged version of

our own reality. Where Tales from the Loop

looked at pre-teens exploring the optimistic

world of the 1980s, this time things are moved

on by a few years.

e kids are suddenly teenagers, caught

between the surety of adulthood and the safety

of childhood. e world around them has aged

too, moving into the 1990s and introducing the

players to grunge music, girl power and the

wonders of PC gaming.

“We followed the time,” says Härenstam.

“Moving into the ‘90s brings along a whole

dierent source of inspiration – they’re quite

dierent from the ‘80s. We loved the weird

vibe from things like Twin Peaks, for example.

On top of that the kids are older and that

brings a darker, creepier tone.”

OLDER, WISER, DARKER

He’s not wrong. Many things have changed in

the rough decade between the games, and the

happy days of friendly robots and stumbling

across dinosaur eggs in the woods seem to be

long gone.