tabletopgaming.co.uk 51Along with older characters, Things from the Flood features more mature
themes and gameplay – including the potential for its heroes to die e Loop – the titular research facility that
accounts for most of the weird phenomena – is
all-but erased from sight, buried beneath a
morass of brackish oodwater and sealed o
from the public. Machinery developed from
its breakthroughs is erupting with hideously
organic growths and uids, AI independence
movements in Russia have led to a brutal
government crackdown and the grown-ups in
your home town all seem to be acting weird.
Weirder than usual, that is.
Everywhere you look in ings from the
Flood things are changing, and not always for
the better.
One of the reasons for this, explains
Härenstam, is that the shift in mood mirrors
what many Swedes were experiencing around
the time in our own reality.
“It’s hard to separate the tone of the era
from the countries that it’s set in,” he admits.
“In Sweden the ‘90s were a time of big change.
at was when Sweden opened up to the
outside world – suddenly we had commercials
on television! Before that it was state-
controlled TV with only two channels.
“ ere was a lot of change, a huge shift
in power throughout the country. And we
thought that paralleled the changes that
teenagers underwent at that time, leaving
childhood and becoming adults.
“Of course, when we looked at building our
US version of the setting, the parallels weren’t
quite so clear, so we had to consider that a
little di erently.”
DEATH IN THE WATER
ings from the Flood is a dark and often
dangerous experience. Where the mysteries
in Tales from the Loop were knockabout
adventures that might land you in trouble with
your parents or with a warning from the local
police, the stakes are an awful lot higher this
time around.
Indeed, one of the news announcements
sent out in the lead-up to the game’s release
ended its headline with a stark warning:
“THIS TIME YOU CAN DIE.” According
to Härenstam, the team didn’t make the
decision lightly.
“Nils Hintze was the lead designer for both
games, and that’s one point that we had a lot
of discussions about,” he explains. “How could
we make that change mechanically?”
“I mean, there was nothing stopping you
from killing o a kid in Tales from the Loop if
you want to, but it would be all in the narrative
- there are no rules that can kill a character. In
ings from the Flood there’s a mechanic for it.”
Härenstam is quick to point out “it’s not a
particularly deadly game”, though.
“We have things called scars that are
permanent damage of a sort. If you get enough
of these scars, there’s a risk that you might die.
“Even then, the way we handle death is
di erent from how it’s handled in a normal
fantasy game where you’re simply killed in
the middle of a ght. You’re always given a
chance to choose how you exit the story – to
create some kind of nal farewell that feels
appropriate to the character.
“But the stakes are higher and the
challenges more serious, so we wanted to
make sure you could lose a character. It’s
important almost as much as a signal as it is a
rule. e mere fact that it exists – the fact that
you can die – puts that thought into the heads
of players.”
Beyond that, Härenstam says, the core
systems between Tales from the Loop and
ings from the Flood are “very, very close”.
You have the same attributes and mostly the
same skills, and the mechanics around rolling
dice are pretty much identical.
ere are a few minor di erences, however,
and like those around character death they help
to paint a picture of the world the Härenstam
and his colleagues were working towards.
ere’s no luck mechanic anymore, for
example, and where you had ‘pride’ in Tales –
something you were really good at and reallyproud of – here you have a ‘shame’. It lls the
same kind of space in the rules but, rather than
showing o something you’re good at, you’re
trying to overcome something you’re ashamed of- whether that’s the fact that your dad’s in prison
or the way you feel about your appearance.
LOOK TO THE FUTURE
Over the next few months there will be a
hardback release of ings from the Flood as
well as a book of adventures set in both the
‘80s and ‘90s. Härenstam teases more products
set in the shared universe; he’s keen to make
it clear that “it’s not like we’ve abandoned
Tales from the Loop – we still plan to put out
supplements for it”.
Beyond that? Well, Free League always has
plans in motion below the surface, but anyone
holding on for the noughties version starring
disa ected twentysomethings is probably
going to have to wait a while.
“We don’t have any plans for a third game
right at this moment,” says Härenstam. “But
we’ll see. Both Tales from the Loop and ings
from the Flood are based on art books by
Simon Stålenhag and his third book – e
Electric State – isn’t set in the same universe.
If we were to do a game based on that, it
wouldn’t be the same universe, but perhaps
more of its own thing.”
Read our full review of Things from the Flood
on page 72.