72 April 2019
PLAYED
services catch wind of the broken bones
and whisk them away to a foster home.
If that sounds a little bleak, that’s
because it is. ings from the Flood is a
surprisingly dark game, largely because
despite the sci- twists it has a much
more accurate portrayal of teenage life
than most lms or TV shows. Drugs, sex
and self-loathing all weave their way
through the pages in a way that manages
to be both refreshing and disturbing.
Where Tales had kids invoking their
luck and pride to gain bonuses to their
rolls, Flood’s teens instead rely on their
shame and scars. It’s not a particularly
signi cant rule change in terms of how
the game plays mechanically, but it has a
huge impact on how it feels.
Importantly, the designers have
recognised that there’s much more to the
teenage experience than writing depressing
poetry and vomiting up your rst Bacardi
Breezer. ere are plenty of moments of light
and fellowship amidst the darkness, and
they taste all the sweeter for the contrast.
Within Flood’s pages you’ll nd some
incredible art, a solid mini-campaign and
more ‘90s nostalgia than you can shake
a slap-bracelet at. If you’ve played Tales
you might balk at the idea of buying what
amounts to a tweaked version of the ruleset,
but this puts just enough of a spin on the
game to make it a truly unique beast – one
that’s equal parts enchanting and horrifying.
Which makes it a pretty solid take on
being a teenager, actually.
RICHARD JANSENPARKEST
he nineties were a weird time to
be alive, weren’t they? e radio
would jump from the Spice Girls to
the Prodigy, grown adults wore parachute
pants without any trace of irony and who
could forget the way your friends kept
stumbling into weird mysteries involving
psychotic robots and science gone
horribly wrong. No? Okay, maybe that
last bit is unique to the teens from ings
from the Flood.
ings from the Flood stands somewhere
between being a direct sequel and a
particularly hefty expansion to the wildly
successful Tales from the Loop. In many
ways it feels like the original game re ected
in a funhouse mirror, staying essentially
the same but becoming a little taller, a bit
broader and much, much more sinister.
Where the earlier game dropped you
into the shoes of kids investigating sci-
mysteries in the ‘80s, this time you take up
the role of a bunch of mid-‘90s teenagers.
e core idea of sticking your nose into
weird events while dealing with the trials
and tribulations of everyday life is still
present but, in moving from carefree
youth to troubled, angst-ridden puberty,
Flood has adopted a much darker, grittier
and altogether moodier tone.
e sense of optimistic wonder that
littered Tales’ robots, hover-trucks and
mysterious portals is mostly gone, wiped
out by the titular ood that destroyed
the mysterious Loop facility. Robots
are revolting in Russia, malfunctioning
machines are spontaneously growing esh along their wiring and all the adults
are acting particularly weird.
ese weird and often disturbing
phenomena are what drive the
investigations and intrigues of Flood.
A group might spend a few sessions
tracking down a rogue android who’s
been abducting rough sleepers for bizarre
experiments, for example, or searching
for a missing classmate that everyone else
in town has mysteriously forgotten.
Long stretches of these adventures can
be driven along without the need for any
dice, as the game retains a strong narrative
focus, but sooner or later the teens are
bound to run into trouble. When they do,
the mechanics that keep things ticking over
are simple and straightforward – though
they’ve acquired a few interesting twists.
Whether they’re sneaking past some
security guards or clocking a rogue ‘droid
with a street sign, players build a pool of
d6s based on their character’s skills and
stats and try to roll sixes. A straightforward
task might require one success, while a
shot at the near-impossible needs three.
So long as you’re careful to stick to
your strengths and take advantage of your
surroundings you should have usually have
a decent chance at passing the check, but
life and luck aren’t always that kind. If you
fail your character might well end up with
some kind of negative condition – and, if
things go bad enough, they might leave
the game completely. Sometimes this
means they bleed to death in a snowy eld,
and sometimes it means child protectionBack in the Loop
THINGS FROM THE FLOOD
TRY THIS IF
YOU LIKED...
KIDS ON BIKES
If you loved Kids
on Bikes’ blend of
small-town mystery
and supernatural
danger, Things from
the Flood might be
right up your alley.(^) PLAY IT? YES
It’s darker, deadlier
and a little depressing
in places, but this
follow-up takes
everything that
made Tales from
the Loop great and
adds a new twist.
222 13+ £35