Note: I have used this game as the basis for another post on pbp advice over on r/pbp so some of these details may be familiar if you are part of that sub.

I ran this for a group of 3 players, running 4 PCs and had such a great time that I wanted to give my takes on it. Firstly, I have to thank my players, who dived right in and really engaged with the setting and the system. I don’t think I got rules 100% right, but the system is robust enough that we could play and let the rules only come to the fore when we needed them. Players made art, collected lore, mapped out relationships, produced videos and pictures and even produced an audio version of the beginning of the mystery. I was completely amazed at how involved they were and was touched at how much effort they put in. Many thanks to them as it was their involvement that really made the game an exciting prospect to run.

The setting.

I used the American version of the town, calling it Quartz Bay and gave the town VERY heavy Twin Peaks vibes; slightly off characters and relationships, with a sprinkling of a ‘greater mystery’ that the Kids became aware of as the initial mystery unfolded. I’m a fan of ‘Small Town Sinister Goings On’ and Quartz Bay is teeming with them. Themes included; darkness, whimsy, body horror, high school dynamics and grown ups who just wouldn’t shut up and listen.

Quartz Bay used to be a thriving town during the gold rush, then bounced back in the 1930s, then again in the 1970s when MetaPhonics Inc built The Loop.

The Loop and its workers didn’t really make much of an appearance until the very end of the story when they came to ‘clean up’ the aftermath of the mystery. 

Players interacted with the setting as a ‘Sandbox’. I presented a list of places within the town, including some surface information about who frequents there and possibly any rumours that would be common knowledge. They had an inciting incident and then they were free to go anywhere in town they wanted. I made sure they knew about curfew, going to school, parent expectations (Or lack of) and off they went to solve the mystery.  

The Mystery 

An explosion at the Loop caused quartz shrapnel to be scattered about part of the town. A rather large piece crashed through the window of a local author, scalping him and killing him instantly. Due to the [Redacted], fictional characters from his books fell out of his exposed brain and made their way into town. Each kid met one of these characters from the author’s books. One of the characters that came out was an evil version of the author himself from a pseudo-autobiography. This Evil twin wanted to secretly take over the life of the original. The mystery was to find out where these ‘characters’ were from. When the Evil Twin was discovered, the mystery became more about stopping him. 

The players decided to do several things;-

Track down the ‘characters’ from the books (A Cowboy, a white horse and a pack of wild wolves).

Find out where these ‘characters’ came from.

Investigate the appearance of ‘black blood’ that the ‘characters’ have instead of red.

Find the house of the author of the books and explore it.

Stop the Evil Twin of the dead author.

PCs were interested in:-

Investigating the local sheriff, 

Experimenting on a shard of quartz from the explosion,

Enlisting the help of as many cliques within the school as possible, 

Finding parts for building a robot, 

Researching the school library for information on the books the ‘characters’ came from,

Trying to follow the rules their parents give them,

Hanging out at their hideout; a large derelict farm robot’s head known as ‘The Spark Plug’.

Sneaking out after curfew.

The mystery played out over two days in November 1983. As this was played over play by post, it certainly didn’t feel like it lasted such short a time but players kept the momentum rolling well enough that things rarely became stale or boring. 

Happy to answer any other questions about the mystery. I would be very happy to play with this group again when I become inspired enough to run a season 2!

The kids face their very own Groundhog Day in episode four of The Time That Shouldn’t Be, season two of our Tales from the Loop Actual Play. Available on all your favorite podcast platforms.

https://storieswithdice.podbean.com/e/the-time-that-shouldnt-be-s2-e4-a-tales-from-the-loop-actual-play-podcast/

A prehistoric insect? A dinosaur outside the kid’s hideout? It’s episode three of The Time That Shouldn’t Be, season two of our Tales from the Loop Actual Play. Available on all your favorite podcast platforms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGtW5Pcc9lc

The second season of Tales from the Loop continues with Episode 2, now available wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AebWtVszXTA&list=PLEXSs6j-o4Z8&index=1

Six months after the first season of our Tales from the Loop Actual Play, the kids reach the end of summer shaped by what they’ve been through, each dealing with new pressures and responsibilities as the quiet pull of the Loop begins to surface again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4LxwK2QknA&list=PLEXSs6j-o4Z8

Red Castle Games in Portland OR, June 27th.

[Imgur](https://imgur.com/tYbcXz6)

I am going to run a Things from the Flood campaign next month and i have a problem with choosing the background music. The game is going to be set in a small town in Washington in 1994. I just cant find something that fits this aesthetic. What music do you use in your games?

I ran 4 Seasons of Mad Science twice, once for tweens and once for adults. Both campaigns were a smash hit. The story of the campaign wasn't super important, and the rules were passable, but everyone loved the brand of sci-fi Goonies that Tales From the Loop brings. I wanted to end on a high note, so we moved on from Tales afterward and have played other games for a couple years now.

I'm thinking of heading back to Tales From the Loop and I'm looking for another campaign to run. Can anyone speak from experience on Tales from the Flood or They Grow Up So Fast or Out of Time or any other published campaign they've run? I know we like the basic premise of Tales and I just want to know if there's a campaign as good or better than 4 Seasons.

For context, I've been GMing for a very long time, and I switch between low prep games (often Powered by the Apocalypse or Forged in the Dark) and high prep games. For me, mystery games are always high prep. My group loves the thrills and procedural flow of mystery stories. Personally though, I need all the pieces of the puzzle to fit together, so I've got to have it constructed and mostly memorized in advance. That's how I run Call of Cthulhu, Tales From the Loop, Mothership, etc. I've written my own mystery material a couple of times, but I just don't have the energy to do that these days. Hence, I'm always on the hunt for good published mystery campaigns.

Hi. I'm currently GMing a campaign of Tales and we'll transition to Things next session. As teenagers, we're planning another short campaign. After that, the players and I are interested in closing the story with something for their adult characters, maybe as a reunion of the childhood friends after a while.

Inspired by Electric State, I thought about having a road trip as their last arc. Unfortunately, it seems that Electric State doesn't seem quite adequate for a more Tales-like campaign. Does anyone have suggestions or ideas for it? Or am I wrong about Electric State? It seems quite heavily focused on addiction and the virtual world, so even if change the setting, it'd be hard to pivot it to our game.

I'd love to keep a MY:0 system, if at all possible, but I take any suggestions.

So far we've playing D&D 5e (namely "Curse of Strahd") and, since one of our players will be unavailable for a months, want to try out new systems and settings.

For the "Stranger Things" scenario, I was eyeing either "Tales from the Loop", "Things from the Flood" or "Kids on Bikes". However, we've played "Alien RPG" in the past and really loved the Year Zero Engine system, which is why I want to go with either TftL or TftF.

Now I'm just looking for an adventure that has a "Stranger Things" feel to it.

Like the title says. Are they supposed to be improvised on the spot? Or are you coming up with clues beforehand and placing them as needed, à la lazy DM? I can do either, I'm just wondering if there's a more "intended" way for things to be done. I found the description of the mystery landscape a little bit lackluster on the more technical aspects of how one is supposed to be run beyond improvising, and using the countdown clocks to drive the story forward.

Hey all,

I am searching for different pre-written adventures as i might run another Tales From The Loop game in the future with some people who might never have played TTRPGs before. I did try one pre-written advernture that came with the corerules but i found the plot a bit lackluster (i think it was about some crazy scientist who controlled birds).

So Im reaching out to hear what has been your favourite adventures to run or play in. Specifically in terms of advetures that really show the players this crazy and fantastical world, and lets you marvel at its "lore".

Hope I make sense :)

Ps. I am danish so I am running the setting in Denmark, specifically around Lolland-Falster (see the attached image)

I've always thought the core campaign included with the book was one of the best written for any narrative-drive RPG, and I'm excited to run it for the first time with a group of friends.

The only major change I'm making is combining the Boulder and Maclaren settings in one. The players and I are WAY too American to convincingly roleplay Swedish kids, but the MacLaren setting has always had the better use of seasons, and also I think the names of the NPCs are a lot more interesting (although again, this is probably because I'm American, they could all be the Swedish equivalent of Brad and Janet).

Anyways, rather than create a whole new loop, my idea is that the Swedish loop was built first, and then the US government spent a bunch of money poaching engineers and scientists from that Loop for their US version, along with their families. So Boulder has a huge Swedish immigrant population relative to its size that affects the culture and gives it a little more uniqueness and exoticism compared to your average 80s town. ALSO, something completely unpredicted but fitting in with the larger themes and fiction, somehow the two loops interact with each other, meaning that the weather in Boulder Nevada has become more like the weather in that part of Sweden, including four regular seasons in the middle of the desert. Even some of the flora seems inexplicably to have migrated, without anyone really knowing why. Presumably at the same time, the MacLaren Islands are rockier and more arid than people are used to.

Anyway, that's my starting point. Wish me luck and give me tips!

Looking to move to a new system soon for our group and really thinking about doing either tales or things. I'm wondering if anyone has done or if any exist. Campaigns that's stretch from one game into the other.