Last year, Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag released a fascinating book of art entitled Tales From The Loop. In it, the artist presented an 80’s landscape that never was, featuring a suburban Swedish town set atop the world’s largest particle accelerator, and the brave inhabitants thereof squaring off against giant robots, ominous machines, and dinosaurs a plenty. Photo-realistic, haunting, and downright spellbinding Stålenhag quickly made a name for himself with his signature take on science fiction.
Fast forward to late 2016 and with just under two weeks to go of an INCREDIBLY successful Kickstarter, gamers worldwide can experience this iconic world with the Tales From The Loop RPG. Powered by the popular and award-winning Mutant: Year Zero rules, the game is a model of Swedish efficiency. Every stat, mod, and piece of equipment allows you to roll multiple d6’s. You need at least one 6 to succeed, and each additional one on top of that grants bonus effects.
It’s made clear in the promo material that the adventures (or “Mysteries” as they’re called in the game world) will all focus on the adolescents featured in the art that inspired it, with daring adolescents trying to find their way in a world of technology gone awry. There are going to be 8 playable classes available once the game is completed, and four are presented in the KS material: The Weirdo, The Popular Kid, The Troublemaker, and The Bookworm, with other familiar archetypes to follow.
And, thanks to an unlocked stretch goal for this campaign, players will be able to choose from a default Swedish setting (which adds a nice Let The Right One In kind of vibe to things), or to explore the mysteries of The Loop’s influence in America. On that note, comparisons between Loop and Stranger Things may be unavoidable. Both pay reverent homage to the coming-of-age adventures of the 1980’s, but Tales From The Loop ups the adventure factor by several orders of magnitude.
If the final product delivers on the KS promises (and there is good reason to believe it will), Tales From The Loop could very well be the RPG phenomenon of 2017. And you don’t even have to wait that long! Kickstarter backers will receive a Beta PDF version of the game, with the print version to follow as early as February.
Pack a sweater. Bring your bike and your hockey stick. There is adventure to be had in the lands of The Loop.
What’s your favorite 80’s Style Sci-fi Adventure? How *COOL* is this artwork?! Let us know!
Photo Credit: Free League Publishing