Leicester Group First Tales from the Loop Game

So I was invited to run a Tales from the Loop game for a Meetup group in Leicester. Two of the new players from my Nottingham Dice Cup game the previous week had travelled all the way from Leicester to try the game out. They were keen to play it again and get a few more players too.

This article contains SPOILERS for the scenario ion question.

There are two board game cafés in Leicester but they were unable to host the game for ‘reasons’. Instead one of the players found an upstairs room at the Globe pub in the centre of Leicester we could use instead.

There was also rumours that ten new players had signed up for the game! Crikey! That would be hard work.

I got to Leicester from Nottingham with no issues and walked to the Globe from the Railway Station in very little time, even with my bad leg and stick. The Globe is located on Silver Street alongside Games Workshop, Forbidden Planet, and one of the board game cafés. A great little spot. The Globe itself is a cosy little pub and we had the upstairs room to ourselves. The room was nice and large and had just been renovated so there was a slight smell of fresh paint to the place that wasn’t too much of a problem. The staff at the Globe were very friendly and helpful and I had a great pint of Sunchaser to start the evening off.

Fortunately I had six players turn up, all new to role playing, two from the game before and four brand new players. Lovely.

They picked their character archetypes and I started with the ‘Principles of the Loop’ the char-gen. The previous players kept their characters from the game before so the others made new characters and developed quick relationships between them all.

So we had our Bookworm Matilda, with her magnifying glass and who has a love of Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’. She is arguing with her mother over her missing father, though her mother calls him a worthless layabout.
Louise is our Popular Kid with her ever-present can of hair-spray playing Joan Jet’s ‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll’.  She has been blamed for the batch of missing items in the house. Though Louise’s crazy aunt is locked in the basement, she has all the missing items.
We have a Computer Geek called Monica who’s favourite song is ‘Living in Electric Dreams’ by Phil Oakley. She plays games on her Sinclair ZX81 (maxed up to 128k) while her parents are arguing over nothing.
Our resident Weirdo is G who has an orienteering compass with magnifying glass. His anthem is ‘God Save The Queen’ by the Sex Pistols. He has to finish off his chores, namely mowing the lawn, before he is allowed out.
The Hick is Lars with his tractor playing ‘Freedom’ by Wham! He has been busy laying a brand new patio with his brother Fred at Matilda’s mum’s house.
The skateboarder Troublemaker (and car thief) is Jenny for whom the song ‘Drive’ by Cars calms her down. Jenny’s drunken dad often tries to argue with her, trying to make her do more astound the house. However she sneaks out taking his toolbox with her.

Their Hideout is an abandoned library full of old books. Soft furnishings have been provided by the stolen car seats, a ghetto blaster provides entertainment, there is a science kit with a microscope and ‘acquired’ science equipment from school. In one corner is a vanity dressing table with a selection of make-up and in another is the computer station with lots of devices wired up together. There is also plenty of fresh food provided from the farm. Possibly one of the coolest Hideouts so far!

So this group meet up at their Hideout and all were happy to attend the Steam and Transport Rally at Elvaston Castle. When they encountered Milo and his Silver-liner semi truck stuck in Elvaston Lane, they were the most reluctant group yet (most groups are very happy to have their Kids jump into a lorry cab with strangers). They needed convincing so not only did they get the offer of beer and snacks but Milo also offered to pay them cold hard cash!

So they end up working on building the outdoor auditorium for the Magic Show at the Elvaston Castle show grounds, as Milo wanted his monies worth.  The Kids were also charmed by the robot, A-Fil-08 and were particularly concerned when the scientist mess about with the robot and got it to deliver the Echo Sphere next to the stage. They also took a strong interest on Springthorpe Cottage, the folly that was also an electrical sub-station. They failed to break in at the front door so poor Matilda, being the youngest, was dropped in via the narrow window to open the door from the inside.

Of course what they discovered lead them on the Mystery, exploring the tunnels under the Loop Facility, working out the Echo Spheres, suffering the Loop Surge, seeing the Bigtrak tank, watching the Magic Show, discovering the ‘shady men’ and rescuing the Bigtrak (unlike both Nottingham groups that decided to keep the tank!).

It was a good introductory adventure for the group and they all seemed very happy with the concept of role playing and enjoying playing as Kids in the 1980’s.


The Leicester Group of Players

Hopefully we’ll be playing again soon.
Thanks again to Tanya for organising it and the staff at the Globe pub for being so helpful and accommodating.

#TalesfromtheLoop
#GlobePub
#ActualPlay