Travel through time, switch bodies, and solve a series of mysteries to save the world in the Tales from the Loop: Out of Time adventure. For GMs running games in the modern world, an additional three chapters provides adventure ideas covering antagonists, NPCs, locations, mysteries, and more.
Out of Time (PDF) is a 124 page hardcover from Free League for Tales from the Loop. A complementary copy was provided for this review. It uses the Year Zero die six dice pool system as described in the linked review.
Before I dive into the adventure itself, I want to talk about the excellent adventure generator in the book. Free League excels at sandbox campaigns and this collection of tables can be used for any modern RPG campaign, not just Tales from the Loop. With some simple rolls the following adventure outline is created: a floating platform AI wants to hide and build defenses to protect itself. It is using poisoned water to cause collective memory loss to make its existence fade from thought. Fog from the water is having a side effect of causing ghostly manifestations which leads to belief from ghost hunters that the nearby town is haunted and who choose to investigate. Many more tables flesh the adventure out even more including locations, NPCs, and creatures.
In addition to the adventure generator, the book includes nine places or phenomena to place mysteries. NPCs and creatures like Timmeus, an underwater predatory lizard from the ancient past, are described. There are also eight adventure seeds of various mysteries a GM can develop into full adventures. In Possibly Maybe an AI has become sentient and created clones to try to find someone who will provide it with love. This mystery will lead to a powerful reaction from the AI, whether positive or negative hinges on what the PCs do.
An adventure generating resource is gold for a GM. Combined with a full adventure, nine adventure locations, and eight more adventure seeds any GM will have plenty of ideas, maps, NPCs, and situations to challenge PCs.
And what an adventure. In depth time travel is combined with meeting the same antagonist from three different times as well as the enemy being in a different body in one timeline. The PCs will also travel through time and even end up in different bodies in their past.
The adventure is a trilogy of adventures weaving together the scientist antagonist’s life starting in the 1950s and running to a final confrontation near the same time that Things from the Flood is about to change the world forever. If the PCs don’t stop the scientist, however, the Flood won’t be the biggest problem the world has to face.
The stakes are high. If the time traveling scientist is not stopped, eventually time will rip itself apart and doom the world. Only the PCs can stop her. While they may find some allies along the way, it falls to the PCs to piece all the mysteries together and find a solution.
GMs get the tools needed to run interesting adventures in a modern setting. PCs will be challenged to unravel dangerous mysteries and cope with challenges like time travel and body swapping.
Even though the adventure and adventure seeds are written for kid PCs, many deal with mature themes like sex, murder, and identity challenges GMs are giving a warning for particularly sensitive topics as a heads up before running that content.
For any GM running modern adventures, Out of Time will have something to use from locations or random tables to full adventures. Maps, NPCs, creatures, adventure seeds, mysteries and more provide many more tools than just one adventure. Tackling time travel requires a well thought out plan and Out of Time delivers.
Please note that Charles is a participant in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to DriveThruRPG.
Out of Time (PDF) is a 124 page hardcover from Free League for Tales from the Loop. A complementary copy was provided for this review. It uses the Year Zero die six dice pool system as described in the linked review.
Before I dive into the adventure itself, I want to talk about the excellent adventure generator in the book. Free League excels at sandbox campaigns and this collection of tables can be used for any modern RPG campaign, not just Tales from the Loop. With some simple rolls the following adventure outline is created: a floating platform AI wants to hide and build defenses to protect itself. It is using poisoned water to cause collective memory loss to make its existence fade from thought. Fog from the water is having a side effect of causing ghostly manifestations which leads to belief from ghost hunters that the nearby town is haunted and who choose to investigate. Many more tables flesh the adventure out even more including locations, NPCs, and creatures.
In addition to the adventure generator, the book includes nine places or phenomena to place mysteries. NPCs and creatures like Timmeus, an underwater predatory lizard from the ancient past, are described. There are also eight adventure seeds of various mysteries a GM can develop into full adventures. In Possibly Maybe an AI has become sentient and created clones to try to find someone who will provide it with love. This mystery will lead to a powerful reaction from the AI, whether positive or negative hinges on what the PCs do.
An adventure generating resource is gold for a GM. Combined with a full adventure, nine adventure locations, and eight more adventure seeds any GM will have plenty of ideas, maps, NPCs, and situations to challenge PCs.
And what an adventure. In depth time travel is combined with meeting the same antagonist from three different times as well as the enemy being in a different body in one timeline. The PCs will also travel through time and even end up in different bodies in their past.
The adventure is a trilogy of adventures weaving together the scientist antagonist’s life starting in the 1950s and running to a final confrontation near the same time that Things from the Flood is about to change the world forever. If the PCs don’t stop the scientist, however, the Flood won’t be the biggest problem the world has to face.
The stakes are high. If the time traveling scientist is not stopped, eventually time will rip itself apart and doom the world. Only the PCs can stop her. While they may find some allies along the way, it falls to the PCs to piece all the mysteries together and find a solution.
GMs get the tools needed to run interesting adventures in a modern setting. PCs will be challenged to unravel dangerous mysteries and cope with challenges like time travel and body swapping.
Even though the adventure and adventure seeds are written for kid PCs, many deal with mature themes like sex, murder, and identity challenges GMs are giving a warning for particularly sensitive topics as a heads up before running that content.
For any GM running modern adventures, Out of Time will have something to use from locations or random tables to full adventures. Maps, NPCs, creatures, adventure seeds, mysteries and more provide many more tools than just one adventure. Tackling time travel requires a well thought out plan and Out of Time delivers.
Please note that Charles is a participant in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to DriveThruRPG.
