Tales from the Loop plans a UK-based season of tabletop RPG adventures in They Grow Up So Fast

Tales from the Loop’s upcoming release will expand the retro-futuristic setting of its popular tabletop RPG world to include the UK. They Grow Up So Fast introduces four new adventures and another neighbourhood built around the eponymous tech facilities and their eventual anomalies.

They Grow Up So Fast gives roleplay groups a series of four interconnected adventures, each set in their own season. Together, they create a year-long campaign starring a group of player-controlled kids as they adventure through the village of Norfolk Broads in the UK. This is the first time Swedish publisher Free League has expanded Tales from the Loop’s world since the initial release in 2017, which included the Mälaren Islands in Sweden and Boulder City, Nevada in the US.

The press release describes the adventure book’s encounters as though they will centre around something extra dimensional arriving from the sky around the mysterious facility that houses the particle accelerators known colloquially as Loops. Whether friend, foe or something beyond comprehension is a current mystery, but Tales from the Loop’s vibes tend to lean more into E.T. the Extraterrestrial than Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher.

This isn’t the first time Free League has experimented with a seasonal adventure anthology - folkloric monster hunting RPG Vaesen received Seasons of Mystery late last year, though its episodic, monster-of-the-week nature meant the ties between spring, summer, autumn and winter were a little looser. Stretching a campaign across the span of one year in the life of a child is evocative, as even a summer holiday can feel both forever and gone in the blink of an eye at that age. Tales from the Loop trades heavily in that halcyon nostalgia tinged with weirdness, so this book could be the perfect opportunity to jump into that world.

They Grow Up So Fast is written by Oz Mills, a freelance designer who has previously worked on the Dragon Age RPG, Warhammer, Fallout and Star Trek Adventures. Nils Karlén, Free League’s co-founder, will be developing the book. Tales from the Loop’s world is derived from, and inspired by, the work of illustrator Simon Stålenhag - who has even designed aspects of the RPG - but it’s not clear if any new pieces of his were created for this book. Dicebreaker has reached out for more information.

Pre-orders for They Grow Up So Fast are open now on Free League’s website and include immediate access to a digital PDF version. There’s no word on when the physical books will ship or be available at retail, but stick around Dicebreaker for that information as soon as it becomes available.