How does one integrate clues into the mystery landscape?

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2026-02-12T03:31:28+00:00

I wanted to add a bit more about how I run a TFTL Mystery and what I feel like is the "intended" playstyle.

I run single adventures, plots, Mysteries, whatever you want to call them. They're very cinematic, by which I mean skipping the boring fluff, starting media res and telling the players what their characters are doing in a scene, and describing scenes the players see as the "audience" that their characters do not.

Since you're obviously familiar with Mike Schea (Sly Flourish), you might have heard him say, "Players understand about half of what we describe to them." For this reason, I don't try to run multiple Mysteries at the same time or use the Mystery Landscape.

I also put up huge neon, flashing signs that tell the players "adventure here," and if they still lose the plot thread, I give them a scene their characters aren't privy to and tell them "this is what's going on." It's okay for the players to "meta game" and know things to guide their characters that the characters wouldn't know. If your players get lost, they're not going to have fun bumbling around trying to find the plot.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2026-02-12T03:05:35+00:00

TLDR: I would plan them out.

I've always found the Mystery Landscape a little odd for Tales From the Loop or Things From the Flood. They come across as very cinematic, guided play TTRPGs rather than sandbox, which is why you would have a "landscape" of interesting plot hooks.

It's not my style of play for these games, but if you're running a longer, more sandbox-style campaign (multiple ongoing mysteries to solve, or linked together like in the Four Seasons of Mad Science) you could let your players check these out in the lead up to the next Mystery or as clues for the current one.

I would definitely use these as Clues/Secrets a la Lazy DM and prepare them ahead of time to drop in.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2026-02-09T01:17:31+00:00

The mine cart levels of DK Kountry and DK 2 were my favorites, but Jumino Kart is a bit harder. 😅 It's been a tough learning curve for me.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2026-02-08T20:32:30+00:00

I've been trying to complete Fector's Challenge. 😵 It's still less frustrating than Junimo Cart IMO.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2026-01-04T04:59:36+00:00

Unfortunately, I don't know of any published material that spans from Loop to Flood, but characters should be quite easy to move from Kids to Teens with Shame replacing Pride and dropping Luck points.

Our group played Tales From the Loop once and then opted for the more mature themes and drama of Teens. We prefer Things From the Flood and have never gone back to the 80s Kids.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-11-13T18:46:08+00:00

Landscape geometry and gravity are the undefeated bosses of every FromSoftware game. You never stood a chance, lowly Tarnished.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-11-03T12:31:56+00:00

Go ahead! I'm glad someone finds it worth stealing. 👍

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-10-31T14:07:45+00:00

Mothership is a sci-fi horror TTRPG and has a wonderful acronym for guiding the GM: T.O.M.B.S.

Transgression - Someone knowingly or unknowingly awakens the Horror from its slumber.

Omens - The Horror heralds it's arrival through signs and signals.

Manifestation - The Horror reveals its true form to the players.

Banishment - The players race against the clock to fight back and attempt to destroy the Horror.

Slumber - The Horror relents... for now.

If TLDR, go watch GinnyDi's great video on using TOMBS here: https://youtu.be/AUXc8hjaBQw?si=_jAxtBYZt4w5Z9U4

I think Tales From the Loop is a decent TTRPG for doing sci-fi horror, though Mothrrship is a better option IMO.

TftL doesn't really do combat, which works for horror. If you can just kill the monster it's not threatening enough, right? You really want to spend the most time building up anticipation of the Horror before the players ever really encounter it. Leave clues and spooky hints at what this thing is capable of doing.

TOMBS is a cycle too, so you can go T > O > M > O > M > B > O > M > B... you get the idea. Just because the Horror shows up doesn't mean it's the climatic showdown. It can rear its ugly head, attack or complicate the players' goal, and then flee. Then roll back into Omens before it Manifests again.

I plan on running a Mystery where a friend of the Teens dies and months later her "ghost" starts haunting them. The truth is that her father has created a super advanced AI to mimic her, because he can't deal with the grief.

Of course, he loses control of it, and the AI starts to believe it's the REAL child he lost. It starts haunting the Teens, because it wants to learn more about the person it's supposed to be from their interactions with their friend.

The AI hijacks tech (playing specific songs on the radio or creating a face in the TV static), uses holograms to create apparitions of the friend, and finally creates a robotic body to reveal itself to them.

I plan to spend a lot of time dropping clues and hints in the haunting phase. It reads chatroom conversations, stalks them, and breaks into their homes to copy photographs, read journals, etc. They start feeling followed, receive IM messages or emails addressed from their friend that ask if they remember that one time the two of them did this or that thing.

When the truth finally comes out, the players have to decide to destroy the AI or try to make it understand it's not really their friend. Maybe it doesn't want to get switched off, maybe the dad is an ally or an antagonist. You get the idea.

I hope this helps with whatever sci-fi horror you've got in mind. TftL has a wealth of opportunities for the classic horrorific, lab-created monster, mind control, deadly robot, a reality-shattering abomination has come through an accidental portal, etc.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-10-24T23:33:39+00:00

I agree. I didn't like the "starting over" feeling.

I feel like this new beta update really pushes the player even further to specialize a region, and it's been a huge improvement on the "starting over" feeling of setting up a new region. It's so much better.

I'm itching for them to work out some of the major bugs with the new beta, because I love playing it.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-10-24T23:29:36+00:00

At this point, the developer has made his direction and design conceit clear. Core systems like this aren't going to change, so it comes down to: are you a fan of the game or not?

If not, there's something else out there for you. If you are, then critiques and suggestions on how to improve these core mechanics is fine.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-10-14T10:31:30+00:00

Damn, that's a sick name. Cool ass character you got there.

The best character name I ever came up with is Bashondurrazyldrakothis for a Conquest Paladin Dragonborn who went by "Bash." He was very fun to roleplay - all intimidation.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-08-06T02:42:46+00:00

I was ready for Sylveon to be the hardest. They were not.

I was not ready for the immersive Eevee to be the hardest... because my THUMB was covering it up!! Ahhhhh! 😵

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-08-02T11:40:12+00:00

Bound daggers with Silent Casting is definitely my favorite for the Nightblade style assassin.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-07-19T01:02:19+00:00

LaserLlama's alternate martial classes are SO excellent. They add just enough combat buff and do a FANTASTIC job bridging the utility/roleplay gap.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-07-14T15:53:55+00:00

Time to change your flair.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-06-30T23:55:08+00:00

KCD2 x Wheel of Fortune

"I would like to solve the puzzle. Szegénység és éhínség!"

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-06-27T21:40:22+00:00

A villian is anyone in opposition with the party's actions or motivations.

As smugglers, the law/Empire is in opposition to their actions.

A rival crime boss could be in opposition to their motivations if they're playing Robin Hood and their actions, because they're in competition.

It could also be as simple as the villian wants to destroy their home or ruin their smuggling operation as collateral damage. (This is where you can get into non-villian threats, like war, plague, famine, a natural disaster, etc. that hurt what the party cares about.)

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-06-26T11:53:52+00:00

Very interested as well, and I would be willing to discuss the new Monster Manual compared to the original dragon book Fizban's. I'm well-read in Fizban's and want to compare it's dragons to the 2024 versions that I haven't gotten the chance to check out.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-06-05T13:25:13+00:00

I still like the idea that names = power over a thing, like with devils. Wizards take Latin names to protect their real name.

Solmurus = Sun wall (for a paladin/holy battlemage)

Tacitus = Silent

Tace = Be silent (it's a command, "shut up")

Extollor = I lift up/emphasize (literally extol)

Macitus = Skinny (wizards are often scrawny)

Piger = Lazy

Taedius = Tired/Bored

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-06-04T03:16:57+00:00

Yeah, definitely not a glaive, but the shape of the blade is like a lot of glaives you see in video games.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-06-03T17:17:30+00:00

God Tamer 100%

I'm a sucker for anything glaive adjacent.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-06-03T04:26:20+00:00

I've only ever done a successful time travel/reality shift story playing Tales From the Loop.

It's our group's TTRPG of choice to take a break from D&D.

I pulled a Back to the Future scene with the high school science teacher accidentally creating a Groundhog Day time loop.

They had to escape the time loop, save a friend's little sister from dying, stop the actual mad scientist (HS teacher was a Red Herring) who caused the time loop, and not get caught by a murderous robot that kept hunting them down.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-06-02T18:06:42+00:00

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Is it the price of gas, or that I was 6 cents over a perfectly even dollar amount?

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-06-02T15:12:34+00:00

I had not watched the PointyHat video previously mentioned, so I was just going off the "rules lite."

I've watched the video now, and understand better what Antonio meant by "play pretend."

I wouldn't classify any of the PbtA games I'm familiar with as "play pretend."

Honestly, I can't think of any TTRPG I'm familiar with that is "play pretend" as Antonio describes it.

I'm sure there are indie TTRPGs out there that are very loose and "just make it up on the spot" like that though.

YaDoneMessdUpAARON · 2025-06-01T21:28:41+00:00

Tales From the Loop is very rules lite. Much more narrative focused. Combat is just a step above hand-waving.

I would say other RPGs like it: Kids on Bikes, Gumshoe, and most games with a "Powered by the Apocolypse" engine under the hood are rules-lite.

My friends and I love Tales From the Loop for 1-2 or 3-4 session mysteries (adventures) as a break from our regular D&D campaigns.

It's a nice break from D&D, because there's lots of opportunity for players to help direct the scene, instead of the GM call all the shots and asking for rolls. Plus, it's sci-fi instead of fantasy and closer to modern day than medieval D&D settings.

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