The internet is a new technology, well it is in 1984! And that is important when discussing a concept idea for running a game, or game design.

Tales from the Loop (TftL), is a alternate reality or history game set in 1984 and played in the style of the Goonies or Strange days, Stand by Me and Flight of the Navigator. That is to say it is from the childs perspective or young teens, in a world where they are ignored, but plucky! and advantaged in odd ways. To understand the imagery of a game based on the art of Simon Stallenhag you need only look at his work. To understand the game, you need to read a little deeper. But that is not what this post is about I’ll leave you to go do the reading, this post is about a game mechanic or design to try capture that feel of the time, Play by Mail (PbM).

Play by Mail, no not Play by Email (although that will be discussed) but actual pen and paper(ok printer and ink) and stamps and things, real time delays, and the ability to manipulate physical props in a game. Why, What, why would you? Well that’s the discussion!

Tales from the Loop is set in the 80’s with kids as characters, and what says 80’s more than pen pals? and that’s where the idea comes from to be honest. The game is beautiful in it’s idea, simplicity and design. The game puts you in the place of a 12-16 year old in 1984. A 1984 where robot research and the arms race reached it’s peak in failure, but still encouraged a huge amount of change and development in propulsion and technology but not in the fields of computers, but practical mathematics, engineering and applied physics. The outcome of which was magnet based travel and leaps related technology and science fiction baed travel, creatures and radio controlled robotics. Computers still are over shadowed and if any thing networking as actually developed slower after all what interferes with computers and their successful use more than magnets the size of cars attached to vehicles the size of ships passing down your highway, interrupting everything. That at it’s heart spawned this game design idea. SO back to PbM.

I work (A LOT), I travel for work, I have the desire for weekly gaming sessions, but not the capability at the moment to make them work. This is a second driving factor in this game design. So this is my pitch to my self to be honest! Play by Mail, or PbM. Gather the home address of 3-5 ‘players’ write an in-character letter from their new Pen Pal who lives in the bounds of one of the two documented Loops (Munso in Sweden, Boulder City in America). Write the first letter as an introduction, dropping enough items of flavour to expose them to the 80s, to the things that trigger the 80’s in them and bring them into the game encouraging an IC response. Also include a second letter, that is the OC introduction to the game mechanic. Now this means IMHO allowing them to respond in Play By Email(PbE) fro convenience, and to lower the gateway to entry. It means providing enough material for them to populate the 80s from their world view and to allow them to understand or discover game mechanics as the game progresses. So suddenly this PbM needs system brake down, thematics and to be cohesive. So what are the challenges?

  • Group Play, how do you write to 3-5 players about the same things? Well this use to be a thing in the 80’s to be honest group letters! I believe as the GM I would post physically to all players, but they could use PbE and cc distribution. But it would need to be clear it is considered physical post.
  • Game mechanics, TftL lends it’s self to this i feel in that the main mechanic is the players are encouraged to set the action, the Gm encouraged to run what happens in a scene introduced by the player character. There are several key mechanics to this, firstly kids have skills and luck equal to age, kids can’t die or shouldn’t(the TV stars of the 80s don’t die) they might bet mutated for the better, vampirism, super powers or a cool space ship to call a friend but they don’t die! All of these need rounding up into a cheat sheet, so the players know their boundaries even within a PbM.
  • Character creation, there is a system for this as I said kids get their age in points and luck. But they also get archetypes and skills. SO I feel any crib sheet must talk players through base character creation, or contain a set of directions to consider before they put pen to paper so to say.
  • Play test, I think the only way to play test this is with a drop post test. To see how it pans out.
  • Writing, it is a challenge I am a high functioning dyspraxic. I write these posts to help with that challenge and what I am setting my self now is the challenge of writing a story in the form of a “my first penpal” letter. The letter must set scene, set a challenge and demand an answer of some sort. To elicit a response in character, and encourage the game to play out.

Will it work, does it work as a game mechanic and as a scene to set! I honestly think it can, but will it.