So I finally cracked open my Tales from the Loop the Board Game box, organized everything, read the Rulebook, set up the table, and sat down to the first game. Here are some of my first impressions:

This game comes with a lot of everything: cards, tokens, miniatures. Just the cardboard tokens are 3 full sheets of various bits and pieces. And there are the plastic miniatures that move across the board, a set of nice heavy dice, and a bunch of colorful wooden marker cubes.

The quality of these assets is simply amazing. Everything is nicely die-cut and easy to assemble, printed beautifully in clear and vivid colors, and it's just joy to handle all of that. I really enjoyed sorting this box.

Speaking of the box, it comes with a premade plastic insert which was designed in a very smart way that made space for everything important. Cards have their own space, cubes have their own space, dice as awell, everything is covered by made-to-size cutout for the character cards. Plastic miniatures come in their own little container keeping them safe and secure, and the machine cards have their space on top. Nothing rattles, nothing slides around.

The only thing I had to come up with was how to separate different card types (mostly Rumor/Scenario/Chore/School cards) for easier game setup. I just used the little event squares to keep cards from mixing together. Easy.

The machine miniatures are of appropriate quality. They aren't as nice as the tabletop minis I'm playing with normally but they make great board game minis nevertheless. I think some cleanup and a coat of paint will make them very very nice. I am happy. 

The game feels more or less like the RPG ported into a board game format. Which is great because it will feel familiar to anyone who ever played the Tales from the Loop RPG.

Each kid has 2 attributes: one strength and one weakness, and an iconic item. The character card is both a little dashboard and summary of the rules — each place where you're supposed to place something has a cut-out to hold the appropriate marker cube, and each ability or condition has small rule text. I found this extremely helpful because it limited the times I had to look up things in the Rulebook a lot.

The Rulebook is good. It's not perfect and some aspects of the game are annoyingly omitted or left unclear and I've found myself confused at times. Most of the rules are ;aid out very well, though, including practical game setup checklist, or step by step game round list. Even more advanced aspects of the game like hacking the machines was outlined in an approachable and understandable way. Did I mention the Rulebook is also beautifully illustrated and comes with a lot of examples and a picture of a completely set up board? All that helps a lot and I think it's a great Rulebook even with the little omissions and quirks — I will link here the findings in a couple of days, so stay tuned.

The game loop is interesting and very open. Each game lasts 12 rounds, consisting of two full weekdays and two weekends (both weekend days are one round), during which players are supposed to work on the story mystery/adventure and doing a chore each week. This incorporates some interesting and intense choices because each action requires spending a time cube (a.k.a. action point) so doing one thing means the other will suffer. Each round starts with a strict school phase and then opens up to the adventure phase which basically is do whatever you like to spend time cubes. It made the game very cooperative and I've found myself discussing what to do with my fellow Player Two. The chores are interesting because in my first game we ended up with one "stay rested" chore that was about avoiding conditions, and another chore that was cramming before a test, requiring me to spend time cubes on "learning". I procrastinated on the chore almost whole week and needed to focus on it two days before the deadline, effectively taking me mostly out of these two rounds. Very intense.

The game comes with 7 branching scenarios and new players are supposed to start with the Bot Amok! scenario. It comes with about 7 scenario cards and quickly branches out into a full frenzy of additional rules, effects, and point scoring. The scenario's story is placed on the side A, alongside additional rules and effects, and once the condition on the card is fulfilled, the game can be flipped to show the aftermath and continue the story with another card (or multiple cards). It's a fun approach to narrative because played correctly, players don't know the story and twists upfront. I found it a little bit hard to follow each card rules but maybe it's the "first playtrough issue" that I will get used to.

What I really like about the game rules is that they are very open and adjust to the amount of players — many rules are group size specific (e.g. "take group size -1 cards") or have separate rules for 2-3 and 4-5 players. Latter ones are resolved through double-sided cards or carton inserts. I think it's a very smart design choice. 

Considering it was my first time playing the game, it was pretty easy to set up. Every part of the game has its own place around and on the board. I didn't have to take everything out of the box — only the cards specificed by the scenario card, some marker cubes, and some miniatures and their accompanying cards.

Once the first is done, everything falls into place: the school phase, the adventure phase, and the end phase make all sense and follow a nice rhythm.

Moving around the board and avoiding the machines was fun. There is only that many things you can do each day (round), so strategizing with other players is very important, especially that each one character card is better at a different thing. My character was strong but dense, and Player Two had a clever but dull character that during the game acquired a special item that allowed him to automatically win strength-related tests. We found ourselves discussing the best strategy to tackle rumors and hack machines.

The adventure phase is very open so each player can do something in any order they want — I've used my leftover time cubes to scout a rumor that was then resolved successfully by the Player Two playing character that was better suited to pass the test.

Speaking of the tests, they are fun and feel significant. Playing in a group of 2-3 players, you throw 5 dice to test your strong ability, 2 to test your weak ability, or 3 by default — you can also help each other by adding 1 dice when standing in the same Location. Any one six passes the test. We've quickly found out it's not easy to pass those tests consistently unless we help each other and use our strong abilities. Even then, it was gut-wrenching to fail the important test, gain a condition, and a point of enigma.The game is full of those moments when the little wins and the little failures feel deeply emotional and exciting. It's fun and fits the game narrative very well!

All in all, the first playthrough was fun. It was challenging to start but once we got the gist of the mechanics everything fell into place and the game moved out of the way giving us space to get excited about the story and mysterious things happening around. I am really looking forward to review each scenario soon and give you a more informed thoughts on the game overall! Stay tuned and keep rolling :-)