Meet the Electric State
This new Core Rulebook from Free League is another game based on the art of Simon Stålenhag, following on from “Tales from the Loop” and “Things from the Flood”. While they are at least tangentially set in the same world and use the same system, they are very different games. In The Electric State the game moves to an alternate America of the 1990s, divided after a multi-factional civil war. Now the war is mostly over, several state alliances have divided the USA into five or so independent countries. The most notable of these is Pacifica, essentially an expanded version of California, which forms the main setting for the game.
The civil war has ruined America and Pacifica is one of the few places making headway with rebuilding. But that rebuilding has come at a cost. The government has focused on the cities (Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles in particular) at the expense of rural areas to get the manufacturing and business parts of the country up to speed. This is working for the urban areas, but the rural ones have fallen to quiet chaos. While it’s not a lawless wasteland, it is a place where people have to make their own rules and survive as best they can among the dilapidated towns and lonely gas stations.
One of the things that contributed to the war, and to the general fall of civilisation is the Neurocasters. This advanced internet generates a hyper-realistic virtual landscape that is extremely attractive and addictive. Faced with the harsh reality of the real world, many people choose not to remove their neurocast headsets and remain in the virtual world. They quietly waste away, or what remains of them is consumed by strange machine gods and cults. As you might imagine, it is a strange and bleak world, but one full of mystery and potential.
The adventures in this game are all based around the player characters undertaking a journey across this slightly surreal world. Each character is on the road for their own reasons, but they all have the same destination. They might be a family, friends or just need more people to share the gas expenses. While the game expects the group to eventually reach their destination, the game is about how they get there, not what happens when they arrive.
Each journey will take several days, and in game terms this consists of a series of stops. At each stop the player characters find their way blocked in some way, and they must encounter something to continue, from a wrecked drone ship to a machine cult, to a diversion through a dangerous town. Most stops are self-contained but there is a chance that unfinished business may follow the player characters when they leave.
The Player Characters
The player characters themselves are pretty ordinary people. This is not a game of supernatural power and strange abilities. However you can play someone piloting a drone robot, possibly trying to find where they left their deteriorating body. You might think of this game as “Little Miss Sunshine” directed by David Lynch.
If you have played other Free League games (Alien, Tales from the Loop, Vaessen, Walking Dead etc) you will know the basic system. Roll an amount of d6s from a dice pool (attribute + skill) and if you roll at least one 6 you succeed. In this game you can push rolls (roll again) but it costs you a point of Hope. With your Hope diminished your character starts to lose their willpower, and should they need to neurocast they are more vulnerable to getting caught in it.
Where the game really shines is in its journey mechanics and character relationships. As mentioned before, each journey is divided into stops, and there is a full system for determining what player characters might find at each stop. You can roll randomly from many tables or just pick some options. They detail why you might be forced to stop, who or what might be there and how it might become a threat. The short tables for this are extensive, and it would be easy to simply make a few rolls to set up a full evening’s play. The system even helps the GM manage the encounter using a countdown. This countdown is a list of ways the threat of the stop might escalate any conflict with the player characters. Each NPC in the game comes with countdown suggestions that allow the GM to pick from. I can’t see any point where the GM will be forced to rely on their own improvisation skills, although the game encourages them to embellish and invent encounters as they like. Essentially you can create your own stuff, but the game designers give you a full pallet of options so you don’t have to.
The System
The rules also detail all the usual environmental problems as well as how to use neurocasters. However, this isn’t really a cyberpunk game, so entering neuroscapes is more like a short encounter to get hold of some information rather than some sort of hacking cyberdeck run. The difficulty with entering the neuroscape is not so much finding what you want as spending so long in it that you can’t leave.
The system also focuses on the relationships between the characters on the journey. It encourages the group to build tensions on the road as solving these tensions is a way to regain hope. This is a great system for driving role play through the rules. The book finishes with a sample journey of three stops, each of which is detailed enough for 1-2 sessions worth of play. It also details how you might use the table to create a solo journaling experience as well.
Should You Buy It?
The Electric State is an intriguing and off kilter alternative setting and the game is full of character focused rules and evocative ‘90s background details. It doesn’t really connect to Tales from the Loop or Things from the Flood except in terms of style, so don’t expect to use it as an expansion. But if you like the feel of Simon Stålenhag’s art this game will inspire you in the same way. Even if you don’t plan to play in the game setting, the journey rules and system will easily adapt to any other game and are worth the price of the book alone.
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