Go on a journey through a strange America in an alternate 1997. Only two days remain in Free League Publishing‘s crowdfunding campaign for the highly anticipated The Electric State Roleplaying Game based on the works by internationally acclaimed visual artist and author Simon Stålenhag, creator of Tales From the Loop.
Find out more about The Electric State RPG on Kickstarter
The roleplaying game features never before released artwork by Simon Stålenhag and is based on the praised narrative art book The Electric State, which is being adapted into a major motion picture by the Russo brothers (Avengers: Endgame), starring Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) and Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy).
The Kickstarter was funded in less than an hour and has now raised over 350,000 USD and unlocked multiple stretch goals, including the Alchemy virtual tabletop module, solo mode, pre-generated travelers, the bonus archetypes Drone Operator and Runaway Kid as well as extra adventure locations, with the bonus archetype, Devotee, still waiting to be unlocked.
GAMEPLAY
In The Electric State Roleplaying Game, the players are going on a journey – a roadtrip through the Electric State. They all have their own personal reasons for reaching their destination, and on their way there they will be forced to stop at various locations.
At these locations, the players will need to work together and overcome their differences to overcome the obstacles blocking their progress. Their challenges can be social or physical – sometimes even violent – or virtual, forcing them to use a neurocaster to enter vast neuroscapes, taking the risk of losing themselves forever in the Electric State.
The opponents can range from simple bandits to zombified neurocaster death cults and even behemoth drone growths, bizarre physical representations of self-spawning sentient entities inside the neuroscapes.
The Electric State RPG includes rules for quick and effective character generation, travel, combat, vehicles, chases, and neurocasting – this game’s version of entering virtual cyberspace. The rules are designed to blend seamlessly with the story and let players focus on character drama while pushing the themes of the game to the forefront.
This is a game of exploration, but that which is explored is yourself and your friends, and what you are willing to do when the world collapses around you.
The Electric State RPG is written by game writer Nils Hintze (Tales From the Loop RPG) in close collaboration with Tomas Härenstam, Mattias Johnsson Haake and Nils Karlén from the Free League core team. The rules of the game are based on the acclaimed Year Zero Engine, used in award-winning games such as the ALIEN The Roleplaying Game, Blade Runner The Roleplaying Game, Tales From the Loop RPG and The Walking Dead Universe RPG, but uniquely tailored for this new game.
THE ELECTRIC WORLD
Following the discovery of neuronics in the late 1960s, technology diverged from our own world. It is now the year 1997 and the world is on the verge of apocalypse.
The USA, ravaged by a second Civil War, has split into new federations. In Pacifica, formerly California, the ever-present Sentre corporation pushes the neuronic technology to the population via cheap headsets. If life was somehow almost normal before it isn’t anymore.
Sentre’s Mode Six upgrade of its nationwide system was the start of the fall. Civilization crumbles as something strange spreads through the neuronic net. People fail to turn up for the jobs, basic services cease to function, and the government is rapidly losing control.
The Electric State is coming.
© 2023 Simon Stålenhag. This game is published in partnership with Skybound Entertainment. All rights reserved.
ABOUT SIMON STÅLENHAG
Simon Stålenhag (b. 1984) is the internationally acclaimed author and artist behind Tales From the Loop, Things From the Flood, The Electric State, and The Labyrinth. His highly imaginative images and stories depicting illusive sci-fi phenomena in mundane, hyper-realistic Scandinavian and American landscapes have made Stålenhag one of the most sought-after visual storytellers in the world.
Tales From the Loop was ranked one of the 10 Best Dystopias by The Guardian, along with such works as Franz Kafka’s The Trial and Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca. The narrative art book was turned into a multiple award-winning tabletop roleplaying game and a board game by Free League. In 2019, his book The Electric State was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clare Award and the Locus Award. A film adaptation of The Electric State, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, will soon be released on Netflix. His first book, Tales From the Loop, was adapted into a TV show on Amazon Prime in 2020.
To keep up to date with Free League Publishing, be sure to follow them on X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and visit their official website at freeleaguepublishing.com.
About Free League Publishing
Free League Publishing is a game studio and publisher dedicated to speculative fiction based in Stockholm, Sweden. We have published a wide range of award-winning tabletop roleplaying games and acclaimed art books set in strange and wondrous worlds.
Our upcoming games include Zone Wars – A Mutant: Year Zero Wargame and the Kickstarter-campaign for The Electric State Roleplaying Game.
Our current game portfolio includes The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game, fantasy RPG Dragonbane, the MÖRK BORG spin-off RPG PIRATE BORG, the official Blade Runner RPG, The One Ring™ roleplaying game, Tales From the Loop – The Board Game, the official ALIEN RPG (Gold ENNIE for Best Game 2020), the Gothic horror game Vaesen (winner of three ENNIE Awards 2021), the pitch-black fantasy RPG MÖRK BORG (winner of four ENNIE Awards 2020), the alternate ’80s Tales From the Loop RPG (winner of five ENNIE Awards 2017, including Best Game), the retro-fantasy Forbidden Lands (winner of four ENNIE Awards 2019), the postapocalyptic Mutant: Year Zero (Silver ENNIE for Best Rules 2015), the science fiction games Coriolis – The Third Horizon (Judge’s Spotlight Award 2017) and Death in Space, the dark fantasy game Symbaroum, the weird-fantasy Into the Odd Remastered, the cyberpunk RPG CY_BORG, and the new edition of the RPG classic Twilight: 2000 (Judges Award for Best RPG at UK Games Expo 2022).
