The artist Simon Stålenhag has an eye for creating beautiful graphic novels of high-tech worlds in decline. His works include Tales From The Loop, Things From The Flood, The Labyrinth and more. The Electric State, first published in 2018, will soon be joining Tales From The Loop as an adaptaion for a streaming service.
Stålenhag has also long partnered with RPG publisher Free League Publishing for games featuring his worlds. The Electric State RPG is available right now for fans who want to explore this melancholic world ahead of the film’s release. Besides the setting, the game, movie and book all share a classic narrative structure: the road trip.
What Is The Electric State?
The Electric State tells the story of a girl names Michelle travelling to the West Coast with a robot names Skip to find her little brother. Set during the late 90’s, the book alternates the story of their travels with gorgeous paintings of what they encounter along the way. American has been falling apart for years, though Stålenhag’s art highlights strange beauty hidden in the rust.
In addition to a country broken apart by civil war, there is a technological aspect to the breakdown of society. VR style headsets called neurocasters offer people a chance to escape the world that’s coming apart. Unfortunately, the fantasy provided by the neurocasters is so compelling, many people spend days wired in to the network rather than deal with harsh reality.
The Electric State Movie
When the first teaser trailer premiered a few months ago, it focused on the star power of the creators. The Russo Brothers are still renowned for their skill at bringing the first arc of the MCU to a satisfying conclusion. Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt star as the two humans traveling through the machine haunted landscapes.
The most recent trailer reveals a few more story details. The roadt trip element remains from the original work but it seems as there has been a Terminator style machine rebellion added to the mix. The Electric State looks to be a physical place where Brown and Pratt are going to find her long lost brother.
The Electric State Game
The role playing game keeps the same focus as the original story with players starting out in Pacifica, the country that evolved out of California during the war. As they make characters, they also decide why their characters are hitting the road. Archetypes range from runaways to doctors and there’s even an opportunity fr a player to play a robot drove being piloted by someone through their neurocaster.
The game uses Free League’s classic Mutant Year Zero system that powers many of their games. Players roll a pool of six sided dice and succeed when any die comes up as a six. The player can push the roll to roll again for more successes at the cost of potentially losing points of Hope.
New mechanics in this variation include Hope and Tension. Hope reflects how likely it is that a character will disappear into their neurocaster and not want to come back. Tension reflects the relationships between the characters on the road trip and how they might want to see their fellow members succeed or fail.
The Electric State premieres on Mach 14th on Netflix. The role playing game is available from Free League, online vendors and Friendly Local Gaming Stores everywhere.
