Review: Free League Publishing – The Electric State Roleplaying Game (Year Zero Engine)


The Electric State Roleplaying Game
The Electric State Roleplaying Game is an alternate history storytelling game powered by the Year Zero Engine, written by Nils Hintze, Tomas Härenstam, Chris Lites, and Simon Stålenhag and published by Free League Publishing.
By Aaron T. Huss

Learn more about The Electric State Roleplaying Game here
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Pretty much every tabletop role-playing game features some type of locale. Whether it’s a region, state, city, village, estate, castle, etc., it’s often the focus of the adventure/scenario or at least features prominently within the gameplay and is “the next destination in your journey”. The Electric State Roleplaying Game takes a different approach – you choose where you start and what your final destination is, but you’re actually playing the journey between points A and B.

The Electric State Roleplaying Game is placed within an alternate history of the United States within the 1990s. As a child of the 80s and 90s, this is a period I am intimately familiar with and remember well how long car journeys were a staple of the middle class. Even as a teenager we would hop in the car and drive wherever. The journey was always memorable and was how we escaped. But this is not our Earth, this is something much different. This is the United States after another Civil War that took place in the 70s and 80s where technology development focused on the war and the human mind-powered “drones” that partook in the battles. The artwork of The Electric State focuses heavily on those drones (that’s the big cartoon-like character on the cover) plus one other aspect. Powering those drones is a technology that connects to and mimics the human brain (neuronics), effectively making the drones an extension of the pilot. But the war is over, the drones are quiet, and the United States no longer exists. In fact, the game takes place in an alternate history version of California, although the landscape doesn’t really change, the other aspects of technology doesn’t really change, and the culture doesn’t change. Neuronics has developed into an amalgamation of virtual reality, internet, and simulation gaming amidst a land that is somewhat post-apocalyptic and somewhat dying earth. While connected to this virtual world, humans can live in a state much different from what’s around them. But not everyone. In fact, the characters of the story need to avoid connecting to this virtual world too long or they too could become zombie-like beings that never disconnect (you’ll have to learn more about that by reading the book).

The Electric State Roleplaying Game is powered by a very rules-light, d6 dice pool version of the Year Zero Engine where there are no skills, no magic, and no high technology. It is very humanistic and realistic outside of the virtual world. The focus is instead on the encounters that occur during your journey to your destination. However, there is no one theme of this game and you can create encounters that range quite a bit among post-apocalyptic, dying earth, psychological horror, investigation, and action, but nothing on the extreme scales. These themes are all held back but the PCs are not heroes; they are regular people trying to reach their destination. As such, it’s that much more difficult to survive. After all, it wouldn’t be a Year Zero Engine game if there wasn’t some type of survival element.

I will say that I had absolutely no premonitions of what I would be presented within inside this core rulebook. In fact, I thought it was going to be something completely different; something much more post-apocalyptic infused with horror. Boy was I wrong but in all the best ways. This is something truly unique and wonderful with a perfect balance of mechanics that embraces the storytelling, flexible aspects of the game. I’m hoping Free League expands the setting into other regions, but this alternate history version of California has that array of environments that allows for a number of unique encounters (urban, suburban, rural, mountains, desert, and coastline).

As I age I find myself drawn to games with unique settings, light on the mechanics, and a greater focus on storytelling. The Electric State Roleplaying Game is definitely designed for an audience like myself, and I will state that it’s not for the gamer who prefers hack-and-slash, dungeon delves, alien invasions, or traveling to distant galaxies. It’s literally the complete opposite of that. So just be aware as you approach.

It’s also pertinent to note that the core rulebook also contains mechanics for solo gameplay driven by random tables based on drawing cards from a normal deck of cards. A great way to pass the time if you travel alone for business!

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