Free League announces The Electric State RPG based on the art of Simon Stålenhag

Free League Publishing announced the upcoming crowdfunding campaign for The Electric State Roleplaying Game based on the narrative artbook of the same name by Simon Stålenhag, whose work has also been adapted into the tabletop RPGs Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood.

From the press release:

A group of travelers heading out on a journey through a strange America in an alternate 1997. The ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside, heaped together with the discarded trash of a high tech consumerist society in decline.

We are incredibly excited to revealed that The Electric State Roleplaying Game is coming to Kickstarter December 5 (at 3 pm CET). The new tabletop RPG is based on the internationally acclaimed narrative art book The Electric State by artist and author Simon Stålenhag, soon to be 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 Electric State RPG is written by Nils Hintze (Tales From the Loop RPG, The Walking Dead Universe RPG) in collaboration with Tomas Härenstam (Blade Runner RPG, Dragonbane, ALIEN RPG), Nils Karlén (Coriolis) and Mattias Johnsson Haake (Symbaroum), with graphic design and layout by Johan Nohr (MÖRK BORG), based on the Free League’s award-winning Year Zero Engin and published in partnership with Skybound Entertainment.

Backers and retailers alike eager to enlist should visit the Kickstarter pre-launch page to sign up to be notified the moment the campaign goes live. All backers who pledge within the first 24 hours will receive a bonus item soon to be revealed.

Details of The Electric State Roleplaying Game Kickstarter will be shared via Free League’s social media accounts throughout the weeks leading up to launch. If successfully funded, all backers will get early access to the PDF versions months ahead of the official release.

About The Electric State art book

In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her yellow toy robot travel west through a strange USA, where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside along with the discarded trash of a high tech consumerist society in decline. As their car nears the edge of the continent, the world outside the window seems to unravel at an ever faster pace, as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in.

 

[timbannock]

Is there any indication that Stålenhag's settings are all the same continuity, just different points, or is it more just that there are some similar themes at work?

 

[kapars]

They should do Vermis next

 

[Abstruse]

Is there any indication that Stålenhag's settings are all the same continuity, just different points, or is it more just that there are some similar themes at work?

They didn't mention a connection in the description, but it did come up during the Things from the Flood as that game being the "teen" version of Tales from the Loop. But you'll notice any references to those games were from me, not from Free League. The only time they're brought up is in relation to credits for one of the writers.

 

[Spectral Anomaly]

The Things from the Flood art book absolutely was a continuation of the world introduced in Tales from the Loop, but picks up in the 90s after the Loop was decommissioned. That's made explicitly clear in the book.

The Electric State seems to be its own world despite the similarities in robots and other technological stylings. A big clue is the neurocasters that people are strapping onto their faces. But I guess there is the possibility that it's the same planet, just half a world away.