The Electric State, Into the Dust 2.1 of 3
Now, on to the mini campaign, Into the Dust. I will break this down into the sessions that covered each of the three stops, so 2.1 equals Stop One.
We played these eight sessions between February to July 2025, a fortnightly two-hour game with a few life breaks.
I’d already run the first stop, The Angel in the Machine, and it had gone down better than expected, so I felt confident that a mini campaign of three stops and up to six encounters would be enjoyable, even if I had misgivings about the Tension Mechanics and long-term play.
We used the four pre-gens found at the end of the core rules:
Cade Draper, The Artist, played by Gareth
Willy Carbone, The Runaway Kid, played by Jon
Nantz Alvarez, The Outsider, played by Alex
Billy-Lee Harker, The Veteran, played by Martin
I captured Lines and Veils, and the players fleshed out the background of their NPCs, then we were off in media res, rolling down the highway, looking for adventure or at least a working 7-11.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON IN, DON’T READ IF YOU PLAN TO PLAY…
Session One
Cade strums his guitar in the backseat while Billy-Lee focuses on the road, lost in memories of the army. Nantz sighs, head back, feet on the dashboard. Willy leans forward, buzzing with excitement. "Look! That tower! Is that a cow? Got any food?"
The Runaway Kid, Willy, sees his social worker’s car cruise alongside. Willy slips down into the foot well. The woman eyeballs their car. Did she see him? They make a decision, come off the highway, and take the back roads for a while.
I threw in the first PC Countdown, The Runaway Kid, Willy has his first encounter with his social worker.
It was a good moment of tension and got people thinking about their back stories and the other PCs’ histories.
Down these back roads, they encounter a construction truck blocking the road. Workers are insensate, sitting or standing with Neurocasters on their heads. Nantz tries to move them, but they are unresponsive. Cade, The Artist, heads into the Neuroscape himself, tracking down the workers in this virtual reality. Cade sees one as a bear, rubbing its back on a tree. The bear growls and hurls a rock at Cade. It thumps into the ground next to him. Cade is cool; he pulls out a large pot of honey, enticing the bear/road worker out of the Neuroscape. Back in the real world, a man stands, blinking, his Neurocaster off and in his hands, “Can’t get even a five-minute goddamn break.” But with some prompting, he reverses the truck enough to allow the group to pass.
Here I introduced one of the Encounters, smaller moments to engage with or just observe, it gave the group time to soak up the setting of The Electric State.
It was also the first time anyone went into the Neuroscape, so a fun moment of improvisation to create a cartoon Jellystone Park, with the construction workers all in bear form; snoozing, back scratching, catching salmon but fearsome too. Fun also for the player to try out some Neurocaster skills; Avatar communication and manipulation.
As the group enter the town of Littleville, their Buick Roadmaster lurches across the road as a tire bursts and all power is lost; it slides safely to a halt after some fast reflexes from Billy-Lee. The car is dead.
The group decide to split up, heading off for food at the Burger Box, chatting to Daisy, the owner. Cade sits on a table strumming his guitar until he is told to stop. Daisy suggests Jimmy’s Autos will be open tomorrow, so why not take in the 7.30 pm sermon from Father Marcos.
The group are unsure, especially Nantz, who doesn’t do the Neuroscape or religion, but they head along and at 7.30 pm, sitting in the church, Father Marcos requests them to don the Neurocaster’s under their seats and to enter his Electric Sermon.
It was time to enter our first Stop, Littleville, aka The Angel in the Machine. The car breaking down is what is called The Blocker, something to keep the party in the adventure site. The invitation by Father Marcos, was, for some of the party, akin to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting where the facilitator starts cracking open a bottle of wine, as Nantz had avowed not to use Neurocasters. Willy, in thrall to Nantz, decides to also refuse to join the VR sermon, this was a nice example of the relationships we’d built at the start starting to come to the fore.
In a running theme, Cade with a high empathy and itching to use his musician talent, aimed to win over a crowd with his guitar playing and song writing, zero successes, a miserable failure.
Session Two
Those inside this local Neuroscape see an Italian Renaissance vision of heaven, with, at its centre, the Archangel Gabriel, replete with a flaming sword. Suitable holy passages are read and hymns sung, then the sermon is over.
Marcos seems hurt that Willy and Nantz didn’t join them, but being the good Christian he is, he offers the services of Jimmy, who’s also in the congregation, and Jimmy will tow their car to his yard and get on with fixing it in the morning. Marcos calls on a young man, Jorge, and tells him to take the group to Jorge’s mum’s and sort them out with accommodation for the night.
On the walk over, Jimmy explains he’s the tech whizz behind the local Neuroscape; he designed it with some ideas from Father Marcos, his mum doesn’t like Marcos, he won’t go into detail and sounds conflicted. He also tells them to be wary of Jimmy; he’s got a bad temper. Ramona is Jorge’s mum. She owns a liquor store and, though cold and stern, agrees to set the party up in a house that she has keys to. It seems like a lot of people have left Littleville in recent years, houses boarded up, grass grown tall, I guess they are looking for work or a better life further west.
Later that night, the group have settled down in a house, mainly empty, they are camping on the floor, and have opened a few cans for a rough meal. A knock at the door. Ramona is there, a determined look on her face. She dumps a holdall on the floor, and there are guns, knives, and ammo inside it.
Ramona tells them that “People are getting disappeared.” and that “Marcos is to blame, he runs his congregation like a cult.” She goes on to explain that there is a nightly walk of the Archangel through town, and she’s scared for Jorge; she wants him to leave town. Can the group help?
A plan is hatched, Nantz and Willy will break into Jimmy’s Autos, and hotwire his Jeep, ramming it into the Archangel. Cade will connect to the Archangel to find out what it knows. Billy-Lee will provide backup to Cade.
Everyone nods in agreement and heads out onto the nighttime streets. Ramona leans down to pick up a shotgun and follows them. She sees Nantz and Willy sneak across the back gardens towards the main street, Cade secures his Neurocaster on his head and Billy-Lee, with gun in his waistband follows, they start to merge with a crowd of Marcos’ followers and see looming out of the dark the twenty feet tall physical manifestation of the Archangel, all wires and jury rigged tech, it’s some kind of damaged military drone, cables run down from it’s central dome to each of the Neurocasters and their wearers who follow behind. Cade plugs a spare cable into his Neurocaster.
Inside the Neuroscape, Cade is discovered by the Archangel, who uses its powers of persuasion to convince Cade to follow it. Cade tries to resist, but it’s a standoff. Billy-Lee also enters the Neuroscape, trying and failing to support Cade, as the Archangel unsheaths its flaming sword and approaches.
Willy and Nantz climb the fence into Jimmy’s Autos and break into the Jeep. They smash through the fence and screech down the road towards the Archangel and its followers.
After a slow start, there were plenty of dice rolls in this session and plenty of opportunities to roleplay with Ramona. Some really bad rolling by Gareth, who played Cade, saw his failures bump up his Bliss beyond his Hope, meaning he could not leave the Neuroscape without suffering mental trauma.
At this point Billy-Lee entered and tried to help Cade but also failed his rolls, the players, I think, were seeing the Neuroscape as a bit of a deathtrap.
Session Three
Nantz and Willy smash into the legs of the Archangel. Remembering his promise to Ramona, Cade hacks into Jorge’s Neurocaster, disconnecting it. In the real world, Jorge falls screaming to the floor. Ramona also screams and runs over to her son. Billy-Lee drops out of the Neuroscape, pulling out his pistol and firing at the Archangel, as he covers Jorge and Ramona.
Inside the Neuroscape, Cade turns to see a flaming sword descending. He screams in pain, falling out of the Neuroscape, unconscious in the street.
Nantz reverses and then slams into the Archangel again, but to little effect. Willy jumps out of the Jeep, attaches the Jeep’s winch to the Archangel. The Archangel turns its attention to Jorge, showering him with an immense electric charge, which misses and explodes the front of a nearby house.
Jimmy removes his Neurocaster and pulls a gun on Billy-Lee, who steadies himself and shoots Jimmy dead. Billy-Lee then kneels and gets off several shots against the Archangel, which totters and then tips forward, before crashing into the ground as Nantz's winch pulls it down. Silence apart from the cries of Ramona and the groans from the congregation.
Billy-Lee covers his head, tears running down his face and slowly curls up into a ball.
The next day, Cade and Billy-Lee awake back in the house. Nantz tears into Billy-Lee, horrified at how easily he took a life, but they work it out, and bond over a pact, neither of them will enter the Neuroscape again. Meanwhile, Willy runs in and leaps on Billy-Lee’s bed, “The way you took that muthafucker down was THE coolest! Please, you gotta teach me how to shoot!”
The Buick is fixed by Jorge, and the group load up on provisions before heading off. Their final vision is of Father Marcus, his eyes empty, jaw slack, holding up his hands, holes in his palms, blood running down his wrists.
An intense fight, the groups dice rolling improved, and it showed how deadly combat can be, Billy-Lee taking out Jimmy with a one shot.
Meanwhile Nantz and Willy had some terrible rolls not really damaging the Archangel, but were also lucky to not total the Jeep.
Cade being pulled out of the Neuroscape rolled for a Mental Trauma but was fine, it showed how lethal failing in the Neuroscape could be.
At the end of this session we resolved Tension, so this increased for some and reduced for others, based on what player characters had done or not. This helped to increase Hope, but also really deepend the characters and their relationships, we were starting to see some of the magic of The Electric State and this was an area I thought may be weakest.
Some great roleplaying from Martin, his ex-vet killing Jimmy after he’d sworn no more killing after the war and being overcome by this.
The players were really intrigued by what the Archangel was, loads of theories put forward, some thinking it was controlled by someone, others that it was an AI entity or monster. It’s important to play on this, but in my opinion not explaining all aspects of Intercerebral Enities.
Next, we’ll move on to Stop Two: Roadside Murder.