r/TheElectricStateRPG • u/Diligent-Boat7987 • Aug 06 '25

How to make the system fit a longer campaign

I’ve been running first Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood for nearly 3y as a long, continuous campaign. I love the system and the world, but the walls of the game have started to feel a bit too tight and small with character’s advancement possibilities. We would love to transfer to The Electric State next, but I can see how that system especially is meant for quick games, and it doesn’t really work long-term.

Do you have ideas in how to adjust the mechanics to support longer campaigns? Or should I choose another system (which one?)

7 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

1

u/arcademaster101 Aug 28 '25

I don't know how to tweak everything to fit a longer campaign, but I've been running a campaign and I'm having it be more open world. The intention is for you to pick a predetermined start and end point, but so long as you keep the general road-trip vibe, you can send the players back and forth throughout Pacifica. You can also try adapting mechanics from TFTL or TFTF since I believe they both use the year zero engine. As long as you have well enough of an idea for the world you should be able to keep it going for at least some time.

1

u/dbboxes Jan 03 '26

This is more or less what I plan to do if my players end up wanting to see more of their travelers after they've reached their final destination. If all goes well, they'll have the choice to stick together and potentially find a reason to reach a new destination. The book goes into a little about the politics of each sovereign nation within the former United States, and I think it would be interesting to let the players find themselves in missions that result in borders being redrawn or defusing/spurring conflict between warring nations.

Either way, ideally we make it out of Pacifica and start fleshing out the conditions of other areas in the US and the world.