TTRPG with one of the most evocative character creation systems I’ve seen.

Electric Bastionland seems like Chris Mcdowall’s attempt at a more broad and generic (complimentary) Blades in the Dark-esque system where PCs are folks down on their luck trying to make ends meet, living in a never-ending city filled everything and everyone you can think of.

There’s a lot of potential energy (electric?) in Eletric Bastionland that I can see many different GMs and their groups transforming uniquely at their table to create more unique experiences compared to other systems that might be a little more formulaic in their construction.

I chose to use Maze Rats (Ben Milton) instead of Electric Bastionland for the one-shot that I was planning recently (it went really well!) because of its more generic fantasy setting assumptions and a much simpler character creation process, which I wanted my players to do themselves at the table before play to increase their engagement and force them to have a basic understanding of their stats, their equipment, etc.

If I were to use Electric Bastionland for a one-shot then I would need to generate the PCs ahead of time and use them as inspiration for the session. I could see myself prepping a generic heist-style session ahead of time then tweaking the dungeon’s fluff on the fly. But then I would be robbing my players of the fun of Electric Bastionland character and party creation process AND giving them a sub-par session that doesn’t quite line up with their characters motivations and interests.

Maybe I’m thinking about this too much, and it would be completely fine… Let me know!