Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – The Electric State Part Two

Check out an overview of the system and the introduction to our travelers in the first part here.

Solo play in The Electric State involves several playing card draws to generate details from tables. I won’t be recording every single card draw, focusing on those related to plots.

Wyatt Butler glanced out the driver’s side window to see the rusted smiling face of Victor Volt staring back at him in the early morning sunlight from across the desert brush. The Explorer quickly passed beyond the final resting spot of that long dead metal hulk and past a hand painted sign that read “California City. Pop: 220. Crystal nervously fidgeted with the zipper on her jacket. Wyatt asked if he should stop or keep driving straight through to make it to Bakersfield by midday. Crystal votes for “keep going”, so does Stella from the backseat. Wyatt glimpses the rearview mirror to see Taco, Crystal’s affectionate pitbull, laying across the seventeen year old’s lap as she thumbs through a tattered copy of Sassy she’s been carrying around since the detective met her.

Wyatt had found the girl rummaging in a dumpster behind one of the few fast food joints in operation in Barstow. With a growling empty belly, Stella had been looking for a bite to eat. Wyatt knew he should have kept to his own business, just gotten in his car and moved on, but he couldn’t. He bought her one of the combo meals which she wolfed down. He didn’t enjoy the burgers that much anymore, he was very sure it wasn’t meat anymore. How could they afford it? He’d later understand why Stella didn’t share his disdain. She grew up in the Exclusion Zone. Didn’t talk much about it, Wyatt was fine with that. There was plenty he didn’t talk about.

It was a couple days with Stella as his copilot that his old reliable Camry broke down on the side of the road. He saw the wagging tongue and thick gray head of Taco first as Stella’s Explorer came rolling down the highway. Wyatt never expected her stop – would he have? – but she did and once assurances of safety were made material they began traveling together. Stella wasn’t heading to San Francisco, but she was stopping just short of that. Worked for Wyatt and Crystal quietly voiced her approval. The journey continued.

The trio had decided on Bakersfield as their next stop mainly because of its size. With that larger population came greater danger, but also the chance of being able to restock and make a big push to San Francisco. Crystal had three empty gas canisters in the back. They’d get them filled up and then they could make it to their destination in a matter of days, stopping only to refuel.

The Explorer cut through California City. Wyatt noticed bullet riddled signs for the now closed Edwards Air Force Base. It made him think about the war. He didn’t like dwelling on that too much and distracted himself and the car by pointing out a little diner on a street cutting through the middle of the city. It was done up in that retro chrome 1950s style. “The Sweet Pickle” with a neon cartoon pickle waving at passersby. It used to be a more populated place, but like most cities outside the three or four major ones it had been left to rot. President Latoya Griffin grinned from a decaying billboard looming over the scene. It had been posted when she first ran almost a decade ago to become the first, and so far only, President of Pacifica. 

The travelers reached a bridge out of the west end of California City. There was a roadblock. A crew of workers in their neon yellow vests made the road impassable. Wyatt was the first to notice the weapons. A broad shouldered woman stood with an SMG slung over her shoulder. Behind her the road was being torn up. He spotted pipes being removed. The road crew member tapped on the driver’s side window. Wyatt rolled it down and made himself bring out his meek, normie voice & demeanor. 

“Looks like you’ve got a lot going on here,” he said, the slightest of smiles. The woman gruffly responded with “The water is out, we have to dig it up. Contaminated. Turn your vehicle around.”

Then he sees it. The PAF logo on the desert tan jeep. Pacifica Armed Forces. Military deigning to bother with water issues? Out here in the boonies? It doesn’t make sense. Wyatt stalls, plays dumb, asks some more pointless questions to this clearly annoyed woman while attempting to see what else is going on that can help him make sense of this.

(Wits check (5) – No successes)

The road is blocked just enough that whatever the greater problem is beyond where he can see it, somewhere further up the road. He wishes the woman good luck on the work and rolls up his window. Wyatt turns the vehicle around and heads back into California City, reassuring Crystal and Stella they can stop for a bit and plan a new way around.

The Sweet Pickle it is. Wyatt takes the Explorer back through the city and pulls into the otherwise empty parking lot. “What about Taco? They might not let him in,” Stella asks, her arm hugging the pittie close. Wyatt shifts around in his seat to see the teenager playing up her pouting and that damn dog joining in with a pitiful little whimper.

The bell above the door rings and Wyatt holds it open as Crystal steps through and then Stella with Taco on his leash. A stout woman with tree trunk legs steps out from behind the counter, grabbing a couple menus. She looks like the sort of person that can hold her own if any customers were to give her trouble. She’s also older, Wyatt guesses in her fifties. Name tag reads ‘Annie’. Annie’s probably been doing this job for a long time.

She looks down at the dog, shrugs, then leads the group to a booth. Annie offers a spiel about only bottled water being available which limits their menu. She also asks if they have any bottled water to spare, the local supermarket is limiting purchases. Sorry, Wyatt says they don’t have any. They order some eggs and toast.

Event: Personal Threat Countdown event #1 – Wyatt looks out the window. Town feels quiet, very few cars passing by. He notices something in the sky and realizes it’s the drone that’s been following him since he rolled out of Ludlow. It’s not making a bee line for him so it must have lost the trail. He starts thinking about some place to park Crystal’s Explorer that would cover it from above. It’s small enough that you might miss it if you aren’t explicitly watching the skies for it. After a few minutes, by the time Annie brings the grub, the drone is out of sight.

Stop Countdown Event: The Threat Gathers Forces

Wyatt takes a bite of the eggs. Okay, good enough he supposes for this place. That’s when he notices one of the military jeeps from up the road parking across the street. Not just the drone following them, hm? He can’t remember doing anything he thought would garner this amount of attention. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but he’s lived long enough to believe that probably isn’t the case. He asks Annie about the restroom. He points to a hallway on the other end of the diner. Wyatt excuses himself and attempts to slip through the kitchen, out the back door, and get a little recon on these feds following them.

(Agility check (4) – 2 successes)

Wyatt avoids the cook who’s grumbling to himself. The detective does pick up the words “Damn Annie.” Moments later, Wyatt is behind the diner and working his way up to the east side to peer around at the military jeep.

Tilt check: Queen of Diamonds – High Good for the Travelers

Wyatt sees one of the soldiers rolling down his window, craning his neck, then patting the driver on the shoulder and pointing behind them. They’ve noticed the flying drone as it searches for Wyatt. The driver turns the engine, it roars to life, and they turn around to get closer to the object. Wyatt hopes the soldiers and the drone will keep each other busy while he and his two fellow travelers plan a way out of here.

Back in the diner, Crystal and Stella look over the map. The plan had been to go through Bakersfield and resupply. But now they appear to be pushed north with no cities close to the same size. More isolated towns means more chances to encounter desperate, dangerous people. Wyatt doesn’t like it, but knows they don’t have many other options. They could head north for a day and then cut west on backroads, going through Walford Heights and coming in from the north to Bakersfield.

The trio decide to look around California City and see what they can find to make the day’s journey.

Event: Personal Threat Countdown event #2

Shift: Evening

The sun’s hanging low on the horizon when Wyatt starts to head back to the diner parking lot. He found an old racetrack on the city limits that was selling fuel if you had a container for it. They weren’t holding races anymore, but they had a surplus of the stuff. The old man working the front desk said it helped keep his family’s bellies full so they’d keep selling it til it was gone, then figure something else out. Wyatt lugged the full three gallon jug taking short breaks as the sun beat down hard. The last leg of the walk was made a little easier by the dimming of the light.

The drone was back and the jeep from before was parked nearby with a second vehicle. Soldiers had their weapons aimed up, but the drone was still moving at its slow pace, scanning.

They open fire.

Tilt check: 2 of Clubs – Low Bad for the Travelers

The drone is hit and starts to sputter, keeling over and drifting to the southeast. Wyatt is sure the thing is going to crash. The soldiers hop back in their jeeps and start following the machine as it comes down. Wyatt knows he needs to find the ladies and inform them of this. He’s not sure if the soldiers will find anything that points to the detective, but he doesn’t really want to wait to find out.

Read the next part here.