Electric Bastionland, subtitled "Deeper into the Odd", is a steampunk-flavored, OSR tabletop role-playing game in which characters become treasure hunters in a very strange city in order to pay back a large debt.

In an interview, designer Chris McDowall stated, "My focus is on trying to create games that have light rules, fast gameplay and lots of flavour to get the table inspired.

[2] The highest and lowest rolls also define the character's previous occupation — the majority of the 300-page book is taken up with descriptions of over one hundred "Failed Careers".

Samples of Failed Careers include Avant Guardsman, Bartender, Lone Stargazer, Cryptohistorian, Corpse Collector, Pie Smuggler,[5] Amateur Amputator, Tuk-tuk Driver, Street Urchin, Professional Gambler, Actupressurist of Inanimate Objects, Constable of Birds & Creeping Things, and Good Dog.

[4] There is no mechanism for character advancement or increases in abilities due to experience — the assumption is that the game will be relatively short and end when the group's debt is paid off.

As critic Richard Jansen-Parkes noted, the Conductor is urged "to avoid avenues of play that might end up preserving the status quo, and instead offer paths that shake up the situation.

Jansen-Parkes was also drawn to the strangeness of the ever-changing city, remarking, "there's something so unsettling about the ever-shifting world of Electric Bastionland that allows it to work.

"[3] In his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, RPG historian Stu Horvath called this "a game devoted to aggressive minimalism.

Horvath noted that this minimalism and the inherent randomness of the city setting "summon a new Bastion into existence during every session, one defined by chance and fancy.