One year on from Citizen Sleeper 2, I'm tempted back into its world with a physical release of its TTRPG spin-off

Crafting a world that begs to be explored is a tricky thing to do, especially when the world is kind of sucky, doubly so when it’s woven mostly through words with only supplementary imagery to provide a broader context. Yet Citizen Sleeper’s is one I’m often thinking about because amongst all the grand sci-fi concepts is a grounded sense of reality that you’ll always find in the best of the cyberpunk genre. And here I am, a year on from the second game’s release, tempted to return once more, but this time in a form based on its tabletop origins.

Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack is not technically a new game, it actually came out last May as a free-to-download mini-RPG, but now through Lost in Cult it is being turned into a tangible, physical thing you can add to your dragon’s hoard of tabletop RPGs. Spindlejack takes place in a particular corner of Citizen Sleeper 2’s world, on the Far Spindle, a place where the airbike riders are “notorious.” It’s a solo TTRPG, where you fly around said airbike making tricky deliveries for “cryo, reputation and fun.”

Where this release mainly differs is obviously the physicality, coming with a set of 10 themed D6 dice, some fancy bits of informative paper, and stickers, but it also comes with a couple of additional modules. One is Sprocket’s Shop, which comes with new upgrades and items for some added tactics and techniques. The other is a story-based one, Kadet’s Climb, where you play as Kadet from the original video game, who is “trying to survive on the far Spindle as she rises up through the ranks of the station’s most infamous delivery couriers.”

I am certainly quite tempted by such a luxurious item, but again, none of us have to feel FOMO as it’s available to play for free through itch.io. If it is something you’re interested in however, here’s a handy link for you.