In the sci-fi video game Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, dice rolls take center stage, subverting the medium’s conventions. By placing randomness at the forefront, the game creates a unique narrative experience that supports player choice and drama.
The game drops players into a cyberpunk future where they must navigate the hardscrabble living of mercenaries, scavengers, and outcasts on the margins of a galaxy ruled by rival corporations. Dice rolls determine successes or failures in actions such as working shifts at an intergalactic kelp bar, selling scrap components down at shipyards, or overthrowing corporations.
Citizen Sleeper 2’s creator, Gareth Damian Martin, aimed to evolve role-playing games beyond the Dungeons & Dragons system, which has been replicated in video games for decades. By revealing how the game works, Martin achieved a refreshing level of immersion and flexibility.
The game features complex gameplay mechanics, such as accumulated stress that can break based on narrative events, and new contract missions with high-stakes operations. Players must make difficult choices, balancing individual needs against those of others, rather than relying on simplistic good vs. evil questions.
Despite the challenges of survival in these intergalactic shantytowns, players can find community and kindness among characters. The game’s design encourages collaborative storytelling, but for this single-player experience, Martin uses dice to add surprise and provocation like an improv comedian.
Damian Martin hopes to turn Citizen Sleeper into a tabletop RPG franchise, allowing fans to tell their own stories within the universe. With its bold approach to gameplay mechanics and narrative collaboration, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector redefines the boundaries of sci-fi gaming.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/arts/citizen-sleeper-dice-games.html