Citizen Sleeper now has a free solo tabletop RPG

I have an unhealthy habit of throwing money at several solo tabletop RPG projects a year, whether or not I actually plan on playing them: tables and lists corresponding to dice rolls are one of my favourite ways to consume microfiction, and I get a real buzz out of TTRPGs as discreet creative writing artefacts, if not necessarily functioning games. Naturally, I’m all over Spindlejack – a print and play solo game set in the Citizen Sleeper universe that you can download for free here on itch.io.

You play as a space courier delivering packages across the Starward Belt, a role inspired by Citizen Sleeper 2’s Kadet. To play, you’ll need 10 six-sided dice, a pencil and eraser, and some counters. You’ll be using those dice to randomly map out the intersections you travel through as you complete deliveries and upgrade your trusty airbike. Here’s a big ol’ setting chunklet:

On the Far Spindle, in the Starward Belt, Spindlejacks are notorious. Slicing across the station with their custom airbikes, they courier messages, packages, and anything else too sensitive to be fed into the station’s crumbling and haunted networks. Sharing the cavernous transit tunnels with hulking cargo haulers, they are also widely assumed to have some kind of deathwish. But, as one of their number, you know it’s the rush, the competition, and the community that keeps you riding.

You’ll also need a printer, of course – horrific devices one and all. Not even speculative science-fiction has dared to imagine a future where one exists that doesn’t make me want to break down in angry tears any time I have to use one, nor one that doesn’t try to sell me italics DLC or whatever. Still, if you can brave the intricacies of a medieval torture device posing as benign office equipment, this looks like great fun. You can read Brendy’s interview with creator Gareth Damian Martin here.