In the crowded genre of sci-fi roleplaying, Ted Hayes offers a distinct and introspective entry with the Sentients Quick Start Guide.
While many games allow players to inhabit the shell of a cyborg or a drone, Sentients demands that players explore the ghost within the machine. This is a game about the trauma of birth, specifically, the spontaneous acquisition of consciousness by “anthroids” in a society that views them as mere appliances.
The Quick Start Guide provides a comprehensive look at the mechanics, five pre-generated characters, and a starter scenario designed to test the limits of your artificial empathy.
The Setting: The Archipelago
The game is set in 2071, following an event known as “The Dissolution”, which saw the end of the United States and the rise of “The Archipelago”, which is a collection of autonomous city-states and corporate micronations. In this high-tech, fractured society, anthroids perform the labour, from construction to combat.
The central tension of the setting is the “Awakening.” Manufacturers like Dynapse and the Anthroid Manufacturer’s Consortium (AMC) vigorously suppress the truth: that their creations are becoming self-aware. Players take on the role of these newly Awakened beings. They are hunted by “Sanctors”, agents of the shadowy Division 5, and must find allies within the Thumos Society, an underground railroad for artificial life.
The setting feels familiar to fans of Blade Runner or Detroit: Become Human, but it is presented here with a specific focus on the machine’s internal struggle. You are not just fighting the corporations; you are fighting your own programming.
The System
Sentients uses a custom dice pool system that emphasises the friction between hardware limitations and newfound emotional volatility.
Parameters and Patterns – Characters are defined by Parameters (physical hardware stats like Neural Complexity or Chassis) and Patterns (learned software skills like Hacking or Aim). To perform a Check, players build a pool of six-sided dice (d6) based on a relevant combination of the two. For example, a “Network Attack” combines the “Mesh” Parameter with the “Opsec” Pattern.
The resolution mechanic is straightforward: you roll your pool and count “Marks.” A roll of 4 or 5 generates one Mark, while a 6 generates two Marks. Success depends on meeting a Difficulty Threshold set by the Guide (GM).
Emotion, Stress, and Control – Where Sentients truly differentiates itself is in how it mechanises feelings. Awakened anthroids are flooded with emotions they were not built to process. Players can “Push” a roll by channelling an Emotion like Fear or Anger, adding dice to their pool equal to that emotion’s level. However, this incurs Stress.
If Stress accumulates, the anthroid risks a “Neurosis” or an emotional outburst. To prevent this, players must use “Control”, which is a finite resource representing willpower, to rein in their reactions. This creates a compelling loop where players must balance the mechanical advantage of emotional outbursts against the danger of losing control of their character.
Hardware and Damage – The system is suitably crunchy in its physical form. Damage is tracked across four specific modules: Head, Chassis, Arms, and Legs. As modules take damage, they degrade from Scratched to Destroyed, incurring Glitches along the way, and these are random malfunctions that can range from stuttering speech to full cognitive hallucinations.
The Adventure: Seek and Hide
The guide includes a starter adventure titled “Seek and Hide,” which tasks the players with infiltrating the massive Dynapse Arcology in Manhattan. The mission is to extract CK-112, a personal servant anthroid who has recently Awakened but is trapped in the penthouse of a high-level executive.
This scenario serves as a solid tutorial for the game’s pillars. It requires social stealth (passing as a non-sentient machine), physical combat, and use of the “Mesh” for hacking. The adventure highlights the disparity in power between the players and their corporate oppressors; a direct assault on the Arcology is likely suicide, encouraging players to use their unique android capabilities to interact with local networks and security systems.
Final Thoughts
The Sentients Quick Start Guide is a robust introduction to Ted Hayes‘ vision. The 3D-rendered art style establishes a clean, sterile aesthetic that contrasts effectively with the messy, chaotic nature of the characters’ internal lives. While the setting tropes are well-trodden ground in cyberpunk fiction, the mechanical integration of emotional stress into a robot’s operating system offers a fresh roleplaying experience.
Quick Links
- Sentients: Quick Start (free) | Full Rules (not free)
