Lost in Cult has announced the launch of its new tabletop game, Cycles of the Eye, a tarot-based solo game inspired by the award-winning video game, Citizen Sleeper. The game is set on a ramshackle space station known as The Eye, where players assume the role of a Sleeper, an artificial human mind on the run from the corporation that created them.
Cycles of the Eye is driven by a tarot deck, which represents challenges, resources, characters and adversaries that players will face during the game. The cards also serve as a narrative “oracle” with prompts that shape how players tell the story of their Sleeper’s journey to escape the Eye or build a home onboard its ring world.
Designed by Citizen Sleeper’s creator Gareth Damian Martin in collaboration with solo tabletop master Alfred Valley, Cycles of the Eye is a unique hybrid of tabletop and video game RPGs. Like the video game, Cycles of the Eye is broken down into “cycles”, turns that allow players to take on jobs and challenges with what they have at their disposal. The game is about planning, improvising, and making do, and players must work with the rolls they have and the cards in front of them.
Cycles of the Eye features richly drawn, diverse characters that take the form of the game’s Major Arcana. When players encounter a character, they will present a series of narrative challenges to overcome. Players will need to track these quests with “cycle dice,” and completing characters will lock them into their tarot “spread” that will help tell their story at the end of the game.
The game’s adversaries, bounty hunters and corporate agents, appear by chance and need to be dealt with. Fail at these challenges, and they too will be locked into players’ spreads, affecting the narrative outcome of the game.
The tarot deck is detailed with prompts based on the card’s tarot meanings. The cards players use during a cycle will be added to a discard pile that they can use to help tell the story of their Sleeper’s life on the Eye. At the end of the game, once three characters or adversaries have been locked into players’ spreads, they can use this array of cards to reflect on their Sleeper’s journey and narrate how it might have ended.
Cycles of the Eye can be played with the basic deck and 10 D6 dice, but for those who want the complete experience, the Deluxe bundle, which includes the video game’s Design Works art book and much more, gives players five custom energy dice that match those found in the video game, and five custom cycle dice for tracking character questlines and upcoming threats. The Deluxe edition also features a special foiled version of the tarot deck, only available during the funding campaign.
The funding campaign for Cycles of the Eye runs until July 2nd, 2023, with the game’s shipping estimated for Q1 2024. The Deluxe and Anniversary editions are only available during the campaign.