Flatmates in Space: Gareth Damian Martin talks genre and Citizen Sleeper’s tabletop destiny

If you’ve read the first part of Rascal’s chat with designer Gareth Damian Martin, you’re familiar with the basic premise of the Citizen Sleeper series. Its second entry, Starward Vector, was released today is a certified banger in direct conversation with Citizen Sleeper’s themes that feels generative, satisfying, and perfect for you big-world-small-story science fiction lovers, to borrow my spouse’s phrase.

It also ventures closer towards a fully realized tabletop RPG. Martin said as much in an interview discussing their third video game and how their relationship to development and tabletop games has evolved over the past three years. The London-based creative recently partnered with Alfred Valley to design Cycles of the Eye, a solo game that uses a tarot deck to simulate an alternate version of the first Citizen Sleeper’s story. That taste of analog creation apparently awakened a hunger in Martin, who is now keen to chart space beyond both Erlin’s Eye and Darkside via character sheets and real dice.

If and when it arrives, Martin said they want it to transcend its inspirations and be more than just a roundabout reinvention of Blades in the Dark. But they are also fully cognizant of the changing landscape for both digital and analog games. “Baldur’s Gate 3 casts a long shadow,” they said, and everyone and their grandmother are rolling digital dice. Maybe clocks, position, and effect aren’t such large asks.

This second installment of a two-part interview has been edited slightly for clarity.