I was going to wait until next month when I actually got my Kickstarter, but hey why not? The Kickstarter cost for me was $30, and includes: the pdf, hardcover book, digital soundtrack as well as a cassette (yes, they actually created music for the game), a spiral-bound journal, access to a resources website, and an at cost POD coupon (hence how I am doing the review, was around $6 plus shipping and tax). It is available on DTRPG. The pdf is on sale for $12, softcover is $29.99, hardcover is $39.99, with combos being the same as the non-combos.
Cyanstarlight is a solo RPG that can be adapted to be a GM-less game. You will need your standard polyhedrals to play. The gist of the game is as far as you know humanity is dead. You woke up from stasis and comms channels are silent. Your “job” is to see if humanity is really gone or not. Alan Bahr wrote the game, as he says in the Author’s Note, about his bipolar disorder.
There are 6 attributes, such as: bash, dash, and shoot, among others. There are also 6 “packages” or character classes that determine your attribute scores ranging from a d4 to a d10. A ship gets made following the same basic order. There are a lot of tables for everything under the sun, from complications and risk to flight, site, and loot.
To play, there are 4 protocols: flight, scan, disembark, and planetside. Roll the appropriate dice on the appropriate table and decide what you want to do from there. There are different critters and bots you may come across along the way.
I’ve played it a little bit, and it’s pretty intuitive. There’s not much of a learning curve, so after like the 2nd or 3rd planet you go to it becomes old hat. In the breaks between playing it’s made me wonder a bit where the story’s going to go and how it’ll resolve itself.
Actual play playlist: