Cardboard Corner: Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack [print-n-play]

Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack is a quick pen-n-paper game that burns through a couple satisfying hours solo-style. Fun escalates as the player figures out better and better ways to scoot their airbike from A to B—literally. (And C, too.)

In Citizen Sleeper, players take on the role of a cyberpunk delivery boy (a spindlejack) trying to earn a buck and get some street cred by delivering packages to various points of a space hub. To make deliveries on time, spindlejacks must navigate busy intersections of haulers without getting crushed or overheating. Thankfully they've got a couple tricks up their sleeve—drifts, grinds, and skitches—in getting goods where they need to be. Do that on time and get some cryo cash to feed yourself and upgrade your airbike. Fail and lose reputation.

To play Spindlejack, players need to print four standard-sized sheets: two for instructions, one for the game's intersection grid and airbike, and one for the station map and trackers. Ten dice and status markers (chits or cubes) are also needed.* On a turn, the player rolls a die to identify which of the six points around the station they need to deliver a package, sets the timer according to its location, and heads off. Along the way, the player encounters intersections that require navigation. This is where the meat of the game lies, and therefore worth a little digging into.

Hauler trucks move horizontally and vertically across the intersection grid, and the player must move their airbike in and around them to reach the desired exit. Entering an intersection, the player rolls a die to determine the haulers starting positions. They then put their airbike at the entrance and make two moves. The haulers get their turn, and the time tracker moves forward. Rinse and repeat until the spindlejack gets to the exit, and on to the next intersection or destination.

It's a fun little mini-puzzle: how to get from the entrance of the intersection to the exit among the moving haulers. The airbike can perform a couple fancy moves in navigating the haulers, but each move costs heat. Too many fancy moves and the bike overheats, costing the spindlejack precious time. These special moves are therefore to be used sparingly, and always carry a degree of risk (a dice roll). When they succeed, they feel good. Fail, and you feel like a delivery boy behind on the clock.

The player's potential enjoyment of Citizen Sleeper is found in how much they enjoy the efficiency puzzle of navigating these intersections. Balancing time and heat while getting around and over the haulers feels better and better the more the player understands the system and the airbike's special moves. Grind here to get over two haulers at one, drift there to turn a corner, pause here to vent heat then skitch a long line of haulers to get from B to C in one move (awesome when that happens).

In the end, Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack is a fun little way for one person to spend 2-3 hours. For a simple print-n-play, a surprising amount of theme comes through. The player feels like a futuristic Uber-eats delivery boy, whipping along the hub's transit lines and twisting their airbike through busy intersections. I wish designers had built in time-based win conditions, for example getting 20 rep within 5 days, or something of that nature. This could have added some replayability. But the general win condition of getting 20 or 30 rep is enough for one satisfying playthrough.

*Note: The game requires the player provide ten dice and some status markers. It is perfectly playable with just those items, but I would add some nuance to make for a better play experience. Instead, try:

* 3 different colored sets of 4 standard-sized dice (12 or 15mm), for example: 4 blue, 4 red, and 4 yellow.

* 7 small 6mm cubes as status markers, for example the bronze $1 cubes from Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition or similar. Small not medium or big markers are best.

* A standard 1 cm cube or object of similar size to represent the airbike. Almost anything could be used (maybe Monopoly finally has its use?), but it should be small and distinguished from the dice.