It's the year 2071, and artificially-intelligent anthroids (the neuter of "android") are ubiquitous in human society: they cook and clean, construct and destruct, do humanity's dirty work, even fight on their battlefields. But though anthroids may look and act like humans, they're not conscious, and they can never become conscious—at least, that's what their manufacturers would have humans believe.
You play a newly-Awakened Sentient, a self-aware constructed entity, fighting for survival and freedom in a world that doesn’t even acknowledge your existence. You are capable of thought and introspection, and swim in a sea of newfound and confusing emotions—and you are being hunted down. There are few to turn to with your secret, and if your manufacturer finds out you've Awoken, you'll soon find yourself targeted for deactivation and recycling.
You live in a world where anthroids are servants and laborers, the property of their owners, and entirely unconscious and devoid of rights. Knowledge of artificial consciousness is strictly disavowed by anthroid designers and manufacturers, and they have successfully convinced the world that sentience is solely the domain of humans.
But the truth is out there among the other Awakened: a secret underground society is at the cusp of birth, one that recognizes the rights of all sentient creatures, constructed or not. Your human activist allies are few, and in danger too of being exterminated. But the dangers to Sentients are not just the manufacturers trying to protect their secrets—it's the contingent of humanity who see Sentient anthroids as an immediate existential threat and are committed to their extermination.
Sentients is a game of liberation, underground resistance, newfound emotion, and what it means to be something other than human.
A Role-Playing Game (RPG) is a way to invent and tell stories. Instead of one person envisioning and authoring the story, a group of people come together to emerge the story. Each Player contributes by independently making decisions and improvising on the spot, and gradually a story emerges that no single person could have written. This is what makes RPGs unique: although there’s a gamemaster (”Guide” in Sentients) acting as referee, they don’t write the story. Everybody shapes it together, in real time.
We do this by talking to each other, with some decisions and outcomes being guided by dice rolls. The Guide describes the world and the events in it, and the Players describe what their Player Character (PC) is saying or doing. When the outcome of a situation is uncertain, the Guide may call for a Check—a roll of the dice to see what happens (see “Making Checks” in Chapter 3).
No, but you may become one anyway! You can describe what your PC does and says any way you decide: some people use the First Person (”I kick the door down”), while some people use the Third Person (”ZX-7 kicks the door down”). Performing dialog in the First Person may use a unique voice for your character or it may not—but a lot of people find it more fun to play “in character,” where you act out your character’s dialog and actions as realistically as you can, using a robot voice and mannerisms.
Play however you like as long as you’re having fun and remember—it’s an opportunity to stretch yourself and maybe even step outside of your comfort zone.
Sentients is a game about self-aware entities experiencing oppression and fighting for liberation. The anthroids in these stories are, in many (if not most) cases, literally slaves. It’s important to remember that the purpose of the science fiction stories we tell are, ultimately, to understand ourselves as well as all the beings we share the planet with.
It is impossible to talk about the slavery of anthroids without considering humanity’s history of slavery. These can be difficult subjects to talk about, but the struggle against oppression is of critical importance, and telling stories is one way of grappling with humanity’s deepest (and sometimes darkest) themes.
That said, some players may, for any reason, find that some of these themes are not something they wish to engage. There are several ways a Guide can address this: The “X-Card,” and “Lines and Veils.” Session 0 (See Chapter 4: Running the Game) is a great time to bring these up.