Start a found family and experience the best and worst of life in a bustling urban metropolis, all while negotiating psychic rivalries, outwitting mysterious research companies, and making sure everyone knows your name!

Pyrokinesis got your life out of control? Realising you know something’s going to happen right before it does? Find yourself peering into the minds of others each time your own wanders? Sounds like you might have Sparked! You’re in for one hell of a ride, Esper. Let me tell you about Zener City…

City of Espers is the new game from TTRPG creator and writer Nathan Blades (Heartbeats In Perfect Sync; Spire: Shadow Operations; DIE: Bizarre Love Triangles; Tokyo: Otherscape), produced and published by the award-winning team at Three Sails Studios (Mappa Mundi; Gallows Corner).

In this psychic-powered TTRPG – rooted in the love of urban living, street culture, queer found families, and the belief in the power of communities to radically change the world around them – players take on the role of Espers, everyday people who have woken up to miraculous psychic powers that the wider world is none too keen about. Cast adrift from everything you know, a new life is waiting for you in Zener City.

The only questions you need answer are: what is your Vibe? Who are your people? And how will you make your mark in this technicolour metropolis?

City of Espers Rulebook Cover. Illustration by Isa Happyfield.

What Story Will You Tell?

City of Espers is designed to tell stories about the best and worst of urban living, usually at the same time! Stories of everyday struggle and celebration, stories about what it means to live closely with others, whether you chose them or not, stories about building a better life for yourself and your community.

Tell stories about friends and rivals, of competition and collaboration, and of resistance and revelry in a world that changed fundamentally with the appearance of psychics known as Espers. Tell stories of tragedy and triumph, of bottoming out and rising up to the top. Tell stories about new ways of living and old habits dying hard.

Tell stories that sing of hope and joy. And tell them in your own way.

Card-Based Gameplay

Casting dice aside, City of Espers uses a depleting hand of cards, drawn from a standard poker deck, to resolve any moment that needs a check. You’ll play cards from your hand and add them to the value of one of your Attributes to hit or beat a Target Number set by the GM or played in opposition to another player or NPC.

You’ll only draw fresh cards from the shared deck when you run out. That means that knowing when to go for broke and intentionally failing a check or when to play that high number card you’ve been saving is crucial. But failure is just as interesting as success, and every card you play will advance the story. Revel in your triumphs and never forget to fail forward!

Selection of cards from the custom City of Espers card deck. Illustrations by Isa Happyfield.

What’s Your Vibe? Building Your House and Creating Your Esper

Your life in Zener City begins by building your House, the found family formed by you and your friends around the table and the centre of your social life in Zener. Defined by the things you have in common – your House colours, your sense of style, your tastes in music, sports, or food, and the emblem that represents you publicly – the most important part of an Esper House is the Vibe: a simple statement of who you are and what you’re about.

Every player takes on the role of an Esper, a person who has discovered startling psychic powers and is learning how to use them. Attributes? We got them! Each Esper is a mix of:

And to survive the trials of urban living, Esper Battles, and the occasional street scrap, each Esper has STAMINA, a combination of their HOLD and Flow, with an additional numerical bonus.

Of course, no Esper would be caught dead without their custom Esper Gear!

Fancy a Chromatic Electric Guitar that shoots paint when you play? How about an Oversized Earthquake Hammer to knock your rivals off their feet? Or perhaps a Haunted Smart Watch that whispers advice as you hack nearby electronics? That all sounds reasonable to us!

Hey, what’s your Spark? Answer that by choosing from 28 Psychic Abilities. Set the competition ablaze with Pyrokinesis. Shed incoming blows with Crystallise. Summon a Mental Construct to assist you whenever needed. Or ask questions of Zener itself as a City Speaker! You’ll start with one, but as your powers grow, so too will your list of Abilities. Just make sure not to Burn Out; it ain’t a pretty sight!

Fast-Paced Tactical Action

When the tension reaches fever pitch, it's time for an Action Sequence. Whether it’s the final match in the Esper Battle League, a pitched street fight over Turf, a high-speed car chase, or a group of Espers infiltrating the headquarters of a shadowy research corporation, Action Sequences distil timing, placement, and action down into a face-paced, easy to understand format.

City of Espers Standard Format Action Grid. Adaptable for any scenario you might find yourself in.

Turf: The Living City

Zener City is a place quite unlike anywhere else, despite its familiar sights and sounds. There’s a reason Espers feel so comfortable here, and it isn’t just the friendly city policies and welcoming locals.

No, it goes much deeper than that.

The reason is Turf.

No one is quite sure how it happened or when it truly started. All they know is that Zener City resonates with Espers and their psychic powers. As Espers group together into friendships, communities, and ultimately Houses, the stuff of the city around them starts to wake up.

Fuelled by the shared psychic powers of a like-minded group, Turf starts small – a whisper, a feeling, a smell, an odd occurrence that only House members can see – and develops into a powerful ally rooted in the fabric of Zener City itself.

Able to answer questions, offer guidance or assistance, or just helping to make your small patch of the city feel more like home, Turf is a powerful (and frequently misunderstood) part of life in Zener City. Just make sure to respect Turf that doesn’t belong to you; bad things might happen otherwise!

The living neon lights of Constellation Cord. The all-seeing Eye in the Sky blimp. The roses-and-gunpowder scent of Open City. The hypnotic suggestion of Singularity Sector. Each Turf is as different as the Houses that nurtured them. What form will your Turf take?

Some notable Turf from some of Zener City's Esper Houses. Illustrations by Shane Melisse.

What’s In The Book?

So what can you expect when City of Espers arrives at your door? A fully illustrated hardcover book in Royal dimensions, 160 uncoated pages, illustrated throughout, and – for those wanting to add some sparkle to their lives – a boxed version complete with a custom playing card deck, featuring some of the most glamorous Espers Zener has to offer!

Opening Number: The Core Rules – Six Pages of Core Rules mean you’ll be hitting the streets of Zener City in no time at all.

Mother Has Arrived: Creating a House – A speedy guide to establishing your House, including your Vibe, built around a series of collaboratively answered questions.

Getting Up: Creating Your Esper – Generate your Attributes, build your Gear, and select your Psychic Powers in no time at all.

The Living City: Turf – Work with your table to create your Turf. Breathe life into your patch of Zener City and decide just what form your unique Turf will take.

Hitting The Streets: Action Sequences – Full rules (and example scenarios) for running Action Sequences at your table.

A New View: Additional Rules – Let your players control the Tempo of a scene or be struck down by Status Effects as they do battle across Zener City. And for those GM’s seeking a helping hand, our Events Randomiser has got you covered.

Curtain Close: Ending Sessions and Experience – As your players grow, so will their Espers. Satisfy their ambitions using our Experience rules.

All Dressed Up: The Houses of Zener City – Dive into twelve pre-made Houses – from Starfall to Hyperion, Fantabulosa to Barricade, La Sape to Tokusatsu, and more – each complete with Turf descriptions, significant House members, and story hooks.

Welcome Home: The Locations of Zener City – For those GMs and players wanting to see the sites of Zener, we’ve created 10 significant locations, districts, and neighbourhoods. Visit Velford Heights and rub shoulders with the wealthy and the powerful. Catch a show at The Palace stadium, or attempt the speed record around Route 05 ‘The Tide.’ Visit the street market in Billingsway Cross or explore the depths of Labrys Forest Green. Whatever takes your fancy, Zener has something on offer!

A Prewritten Adventure: Break into the mysterious RIDER Building and come face to face with the results of their experimental research. A technicolour dungeon crawl through the possibilities of the Esper mind? Yes please!

Meet The Team

City of Espers is brought to you by a multi-racial, multi-national, majority queer, majority neurodivergent team of designers, writers, artists, and producers.

Nathan Blades (he/they), creator, designer, and lead writer: Known across cyberspace as The Neon Caster, everyone’s favourite androgynous late night show host, Nathan is the creative force behind City of Espers. Creator of several indie TTRPGs and contributor and writer to projects by Rowan, Rook, & Decard (Spire: Shadow Operations and DIE: Bizarre Love Triangles), Weird Age Games (Hard Wired Island: Tales From L7), and Son of Oak Studios (Tokyo: Otherscape), City of Espers is Nathan’s largest and most fully realised game to date.

George Francis Bickers (he/him), producer, art director, layout artist, and supplementary writer: The Studio Lead at Three Sails Studios and creator and designer of Mappa Mundi – An Exploration + Ecology RPG and Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG, George is the biggest City of Espers fan out there. Responsible for producing City of Espers and helping bring the game to life, you’ll find him seeking out strange new Turfs and listening to what they have to say.

Jeremy Blum (he/him), editor and developer: The all-seeing mind of Three Sails Studios, Jeremy is the editor and developer for City of Espers, roles he also thrived in for Mappa Mundi and Gallows Corner. A writer and contributor to several Paizo and indie TTRPG projects, he can be counted on to know everything that’s going on across Zener City.

Artists and Illustrators: We’ve been incredibly lucky to work with some of the best artists across the world of TTRPGs, manga, and comics. City of Espers has been given form by Isa Happyfield (cover art; card art), Shane Melisee (House and Turf illustrations), Jess Herron (spot illustrations; City districts), Emily Greymoore (spot illustrations; City districts), Lur Noise (full-page splash illustrations), and Donald J Kirby (character illustrations).

Release Plans

As with all Three Sails Studios games, City of Espers will be finished and ready by the time the Backerkit campaign concludes. With our No Long Waits promise, we’ll be sending the game to the printers the week the crowdfunding campaign ends and delivering copies to backers within just a few months.

100% Human Made

City of Espers is a game all about the amazing potential of everyday people. As with every Three Sails Studios project, City of Espers is 100% human made. We reject the use of so-called ‘GenAI’, a tool used to disenfranchise writers, creators, artists, and editors, built on their stolen labour.

Thanks to HINOKODO on Itch for the Human Made graphic.

Latest from the Creator

Three Sails Studios

14 days ago

Mother Has Arrived! Let's start building some Esper Houses!

City-Pop Brawlers? Sunny Attitude Surfers? Anarchist Outlaws? The League of Elegant Gentlemen? Houses come in all shapes and sizes and with every type of Vibe you can imagine. Yours will be as unique as every member.

Espers: welcome to Zener City! As we get closer to the crowdfunding launch for City of Espers, we wanted to open up the floor to you, our amazing community, and give you the opportunity to start your life in Zener City a little early.

Over the coming weeks, we're going to be starting a number of 'discussions' here on Backerkit to go over some key parts of the game and give you the space to start creating, sharing, and talking with other would-be Espers.

To celebrate the start of our Backerkit Launch Party period, we wanted to start with one of our favourite parts of City of Espers, and arguably the foundational moment for any new player starting their life in Zener City: building your House!

What is an Esper House?

In a game built around found families and the experiences of urban living, Esper Houses function as both an anchor to keep you steady as Zener City throws everything it has your way and also as a foundational part of your Esper's identity. Your House is your family here in Zener.

United by shared beliefs, shared passions, and shared fashion and style, Esper Houses are safe havens and sources of safety and drama. Most will remain small and insular; a collection of likeminded individuals, yes, but with no great ambition. Others, yours included, will rise up and make their mark on this technicolour city. Whether that's taking on the Esperball League or protecting your community from unscrupulous property developers or diving into the secrets of Turf, you are destined for great things, and your House will be with you every step of the way.

Let's Build Some Houses!

For this discussion, we want you to build your Esper House and share it with us and the community here on Backerkit. As the weeks go by, you'll use this House you've built to then create a cast of Espers who call it home and start building your Turf: the psychic resonance of Zener City itself, coming to life to reflect your power and your identity.

So, it's time to get involved! It's time to build your House.

Feel free to answer all of the questions below, or -- if you'd prefer -- just choose three or four from each list!

To begin, you need to answer some Vibe Questions and then declare your House Vibe. The questions are:

• What two colours does every member of your House wear?
• What genre(s) of music does your House widely listen to?
• Is there a shared hobby or job among members of your House?
• When a member of the House enters a room, how do outsiders react?
• What would an emblem representing your House look like?
• What’s your House’s Vibe in 1 to 3 words?

With your Vibe settled, it's time to tell the story of your House, to give it personality, history, and bring it to life. And most importantly, giving the House its name. We do that by asking and answering House Questions. The questions are:

• How long ago was your House formed?
• What kind of person founded the House?
• How does the House look after its members?
• What does the House’s base of operations look like?
• What form of self-expression does the House value?
• What action or behaviour does the House forbid?
• How does the local neighbourhood feel about your house?
• Who or what has the House been struggling with lately?
• What’s the name of your House?

We want to hear all about your House, so please do take part in this first discussion and share your Houses with us and the rest of the community. We'll even choose some of our favourites and share them on the Launch Livestream!

To get you started, I (George, City of Espers producer) will share one of the Houses I created for the final book: The House of Barricade.

The House of Barricade. Illustration by Shane Melisse.

Vibe Questions
• What two colours does every member of your House wear? Black and red
• What genre(s) of music does your House widely listen to? Lots of speed punk and hiphop
• Is there a shared hobby or job among members of your House? Monitoring the Zener City Police Department
• When a member of the House enters a room, how do outsiders react? Initially with wariness, but soon with reassurance
• What would an emblem representing your House look like? A molotov cocktail
• What’s your House’s Vibe in 1 to 3 words? Anarchist Outlaws!

House Questions
• How long ago was your House formed? Five years ago
• What kind of person founded the House? A prolific squatter of abandoned buildings who saw the need to provide free accommodation to Zener's homeless population
• How does the House look after its members? With food banks, financial aid, and legal support
• What does the House’s base of operations look like? An occupied warehouse building that technically still belongs to one of Zener's largest absentee landlords
• What form of self-expression does the House value? Protest, creativity, and helping out those in need
• What action or behaviour does the House forbid? The ends never justify the means. The House must achieve its aims without replicating the injustices that make the House's actions necessary.
• How does the local neighbourhood feel about your house? The local neighbourhood were initially wary of these crust-punk squatters and activists. But over time, as the House has sought to protect and nurture the local community, people have become increasingly welcoming and proud of the House.
• Who or what has the House been struggling with lately? There are constant fears that police spies and informants have infiltrated the House. With a House that always tries to welcome those in need, this can create significant disruption.
• What’s the name of your House? The House of Barricade!

Time to Share Your House With Us!

So there we have it: a House created from the ground up! Now it's time for you to create yours and share it with the community.

Thanks for being with us on the journey, Esper. Zener City, our technicolour metropolis, is a city unlike any other, and its waiting for you to make your mark. Start now. Start with us. Bring your House to life!

I'll see you in the comments!

George
City of Espers producer
Studio Lead, Three Sails Studios

City of Espers - A Psychic-Powered Urban Action TTRPG