What does it mean to be “sapient”?

In a far off star system, the descendants of two starship crews scheme and fight a shadow war to determine if there’s hope for peaceful co-existence, or if the future will be one of violent human supremacy.

Embroiled in this war are the sapient Apes, Octopuses, and Androids uplifted by humanity but kept in servitude and slavery. Should intelligence grant autonomy? Is freedom a basic right, or is it a privilege? Do you owe anything to those who made you intelligent?

Sapience is a Scifi Tabletop RPG set in a far off cluster of space. Players can play as Humans, Androids, a mysterious goblin-like alien, or an uplifted intelligent Orangutan, Gorilla, or Octopus. The base theme of the game is exploration of privilege and discrimination, as humans do not treat the animals they have uplifted very well, and the setting features a cold war (essentially mirroring the US civil war) between the factions who treat the uplifts as animals and those who treat them as people. Or if these themes are too dark, then they can simply be ignored and the game can be enjoyed as a space opera with uplifted animals and androids!

Sapience is an exciting new Space Opera that asks these questions. Within, you will find:

• A revolutionary new die system where a single die roll determines two entirely different metrics at the same time, aiding collaborative and nuanced gameplay, and allowing on-the-fly modification of how you perform the action you’re using. 
• Rules for creating and advancing characters, with 6 playable species' and a guided freeform method of skill and trait selection and development. 
• A detailed timeline of the history of the colonization of “The Hope Cluster” and all you need to know about the current state of the Cluster, its politics, its various colony worlds and asteroid settlements, the factions and guilds involved in the cold war, and much much more. 
• Rules for creating and crewing your own spaceship, as well as access to a large number of starship deckplan battlemaps, docks, and space stations. 
• Melee and starship combat, trading, adventure, and exploration of ancient ruins. 
• A discussion on the darker themes of the game, and how to incorporate them into your own stories and campaigns

There's heaps more information to be found on the Sapience webpage, at http://www.sapiencerpg.com.