How to play Nexus City
A game that offers you infinite challenges.
You play an Agent in a city where algorithms decide who gets a job, a home, or a hearing. Your work is not fighting. You listen, you notice what is unfair, and you choose what to do about it. This page teaches you the whole game in a few minutes, even if you have never touched a role-playing game.
Step 1: create your Agent
Your Agent is your character. You build one on the DIVETOUR2 Nexus City page in a couple of minutes. Print the sheet, or keep it on screen.
The sheet, called your Agent Dossier, holds your name, your background, and your six Cognitive Protocols. Those Protocols are your skills, and each one carries a small bonus number called a Modifier.
Below the six Cognitive Protocols:
Empatia
Reading how someone feels and calming a tense moment
Sensibilità culturale
Moving between cultures without causing harm
Pensiero critico
Picking apart a system, a dataset or an argument
Comunicazione
Persuading, negotiating, and listening well
Apertura
Changing your mind when the evidence says you should
Autoconsapevolezza
Spotting your own bias before it steers your decision
A sample of a printed Agent Dossier.
Step 2: set up the session
The setup happens on this website. The game itself happens in ChatGPT or Gemini, so keep both tabs open.
Open the DIVETOUR2 Nexus City page.
Enter the name and background of every Agent, then choose an avatar for each one.
Pick your language. English, Italian, Lithuanian, and Portuguese are all available.
Choose the dice mode: manual, where you roll and type the result, or automatic, where the AI rolls for you.
Press Initialize Simulation.
Copy the text the page produces, then paste it into ChatGPT or Gemini.
That text is called the master prompt. It carries the world, your Agent details, and the rules the AI has to follow. Read it if you are curious, because it shows you exactly how a prompt shapes what an AI does.
Step 3: play
Every scene follows the same four beats. After one or two rounds you will stop thinking about it.
1
The AI describes where you are and what is going on.
2
It offers three options: a direct approach, a gentler one, and a blank space for your own idea.
3
You talk it over and decide.
4
You roll a dice if the outcome is uncertain, then the story moves on.
The third option is the interesting one. Type whatever your group actually wants to try, even if it is nothing like the two suggestions.
Rolling the dice
A roll happens only when an action could realistically go either way. Here is the whole rule:
Roll the 20-sided die. Add the Modifier of the skill you are using, then compare the total to the target number. Match it or beat it and you succeed.
You want to convince a manager to switch off a biased hiring system.
That is Communication, and the target number is 14. You roll a 11 and add your Communication Modifier of +3, which gives you 14.
You just make it. She agrees to suspend the system for 48 hours, and she is not happy about it.
A low roll never ends the game. It sends the story down a harder road, which is usually the more memorable one.
Inspiration: the reward for thinking well
You earn Inspiration by noticing something real, not by rolling high. Three actions earn it:
Inclusive language
You catch exclusionary wording, yours or a character’s, and explain why it matters
Digital empathy
You put into words how a system feels from the losing side of it
Recognising bias
You name a bias in the scene and say how it works
Spend your Inspiration in one of three ways. You can roll two dice and keep the better one, which is called Advantage. You can ask the Narrator one question and get an honest answer. Or you can call a pause and compare the scene to something real.
Printable extras
Everything runs on screen, so nothing here is required. Print what you enjoy having on the table.
Agent Dossiers, generated on the DIVETOUR2 Nexus City page
Printable stories you can run without any AI, added one at a time
District maps of Nexus City, for the table or the wall
For teachers, trainers and tutors
A full facilitation guide covers session planning, inclusive facilitation, and a debrief question bank. It also maps every game term to the classroom equivalent you already use.
The game pairs with the project course. Play once before a module, so learners meet a concept in the wild. Play again afterwards, so they apply what they studied.
Download the guide for teachers, trainers and tutors (PDF)
See the training materials
Quick answers
Do I need to know Dungeons and Dragons?
No. Nexus City borrows one die and one simple rule from those games, and nothing else.
Does it cost anything?
No. The game is free, and so is the account you need for ChatGPT or Gemini.
What if I have no dice?
Use the roller inside the game, or let the AI roll for you.
Can I play on my own?
Yes. Choose automatic dice mode and let the AI narrate. A group of three to six is livelier, though.
How long does a game last?
Around 45 to 90 minutes. Short scenes work as a 20 minute warm-up.
What if I make a bad choice?
Good. The story reacts, the group learns something, and play continues.