Dice-driven RPG Moves of the Diamond Hand tests odd skills in Early Access
Cosmo D’s new role-playing game is out in Early Access with dice checks, noir politics, music, cooking and a full launch planned for 2027.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
Moves of the Diamond Hand is an Early Access role-playing game built around constant dice checks, strange conversations and an off-kilter city full of political and artistic schemes. The Verge’s Adi Robertson says the Cosmo D project is already dense and inventive, though its story remains unfinished until later updates arrive.
The game is available on PC, macOS and steamOS, including Steam Deck, according to The Verge. Robertson describes it as a first-person RPG with a look that recalls early-2000s immersive sims: rough-edged spaces, stark geometry, distorted character faces and an uneasy soundtrack.
Players begin by arriving by train and meeting an older mentor who has been discredited by a political scandal, The Verge reports. The player then states an ambition to join Circus X, a powerful organization with several possible routes inside, including work in city politics, sandwich mastery or musical performance.
Dice decide almost everything
According to The Verge, the central system assigns players upgradeable dice tied to seven stats. Some are familiar RPG categories, including Physique and Observation, while others cover skills such as Cooking and Music.
Challenges work by having the game roll a die for a relevant attribute, with the player trying to match or exceed that result, Robertson reports. The system also supports selective rerolls in a way The Verge compares to Yahtzee, and the final outcome becomes experience, whether the player succeeds or fails.
The Early Access build expands the framework with activities including cooking, live music, laundering disguises and cocktail mixing, each adding dice with different behaviors, according to the review. The Verge says the basic approach appeared in Cosmo D’s earlier game, Betrayal at Club Low, but is more flexible here.
Robertson reports that nearly every interaction can trigger a roll, from talking to opening a door. Some checks may be impossible to pass or fail at a given skill level, while safer actions can still damage health or add unwanted status effects; failed actions can often be retried, though the second attempt becomes harder.
Off-Peak City mixes noir, art and absurdity
The game is set in Off-Peak City, which The Verge describes as a neon urban setting shaped by corporations, compromised politicians, underground tailors, restaurants, musicians and covert operators. Music has broad uses, Robertson reports, including sewing, calming animal-human hybrids and mixing drinks.
Circus X is presented as a secretive arts institution with influence over politics and the sandwich trade, according to The Verge. The story also involves an election between a scandal-hit technocrat, a former boy-band performer and a clone of a past mayor controlled by corporate interests.
Robertson says the plot includes a sentient Big Mouth Billy Bass at the center of competing schemes, while the Diamond Hand is repeatedly mentioned without being explained in the current build. The game also uses cloning as part of its satire, with a company producing replacements for human artists; The Verge says the clones are portrayed as conscious beings frustrated by limits on their autonomy and creativity.
The current Early Access version contains the first two of six chapters, according to The Verge. The next chapter is planned for this summer, with the full release scheduled for spring 2027.
Robertson’s assessment is that the game’s unfinished state leaves many quests blocked for now, but its mixture of dry comedy, dice strategy, art-world intrigue and mundane tasks gives the build enough substance to stand on its own while development continues.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.