Blade Runner: The Next Million Dollar Kickstarter?

MGibster · Jul 3, 2022

I never realized how ridiculous the PK-D Blaster that Deckard carried in the original movie was. This is the standard issue sidearm for blade runners and is made up of a 5 shot revolver firing .44 special ammunition, a single shot bolt action that rifles a .222 rifle round, and a single shot sonic round. I don't remember the revolver in the movie firing any sonic round and never noticed the little bolt action on the original prop. I do remember Deckard took careful aim to put a shot in Zhora's back as she was some distance from him as he fled. But didn't he fire two shots? I'll have to watch the movie again.

I went ahead and made a character and the process was fairly easy. My only real complaint is that I had to track down what the starting equipment was for blade runners. But it's just a PK-D Blaster, a flying car, a KIA (personal data assistant), and a badge. Every character in the game is a blade runner, but there are several archetypes to choose from. I rolled randomly to determine whether I was a replicant or human and got human. Then I rolled randomly to figure out how many years on the force I had and got rookie. You don't have to roll randomly, you get to choose, but I elected to. The advantage of being a rookie is that you have more points to put into your attributes. The more years you have the fewer points you have for attributes but the more points you have to put into skills.

Colgrevance · Jul 3, 2022

MGibster said:
The more years you have the fewer points you have for attributes but the more points you have to put into skills.

This is one of very few things I dislike in Year Zero games: Attributes are much more valuable than skills/talents, thus it just doesn't make much sense to make an older (or in this case, more experienced) character, except maybe for oneshot games. I really wish they'd changed this for Blade Runner.

Yora · Jul 3, 2022

MGibster said:
The Kickstarter is over, and those of us who participate have access to a PDF of the game. Has anyone read it yet? I just started and the book looks pretty cool so far.

They raised over a million just to pay for the printing for a game that was already produced? Can thay just pocket the remainder after paying the printer?

Crusadius · Jul 3, 2022

Yora said:
They raised over a million just to pay for the printing for a game that was already produced? Can thay just pocket the remainder after paying the printer?

Well, out of the remainder they need to pay the writers, editors, artists, administration, licencing fees for the Blade Runner intellectual property, taxes, insurance, office rent and other sundry expenses, and any other unexpected expenses.

I don't expect much change after that for everyone to buy their own lamborghini.

Yora · Jul 3, 2022

But those are costs that already happened in the past, regardless of how much money they raised. And I doubt a bank gave them a 1.5 million loan just on the expectation that the kickstarter would make that much money.
It could very well just have made 400,000 and they still would have had to pay all those costs.

Fenhorn · Jul 3, 2022

It is very costly to print boxes and books, especially these days. They need to do some sort of pre-order or kickstarter so they can see how many games to print. Having a kickstarter instead of pre-order gives them feedback that can be very useful (and they have changed things in the books thanks to the feedback, not only some erratas and typos).

aramis erak · Jul 3, 2022

Grendel_Khan said:
The only thing I mentioned that was from the interview was the designer saying explicitly that they don't want to do the secret Replicant trope.

And yet, it's there, in the char gen rules.

Having been reading it, and having run Alien, Vaesen, and T2K... it's not truly compatible with any of them. Likewise, Alien and Vaesen aren't compatible with each other nor with T2K....
The core concepts are there, but each YZE game has an adapted core execution.

For example:
⚀ on pushed rolls...
Alien: only matter on stress dice, don't do physical damage, 2 types of d6
Vaesen: any push, does a condition (which physical damage also does) 1 type of d6
MYZ: any push but only on tool and base (attribute) dice; Skill dice don't. 3 types of d6
T2K: any push, to correct hits track. need 2d6 of color A, 4d6 of color b, 2d8, 2d10, 2d12, the d6's are base and autofire
BR: any push, to correct track. Need 3d6. 3d8, 3d10, 3d12. No kind distinctions at all

Each has a skill list unique to itself.
First Aid/Medicine bounces between atts.

Modifier methods
Vaesen: adjust total pool
MYZ Adjust skill dice only
Alien: adjust base dice only
T2K: shift dice sizes
BR: double the number of smallest die, or remove the smallest die.

Grendel_Khan · Jul 3, 2022

aramis erak said:
And yet, it's there, in the char gen rules.

Yeah that was a surprise. Made me wonder if they ultimately stuck it in due to backlash (or to avoid it). Seems like it’s the same approach as playing a secret Synthetic in Alien: Play like a human until the reveal, then, switch to Replicant mechanics.

Morrus · Jul 3, 2022

Yora said:
They raised over a million just to pay for the printing for a game that was already produced? Can thay just pocket the remainder after paying the printer?

Well it doesn’t work quite like that. The more you raise, the more you have to print. Those million-dollars worth of people all have to get something.

Plus 10% in fees, probably 10% to the Bladerunner IP owners. It all goes fast.

Most companies do make a profit on a big Kickstarter but probably nowhere near the amount you’re imagining.

But those are costs that already happened in the past, regardless of how much money they raised.

But you still have to account for them. You have to account for costs no matter when they happened. Well, if you want to stay in business you do.

schneeland · Jul 3, 2022

Yora said:
But those are costs that already happened in the past, regardless of how much money they raised. And I doubt a bank gave them a 1.5 million loan just on the expectation that the kickstarter would make that much money.

Well, most probably they paid it out of their own pocket/company bank account in the hope that the Kickstarter would raise enough to justify the expenses. I don't think Free League (or anyone else in the RPG industry except WotC) makes enough money to do such an investment without some sort of return.
Admittedly, they probably could have done a pre-order and decided for a Kickstarter for marketing purposes.