Blade Runner: The Next Million Dollar Kickstarter?

Free League's Blade Runner Kickstarter has just launched, and is tearing through stretch goals after funding in just 3 minutes. It looks very likely that this will be the company's second million dollar Kickstarter (following last year's The One Ring campaign, which raised over $2M). It will also be the third million dollar Kickstarter in the last month, following Matt Colville's Flee Mortals!, and Monte Cook Games' Old Gods of Appalachia.

Blade Runner was voted the Most Anticipated TTRPG of 2022 by readers of EN World right here.

Free League's other million dollar Kickstarter, The One Ring, did $521K on the first day and finished with $2M. Compared to the other million dollar campaigns in the last few weeks --

• Flee Mortals! did $788K on the first day.
• Old Gods of Appalachia did $679K on the first day.
• Only one campaign has done $1M+ on day 1, and that was Avatar Legends with $1.15M on the first day.

Check Out These Bladerunner RPG Previews

Free League has shared some previews of its Bladerunner RPG, which comes to Kickstarter next week on May 3rd and looks very likely to be the third million dollar Kickstarter in the last month.

www.enworld.org

BLADE RUNNER – The Roleplaying Game

Walk the neon-noir streets of Los Angeles 2037 in the official BLADE RUNNER RPG from Free League Publishing and Alcon Entertainment.

www.kickstarter.com

 

[Morrus]

Surprised too, considering the goal was $10,000

Well, it wasn't really.

 

[Mezuka]

Personally I find cyberpunk to be the easiest sci-fi genre to write adventures for and the most fun to play, regardless of the side you the screen you are sitting. Not surprised by the success.
It helps that Free League keeps delivering quality products for their campaigns.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Well, it wasn't really.

Yeah, that initial goal is really just "We're making this product, but how big this product is YOU DECIDE" isn't it?

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, that initial goal is really just "We're making this product, but how big this product is YOU DECIDE" isn't it?

That initial goal was 'make sure we fund in the first hour' (or 3 minutes as the case may be). I imagine their private goal was far, far larger. But on things like this, KS goals are pretty much meaningless. It's just an arbitrary number; they're going to make the game anyway, and they're not going to risk setting a goal they might not accomplish and getting nothing.

 

[MGibster]

So what's getting folks so excited? Is it Bladerunner, Free League's excited record, something else?

I'm a fan of the former but for me it's the latter. When I first learned about the Alien RPG I had very little interest even though I love at least two of the movies from that franchise. But I took a chance and purchased it, and I wasn't disappointed. I'm a fan of Blade Runner, but if this wasn't Free League I probably wouldn't have backed it.

 

[schneeland]

So what's getting folks so excited? Is it Bladerunner, Free League's excited record, something else?

For me personally, it's a combination of multiple factors:
a) I really like that 90s Cyberpunk/SciFi noir atmosphere (I was a teenager in the 90s and that probably really shaped my preferences w.r.t. media)
b) Free League has done a number of games that a sweet spot for me (great production value, a bit of nostalgia, mostly solid mechanics)
c) I really like Martin Grip's art a lot - for me, he's basically the greatest asset Free League has

In addition, I think Free League now has enough brand recognition that people trust them to do good stuff (there were some hickups in the One Ring campaign, but overall, they do a pretty solid job). And they really know how to do social media marketing.

 

[Nikosandros]

That initial goal was 'make sure we fund in the first hour' (or 3 minutes as the case may be). I imagine their private goal was far, far larger. But on things like this, KS goals are pretty much meaningless. It's just an arbitrary number; they're going to make the game anyway, and they're not going to risk setting a goal they might not accomplish and getting nothing.

I thought it was interesting that Flee, Mortals! had a goal of $600,000. It was unusually high, but I'm sure no one was doubting that it would be reached.

 

[Morrus]

I thought it was interesting that Flee, Mortals! had a goal of $600,000. It was unusually high, but I'm sure no one was doubting that it would be reached.

Yeah, that was very unusual. I don’t really have any insight into that figure.

 

[TerraDave]

They are approaching 1.5 million, and 10,000 backers, which seems like a very high pledge rate (at least without minis or something like that).

As for why Blade Runner...one of the greatest movies and novellas of all time? And Free League might be able to make a decent RPG out of it.

EDIT: Though not 1.5 million US dollars. It will probably get there at some point.

 

[overgeeked]

They are approaching 1.5 million, and 10,000 backers, which seems like a very high pledge rate (at least without minis or something like that).

As for why Blade Runner...one of the greatest movies and novellas of all time? And Free League might be able to make a decent RPG out of it.

It’s a novel, but you are right. It is one of the greatest novels of all time. And a rather spectacular movie, even if only loosely based on PKD’s novel.