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]

Ah, I guess they have arranged something with Roll20 --

"Roll20 works with publishers on an individual basis for crowdfunding campaigns. Use of the Roll20 trademark without our authorization is not allowed. Do not promise Roll20 rewards for your campaign without our permission. Doing so is cause for us to contact the crowdfunding platform to have unauthorized use pulled from the site."

 

[payn]

Ah, I guess they have arranged something with Roll20 --

"Roll20 works with publishers on an individual basis for crowdfunding campaigns. Use of the Roll20 trademark without our authorization is not allowed. Do not promise Roll20 rewards for your campaign without our permission. Doing so is cause for us to contact the crowdfunding platform to have unauthorized use pulled from the site."

Im guessing this explains why Foundry was one of the earliest stretch goals and Roll20 came much later. FL was likely working out the deets with Roll20.

 

[overgeeked]

Looking back over the thread and the Kickstarter’s progress, Blade Runner RPG is kinda underwhelming right now in terms of money. Hit $1 million early on day two…and has barely managed $400,000 more in the 13 days since. With 9 days to go will it break $2 million?

 

[Reynard]

Looking back over the thread and the Kickstarter’s progress, Blade Runner RPG is kinda underwhelming right now in terms of money. Hit $1 million early on day two…and has barely managed $400,000 more in the 13 days since. With 9 days to go will it break $2 million?

I think that's a strong indication that those that want this game REALLY want it and jumped on quickly, but outside of that baked in market there might not be much demand. I wonder if they use the KS to get an idea of how much to send to stores and stuff? I don't know enough about the printing side to know whether they still have to do big print runs to be economically feasible.

 

[Morrus]

Looking back over the thread and the Kickstarter’s progress, Blade Runner RPG is kinda underwhelming right now in terms of money. Hit $1 million early on day two…and has barely managed $400,000 more in the 13 days since. With 9 days to go will it break $2 million?

It shows how outlooks have changed when folks are saying that under $2M is underwhelming.

 

[overgeeked]

It shows how outlooks have changed when folks are saying that under $2M is underwhelming.

Maybe it's poor phrasing then. I meant more that given it hit $1 million early on day two that it looked like it was going to be doing much better by now than it actually is.

 

[MGibster]

Leon always gave me the impression like he's meant to be a meat forklift.

Makes no economic or technological sense, but that's kind of the defining feature of Philip Dick stories.

I think they're all pretty strong as Zhora, Leon, Roy, and even Pris were all able to overpower Deckard at various points. Leon was designed specifically for physical work, Zhora was some sort of assassin, Pris was a pleasure model, and I think Roy was a soldier.

 

[overgeeked]

Leon always gave me the impression like he's meant to be a meat forklift.

Makes no economic or technological sense, but that's kind of the defining feature of Philip Dick stories.

The trouble is in the adaptation, not the original PKD story. A lot of the context that makes it make sense was removed for the movie. A world war irradiates the planet, kills off the majority of the animal life on the planet, and begins mutating humanity. To survive, humanity must go off-world, but only those who are not mutated by the radiation are legally allowed to emigrate. Their numbers are not sufficient to build, much less maintain, off-world colonies...so they create genetically engineered slaves...replicants...for those rich enough and "pure" enough to go off-world.

And it's important to remember how difficult it is to tell replicants apart from humans. They're basically genetically altered clones. They're not computers with metal legs and rubber "skin". They're not robots. We could do this now, with real world technology. We can and have cloned humans. We have CRISPR. What prevents us from doing it is the thin veneer of ethics we call civilization, neither economics nor technology.

 

[Yora]

Robots would be easier and cheaper.

Philip Dick stories are really horror first and science fiction second. And the horror is about dissolving the boundaries of the self and being stripped of the fundamentals of humanity. I see the sci-fi elements as a tool for turning these ideas into narratives that can be communicated. They don't need to make any more sense than in Star Trek or Inception.

 

[ruemere]

The trouble is in the adaptation, not the original PKD story. A lot of the context that makes it make sense was removed for the movie. A world war irradiates the planet, kills off the majority of the animal life on the planet, and begins mutating humanity. To survive, humanity must go off-world, but only those who are not mutated by the radiation are legally allowed to emigrate. Their numbers are not sufficient to build, much less maintain, off-world colonies...so they create genetically engineered slaves...replicants...for those rich enough and "pure" enough to go off-world.

And it's important to remember how difficult it is to tell replicants apart from humans. They're basically genetically altered clones. They're not computers with metal legs and rubber "skin". They're not robots. We could do this now, with real world technology. We can and have cloned humans. We have CRISPR. What prevents us from doing it is the thin veneer of ethics we call civilization, neither economics nor technology.

This. Also, in the novel the humans as the species are dealing with major existential crisis. They essentially are facing their own psychological extinction event - that's why Rick is having artificially induced quarrel with his wife, that's why there is the artificial participation in the suffering of their new Saviour.

Humanity is going back to its roots in search of a meaning to its existence.

At the same time Replicants are imbued with all psychological qualities humans lost. They struggle because they were built to do so. Their lack of free will makes them not-human.

Rachel's act of vengeance vs. Deckard lack of ability to question himself is at the core of the novel.

The first film presents similar issue in a subtler way: Replicants are guided by their memories, their need to accumulate the new ones, and their expiration once the new memories take them beyond their original mental design. Roy the soldier becomes a son and a judge. Leon - an infiltrator and a grieving spouse. Zora and Priss seek to form a family, form bonds - Leon is genuinely upset despite lack of empathy toward others being a fundamental trait of Nexus 6 generation.

Rachel in this case is an attempt to go further beyond the design - she rises in her humanity, while Deckard falls by losing bits of his.

The novel and the first film approach similar subject, with the novel being much more pessimistic despite Deckard being "saved" by Mercer and Rachel.

I wonder if the game will allow us to explore the novel concepts.