The Bladerunner Kickstarter Date Is... May 3rd!

Free League has announced the launch date for its Blade Runner RPG. It's May 3rd. Here's the link.

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

The game was originally announced in September 2021.

 

[overgeeked]

If anyone's interested: as part of the social media advertising, Free League shared a page from the book today.

Check the listed equipment. PK-D M1887 20 Gauge. PKD. Philip K Dick. Nice easter egg.

 

[MGibster]

I find lately I have been really soaking up one trick pony settings. If the bespoke system hits the nail directly on the head, I'm having a great time with it. Though, I get what you are saying.

These days, I tend to prefer games with specific settings that encourage a certain type of game play. Even when I run more open ended games, I tend to give the campaign a fairly narrow purpose.

The competing agendas element is definitely true of cinematic play in Alien, but not campaign mode. There's an argument to be made that Alien doesn't actually work that well for a long campaign, but just like how I wouldn't really set players against each other the same way during a colonial marines campaign, I could imagine trying a longer BR campaign that eventually had the PCs joining the resistance, or going to a different city (or planet?), and basically working together the whole time.

While I'm a fan of Alien, I don't believe it's likely I'd ever run a campaign. Right now, I think cinematic play offers the best experience overall.

My biggest question about this game is whether it'll feel like Blade Runner with more than one or two PCs. There are all sorts of ways to narratively justify more--you're part of a whole unit--but BR is very lonely and film-noir. A pair of partners could still maintain that. But five people bopping around a case, NCIS-style? That feels like something else entirely.

I often have trouble making sure all the characters have their moments to shine in Call of Cthulhu. I didn't think of that for Blade Runner but you might be on to something there.

 

[payn]

These days, I tend to prefer games with specific settings that encourage a certain type of game play. Even when I run more open ended games, I tend to give the campaign a fairly narrow purpose.

Different tools for different jobs. I love how singular the purpose and feel Alien ended up providing. I think in the past designers felt like they had to build a world sim that covers all the bases as an RPG. You don't need spaceships, space marines, and advanced weapons in Bladerunner even though these things are talked about in the novel and movie. BR doesnt have to be a total sci-fi sim or even a total cyberpunk sim. Leave that to RPGs that have that as their intended purpose. It's great to allow folks to immerse themselves deeply into a cinematic experience. There are and always will be general RPGs to cover open ended gaming.

Grendel_Khan said:
My biggest question about this game is whether it'll feel like Blade Runner with more than one or two PCs. There are all sorts of ways to narratively justify more--you're part of a whole unit--but BR is very lonely and film-noir. A pair of partners could still maintain that. But five people bopping around a case, NCIS-style? That feels like something else entirely.

I often have trouble making sure all the characters have their moments to shine in Call of Cthulhu. I didn't think of that for Blade Runner but you might be on to something there.

This is the million dollar question. When I think of BR, I certainly do not think of a game designed for 5+ players.

 

[Teo Twawki]

if you cant rationalize

No need to rationalize fiction. Literature--perhaps especially collective story-telling through role-play--allows the exploration of ideas and actions in a relatively safe manner than would be unpleasant, hazardous, or even fatal to do so in actuality.

Not that rationalization isn't a key emotion in many people. It's more important than sex. Almost every human alive goes longer without sex than rationalization.

 

[payn]

No need to rationalize fiction. Literature--perhaps especially collective story-telling through role-play--allows the exploration of ideas and actions in a relatively safe manner than would be unpleasant, hazardous, or even fatal to do so in actuality.

Not that rationalization isn't a key emotion in many people. It's more important than sex. Almost every human alive goes longer without sex than rationalization.

Well, that's what I mean by rationalizing. Can you come to terms with the material and not find it unpleasant or offensive. It's ok for the answer to be no.

 

[MGibster]

Well, that's what I mean by rationalizing. Can you come to terms with the material and not find it unpleasant or offensive. It's ok for the answer to be no.

I think some works of fiction are deliberately designed to be unpleasant or offensive and that's what makes them work so well. At it's core, Blade Runner is about a man who hunts down and kills runaway slaves which I think we'll all agree is fairly unpleasant. Even Deckard has qualms about what he's doing and had to be coerced by Bryant into going after Batty and his gang (though he had willingly been a blade runner in the past). I guess what I'm saying is that you can find the premise of something to be unpleasant and offensive and still enjoy it.

 

[ART!]

Time to get those rain sound effects files queued up!

 

[jacleg05]

I would love to find out how they will prevent the game from just being hunting replicants all the time. Love the movies.

 

[MGibster]

I would love to find out how they will prevent the game from just being hunting replicants all the time. Love the movies.

Me too. I could see a campaign where the PCs are replicants, where they're humans helping replicants, and other campaigns where they're working to retire replicants. There's probably other ideas I'm missing here. I was pretty impressed by their Alien RPG and I think it works equally well for the first and second movie despite them being so different in tone from one another. I'm looking forward to see what they do with this.