TTRPG Review: Blade Runner by Free League

[@JackFetch-eb1gr]

I'm a huge fan of Blade Runner and a big fan of Free League so this was a must have for me and it was nice to have a game that focuses on a single or pair of PCs rather than the typical adventuring party

[@midnightgreen8319]

The Noir aspect of the world is what's so captivating to me. It was the Cyberpunk film to hit the masses. Film is a fantastic medium for this genre. I love the first film, like the 2nd, and I love CP2020.

[@TesteTrekkie]

I’ve had this since it was released and love it. For me the GM advice around running an investigative game worked best as a procedural process: the tools help inspire the case and lay out the broad details, then I zoom in plot out the mystery shift by shift. The other mechanically interesting choice for me was the advancement system: acting like as an obedient cop earns promotion points that make bring a cop easier. The other advancement points, humanity, are earned by not being a right dick e.g. acting like a good person even if the “right cop” thing to do is otherwise. It’s these humanity points that are the only way to advance your skills, talents and attributes. It creates an interesting dichotomy in plan I’ve found.

[@penitentialarts]

I almost backed it, then realized that what I really wanted was something more along the lines of an in-depth Blade Runner universe book. It became apparent early on that they were going for a "tightly focused" sort of game, as you said. Since I'm interested in running a game set in a combined Blade Runner / Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep / Soldier / Alien (ignoring the xenomorphs) universe, I decided to focus more on other types of books (art, film-oriented, philosophical musings on the settings, etc.) than the rpg ones. I can easily just use one of my favorite generic systems for the rules.

[@jacobwilliams1285]

Did you find any books that you liked? I would be interested. I did find one called philosophy of Blade Runner which was fairly interesting.

[@kevoreilly6557]

Thanks!

[@jordana4910]

I was on the fence, but seeing your flip through, think I'm gonna get this one!

[@liberalhyena9760]

Sounds promising. I backed the KS initially but had to drop it due to lack of credits. On a slight tangent, the unqualified inclusion of Blade Runner in the cyberpunk genre seems highly questionable due to the absence of one key element: hacking, as computers themselves barely feature, let alone the consensual hallucination of Gibson’s Cyberspace. (Gibson didn’t use the term Cyberpunk of course, which comes from Bruce Bethke in a book of apparently little merit beyond the coining of that term). Discuss.

[@jestrogames5507]

I would love to read your designs on the Digital/Hologram player character. My thinking is they could inhabit the virtual landscape or mechanical systems, much like a Netrunner from Cyberpunk 2020/RED. But given that this would be in the Blade Runner world, the entire concept of a virtual landscape could be incredibly unique.

[@troffle]

That tables of contents looks a lot like their The One Ring table. Is the system at all like The One Ring? ... wait if they're using the many different dice then, likely not? "You are playing Blade Runners, possibly Replicants as Blade Runners" and why am I suddenly thinking "a Troubleshooter with a mutant power and membership of a secret society"? ... successes, double successes and skill levels... this is starting to sound like The One Ring. "Shifts", is that like the adventuring and "fellowship" phases??

[@PostmortemVideo]

Lol, yeah, shades of Paranoia - played straight.

[@SteveDahlskog]

I’m not sure I’m understanding the question? Bladerunner is more similar to other Free League games (mostly Twilight 2000) with the Year-zero-engine rather than Nepolito’s The One Ring engine.

[@jacobwilliams1285]

Appreciate the review, even though I bought it already. I think this is a great companion book with a surprisingly nice amount of lore on the world, really expands nicely on the 2 films. Of course I would have loved even more. I agree with you that while it has some nice artwork, its a bit too dark art and designwise ( no black pages please, its never great).

[@gwem1979]

I like the setting and look forward to the replicant expansion book next year. As for the rules etc i cannot offer a legitimate opinion as i haven’t played it because i have no one to play it with and i buy rpg setting books for inspiration for my own work. And i too was hoping for some expansion regarding the rest of the world and colonies. But for now it seems bladerunner is inextricably intertwined with LA. Maybe free league will explore the setting at some point

[@jacobwilliams1285]

Oeh there is an expansion book coming on Replicants?! Want!

[@gwem1979]

@@jacobwilliams1285 coming some time this year i hope. I think it will be centered on the replicant underground. Whatever it is i hope for a little more world building

[@kmike2969]

If it doesn’t come with a Voight-Kampff questionnaire I’m not sold. In all seriousness though it’s a shame they restricted it to LA especially after how far they went with the different human factions in Alien.

[@ctorus]

Slightly disappointing release for me. Continues the current trend of licensed games being tightly focused on creating a pastiche of the source material, rather than presenting a setting in which to create your own stories.

[@madquest8]

Sadly the game is too lethal, too focused on Bladerunners, so making up other character types (just to interact with) is hard, lacks gear, lacks equipment, lacks detailed rules... very disappointing.

[@DJANGO-FakeShaman]

Once again free league manage to bore me :( Thank god for home brewing

[@beetlejuss]

Are you sure you want to review narrative games? Why don't you talk about the stuff you like? if Free League games are garbage what are the good games then?

[@PostmortemVideo]

I didn't give this a bad score and have nothing against narrative games per se, only bad ones.