This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Author Topic: Blade Runner rpg  (Read 4345 times)

Abraxus

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2434
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #15 on: September 23, 2021, 11:37:19 AM »
If you don’t mind me asking Tenbones what was written in the sidebar?.

Reckall

  • Junghian alchemist
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2004
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #16 on: September 23, 2021, 12:08:44 PM »
The core game and its line of expansions will push the boundaries of investigative gameplay in tabletop RPGs, giving players a range of tools to solve an array of cases far beyond retiring Replicants.

This could be interesting but it must be seen how it compares with "Gumshoe". For sure I would be interested in a sci-fi version of "Gumshoe" which covers from "Blade Runner" to "Caves of Steel".
For every idiot who denounces Ayn Rand as "intellectualism" there is an excellent DM who creates a "Bioshock" adventure.

tenbones

  • Poobah of the D.O.N.G.
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6164
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #17 on: September 23, 2021, 03:36:54 PM »
If you don’t mind me asking Tenbones what was written in the sidebar?.

The Colonial Marines book does ABOVE AND BEYOND in detailing the military organizations of the Aliens universe. Not just the Colonial Marines, but the book covers the other major political factions and their militaries as well, including corporate mercenaries. Including differences in weaponry, deployment capacities, general strategies and duties throughout the galaxy, they get deep into the breakdown of the military by branch from the Battalion level down to the Platoon including detailed sub-classes for the Marine role.

It's VERY good. They do a lot of emphasis on the chain of command from the bottom to the top. And that book alone is worth it's price for entry in creating endless military, spec-ops, all-out warfare in the Aliens universe (including ship combat!). You can run campaigns that literally have **nothing** to do with Aliens. You could do Twilight 2000 in spaaaaace if you wanted to.

Then they produce this sidebar telling GM's they shouldn't force their players to worry about Rank (literally after just giving us the whole rundown on chain of command) because some roles naturally are rated as higher rank than others, other players may feel uncomfortable getting orders from higher ranked players. And the PC's should decide as a group how to proceed rather than let rank be an issue.

So sure we're playing an RPG - but for FUUUUUCK'S sake... the whole point of playing a military game is to have some military verisimilitude. You create this awesome book for doing just that and then stick your head in as say "Hey guys! Not really, just ignore this because we don't want you to hurt people's feelings because one person is a sergeant and another is a buck private. Mmm kay?". GTFO with that shit.

It's easy to ignore otherwise. But fuck me... what a dumb sidebar, way to shit in your own bowl of cereal.

Batjon

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 504
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #18 on: September 23, 2021, 04:44:18 PM »
Free League is one of my favorite RPG companies and their Year Zero engine is one of my favorite RPG systems.  I adore Bladerunner as a concept and movie and I am VERY excited to get my hands on this.  I think it will likely become my neo noir cyberpunk game of choice.  Bladerunner is one of the best movies of all-time and the novel it is based on is also one of the greatest sci-fi novels/cyberpunk pieces ever. 

I'll be purchasing it and every supplement as soon as I can place an order.

Reckall

  • Junghian alchemist
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2004
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #19 on: September 23, 2021, 04:49:05 PM »
If you don’t mind me asking Tenbones what was written in the sidebar?.

The Colonial Marines book does ABOVE AND BEYOND in detailing the military organizations of the Aliens universe. Not just the Colonial Marines, but the book covers the other major political factions and their militaries as well, including corporate mercenaries. Including differences in weaponry, deployment capacities, general strategies and duties throughout the galaxy, they get deep into the breakdown of the military by branch from the Battalion level down to the Platoon including detailed sub-classes for the Marine role.

It's VERY good. They do a lot of emphasis on the chain of command from the bottom to the top. And that book alone is worth it's price for entry in creating endless military, spec-ops, all-out warfare in the Aliens universe (including ship combat!). You can run campaigns that literally have **nothing** to do with Aliens. You could do Twilight 2000 in spaaaaace if you wanted to.

Then they produce this sidebar telling GM's they shouldn't force their players to worry about Rank (literally after just giving us the whole rundown on chain of command) because some roles naturally are rated as higher rank than others, other players may feel uncomfortable getting orders from higher ranked players. And the PC's should decide as a group how to proceed rather than let rank be an issue.

So sure we're playing an RPG - but for FUUUUUCK'S sake... the whole point of playing a military game is to have some military verisimilitude. You create this awesome book for doing just that and then stick your head in as say "Hey guys! Not really, just ignore this because we don't want you to hurt people's feelings because one person is a sergeant and another is a buck private. Mmm kay?". GTFO with that shit.

It's easy to ignore otherwise. But fuck me... what a dumb sidebar, way to shit in your own bowl of cereal.

I can understand how this could be a suggestion - worth of a sidebar. It is telling, however, of the times we live in. When I ran "No Man's Land" for CoC, years ago (WWI), the players acted naturally according to their rank and we all agree that it was the best single adventure we ever played.

Regarding "Blade Runner", like with "Alien" it is easy to see how you can fudge some storylines and some Year Zero rules, and plug it into the "Coriolis" universe. "Coriolis" has already a strong bladerunnish vibe via George Alec Effinger anyway.
For every idiot who denounces Ayn Rand as "intellectualism" there is an excellent DM who creates a "Bioshock" adventure.

Ratman_tf

  • Alt-Reich Shitlord
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8330
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #20 on: September 23, 2021, 07:04:56 PM »
If you don’t mind me asking Tenbones what was written in the sidebar?.

The Colonial Marines book does ABOVE AND BEYOND in detailing the military organizations of the Aliens universe. Not just the Colonial Marines, but the book covers the other major political factions and their militaries as well, including corporate mercenaries. Including differences in weaponry, deployment capacities, general strategies and duties throughout the galaxy, they get deep into the breakdown of the military by branch from the Battalion level down to the Platoon including detailed sub-classes for the Marine role.

It's VERY good. They do a lot of emphasis on the chain of command from the bottom to the top. And that book alone is worth it's price for entry in creating endless military, spec-ops, all-out warfare in the Aliens universe (including ship combat!). You can run campaigns that literally have **nothing** to do with Aliens. You could do Twilight 2000 in spaaaaace if you wanted to.

... Da fuq would be the point? I guess if someone was a HARDCORE Aliens fan, and wanted to fill out the background and play specifically in that universe, but without Aliens, but how many people fall into that niche category?
Personally, I like the film Aliens, but I'm not that interested in playing a Colonial Marine. The only reason they're interesting is because of the very unusual circumstances they find themselves in, in the film.
The notion of an exclusionary and hostile RPG community is a fever dream of zealots who view all social dynamics through a narrow keyhole of structural oppression.
-Haffrung

tenbones

  • Poobah of the D.O.N.G.
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6164
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #21 on: September 23, 2021, 07:36:04 PM »
Not to derail the thread with Alien talk. I'm merely talking about it as a direct hopeful comparison to what might be possible in Bladerunner.

The core Alien book and Colonial Marine book ARE **EXCELLENT**. You can do some seriously cool stuff in there including basic bug-hunt scenarios to full on campaigns.

The core book highlights life at almost every level - space truckers, colonists, science people, corporate assholes, normal joes, mechanics etc. caught up in crazy circumstances. The setting material is so deep you could definitely do political intrigue up the wazoo without ever dealing with aliens (and there are more aliens than just the Alien(tm) species). They have plenty of adventure generator material, easy to make scenarios including different modes of play - like Cinematic Mode which has built in pvp. There is a lot to like about it. And Free League put a ton of thought into it.

With that said - I have not run it. But just my read-through of it had my head exploding with possibilities. I ran a little skirmish with a friend to see how lethal it is. Oh yeah... its lethal. It "felt" right.

So what I want in a Bladerunner game is that level of depth. I want CP2020 levels of setting that happen to be in the Bladerunner universe. Give me that.

tenbones

  • Poobah of the D.O.N.G.
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6164
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #22 on: September 23, 2021, 07:41:48 PM »
... Da fuq would be the point? I guess if someone was a HARDCORE Aliens fan, and wanted to fill out the background and play specifically in that universe, but without Aliens, but how many people fall into that niche category?
Personally, I like the film Aliens, but I'm not that interested in playing a Colonial Marine. The only reason they're interesting is because of the very unusual circumstances they find themselves in, in the film.

Specifically to this question...

As a player - how would you know? The setup might be something as simple as the PC's are all living on an orbital space habitat. There are TONS of political issues going on the Alien universe - Communist guerillas, Luddite terrorists are a serious threat. Corporate espionage etc. etc. Your PC's would be living in a contained environment dealing with their day to day shit when an event occurs and it becomes a space-survival terror-trip. What is the nature of the event? All you'd know is power goes down and you and the PC's have to figure it out...

Is it Aliens? Is it a terrorist take over? Is it another corporation coming to do an extraction and the PC's happen to be in the way (how convenient?) Or is it something horribly worse - the corporation is going to release a bio-toxin into the habitat to infect the crew and see what happens - the result is the same. People stuck in bad situations with zero intel trying to figure it out.

The game can be built along those lines with nary a sign of the official Alien(tm) in sight until you decide it's time.

Oh yeah you CAN play a Synthetic. They're pretty badass.

Trond

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2743
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #23 on: September 23, 2021, 09:12:09 PM »
Really don't see the point, things like blade runner, aliens and dune are too self-contained to make good adventure settings in my opinion.

Given the number of books and interesting cultures, I think Dune might work.

Reckall

  • Junghian alchemist
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2004
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #24 on: September 24, 2021, 06:53:32 AM »
As a player - how would you know? The setup might be something as simple as the PC's are all living on an orbital space habitat. There are TONS of political issues going on the Alien universe - Communist guerillas, Luddite terrorists are a serious threat. Corporate espionage etc. etc. Your PC's would be living in a contained environment dealing with their day to day shit when an event occurs and it becomes a space-survival terror-trip. What is the nature of the event? All you'd know is power goes down and you and the PC's have to figure it out...

As an aside, I would suggest to read the "Alien 3" script by William Gibson (either the original script freely available online or the graphic novel). It presents a strong metaphor of the Cold War in space.

About "Alien" rpg, I kickstarted it and forgot about it. One day a package arrived and it was full of slurpy goodies. Like tenbones, I was amazed by the depth of research and the amount of contents. And, of course, as a CoC-head, I immediately started thinking about how to convert the mythos into the Year-Zero system... After all the original "Alien" can be considered one of the best lovecraftian movies ever made.

"The Colonial Marines squad was awakened midway through their destination. A distress beacon had been activated on the flourishing LV-228 Colony. When they landed they found only horror and carnage - and holo-posters about the upcoming touring 'The Yellow Lord with a Pale Mask' play..."
For every idiot who denounces Ayn Rand as "intellectualism" there is an excellent DM who creates a "Bioshock" adventure.

Ratman_tf

  • Alt-Reich Shitlord
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8330
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #25 on: September 24, 2021, 07:15:13 AM »
Really don't see the point, things like blade runner, aliens and dune are too self-contained to make good adventure settings in my opinion.

Given the number of books and interesting cultures, I think Dune might work.

The challenge with a Dune RPG would be deciding what to focus on. Over the course of the novels, there's literally thousands of years covered, and a ton of factions and politics and themes to sort out.
The notion of an exclusionary and hostile RPG community is a fever dream of zealots who view all social dynamics through a narrow keyhole of structural oppression.
-Haffrung

Marchand

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • M
  • Posts: 304
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #26 on: September 24, 2021, 10:54:15 AM »
We'll get to see stats for C-Beams and what went on off the shoulder of Orion, and the significance of Tannhauser Gate and a whole lot more, and we'll see it in depth.

This actively puts me off. Batty's closing speech is one of the most beautiful, moving moments in cinema. Next time I watch it, I really do not want to be thinking, ah yes C-beams, 4d6 damage and +2 versus replicants.

I have never seen an RPG adaptation of an existing IP where the additional setting material rose much above the level of fanfic or added to my enjoyment of the original.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2021, 10:57:07 AM by Marchand »
"If the English surrender, it'll be a long war!"
- Scottish soldier on the beach at Dunkirk

tenbones

  • Poobah of the D.O.N.G.
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6164
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #27 on: September 24, 2021, 11:03:14 AM »
After reading Aliens, I honestly would give them money to take over the Dune license if they treated it with the respect they did to Aliens.

They did an amazing job of curating the best elements from *all* the Alien franchise and squeezed it into a pretty amazing product. I'd never read William Gibson's Alien 3 script, but holy hell, this book is *dripping* with the Cold War paranoia you mentioned, so clearly they read it and took that element and really integrated it.

There is literally a Capitalism vs. Communism angle in the game - and both are over the top and out of control. In those cracks and crevices are the regular folks trying to live their lives in some very dark places.

Precisely NONE of this is really in the movies, which is what makes the setting so rich and fascinating. They managed to cogently take all the elements from the Aliens comics, and even the worse latter-era movies and chuck all the lame stuff, but keep and nurture the interesting concepts into a cohesive setting that really transcends the titular assumptions of the movies.

I watched Blade Runner last night with my daughter - and yeah, I'm really interested to see what they do. I'd be totally down with this team getting the Dune license.

I've been eyeballing Free League's products for some time. Symbaroum is *super* interesting to me as a setting. I considered porting it over to Savage Worlds... but I may one day run it native. Is the system the same one that Aliens uses?

Batjon

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 504
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #28 on: September 24, 2021, 11:12:19 AM »
Symbaroum is a bit different than the Year Zero Engine.  The GM doesn't roll dice in Symbaroum.  The setting and the system both rock, though.

I loooove Free League.  They are one of the best companies in gaming.  I had no idea I wanted to game in the Aliens universe until I picked up the core rulebook months ago on a whim.  I agree 100% with Tenbones.  I was completely and totally blown away with how good the system was and how well it captures the setting.  The books for this game are AWESOME and like Tenbones, my head explodes with possibilities.  One of the best RPG products/series I've seen yet.

I am buying Bladerunner and the supplements as soon as they are available and am quite excited for it.

tenbones

  • Poobah of the D.O.N.G.
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6164
Re: Blade Runner rpg
« Reply #29 on: September 24, 2021, 11:14:20 AM »
We'll get to see stats for C-Beams and what went on off the shoulder of Orion, and the significance of Tannhauser Gate and a whole lot more, and we'll see it in depth.

This actively puts me off. Batty's closing speech is one of the most beautiful, moving moments in cinema. Next time I watch it, I really do not want to be thinking, ah yes C-beams, 4d6 damage and +2 versus replicants.

I have never seen an RPG adaptation of an existing IP where the additional setting material rose much above the level of fanfic or added to my enjoyment of the original.

I'm with you generally. But yet, their handling of the Alien game has proven us both wrong. The game transcends the movies. I mean, honestly, Blade Runner for all it's glorious standing in the pop-culture community and Rutger Hauers legendary soliloquy which contextually coupled with the events of the movie is a profound declaration against nihilism not just in words - but shown as a visual medium, is a self-contained snapshot of a much wider potential.

I attribute nothing mythical to "C-Beams" or any specific thing to his words outside of the context of his actions in the movie until his demise. Much like the throw-away line in New Hope where Luke wonders at Ben having fought "in the Clone Wars".

When Lucas explained what the Clone Wars were in his movies - they were lame. When Timothy Zahn explained what the Clone Wars were in his novels - they were much scarier and darker. The job of the curator is to curate. Without having anyone to overtly tell them what to do, this is an opportunity to expand on the conceits of the Blade Runner universe - which could tie directly into their superbly crafted Alien universe, just at a much earlier part in the timeline. I kind of hope they don't go that route... but the events Roy Batty alludes to definitely could plug into the Cold War elements of the Alien game (which isn't very Cold War at all - it's a basically a quasi-clandestine hot-war in the making).

Having synthetics warring among the stars with their human overlords commanding them is more than enough rationale to have fully sentient synthetic life with a 4-year lifespan and genius level intelligence to snap and go on killing sprees after spending 99% of their life slaughtering people.

I can totally see that as a gameable conceit which the whole concept of Blade Runner is only tangentially about. You can play it straight up the middle, of course, PC's hunting down Replicants... but you could make it soooo much more. I hope that's what they go for.