Free Legue Publishing has gotten the rights to publish this. According to the blurb:
''The official Blade Runner RPG will propel players into the streets of Los Angeles as Blade Runners with unique specialties, personalities – and memories.
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. Beyond the core casework, the RPG will both in setting and mechanics showcase key themes of Blade Runner – sci-fi action, corporate intrigue, existential character drama, and moral conflict – that challenge players to question your friends, empathize with your enemies, and explore the poisons and perseverance of hope and humanity during such inhumane times.
The rules of the game are based on the acclaimed Year Zero Engine, used in award-winning games such as the ALIEN RPG, Tales From the Loop and Forbidden Lands, but further developed and uniquely tailored for Blade Runner.''
So these developers recently made Alient the rpg. Are people here interested or is the fact old popular movies from the 80s are getting rpg adaptations left and right or not? Today im leaning towards a cynical take but first i wanted to know what you all think.
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.
I can see some use for scenario ideas they may come up with. I have their Aliens rpg, and I can't say that I like their system.
I'm not a huge fan of the Year Zero Engine, but I might pick this up if there's much to it beyond the film. I mean, is there really enough just in the film for a game?
If its the same as the rules for aliens, I wonder if it has rules to make the entire world look like a filthy gas station bathroom.
I already have coffee table books filled with Blade Runner art.
Blade Runner is more an aesthetic than anything else, and given so many analog settings I really don't see the point. Like Nephil says, the setting is too self-contained for a rich gameable space, and as Shawn says, coffee table books of the art already exist. No malice to the producers, but no real interest on my part either. :-\
Agree not much point from a gaming or aesthetic standpoint, but I guarantee this will be the top seller on drivethru on day of release.
Quote from: Warder on September 22, 2021, 05:40:58 PM
So these developers recently made Alient the rpg. Are people here interested or is the fact old popular movies from the 80s are getting rpg adaptations left and right or not? Today im leaning towards a cynical take but first i wanted to know what you all think.
I'll agree with the other posters who said, in effect, that Aliens and now Blade Runner are a bit too specific to support a full blown RPG. They're more like scenarios
from for an existing RPG. Hell, both have been inspirations for Cyberpunk RPG adventures.
Maybe there will be some ideas to crib, but I'm really not interested in either. I might consider picking them up as cheap PDFs.
Movie-to-rpg should not be a 1:1 ratio, as cool as Blade Runner was.
A RPG should have multiple works in its thematic bibliography.
Personally I love the Year Zero system, it's definitely in my top 3 of favourite RPG systems and I've played almost every game using it so far. The Alien RPG is also fine, but I have no interest in it myself beyond the one single scenario I joined. Because I'm not really a movie guy and would rather run Coriolis over Alien when I do want to play a Scifi game. As far as this one goes, eh, the main criticisms it's getting now are the same ones that Alien was getting originally and that's still proving to be a real success for them commercially - though I do think Alien is also a more popular setting than Blade Runner so it might not work out the same way this time.
My personal feeling is the same as with the Alien RPG though, I'd rather run a more general Year Zero cyberpunk game than a specific Blade Runner game.
I guess I am the odd one out.
I am really excited for the Blade Runner RPG. I really like Free League's games (I own Alien, Tales from the Loop, Coriolis, and kickstarted TOR 2nd). From what I read, they will draw from not just the films, but the comics, novels (including the original Philip K. Dick one), and games. It doesn't hurt that Blade Runner is my favorite movie and Blade Runner 2049 is #2.
With Star Trek, Conan, Lord of the Rings, and now soon to be Blade Runner having trpg lines, all I need is a Neuromancer/Sprawl official RPG to come out.
I'm actually curious.
I had ***ZERO*** interest in the Alien RPG when it dropped. But one of my players was interesting in GMing and I read a couple of threads about the game, and was piqued by the alleged density of the setting material. So on an impulse I picked up a copy...
And I was very surprised at how much content was in there. Very surprised. So much so I immediately picked up a copy of their Colonial Marines book and it was even better (except one ridiculously stupid sidebar).
Though I have never run the Year One system, at least from Aliens it does a good job by appearance of emulating the material mechanically. I have no particular need for a new system, but it has me a little intrigued.
So I'm actually curious about Blade Runner. If they treat the setting with the same discipline that they treated Aliens, the movie material itself will be little more than a blurb in a much wider panorama of political intrigue. 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.
The Alien RPG is worth it just for the setting material (it's *that* good). I'm hoping Blade Runner will be too.
Quote from: tenbones on September 23, 2021, 10:07:57 AMSo I'm actually curious about Blade Runner. If they treat the setting with the same discipline that they treated Aliens, the movie material itself will be little more than a blurb in a much wider panorama of political intrigue. 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.
Except the central premise of Blade Runner doesn't make any sense. In a world with overpopulation and rampant poverty, there's no need to make artificial humans. And even if you did make artificial humans, you wouldn't go through the extra effort to make each one look unique. If you made them all look the same then there would be no need for Blade Runners in the first place.
You can get away with this kinda stuff in a movie but in an RPG the players will need answers.
Quote from: hedgehobbit on September 23, 2021, 10:23:21 AM
Quote from: tenbones on September 23, 2021, 10:07:57 AMSo I'm actually curious about Blade Runner. If they treat the setting with the same discipline that they treated Aliens, the movie material itself will be little more than a blurb in a much wider panorama of political intrigue. 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.
Except the central premise of Blade Runner doesn't make any sense. In a world with overpopulation and rampant poverty, there's no need to make artificial humans. And even if you did make artificial humans, you wouldn't go through the extra effort to make each one look unique. If you made them all look the same then there would be no need for Blade Runners in the first place.
You can get away with this kinda stuff in a movie but in an RPG the players will need answers.
The actual point of the movie is the meaning of life (culminating in the famous Tears in the Rain scene). The premise for synthetics as it pertains to the setting, I don't think is faulty at all. Megacorps want efficiency, and the synthetics outperform humans. And they come in a variety of flavors. So why wouldn't you be fighting wars with them (and uh... having sexy time)? That's one of the points of the plot, right? Roy Batty has seen some shit that humans can't possibly comprehend. And it could be a little of column A - where synthetics are superior to humans in many ways, and column B - humans have cognitively and physically deteriorated a bit or are likely filled with enough imperfections that the aggregate baseline synthetic is just that much better in more things for work-purposes. Sure they go crazy and kill humans, but fuck it, we've already assigned humans as largely inferior and expendable, right? The point is that synthetics apparently do "it" better. Which is probably why Blade Runners themselves are given significance. Think about what that means to be a human... hunting superior enemies. Of course the twist in that is
Spoiler
Dekker is actually one of them.
According to Ridley Scott (this is a recent thing that I don't personally care for) Blade Runner takes place in the Alien universe. Don't get me wrong, there are a whole lot of ways this can go wrong. In the Alien RPG, for instance, it dive DEEEEP into the in-game universe far beyond the movies. Tons of political and corporate stuff and a huge timeline you can literally jump into at any point.
The movies themselves are minor things in the larger perspective - when you see the potential for sandbox play (or episodic cinematic play which the game services both forms). I'm hoping they do this for Blade Runner.
I'm not going to go right out and buy it - but I'll definitely keep an eye on it.
If you don't mind me asking Tenbones what was written in the sidebar?.
Quote from: Warder on September 22, 2021, 05:40:58 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".
Quote from: sureshot on September 23, 2021, 11:37:19 AM
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.
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.
Quote from: tenbones on September 23, 2021, 03:36:54 PM
Quote from: sureshot on September 23, 2021, 11:37:19 AM
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.
Quote from: tenbones on September 23, 2021, 03:36:54 PM
Quote from: sureshot on September 23, 2021, 11:37:19 AM
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.
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.
Quote from: Ratman_tf on September 23, 2021, 07:04:56 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.
Quote from: Nephil on September 22, 2021, 06:06:48 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.
Quote from: tenbones on September 23, 2021, 07:41:48 PM
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..."
Quote from: Trond on September 23, 2021, 09:12:09 PM
Quote from: Nephil on September 22, 2021, 06:06:48 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.
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.
Quote from: tenbones on September 23, 2021, 10:07:57 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.
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?
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.
Quote from: Marchand on September 24, 2021, 10:54:15 AM
Quote from: tenbones on September 23, 2021, 10:07:57 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.
Man, Tenbones, you are putting all kinds of smiles on my face with your insights into the possibilities of these 2 games. You need to run this stuff online and invite me! That is a campaign I'd love to play in....the philosophical underpinnings and possibilities are amazing.
Alas, I don't do the online thing.
I did at the start of the pandemic, then I said fuck it and the gang agreed. So I play face to face. But never say never! I'm likely going to have to learn to make VTT stuff for my own projects in the future, so likely I'll run *something* online if only test out some stuff. Aliens would be a superb choice. So I'll keep it in mind.
My games tend to have philosophical and moral dilemmas even in the most basic of times. It's fairly second nature for me to let my players get as nuanced as they want with their characters, but the moral and ethical dimensions of the setting are always things to contend with. Blade Runner conceptually has a lot of that waiting to be explored from the start. So yeah, definitely keeping my eyes on this one.
There was a interview with Tomas Haremstram on a podcast.
Some of the big things I took away:
Game is being desinged for smaller group.
"Case Files" are the term used for adventures. There was talk about handouts and clues that the players have to look at themselves. They acknowledge that this game will be require more prep work from the Gamemaster.
They haven't decided yet whether they will do a Kickstarter or not.
The next Alien book is "Building Better Worlds".
No transcript for the pod cast.
Here is the link, interview starts at 42:57.
https://www.effektpodcast.org/166
After hearing the interview, I am still very excited for this game. I been thinking of creating something similar to Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex where there are one-shots along Case Files that deal with an overarching story.
I haven't checked out the link yet...
But from what you're saying, and based on the words that seem to be leaking from my fingers which trickled down from the side of my neck...
My first thought is maybe they're focusing on their "cinematic mode" rules from Aliens? I could see that as a publishing angle (not my wheelhouse) but it could be very good for those that like episodic games?
I'm still interested.
Any news on this?
I was thinking about it...
There's a big change this game will follow on that "Android Boardgame" footsteps, that is, strong emphasis on two pillars, investigation (case files) and personal dilemmas/development. In "Android", there are different characters for players to pick, each with a "personal quest" of sorts, with preset branches that lead to different story outcomes (and rewards). It's the most Blade Runnerish game I've seen and I bet Free League has seen it too. If they couple this concept with a nice description of the film's setting, it could result in a great game IMO.