Slowly but surely, the world of Ridley Scott’s visionary 1982 film Blade Runner is being expanded. Blade Runner 2049 allowed Denis Villeneuve to carry the story forward and show why he was the perfect choice to adapt Dune. The dark world has also beome the subject of media tie-in products like video games, comic books and an upcoming streaming series starring Michelle Yeoh.
One of the standout expansions to the film has been Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game from Free League Publishing. The game drops players into the roles of blade runners in the time between the first and second films. It focuses on investigation, the moral quandaries of police work and where the line between humans and replicants should be drawn or if one should even exist.
The first big expansion for the game is now on Kickstarter. Replicant Rebellion flips the script on the typical Blade Runner story by casting players as people sympathetic to the plight of the new generation of replicants. Will they try to change the system from within or throw boms to take everything down?
I Want More Life
The world of Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game is packed with tension. Wallace Corp has recently reintroduced replicants to society and the world is still adjusting to the idea. The company gurantees these robots won’t go rogue, but just in case there’s the Rep Detect unit to keep an eye on everyone.
The players in this campaign are those who aren;t happy with this new status quo. They might be older models tired of running trying to make sure the new replicants don’t have to deal with the same issues they did. They might be humans who see the exploitation and abuse replicants suffer and are doing what they can to ease the pain.
Let Me Tell You About My Mother
Rather than cases, this campaign focuses on operations to push back against the replicant’s role in society. These missions generate heat which gives the Game Master the opportunity to send in Blade Runners, turn allies into turncoats and more. The game includes new roles, rules and gear
The book contains three ready made Operations Players must balance being slow and subtle or fast and loud in the fight.
Wake Up. Time To Die.
Fans who want to jump into Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game can do so with the Starter Set. It contains everything players need to tell a story: characters, dice and the basic rules of the game.It also features a case about a rogue replicant Blade Runner that asks players to choose between doing their jobs and being human.
The investigation continues in Fiery Angels. The blade runners find themselves at the center of Wallace Corporation’s Memory Vaults. This case file continues the tradition started with the starter set featuring a box jam packed with real props for the players to examine and read.
The core rulebook provides opportunities for players and game masters to write their own stories in the Blade Runner universe. Players can choose between human and replicant characters, each of which has their own challenges in the setting. Replicant Rebellion requires either the Starter Set or the corebook to play.
The Kickstarter is creating an asset pack which contains even more props to use in original stories. There’s also guidance on how to make new props and digital files to help. Plus even more charts and inspiration to get the Game Master’s mind thinking about mystery.
Blade Runner: Replicant Rebellion is on Kickstarter until Thursday, June 13, 2024. The product is currently slated for a February 2025 release.
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