BLADE RUNNER: THE ROLEPLAYING GAME
Free League is renowned for its range of best-selling, multiple award-winning RPGs such as ALIEN, Tales From the Loop, and Forbidden Lands. Tomas Härenstam, Free League co-founder and game director of the ALIEN RPG, will oversee game design, with original artwork by the lead ALIEN RPG artist Martin Grip. Joe LeFavi of Genuine Entertainment, who brokered the deal on behalf of Free League, will serve as the lead setting writer, brand manager, and a producer on the game series.
Voted the #1 most anticipated RPG of 2022, the Blade Runner RPG debuted on Kickstarter in May 2022 with colossal success, reaching its funding goal in 3 minutes and earning over $1M in its first 24 hours. Generating $1.7M by the end of its campaign, Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game now stands as the 3rd highest-grossing RPG campaign in Kickstarter history.
The Core Rulebook and Case File 01 "Electric Dreams" debuted at retail on December 13, 2022, since becoming a commercial and critical success with numerous top industry awards including the 2023 UK Games Expo Award for Best RPG Adventure and two 2023 ENNIE Gold Awards for Best Layout & Design and Best Cartography.
CLIENT:
Alcon Entertainment
PARTNERS:
Free League Publishing
Set in the year 2037, The Blade Runner RPG will propel players into the neon noir streets of Los Angeles begins the adventure shortly after the Wallace Corporation debuts the new Nexus-9 Replicants on Earth, giving players the choice to play as either human or Replicant Blade Runners.
The Blade Runner RPG and its line of future 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. Apart from the core casework, the RPG will both in setting and mechanics also showcase key themes of Blade Runner – sci-fi action, corporate intrigue, existential character drama, and moral conflict – that encourage roleplay and challenge players to question your orders, empathize with your enemies, and make hard calls with high stakes and long-lasting implications.
Next in the product lineup are two new expansions:
REPLICANT REBELLION expands the scope of the core game, allowing players to join the ranks of the Replicant underground in the Los Angeles of 2037. The characters must run an independent cell of the rebellion, challenged to now elude Blade Runners as they undertake a variety of operations for the cause.
CASE FILE #02: FIERY ANGELS is a boxed set featuring a new thrilling investigative scenario that delves deeper the Wallace Corporation and the blurred boundaries of Replicant technology. Following the same deluxe format and packaging as the award-winning Case File #01: Electric Dreams included in the Starter Set, the scenario will include a host of in-world handouts, photos, maps, and more.
A life-long fan that’s no stranger to Blade Runner, LeFavi is also a producer on the Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition video game with Nightdive Studios, as well as the producer behind Alcon’s art book The Art and Soul of Blade Runner 2049. “It’s easy to get mesmerized by the noodle-slurping, blaster-shooting neon spectacle of it all, but Blade Runner is a retrofitted world with many layers, and at its core, it’s always been such an evocative yet relatable human drama to me,” says writer LeFavi. ”In classic noir fashion, it’s never afraid to challenge everyday people to make extraordinary choices and sacrifices, and really delve into that dark and delicious moral gray. That’s why Blade Runner continues to make such a distinct impact on pop culture – not just for its iconic vision of the future, but for its themes and the pursuit and perseverance of humanity at the heart of science fiction at its best.”
The Blade Runner RPG is the latest collaboration between Free League and Genuine, as they’re also partners on the tabletop RPGs for Alien and The Walking Dead. For more news and previews, visit bladerunner-rpg.com. Then follow Free League Publishing on Twitter and Facebook, where fans can discover art and gameplay development as the RPG series grows over time.