Back in September, Free League Publishing announced that they would be working on a Blade Runner RPG. This lead to a lot of vested interest in the studio behind The One Ring, Tales From The Loop, and Alien: The RPG working on a project based on the most influential sci-fi film ever by Ridley Scott. Now, Free League Publishing have officially announced new details on the projects, including when it will go live on the crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter.
According to an official press release, Free League's Blade Runner RPG will contain the following. As the title implies, your players take on the roles of Blade Runners, special agents hired by the monolithic megacorporations to "retire" rampant synthetic humans called Replicants. The RPG is set in the year 2037 after the reveal of the Wallace Corporation's new Nexus-9 Replicants, the same kind of Replicant that was the lead character in Denis Villeneuve's sequel, Blade Runner 2049. Not only does this allow players to be both Human and Replicant Blade Runners, it also adds some shaky moral grays to the already dubious role these android hitmen occupy. This coincides with the ongoing themes of the RPG: sci-fi action, corporate intrigue, existential character drama, and moral conflict.
As for the creative team behind the Blade Runner RPG, there are few notable names. First is Tomas Härenstam, Free League's Co-Founder and lead designer on Alien: The RPG taking up the same role for this project.Joe LeFavi, the General Manager of Genuine Entertainment, is serving as the lead setting writer, brand manager, and producer. Lastly, Martin Grip, the same artist behind Alien: The RPG will reprising his role for artwork in the core rulebook.
Finally, there is the matter of when the Blade Runner RPG's crowdfunding campaign will go live. The campaign will go live on Kickstarter on May 3 at 6:00 AM PST. If you back the project within the first 24 hours, a bonus item will be added to your pledge that is yet to be revealed. In keeping with other Kickstarter campaigns, there is a pre-launch page where you can sign up and be officially notified once the campaign has gone live. The game is also slated to release in retail stores later this Fall.
