Dungeons and Dragons will always have a special place in my DnD heart. It was the first DnD experience that I had as a kid back in 1980, and it was something I felt compelled to revisit in the 90s, and most recently in the last five years. I have read the novels associated with that world, swore by R.A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf Trilogy, and have been fascinated for over 40+ years with jumping into a mystical world and becoming someone else with a team of players. There’s so much to love about the DnD experience just beyond the tabletop fun, but the obsession started with the tabletop game.
And therein lies the issue with DnD for me. It’s big. Why that is relevant here and now is because creating a story for a DnD world can be overwhelming at times because of the amount of material available to the gamer. Putting together what players are going to face, and balancing out battles and rewards, can all be a bit much and enormously time-consuming. Don’t get me wrong, I love the creativity behind it, but making time for it is sometimes cumbersome and overstimulating when trying to figure out the right path for the players to go on. Any DM out there will back me up on this.
Having wasted two paragraphs to put together a simple introduction, let me get you to the point of all this drivel. We were recently sent Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game to test out. The experience brought back the simplicity of early DnD gaming sessions from the 80s, where the world hadn’t been fully flushed out and a bajillion options had not yet crowded into one room. That isn’t a knock against Blade Runner, rather it’s a comparison of pure joy for tabletop gaming rather than overwhelming stress with decision-making. Anyway, if you’re at all familiar with the Blade Runner universe, it is summed up through several entertainment avenues. It first started as a short story from Philip K. Dick called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? a cautionary tale of sorts about humanity. From that story, the film noir Blade Runner was born from the creative mind of Ridley Scott, who had a helluva time getting it made but ended up creating a cult classic that resonated through generations. It also brought about the question of whether the main character, Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, was human or an android. An Alan Turing-Esque ponder that was argued up until the sequel appeared called Blade Runner 2049, which answered some items from the first, but never put to bed the ongoing Deckard debate. Regardless, the story continued with an animated cartoon called Blade Runner: Black Lotus, and more than enough secondary material to keep the overall Blade Runner world design expanding.
Throughout this journey, there were still some gaps left to the imagination, as well as a world to explore that, had been so tightly knit that the audience of the above might have felt just as constrained and alone as the characters in the films, cartoons, and books. Transmedia journeys can be one helluva way to go some days.
That history behind us, here we are now finally starting this review for Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game. And all the above is so relevant to all the below.
Let’s get it going.
Story is everything
As previously mentioned above, DnD sometimes can be unfocused because of its girth. Trying to figure out where to start, what to include, and flowcharting the journey of the players can be cumbersome. You can make the adventure one-shot or you can make it multiple weeks. There’s a lot to choose from and a multi-tiered world to choose from to create that experience. With Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game that isn’t an issue.
The world of Blade Runner is restrictive, though expansion has always been hinted at throughout the movies. The original film mentioned off-world colonies and going out into space. We saw none of that in either film and the stories never really explained why the earth had turned into a polluted mess where humanity’s foundation was crumbling away. I’m sure budget constraints and attention spans, plus profit margins, prevented further explanation of any of this. Well, Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game actually takes time to give you a full backstory of what this world is like. You get a dose of history with wars, how and why the Nexus replicants were born, why everything looks like slums on earth in some neon dream, and how Blade Runners ended up on the field of play. It also fills in gaps about the discrimination and resentment of Blade Runners and replicants and where exactly that came from in the world. What this game does right from the gates is expand the very restrictive world of Blade Runner without breaking down its gates. It gives you context, and sets you up with potential stories and destinations, while also reminding you that the action still resides on earth and deals with humanity’s need to survive. I found everything that Free League did to set up the Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game world to be refreshing, captivating, and, more importantly, responsible to keep true to the universe that had been established. The story fillers help to give more context to the who’s and why’s of the experience. It gives more background for the Game Runner (DM) to play with and to answer questions about when they are raised. It’s one great way to start the experience with the game and gives so many smaller details to future stories that it is easy to create a journey for players but also feel responsibly confined to boundaries previously established. In short, I loved what they did by creating more depth to an already ambitious and ambiguous world. They nailed this part of the experience, and I was hooked because of these efforts.
If you’re looking to dig into something that compliments the Blade Runner worlds of Ridley Scott, Philip K. Dick, and the super-talented Denis Villeneuve, then this fits the bill perfectly. And, trust me, I don’t say that lightly, as I covet these films and stories as if they were religious documents. Both films are #1 and #2 in my all-time favorites. I’m particular about how people treat them.
The nitty-gritty
As soon as you get beyond the backstory and potential future of the world in Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game, the next step is trying to figure out characters, locations, and how each affects the other. The core rules book for this game is an organized gold mine that is incredibly easy to understand as it is to put in play. The character types are broken down as such:
- Analyst – A forensic specialist and someone who lives and breathes within a crime lab.
- Cityspeaker – An undercover cop that knows everyone on the street.
- Doxie – A mercenary of sorts that is clever as they are dangerous.
- Enforcer – A perfected Blade Runner packing a weapon and who completes tasks assigned.
- Fixer – A cleaner of sorts that takes care of problems quickly and quietly.
- Inspector – A true Blade Runner by nature. Wears a trench coat, drinks to forget, and hunts down their missions.
- Skimmer – True by name, the skimmer knows everyone and takes accordingly.
These are the player types in the game and there is enough to go around to meet any player’s needs, but not too much to overwhelm. As mentioned previously, the game doesn’t press too far out of its established boundaries. These characters would and have existed within the stories told in the Blade Runner world. Some of them are literal, while others are believable within the narrative design. The game keeps to the theme of the world through these character breakdowns, and it matches a noir experience quite beautifully.
As for the finer details of the game, each character starts with choosing a side – human or replicant. Both sides have their own positives and negatives, with replicants being incredibly mobile, powerful, and precise, while also being hated. Humans aren’t hated as much as replicants but aren’t as laser-focused in their abilities. It’s a balance and no way are respectively wrong.
Once you choose your path, the game then wants to know one of the more important details of your survival, which is “Years on the Force”. While all replicants are rookies starting out, any human can roll the D12 to determine how many years they’ve been working their beat. The more years, the more specialties and skills, as well as more promotion points (how you grow in the game).
The game also features and encourages downtime, where you can rest your characters, a pushed important point in the core rules. After three shifts in the game, you have to take some downtime to heal up, which helps to extend the journey. What I like about this part of the game is that as the Game Runner you can set this point on their narrative flowchart so that you know when there is a good stopping point. It makes sense within the context of the game’s world and it works when the game is a long journey.
One of the cooler parts of the game, and something that makes your character complete, with the assistance of the D12, is key memories. Key Memories are rolled and come in the following categories:
- Memory Table #1 – When Did It Happen?
- Memory Table #2 – Where Did It Happen?
- Memory Table #3 – Who Was There?
- Memory Table #4 – What Happened?
- Memory Table #5 – How Did It Make You Feel?
These memories can be adjusted during gameplay, added, or subtracted, and are paired with a category called Key Relationships, which you can probably guess without a breakdown needed. All of this combined help to form the character the way you think it should be. It’s yet another added element to the experience that lets you customize, engage with, and keep your character within the confines of the world they live and breathe.
Beyond just character creation, which has a nice hefty number of attributes and skills to go with the journey, the game breaks down other elements of interest to shape or form a character’s journey. This may include understanding the haves and the have-nots in the city, religions, propaganda perpetuated by the media, or corporate interference in everyday life. The game lays out some fascinating details that normally DnD experiences don’t get too nitty-gritty about. It’s an entirely detailed world within Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game, which makes it all the more impressive. The Game Runner has a regular cornucopia of choices to make their story as detailed as they want and still residing seamlessly within the Blade Runner world boundaries (I know, it’s an annoying term, but it’s impressive that Free League kept all of these within the boundaries established).
Another neat part of this experience is vehicle battles. While I never thought that was a ‘thing’ within the BR universe, it exists within this RPG. It’s yet another cog in the game’s machine that can be used by a Game Runner to make the journey extensive, and interesting, and stay within its boundaries. Again, and I know this is repeating myself, I’m thoroughly impressed with the amount of thought and setup that went into this gaming experience. It’s tough to keep everything within the narrative boundaries of the Blade Runner universe while offering up every possible detail that you would ever want to know about Blade Runner, but somehow Free League did it with ease and meticulousness.
All of this said, there are a lot of little details that go into the Game Runner’s setup and player setup as well. I could recite them, but I won’t as you probably don’t want an additional 1000 words on this review. Just note that you have more tools to play with in this single adventure than DnD had at its disposal when it was first released. The tools are not overwhelming to understand, and they’re easily applied here and there because the world design is so meticulously crafted. You will find as much complication and simplicity as you can stand. Having a balance between them means you can easily jump in and get right to the gaming part.
Speaking of jumping in…
How should you start this?
My advice, and no I didn’t get a cut in the profits for this game, is to drop some dough for the starter kit. It contains an abbreviated version of the hardback core rules book, while also providing dice, case files (actual files that you can use during your session – pictures and all), and a starter case file called Electric Dreams, which is suited for newbies and veterans.
The included case file sets a structured standard on what you should be shooting for (no pun intended) when you develop a scenario as a Game Runner. It keeps the first experience focused and far from overwhelming. At the very least, it gives all parties involved with this tabletop journey something to see organized and executed properly for the first time through. It’s a great way to start expanding the Blade Runner universe. It is so well done that you get truly get a film noir experience crossed with playing the game CLUE. Anytime you can dive straight into a mystery, learn how the tools work, and come out the other end satisfied is a good time indeed. Anyway, if you’re hellbent on getting this, then start with the starter. It’s worth the money.
On that note, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game is a refreshing experience compared to a typical DnD journey. It is focused and detailed in its intentions, breaks down everything that you would expect to exist within this neon-drowned world, and expands upon the Blade Runner narrative design like no movie has to this point. I highly recommend this set, as it is one of the better tabletop experiences that I have had in the last two decades.
