Sometime next year, Blade Runner is going to be made into a tabletop RPG game. The game is in development now and is going to be published by Free League Publishing, the same publisher that brought us the excellent Alien tabletop RPG back in 2019.
In Blade Runner The Roleplaying Game will give players a choice between playing as a human or a replicant blade runner. You are tasked with hunting down replicants in the degraded, neon-soaked streets of Los Angeles in the year 2037. This places the plot somewhere between the original Blade Runner film and Blade Runner 2049.
Set in the year 2037, the Core Rulebook 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.
As a member of the LAPD’s Rep-Detect Unit, you’ll face impossible choices and find beauty and humanity in the stubborn resilience to keep fighting. To persevere through pain. To agonize over itches you can’t scratch. To do questionable and extraordinary things, chasing after fleeting moments of love, hope, and redemption to be lost in time like tears in rain.
Other than that, it’s just a normal day on the force, so get to work and grab some noodles on the way. That stack of cases won’t crack itself. It’s a shame you won’t live long enough to solve them all.
But then again, who does?
-Press Release
They seem to have really nailed the aesthetic of the Blade Runner universe here, not only in the proposed narrative of this game, but also in its gorgeous artwork. It’s absolutely stunning and perfectly represents the environment and mood of the world.
I will admit that I am not the biggest TTRPG player. In fact I really don’t play them at all. But I can definitely appreciate well made adaptations of some of my favorite franchises (and in this instance, my favorite one). This one might actually get me to dive in and give it a go.
Whether you’re into table top games or not, it’s great to see all the attention Blade Runner seems to be getting of late. The 2017 sequel film, the upcoming anime, the long lost 90’s PC point and click adventure game getting re-released, and now a beautifully crafted TTRPG, have all contributed to a welcome resurgence of interest in the series.
