I'm looking forward to Blade Runner.

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
My group has first our first session, a one-shot, scheduled for 12/10. Can't wait. I'll return to give my impressions if nobody has done so by then. The books are absolutely gorgeous, as expected.
 
So people have this now. Excellent. Let me ask the only question that matters to me - what are the mystery mechanics? (If any). I was really hoping that FL did something super cool there, but I have my doubts.

Maybe if the mystery rules are good I could just buy the PDF and import them into Cyberpunk Red!

So, the answer to both your questions are that there aren't really any mystery mechanics. The case files have a set of clues that lead the players to the solutions, and they specifically call out in the GM section that the point of the game isn't to solve the cases, but is instead to roleplay the human/replicant condition in the setting.

Blade Runner pg 217 said:
Since the game places so much focus on the investigation itself - with clues, hand-outs and tracking of time - you might be led to believe that the point of the game is to solve cases. It is not. The core purpose of the game is to confront the player characters with challenging personal and moral dilemmas, letting them ask themselves what makes them who they are. For this to work, don't make the Clues of the Case File too hard to find - it's only after the truth has been revealed that you will reache the essence of playing the Blade Runner RPG.
 
So, the answer to both your questions are that there aren't really any mystery mechanics. The case files have a set of clues that lead the players to the solutions, and they specifically call out in the GM section that the point of the game isn't to solve the cases, but is instead to roleplay the human/replicant condition in the setting.
So… what makes this particular roleplaying game more suitable than others for exploring the human/robot condition? One could do that in any game. Why choose this over another? If there are no special mechanics, why would I spend money on this if I’ve already got Cyberpunk Red and access to plenty of speculative fiction media as inspiration about these themes?
 
So… what makes this particular roleplaying game more suitable than others for exploring the human/robot condition? One could do that in any game. Why choose this over another? If there are no special mechanics, why would I spend money on this if I’ve already got Cyberpunk Red and access to plenty of speculative fiction media as inspiration about these themes?
I guess one part of the system that can be seen as doing this, that's specific to Blade Runner as a game, is the promotion/humanity mechanic. Players can gain and lose both promotion points and humanity points based on what they do during an investigation, and use both for advancement, but for advancing in different ways. Use humanity points to improve skills, and promotion points to add specialties (kind of like feats, specialties are something you either have or don't that gives you a situational bonus, like Hip Flask lets you recover a point of stress once a shift) or access special gear.

Sometimes the same action might gain you a point in one but cost you a point in another. Uploading important evidence to the police system will get you a promotion point, for example, but refusing to upload evidence in order to protect someone will get you a humanity point. There not being any 'right' answer to the question of what to do is fairly noir-ish, and can mechanically make players think about what they are having their characters do and why if the players focus on mechanical rewards when choosing actions for their characters.

It's very linked to the setting (the characters must be all cops for promotion to matter as written), and may not make any difference if the players are already focusing on role-playing their characters without needing a mechanical stick and/or carrot. The game makes it easy to play Blade Runner, but I don't think the game as a game system likely would replace anyone's go-to system of choice for cyberpunk or mystery/investigation or anything except for playing Blade Runner right out of the box.
 
So… what makes this particular roleplaying game more suitable than others for exploring the human/robot condition? One could do that in any game. Why choose this over another? If there are no special mechanics, why would I spend money on this if I’ve already got Cyberpunk Red and access to plenty of speculative fiction media as inspiration about these themes?
I don't work for them, I'm not here to sell it. Personally, I don't regret having backed it, and I like the presentation of the book, the illustration, and the nice layout of the modern imagining of the Blade Runner setting (as extrapolated from the 2049 movie). That was enough for me, again, personally, but then I also bought the BR:2049 art book. If what you've seen of it doesn't do it for you, absolutely give it a pass. What you have works fine for simulating the experience, absolutely, and with the exception of having used CP2020 instead of Red except in a couple one-shots, I've done just that plenty of times. In fact, I really don't see myself using this game for its intended purpose at all. I MIGHT use it for a one-shot of something more generically cyberpunk, but the setting of Blade Runner doesn't lend itself to RPG gaming in a standard "party" setting. One on one might work.
 
I guess one part of the system that can be seen as doing this, that's specific to Blade Runner as a game, is the promotion/humanity mechanic. Players can gain and lose both promotion points and humanity points based on what they do during an investigation, and use both for advancement, but for advancing in different ways. Use humanity points to improve skills, and promotion points to add specialties (kind of like feats, specialties are something you either have or don't that gives you a situational bonus, like Hip Flask lets you recover a point of stress once a shift) or access special gear.

Sometimes the same action might gain you a point in one but cost you a point in another. Uploading important evidence to the police system will get you a promotion point, for example, but refusing to upload evidence in order to protect someone will get you a humanity point. There not being any 'right' answer to the question of what to do is fairly noir-ish, and can mechanically make players think about what they are having their characters do and why if the players focus on mechanical rewards when choosing actions for their characters.

It's very linked to the setting (the characters must be all cops for promotion to matter as written), and may not make any difference if the players are already focusing on role-playing their characters without needing a mechanical stick and/or carrot. The game makes it easy to play Blade Runner, but I don't think the game as a game system likely would replace anyone's go-to system of choice for cyberpunk or mystery/investigation or anything except for playing Blade Runner right out of the box.

On the one hand, seems they put a lot of thought into capturing the themes of the story in gameplay. OTH, it does seem like a system that's going to rely heavily on published adventures and will be difficult to run "off the cuff" and still maintain the themes.
 
Update: I had a busy weekend, so I never got around to filing a claim on the my missing delivery from Free League. You have sixty days to submit it, so was waiting until I had a free day to waste on it.

I got home today and a big box from Free League was waiting for me.
p6dO3ZkQeySYwPFO6IFUE-1bT82s3Zwbbfpi28Bw0e257p377JBa2mjzCqoyla0UviLV4HxBzRUUL5MAGp8OMdSUEgmQiqvhb7yXDPxMzRhh2nVqQUGYN7BqRg-nwH3LTSUHzZdO1k-jpxN8PblVLUu2Ci93w6OQ76MSfRuO6hvUBsNIrB-OChch3T-lC61XzgETcagcFQ8rOXjVgFn4mB7UKi-X9kR3JV8Z0rH8mTmBSXdHvJA0NHx-8rRrxkJJM5nSuAyNN3AT0__UFbwM0ZC76L11-_SoOb2wEGMwL7PblDdWNsz3UAtttH88gGYo1uS12FRzjKkdDSjt8KXjKNzvRasUcbpMrpJrwyaMxCZW63M7-Rfoj9rgNQgTm1Z5J2IBMZIxJMqPhN4zTU7bjjsNt_ed2EITii3H3N5Qr9C1VsILKFkU_tqrfvgoaX0f0b6--LdPJxQFsWqaJbv04ZX5iEwxAYzFPdptIp_YG5I993V9wzz5p1pyNYFARV1zrNbd0KhZ6v1cZWE-Hl6PavPn_SSut-yGkmGlMTekUMlUsdMSmFtPI68CY1RYbBsxRNMtBEX_WYoK3xCKKcceGceNsJlfDNyuBdzubP1AdLisO7XbJnbTlZfzh42KxMSI_O31qHFV2rJeOKK4uTnPt3rB77VCiTbD56FvmqfA_nwOZL6PG_-MkY_I95spyF-qDEVlCr0wWyqRXPxQ7fs4pT7pEH9pW29AV71-dWf2Hiyx74NNLDKtX-6Z9RBWnBxqVMh8sFVOMhsv1rl1Ln0CTeagxZKpbrOz1L2k1E-z0x2bc4AO8B6W-5LJqYw2GR42wqX0ixbdlNWVmiSTTDg8LqPCySUhJczUQKq-wo1v9RaGvMZyJQayHjMALLlY0iOzXKhJ3bYhUd2yrKdU-JQO6g5XI4o6VRKDLXUZh9BovxFZOIAZuqRujKOVzfC7M0mthK87LIF9kCpDBKUwpE9HzF33oYxuaiBMHMSdp_TU1xCIyS-Lj4RH0jE=w864-h1152-no


I'm glad to see it as it was my plan to let my relatives pick through it for anything they wanted to give me for Christmas rather than bothering with a list.
On the one hand, seems they put a lot of thought into capturing the themes of the story in gameplay. OTH, it does seem like a system that's going to rely heavily on published adventures and will be difficult to run "off the cuff" and still maintain the themes.
That's a valid point. It's similar to how Call of Cthulhu and other investigative games are known for published adventures. It's the reason I keep trying to bully Brendan into making a book of additional adventures for Strange Tales of Songling. Sadly, Brendan is not easily bullied. He just keeps giving me sensible, practical advice on how to make my own.
 
I think I’ll order the starter kit for this game as it’s an introduction to the rules + quite the starting scenario with nice handouts. A game in a box, ya know?
 
Played the first scenario a few months ago. It was very thematic and quite suited to the players themselves actually investigating.

The system is simple, most rolls are just rolling two dice and looking for a single success symbol. I'll definitely play the scenarios as they come out, but I'm still unsure if I'd run a campaign.
 
Played the first scenario a few months ago. It was very thematic and quite suited to the players themselves actually investigating.

The system is simple, most rolls are just rolling two dice and looking for a single success symbol. I'll definitely play the scenarios as they come out, but I'm still unsure if I'd run a campaign.
I'm set to play a City Speaker weekly in November. Looking forward to it.
 
Played the first scenario a few months ago. It was very thematic and quite suited to the players themselves actually investigating.

The system is simple, most rolls are just rolling two dice and looking for a single success symbol. I'll definitely play the scenarios as they come out, but I'm still unsure if I'd run a campaign.
It’s more or less the same system as Twilight 2000 4th Edition so a lot of the third party stuff works with it. From Zombies to Psychics, from aliens to Cthulhu, there’s also an interstellar marines supplement.

YZE Step Dice is my favourite iteration of the system.

I’ve not run the BR game. Being a slave hunter still rankles with me. But the book is very nice.
 
It’s more or less the same system as Twilight 2000 4th Edition so a lot of the third party stuff works with it. From Zombies to Psychics, from aliens to Cthulhu, there’s also an interstellar marines supplement.

YZE Step Dice is my favourite iteration of the system.

I’ve not run the BR game. Being a slave hunter still rankles with me. But the book is very nice.

Hopefully the upcoming Replicant supplement will help with that.
 
Hopefully it’s not just a “more things to hunt”.
It won't be. From the announcement:

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 are an independent cell loosely organized under Freysa Sadeghpour's leadership, and undertake a variety of operations – from helping fugitive Nexus-8 Replicants elude capture to sabotaging installations of the Replicant industry. This beautifully illustrated hardback sourcebook will include:
  • An overview of the history and organization of the Replicant underground, charting its presence throughout the Blade Runner timeline.
  • Detailed guidelines on how to play a Replicant underground campaign, including several new player character archetypes.
  • Half a dozen complete Operations (i.e., complete adventures) to play for a cell in the Replicant underground.
 
Finally played this for the first time last night in starter game, Electric Dreams. The other two players went with the premade replicants, Fenna and Percival, but I made a human City Speaker, McMurphy. We played online using Foundry. I had a blast.

The biggest take away from our first session was how much contrast there was between the skeezy, former vice cop, human veteran blade runner to the two clean, proper, dedicated replicants. Everything they found they uploaded dutifully into the LAPD database, while as the human, I hid and obfuscated almost everything I found.

I'm definitely looking forward to the next game.
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top