See The First-Look For The New Blade Runner Game
Will you be the hunter or the hunted?
This article is more than 2 years old
Fans of 1982’s Blade Runner and subsequent works won’t have to wait forever to return to the neon-lit streets of future Los Angeles once again. The new Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game is set to release this fall, and it already boasts some incredible-looking art to tease the media franchise’s fandom.
According to Polygon, Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game, supported by a crowdfunding campaign starting May 3 on Kickstarter, will be released at retail this fall. The announcement of the roleplaying sci-fi game set in the dystopian future was followed by some of the game’s fantastic-looking art and a set of three full-page spreads from the core rulebook. The newly announced game is being developed by Free League, the publisher of popular tabletops gaming titles, such as The One Ring, Tales from the Loop, and Alien. You can see the preview images from the RPG below.
The officially licensed game narrative is set in the year 2037, placing it between the events that took place in the original film from 1982 and the 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049. The narrative starts shortly after the newly developed Nexus-9 Replicants were introduced to Earth by the Wallace Corporation, which allows players to play as either an unaltered human or a Replicant Blade runner, all with their respective specialties, personalities, and memories.
Artwork for the upcoming Blade Runner tabletop is the work of Martin Grip, an artist of distinctive style whose works are included in other hits from Free League’s gaming workshops, including the critically-acclaimed Symbaroum fantasy game. Gamers can expect the campaign to include a deluxe starter kit, following a similar release pattern to the developer’s highly successful The One Ring game, whose Kickstarter campaign gathered nearly $2 million in 2021.
It’s worth noting that the announced tabletop was first mentioned last year as part of the original film’s 40th anniversary. The game’s creators approached the project with a great deal of passion for the entire setting of the game, making it their priority to fully capture the Blade Runner experience and various themes from all perspectives. This also includes the dystopian Los Angeles, which is one of the fascinating characterizations of Blade Runner — as per the developers’ statement, even the city will act and react differently to the player’s character, specialties, and goals.
Besides the announced tabletop game, the franchise’s universe is being extended even further. As per our previous report, there are talks about the third film. But that’s not all. Actor Harrison Ford, the star of the original 1982 film, is reportedly in talks to join the Blade Runner 2099 series that’s currently in development, with director Ridley Scott writing the pilot episode. Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game‘s Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign is set to launch on May 3, but the game’s exact release date is yet to be announced by Free League.
Those who can hardly wait for the game to release might enjoy watching or rewatching Blade Runner 2049, or even read the original work, Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? upon which the Blade Runner was based.
