Blade Runner tabletop RPG expansion lets you play a rogue Replicant
Free League Publishing’s Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game, which launched in December,provides players with an immersive experience through a starter set packed with mugshots, newspaper clippings, crime scene photos and other handouts that make you feel like you’re really cracking a case as a member of the futuristic LAPD. For its first two expansions, the publisher is taking the game down very different tracks, providing a new case file for investigators to dive into while also releasing a book that lets you switch sides and play as a member of the Replicant underground hiding from authorities while trying to pursue their own agenda.
“Replicant Rebellion will feel more like cyberpunk where you’re attacking or infiltrating some corporation,” lead game designer Tomas Härenstam told Polygon. “We wanted to give the opportunity for more improvised gameplay that requires less preparation because the case file format kind of requires a lot of work ahead of time and that can be a hurdle for preparing your own game session.”
Given that all the character archetypes in the Blade Runner core rulebook are types of cops, Replicant Rebellion required crafting all new roles. The replicant underground is less hierarchical than the LAPD, so players won’t be tracking promotion points. Rather than being tortured tech-noir protagonists, characters will feel a bit more like traditional good guys. But the game will still keep some core mechanics like combat, chase scenes and downtime.
“I think downtime is a really cool way to give individual characters the spotlight and not just focus on the group doing their thing, so that’s something we want to expand upon in Replicant Rebellion,” Härenstam said.“You have to do these undercover missions
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