We Chat With Free League About ‘Blade Runner’ the RPG
We had a chance to chat with Free League CEO Tomas Härenstam about the upcoming Blade Runner RPG and all its mystery.
With Blade Runner the Roleplaying Game looming on the horizon, the neon-drenched streets of 2037’s Los Angeles are waiting to be explored. We had a chance to chat with Free League’s CEO Tomas Härenstam about the game and what makes Blade Runner different. And what you can hope for in the future.
So grab your Voight-Kampf tests, and let’s sit down for a chat.
Interview With Free League’s Tomas Härenstam – Blade Runner RPG
The challenge of tackling a Blade Runner RPG seems daunting. After all, the movie has such a specific identity. With flying cars, floating advertisements, rainy streets, the 1982 movie carved out a niche for itself. But it also defined a whole visual aesthetic. Blade Runner’s influence on genres like Cyberpunk is as undeniable as an origami unicorn and unanswered questions.
But for Free League CEO Härenstam, at its core, Blade Runner is “neon noir.”
“Contrary to what most people think, Blade Runner is not cyberpunk – it’s neon noir, it’s really its own genre. The moody, futuristic cityscapes combined with the drama, character introspection and moral dilemmas – this is something we really want to capture in the roleplaying game.”
In other words, they want to give you a Blade Runner that leaves you with your own internal monologue narrating you through a city. Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 both asked a lot of questions, and those questions, and the dilemmas they bring, are at the heart of the RPG:
“In the core game, all player characters are Blade Runners – human or Replicant – solving cases involving Replicants or Replicant technology in one way or another. The core gameplay is focused on investigations. But that’s just the basic structure. The game is never just about solving the case. Instead, the case will lead the player characters into situations that challenge
their own personal morals and even their own identities.”
In the case of Blade Runner, that means figuring out a ruleset that captures both the feeling of solving a case and questioning one’s identity. Which was one of the biggest challenges Härenstam and his team faced.
“We wanted a ruleset that supports case file investigations and action, but at the same time enhances the core themes of the franchise”
Härenstam is no strager to RPGs. He got his start back in the ’80s, when RPGs were exploding across the world.
And this love of RPGs has been translated into Free League’s catalogue of amazing games. They work on what they find exciting. As Härenstam puts it, there’s one absolutely overriding factor in deciding what games to tackle:
We must have a true passion for the franchise in the team. ALIEN, Blade Runner and The Lord of the Rings are all amazing worlds that we love and are honored to work with. As long as we have the passion, I think we can turn almost any franchise into an RPG.
And while Härenstam couldn’t give any specifics as to upcoming projects that Free League is “passionate” about, he did say there are some exciting things in the works.
Especially as the RPG industry moves full on into the 2020s. So much has changed, from the way we play together, to what kind of RPGs we play:
RPGs have exploded in recent years and found new platforms such as virtual tabletops and solo play. We expect this to continue and want to be where our players are. That’s why we are developing virtual tabletop modules of many games on multiple platforms right now.
And Härenstam hopes Blade Runner will lead the way:
I think the Blade Runner RPG does some things in investigation-style roleplaying that I haven’t seen in other games, using lots high-quality handouts and a tight pacing of the game to push the story along. I have some ideas for secret agent-style games that I’d like to explore at some point. We’ll see…
Blade Runner the RPG releases soon. Learn more, and get notified here.
