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Neon noir RPG ignites on Kickstarter as Free League's fastest funded campaigns in its history

May 3, 2022

8 Min Read

[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Game Developer and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press]

Author: Free League Publishing

Los Angeles, CA (May 3, 2022) – Get your badges and blasters ready, because the Kickstarter campaign for BLADE RUNNER: THE ROLEPLAYING GAME by Free League Publishing has been fully funded. 

Voted the #1 Most Anticipated RPG of 2022 at EN World, the BLADE RUNNER RPG campaign debuted today and blew through its initial funding goal within minutes after going live today. The highly anticipated RPG is now running through a long list of stretch goals, such as providing additional content to the Core Rulebook and gaming accessories such as custom dice, cards, and handouts to the Starter Set, with much more on the way.
  Find out more at the BLADE RUNNER RPG Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1192053011/blade-runner-the-roleplaying-game
 
BLADE RUNNER RPG KICKSTARTER TRAILER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdqaV5ue2Q8

  Contents of the BLADE RUNNER RPG Starter Set. Please note that the image above includes stretch goals. The components shown are not final.

Alongside a bevy of beautiful previews and a new trailer of the neon neverland soon to come, Free League has revealed their initial line-up of BLADE RUNNER gear available to backers now:

The BLADE RUNNER hardcover Core Rulebook ($55) features 200+ pages of official Blade Runner lore and an original investigative RPG ruleset that takes Free League’s award-winning Year Zero engine to a new level.


All backers also receive a PDF version of CASE FILE 01: Electric Dreams – the first official Cinematic module for the BLADE RUNNER RPG. An original, investigative twist on Free League's award-winning Cinematic mode and a love letter to classic mystery games like Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Blade Runner Case Files will deliver full-length scenarios with pre-generated characters and events, a shared pool of assets and informants throughout the city, and a variety of physical handouts representing in-world artifacts (data files, Esper photos, evidence, and more) to be used during the investigation.


In the Rep-Detect Bundle ($95), backers can receive the Standard edition of the Core Rulebook as as well as the Blade Runner RPG Starter Set, a boxed collection that includes a condensed rulebook, the print edition of the Case File 01: Electric Dreams, pre-generated characters, and various physical handouts that bring the fully-immersive investigation to life. If unlocked as stretch goals, custom dice, an initiative card deck, a map of the 2037 Los Angeles, and more will added to the Starter Set.

  For the elites, the Off-World Bundle ($140) delivers the print and digital edition of the Starter Set alongside the limited run Collector Edition of the Core Rulebook, boasting a deluxe black faux leather cover with an embossed holographic foil stamp of the iconic neon Origin kanji character. The Collector Edition is exclusively made for Kickstarter and will never be printed again.


For retailers, the Megacorp Bundle welcomes FLGS buyers to purchase five physical copies of the standard edition Core Rulebook and Starter Set at a discount.


And if cash or chinyen are short, the Diji Bundle ($35) offers PDF editions of the Core Rulebook and Case File 01: Electric Dreams for all players to enjoy.

The Kickstarter campaign will wrap up on May 26, 2022. Shortly after the Kickstarter ends, all backers will get early access to PDF versions of the complete Core Rulebook and Case File 01 – months ahead of the official retail release expected to hit shelves in Q4 2022.


As an added incentive, all backers of physical items who back the pledge their support within the first 24 hours will also receive an exclusive art print by BLADE RUNNER RPG lead artist Martin Grip at no extra cost.


Designed by Free League – the publishers of award-winning RPGs such as the ALIEN RPG, The One Ring™, MÖRK BORG, Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, and Tales From the Loop – the BLADE RUNNER RPG propels players into the neon noir streets of Los Angeles as Blade Runners. Set in the year 2037, the adventures begin 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 with different specialties, personalities, and memories.


Apart from the core casework, the RPG will both in setting and mechanics also showcase key themes of Blade Runner – action, corporate intrigue, existential character drama, and moral conflict – that encourage roleplaying and challenge player characters to question their orders, empathize with their enemies, and make hard calls with high stakes and long-lasting implications.


Tomas Härenstam, Free League co-founder and lead game designer of the ALIEN RPG, fills the same role for the BLADE RUNNER RPG. Original artwork comes from lead ALIEN RPG artist Martin Grip, with Joe LeFavi of Genuine Entertainment, who also brokered the deal with Alcon for Free League, serving as the lead setting writer, brand manager, and producer on the game series.


Visit the BLADE RUNNER RPG Kickstarter today:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1192053011/blade-runner-the-roleplaying-game

  ©2022 Alcon Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved.


ABOUT ALCON ENTERTAINMENT
Co-founders and co-CEO’s Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson founded Alcon Entertainment in 1997 with partner Frederick W. Smith, the Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of FedEx. Alcon has financed and produced or co-financed and co-produced 35 films to date including the Academy Award Best Picture nominee The Blind Side; the critically acclaimed Blade Runner 2049 starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford which won 2 Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects and received an additional 3 nominations; The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman; and many others. Alcon is currently in post-production on Lullaby, the horror feature from director John R. Leonetti (Annabelle).


Alcon Television Group’s latest projects include season six of the critically acclaimed epic space series The Expanse which airs on Amazon Prime Video and boasts a 100% Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes; the animated children’s series Pete the Cat, a co-production with Amazon Studios based on the best-selling children’s book series currently available on the streaming service; and Blade Runner – Black Lotus, an anime series developed in partnership with Adult Swim and Crunchyroll inspired by Alcon’s Oscar-winning feature Blade Runner 2049.


Past projects for Alcon Television Group include the Grammy award-winning and 5-time Emmy-nominated HBO documentary series The Defiant Ones which chronicled the divergent roots and unlikely partnership of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. The Company’s first co-production was the Emmy-nominated documentary Sinatra: All or Nothing at All for HBO from Oscar winning director Alex Gibney. The intimate portrait of Sinatra as a singer, actor, father, husband, and philanthropist remains one of HBO’s most successful shows in the 50+ demographic.


ABOUT GENUINE ENTERTAINMENT
Genuine is a leading producer and brand manager of best-selling, award-winning stories, games, and geekery for beloved genre entertainment brands. An expert in authentic adaptations and premium licensing programs across all corners of pop culture, we specialize in growing franchises and fandoms in strategic markets and media alongside best-in-class partners.


Cultivating a dream portfolio of top media companies and intellectual properties, our credits and collabs include the ALIEN RPG with Free League; the Altered Carbon RPG with Hunters; The Art and Soul of Blade Runner 2049 art book with Alcon; the Batman game series with Portal Games; the Blade Runner RPG with Free League; the Blade Runner video game with Nightdive Studios; The Dragon Prince master tabletop gaming program, including Battlecharged from Brotherwise Games and Fandom’s Tales of Xadia RPG; the Dune master tabletop gaming program, including GF9’s Dune, Dire Wolf’s Dune: Imperium, and the Dune RPG from Modiphius; the Hello Neighbor party game from Arcane Wonders; the Vampire: The Masquerade - Rivals card game from Renegade Game Studios; and the World of Darkness comic book program from Vault. Come play at genuineent.com
 

Free League Publishing is an award-winning game studio and publisher dedicated to speculative fiction, based in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded in 2011, the studio has published a wide range of tabletop games and acclaimed art books set in strange and wondrous worlds. Free League was voted Fan Favorite Publisher at the annual ENNIE Awards in both 2020 and 2021.


Free League’s game portfolio includes the just released new edition of The One Ring™ RPG, the official ALIEN RPG (Gold ENNIE for Best Game 2020), the Gothic horror game Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying (winner of three ENNIE Awards 2021), the pitch-black fantasy RPG MÖRK BORG (winner of four ENNIE Awards 2020), the alternate ‘80s Tales From the Loop RPG (winner of five ENNIE Awards 2017, including Best Game), the retro-fantasy game Forbidden Lands (winner of four ENNIE Awards 2019), the postapocalyptic Mutant: Year Zero (Silver ENNIE for Best Rules 2015), the science fiction game Coriolis – The Third Horizon (Judge's Spotlight Award 2017), the recently released new edition of RPG classic Twilight: 2000, and the dark fantasy game Symbaroum.


Free League has also published the art books Tales From the Loop, Things From the Flood, The Electric State and The Labyrinth by internationally acclaimed visual artist Simon Stålenhag, as well as the illustrated edition of the Lovecraft classics At the Mountains of Madness and The Call of Cthulhu by the praised artist François Baranger.

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