Blade Runner the RPG: Prep, Play, and Sorta Review

24 Aug, 2025

Recently I ran my first game of Blade Runner, and y’all, I couldn’t have been more pleased with how it went. While I did pick up the starter set and its apparently excellent module Electric Dreams I opted instead to create my own case file (adventure) instead. Everywhere I look I see praise for the two Blade Runner modules as great investigative adventures, but I was also wary of the high expectations that level of polish might create. They are cool guys. Sweet handouts, vibrant NPCs, nailing the Blade Runner aesthetic. They look great, they probably won’t let you down. However, if you know me, you know I’m just a dude. I’m trying to get a “good” game to the table every fortnight for my buddies, not blow their socks off with amazingness. Life is full. Find the game you can pull off week after week. That’s me. Also, who has time to read complicated mystery modules… Let’s freestyle this shit…

Prep

Ok. To be fair writing your own investigative scenario does take some work. This is my first attempt at it so I’m not an expert by any means, but I found it easier and more enjoyable than I expected. I started with the case file generation tables in the back of the Blade Runner Core Rules, which give you some good on theme ideas. However, the structuring part didn’t quite hit for me, so I turned to some other resources to help me build it out. Most useful by far was Justin Alexander’s “three clue rule” and “node-based scenario design.” I referenced them from his book So You Want to be a Gamemaster, which is a great resource, but you can read his blog posts on the topics for free (links below). I also read through the Mysteries sourcebook for GURPS 4e by Lisa Steele, which was great for a general overview of different styles and genres of mysteries and investigations. I highly recommend it as a quite system neutral resource for thinking about crimes and detective stuff.

Alexander’s advice to start with five nodes for an initial investigation is easy to implement. First you start with the “hook” scene which for Blade Runner was easy. The PCs will simply be in Deputy Chief Holden’s office for their case briefing. Simple. Then you set an idea for scene 5 as the final confrontation where they run down the suspects, villains or whatever. Also easy, though I don’t want to spoil this for my players yet as they’ve only played through the first two scenes. All that’s left is to come up with a handful of connecting scenes that the investigation will bring the characters to. At first it seems like a lot until you start putting it on paper. The leads (clues that suggest other locations or scenes) and evidence (clues that suggest conclusions about what happened or is happening) will flow pretty easily. I didn’t worry too much about making sure I had three for each and in the first session two clues were quite sufficient for the players to head in the right direction. Also, I found during play that additional clues will become obvious, either prompted directly by the PCs interrogating the scene, or to the GM as you watch them do so. To avoid overdoing the GM fiat I’ll still put the presence of a new clue to the dice based on apparent likelihood. 1 in 6, 2 in 6 chances there is a knife block in the kitchen or whatever. Of course if it’s pretty obvious it’s fine to just go with it, though it is definitely worth noting it and considering how that fits into the crime or mystery as a whole. Some will chafe against this as not blorby, or externally objective enough, but considering all the complexities of a crime scene if you think you are going to establish every item that a player might think of looking for, and then just saying “no” when they ask about something you didn’t consider, you are setting yourself up for either a shit-ton of work and/or disappointment. YMMV, and in all likelihood you are way smarter than me so maybe it will work out. Anyway, that is kind of the jist of the prep. I set up a Miro board with the map of Las Angeles in 2037 and made a simple chase tracker since I had an idea I wanted to allow for a chase scene…I mean come on, what’s more iconically “Blade Runner” than chasing a suspected replicant through the busy streets of a dark, rainy, LA?

Image 8-24-25 at 2

I stopped prep here, because I was missing the key ingredient that was going to make this really come to life in my mind: The players and their characters.

More Intro Stuff That Felt Better Here

Part of my motivation for starting a Blade Runner game is that the style and the rules are really great for small parties of 2-3 players. Our usual group is me as the GM and three players, which has so far been fine for everything we’ve played. In fact, I kind of feel three PCs is a bit of a sweet spot for me, there is still plenty of interaction and ideas being tossed around, but it’s also easier to manage and account for player inputs. Our regular campaign right now is a Twilight: 2000 game that is also going well, but I wanted to start a second background campaign for when we only have two of the three players available. Blade Runner’s cyberpunkish, neo-noir detective thing is perfect for a two PC game and the classic police partners trope. I think it would also work just fine with a single PC (Rick and Kay were loners) or if I need to swap out one PC depending on who is out for the session (so-and-so needs some time off, you two need to close the case) or to toss in a third player if we want to switch over to this more regularly. I don’t think any of those are “perfect” since hopefully nobody really wants to miss out on the discovery of the next part of the mystery, but there are ways to do it. In play the game really felt good with two PCs so that might be the particular sweet spot here. Anyway, on to character creation.

Play, If You Consider Character Generation Play

We didn’t do a session 0 and Jason and Jack knocked out their PCs pretty quickly. It could easily be done in a vacuum in 15 minutes or less, but we enjoy doing char-gen as a group and tossing out ideas for each other how the random table results might fit together. As the GM I tried to help with tying the results into the setting a bit since there is quite a bit of lore and details in the book that those who are only familiar with the films might not know. It’s a pretty great lore bible that any fan will like, by the way. While it’s not a full life-path system like T:2K, it is in the ballpark. We really enjoyed “discovering the characters” using the optional random tables for each part of creation. You can if you prefer, simply select the options you want as well. One really interesting part is the Key Memory, and Key Relationship that ties the characters to the setting and provides fodder for the GM to link things into these somewhat murky backstories. There is also an “optional” rule for human characters to be secret replicants. I mean really should this be optional? I made the secret rolls for both human characters, but you can play a brand-new Nexus-9 Blade Runner up front if you wish.

Definitely Playing the Game Now

With that we launched into the game. It was really fun to reintroduce Holden from the first film as the current head of the Rep Detect Unit of the LAPD. He rattled off some known facts about the case (One of the new Nexus-9s failed to show at work at the LAX space port and a black and white found a body in his apartment – go figure out what happened). The players start with a LAPD Spinner (flying car) and headed over. I was pleased that they landed a few blocks away to check things out on the street level on the way in. They headed up to the apartment and found the body. What the beat cop failed to note in his initial hasty report was that the body had been decapitated. The PCs search what was left, and the small flat, finding clues that suggest there had been a kid living here too, and some items pointing them to a local club and to the replicant’s work. Without a head they could not immediately ID the body, so they requested a crime lab team pick it up for an autopsy. On their way out of the front door of the building Niko (Jack) noticed a suspicious individual watching them from across the street. Extra success on the roll gave the additional detail that while dressed like a typical street urchin the figure held itself like a soldier or a fighter. Once he “noticed he was noticed” he turned and started to briskly depart the scene. Dutch (Jason) tries to flag him down, but then he starts to run. The chase is on! The game’s chase mechanics are really intuitive, fun, and exciting. Similar rules are used in other FL YZE games, but the basic procedure is each participant chooses in secret the chase maneuver they intend to use, things like flee/pursue, hide, cut-off, stand and shoot, etc. The GM then draws or rolls a random obstacle that will throw a monkey wrench in someone’s plans. In play it worked great, and all sorts of exciting stuff happened. Niko got in a fist fight with some street thugs, and Dutch accidentally shot a neon-umbrella lady with a sonic stun round. The “suspect” soaked up a lot of such rounds before he finally turned and started shooting back himself. The PCs finally incapacitate him and load him in the Spinner for the trip back to LAPD HQ. We cut the session there as it was after midnight at this point.

Half-Assed Review Portion

All in all, I really enjoyed the session and the Blade Runner RPG rules. It really felt like entering that world and the chase mechanics in particular worked great evoking that classic Blade Runner feel. As always, I love queuing off the player actions and now I know I need to prep a possible Voight-Kampff Machine and interrogation scene, as well as creating a new NPC I didn’t expect: a personal injury lawyer that Dutch is just going to hate. Can’t wait for the next session!

Thoughts and Opinions? Comment here on Blusky!