Fria Ligans forum

Not sure if there is a thread for this already but I'm interested in how people feel about the game in general. Would love to hear some opinions.

For my part, having not read all of the PDFs cover to cover yet, my first impressions are favourable. I did like the chase example that re-enacted Deckard taking down Zhora in the first movie (core rules p85). Little touches like that make me want to play the game.

The game looks good so far. I like the simplified rules, very much Vaesen in style. I don't like the ultra-free character creation so when we play I will structure it up a bit
* You can only have A in the attribute listed in the archetype (I have done the same in T2K)
* You can only have A in the skills listed in the archetype.
* You must pick one of the specialties listed.

edit: The character creation rules are a bit more structured (if you want them to be) in the new version of the rules).

I'm going to use the same character creation restrictions as Fenhorn, but otherwise I love the game so far. I already ran out a combat and a chase, and the streamlined rules are still exciting. Chases are really cool. The search/balance for Promotion, Humanity, and Chinyen makes for some really cool noir story potential.
It does exactly what I was hoping! I hate running games out of PDF's, so I was going to wait for the hard copy to play, but I like it so much I'm already writing a case file and preparing to run a game.

Thumbs Up!

Based on the strengths of the ALIEN RPG I'd hoped BLADE RUNNER could be used somewhat as a standing in for "future Earth" in the ALIEN RPG.

Yes, I think it could be used that way - but it stands on its own as a thinking / themed detective sci-fi/noir RPG of its own.

The artwork is uniformly beautiful as always, and the heavy dose of "deep lore hide and seek" that you get with ALIEN is also present in BLADE RUNNER.

I also think that you can blend a bit from MUTANT: YEAR ZERO in a well for recovering communities on the trashed Earth - the war against the kipple as it were - or for a bit of SOLDIER-style offworld / broken colony action.

Well that’s the real question, isn’t it?

It is clear that there is a bit more homework left to do in the world building — the various feedback threads here have caught a number of lore and continuity misses in setting descriptions and “flavour text”, ranging from nonsense call-outs in some of the equipment drawings, to e.g. a not properly researched reference to “positronic brains”.

And I’ll again mention, but not delve deeper into, my frustration with the utterly unimaginative, ill-conceived, and continuity-breaking treatment of Deckard’s Blaster.

Further, I would not have minded seeing the game open a bit wider for non-Bladerunner gameplay, including what Bladerunners might be up to when not Investigating Case Files.


So in the end, Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?

I’d have to say … thumbs up. And it’s not a difficult choice, really.


Yes, it’s not perfect; some ways from it. But this is still to some degree a work in progress. There is still a chance to fix stuff.

For one thing, I know that my last point above will be addressed in upcoming expansions, as per the commitment stated in the book; hopefully turning this into a bit more of a sandbox game that it is out-of-the box.

If Ligan manages to sit on their usual NIH propensities this time, they also have a good chance to leverage the feedback here to fix the lore and continuity gaffes.

And they could even sit on them heavily enough to actually fix the Blaster, although I have very strong hunch they won’t. Alas.

So in the end — it is already a stunningly beautiful, almost “coffee table book”-like, product; but it also looks like it might become a great game!

I’ll just have to home brew my own Blaster. Along with implementing Fenhorn’s character generation idea.

Just finished reading the book; haven't looked at the starter Case File yet.
+ Digging the rules. Good adaptation of a core that I already know I like at the table, based on Twilight 2000.
- World/lore leaves me wanting more. It feels like we're getting the most surface level scrapes of everything. Some of the "how did we get here" bits don't make sense to me.
- I was hoping for somewhat more structure on the gameplay. Reading it, both the police procedural side of things and the emotional/psychological side could use more structure. Maybe all the small bits come together in a satisfying way, but I have a feeling that quite a bit rests on the GM's ability to tie separate bits (key relationships, dream sequences, the needs of the case) together on the fly.
+/- The build your own case stuff is great. I wish there was more of it. Again, Twilight did this so well I was expecting more.
+/- I'm not sure if the game does quite enough to help players play to the genre & theme. A lot is riding on an assumption of everyone being really into the BR esthetics & logic. Perhaps the rules could've done a little more in ensuring alignment.
Overall: I am excited to run it, but unlike Twilight (the last FL game I ran), I'm not sure in advance how it'll work at the table.

My impression is the foundation is really good ... but a lot of the finer details need refinement and touch ups. I do believe this will be a great once officially released.

I like the dice mechanics of T2K 4e. It's biggest issue is the slowdown due to shifting sizes. this cures that.

I'm not thrilled with the renaming of game system mechanics; one of the benefits of a multi-game engine is that the names stay the same.

The inclusion of ranks and insignia of rank, but no list of correlation to years of service, is a nitpick level issue. I was surprised (pleasantly) to see LAPD ranks at all.

The lack of inclusion of a sample case is also a minor issue.

Included lore? Wow! Great stuff. Haven't seen the new movie yet, but the timeline gives me plenty of ideas about how LA is...

Overall? thumbs up, Give it a grade of B+.

I'm very interested on this game and seeing how Free League fleshes out the setting. There isn't much to work with, but then I thought the same thing when I heard they were making an Alien RPG and that has turned out to be one of my favorites of all time (and I've been doing the RPG thing since the early 1980s). I'm assuming it draws from the films and comic books rather than the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

The lack of inclusion of a sample case is also a minor issue.

Just a quick comment on this - a full-size sample case is included in the Starter Set.