Ring Side Report- RPG review of Blade Runner RPG Core Rulebook

Product– Blade Runner RPG Core Rulebook

System- Year Zero

Producer– Free League Publishing

Price– $24.99 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/399929/Blade-Runner-RPG-Core-Rulebook?affiliate_id=658618  

TL; DR-Another surprisingly well done year zero system.  99%

Basics–  The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs…. Time to track down those replicants or be one!  Let’s look at how to play.

Mechanics- Ah Year Zero… the system that Free League uses for everything, but is never quite the same.  This one uses attributes and skill dice for each roll.  Each thing you want to do be it hack a computer or shoot a guy is grab the attribute and the skill die for the activity and roll.  Dice range from d6 to d12, but you do not use the basic number!  What you do is check if you roll a 6 to 9 or 10 to 12.  A 6 to 9 is one success, and a 10 to 12 is two successes.  Doing a thing requires one success.  Criticals have two successes.  Slick and simple!

Rerolls-  Rerolls and player control are the parts of the Year Zero system that mostly stay the same between all the different games they produce.  If you want to reroll a physical thing, you reroll and if you roll a 1 on any die you take a point of physical damage.  Do a mental thing, and you take stress damage on a 1.  Humans can only reroll once, but replicants can reroll twice.  However, replicants ALWAYS take stress on their 1s.  This is bad – if you hit enough stress you basically need a reboot and your max stress can PERMANENTLY be reduced!  But, the choice is always yours to make!

Combat- Another thing that is the same across Year Zero systems is combat and rounds.  At the start of combat, players and the GM draw cards from 1 to 10.  Players then take their turns doing simple things like moving and more complex things like attacking.  Actions like attacking are handled just like any other roll described above.  The more interesting thing is that weapons do a set amount of damage, and any two or more successes is a critical. Each weapon has a set critical die with rolls on that die above 10 resulting in instant death!  Guns are VERY deadly!

Ok, Let’s discuss.

Mechanics or Crunch– I love the Year Zero system.  I don’t know if I’ve ever honestly seen it entirely, as every Year Zero system uses a COMPLETELY different set of dice and die mechanics, but be it a pile of d6s, a single d20, or different skill dice, I LOVE it.  It’s complex enough to build fun characters and simple enough to play fast with enough depth to keep even my Shadowrun loving self engaged.  I also like player choice. This system always gives the players the option to do something, even on failure, and the story keeps rolling.  The total package builds toward a fun system to dive into quickly, but you’ll find a lot to play with when you are there.  5/5

Theme or Fluff– Free League does their homework.  Blade Runner is a dark, fun cyberpunk romp, but if you JUST saw the two movies you would miss large amounts of material.  Free League did not do that.  They dug deep into some crazy pieces, and there is a whole world that is out there now.  Most adventures are gonna be against the corporation and world of the movies because that’s what your players know.  But if you want more, there is a whole world to see there and Free League wrote that for you to find.  5/5

Execution– This book is well done with one small thing that drives me up a wall.  First the good.  It’s hyperlinked, laid out well, reads easily, and the art fits the aesthetic.  This is a solid, well done book.  What drives me crazy is the way the die system is discussed.  You have a d6, d8, d10, and d12.  The books refers to them as rank, D, C, B, and A. So, the GM screen needs to have a table on it so you can change back and forth from letters to dice.  Just use the dice and leave it out.  This drives me up a wall, but honestly, this complaint feels like being mad that they changed the color of the toilet paper in your favorite restaurant.  If you get past my one crazy hangup, you will enjoy this book’s production.  4.9/5

Summary– I love this book.  It’s got a simple, yet interesting system with a solid world and story put together in an excellently made product.  I have my own idiosyncrasies, but if you want a dark, gritty detective story in a cyberpunk world with no magic, I would easily suggest this to anyone.  Keep in mind, though, that this is not a big damn heroes game.  Like the movies, this is a world without happy endings.  If that’s not your preference in a game, then I would pass this by.  I enjoy a good sad story, so this is one that I will bring to the table. 99%