Written by Peter Weilnböck
Published on: 2023-04-30
The first session of the blade runner starter box case file
In my regular in-person group we recently finished a long running campaign. So, for some variation and to give our GM some time to breath, I am taking over the GM hat for one “case file”.
The Blade Runner RPG does not only have stunning artwork, it also has a plethora of handouts that come with the starter box - to be used with the included adventure: The case file “Electric Dreams”.
I wanted to try out the running Blade Runner based on reviews praising this case file, and so here we are.
We decided to create our own characters, since we have the option, and not just go with the default ones in the starter box. This would be especially relevant, if Fria Ligan comes out with the follow ups to this introduction in time for us to still be interested.
Deputy Chief Holden called the Team in for a case. He sent Sol to fetch Willem Novak, the most experienced of the team, who was currently on leave. Sol and the others found Novak eating noodles at a street vendor. Not caring about the toxic rain that not only drenched him but also watered down the bowl of noodles he intently studying a news paper. Not that eating was particularly easy while smoking at the same time. And Novak also had a little trick to get the taste of the rain out of his food again: dosing it with a generous amount of whisky.
After some discussion Marilyn D. found the arguments to get Novak to come in, however he left her with the bill as a little payback.
Once everyone was finally assembled in Chief Deputy Holdens office, old iron lungs told them of a disturbing situation: there had been a shooting in “The Snake Pit” on Night Club Row. Two of the new Nexus-9 Blade Runners were there: LH3-7.93 “Leah” and SN9-1.48 “Sandor”. Sandor is dead and in the morgue, Leah is missing. So far not much is know, other than there were human supremacists on the scene and that the two were investigating suspected N-8 activity.
After pressing the importance of this specific case to him and the whole department, Holden also informed them that Wallace Corp has taken an active interest as well and their PR manager wants to talk to them as well.
And so the clock startet ticking.
The team quickly decided that it would be the most efficient to split up - Willem Novak and JS5-9.767 should visit the RIT crime lab and take a look at the body while Marilyn and Sol should take a look at the Esper Wall and the Mainframe for footage and information. In the mean time Jake wanted to visit the gym for a bit of training and to find out what was known about the two in the station.
In the morgue the chief coroner examiner Coco welcomed them and showed them the body. Novak told Jay to take a look, while he instead decided that the kibble for the office cat Biscuits looked tasty and he wanted to try it. Biscuits was not amused about the food theft.
Jay proved her investigative insights and medical expertise by finding a look big hole in the chest of Sandor and identifying it as “Might have been made with a bullet?“. Coco, used to being the smartest person in the room, confirmed the observation and added that the bullet was of a larger caliber and fired at close range. It went right through Sandor and was not recovered, therefore he can not determine the precise weapon.
Jay decided to put her PK-D blaster up to the whole, and while this did not really proof anything, Coco once again confirmed that the wound might have been inflicted with such a weapon, or at least a similar one.
While leaving the lab, Novak wanted to steal a bit more kibble, but Biscuits defended her bowl, scratching him. Unsettled by being bested by a cat, Novak needed a cigarette to calm down again.
Marilyn and Sol went to the Esper Wall to look at footage of “The Snake Pit”. While there was no footage of inside the night club, they found images of Leah leaving it and getting into a Metrokab. Sol successfully enhanced the image and Marilyn was able to identify the Cab company and knew where to look for the dispatcher.
They also looked around for more information on Sandor and Leah. While Sandor seemed to be a model officer, they found some reports of Leah failing baseline tests and being recalibrated just 2 months ago. After some more digging Sol was able to find out that Sandor had reported Leah for excessive force on several occasions, which was one of the triggers for the Baseline test.
In the meantime Jake tried to gather some gossip. His spotter confirmed that she know Leah, and that she had been rather erratic end of last year and beginning of this year. But that she had seemed better after the recalibration. But you never know with those skin jobs, do you?
Having found the first pieces of evidence, and already being convinced that Leah shot Sandor and is now on the run, they decided to report to Wallace Corp. But since the clock is ticking, only Jake and Sol are following this request, while Jay, Marilyn and Novak went to take a look at the Metrokab company to find out where Leah was going.
While they were on route, all of them got a message from an impatient Quell, asking why nobody deemed it necessary to follow the polite request of Wallace so far, reminding them, that LAPD and Wallace are cooperating on that particular investigation.
Flying their spinner in to the cavernous garage of this huge building, already towering over the rest of LA, even though construction is still ongoing, Jake and Sol can not help but feel a bit small and insignificant - no doubt as intended by the architect. After being greeted by a hairless clerk, they are shown through to Quell’s office. Walking through the eerily empty hallways, they hear only their own footsteps echoing back to them. The pale golden light illuminating their way, shadows of water at the along the paths, they get to the austere but immaculately decorated office and are greeted by the thoroughly professional Quell. Sol is greeted rather friendly, while Jake is treated politely, but coldly. As it turns out, Quell is only interested in a status report and in the plans on how the investigation should proceed, and did not intend to share any information. When the investigators openly discuss the current status, she does however confirm the recalibration of LH3-7.93, although she does not deem it relevant for the investigation. She points out, that so far the presence of human supremacists had been completely ignored in the investigation.
When Jake starts to lay out that they strongly suspect Leah and begins to insinuate that Wallace Corp actually has something to do with the murder, talking about faulty and untrustworthy replicants she grows increasingly cold. Therefore it did not come as a surprise to the investigators that when they asked about the memory design of Leah, Quell no longer was open with her information, but informed them that this is privileged information and that the interview is now over.
Marilyn, being familiar with everyone in the neighbourhood, starts to chat rather friendly with the otherwise gruff and grumpy dispatcher Irmgard. Novak, staying outside, in the mean time checks the Metrokabs in the Lot to see if the one from last night was currently present - which it was not.
With her friendly demeanour Marylin did manage to get Irmgard to check the route of the Metrokab, telling them that the passenger was dropped of in Animoid Row. She even called the driver, if he remembered anything about the night. While the there was not much new information, Earl the driver did remember this specific fare, since the young woman was not only clearly upset but also was carrying a gun. He did not stick around after she had payed, left the cab and had vanished into the crowd. Because of the gun he though it smarter to pick up his next fair elsewhere.
Having gained some new information, the investigators decided that it was finally time to visit the crime scene. Time being of the essence however, they split up again. Only Jake and Novak going to the Snake Pit, while Jay and Marylin should check out Leah’s apartment. In the meantime Sol should check the Esper wall again for video footage of Leah in Animoid Row. Maybe they can figure out where she went that way?
After a quick search Sol was able to find the footage. It shows LH3-7.93 getting out of the cab, going first to the Aurelian and then to Bullet Bob’s. After that she went into a small side street not covered by Esper cameras. Looking around a bit more, Sol found an angle the showed the street from the other side, but he did not see Leah emerge again.
Jay and Marilyn went to the apartment complex that contains Leah’s apartment. Since the elevator is out of order, they needed to climb the dirty stairs, covered in graffiti, up the the 13th floor. Marilyn quickly decided that the climb was not for her, and somehow managed to convince Jay to carry her piggyback. Something about being good exercise. Jay without grumbling carried her up, pushing through other residents, some of them clearly living on those stairs and not in the apartments.
Reaching the right floor, it did not take them long to identify the right apartment - it was the one with “Skin Job” smeared across it. This dashed their tentative theory that Leah might not have known that she was a replicant after the recalibration.
Walking up to it, they were interrupted by a clearly drunk, burly man who wanted to know, if they were friends of the skin job. Talking himself more into a rage, he convinced himself that the two were skin jobs themself. Marilyn convinced him that it was not a good idea to attack them by shoving her badge into his face and threatening him with uncomfortable consequences, if he does not cooperate. While this did dissuade him from attacking her, he decided to leave and wanted to push past Jay to get away. But by that time the two had decided that they wanted all the information this goon had to offer. Jay quickly subdued him in a painful restraining hold, giving Marilyn the edge for further investigation. He did not have much information to offer, however some of it was useful. Living across the hall he always was pissed that a skin job got an apartment this close to his, ever since she moved in a year earlier. He had not seen her coming back the night before, but he had been asleep, so that did not mean much. In any case he had not seen her in 2 days, so certainly not since the shooting.
More or less satisfied they let him go.
While Marilyn was fussing about on how to open the door discreetly, Jay simply kicked it in and strut inside. They quickly investigated the rather barren apartment, and found a few clues:
Unfortunately we did not manage to play the scene at the Snake Pit, since one of the players had a hard time limit. But over all they already got a lot further than I anticipated. The character creation was fast and easy (Based on my experience with other systems I had expected that this will already take up the whole afternoon), and the progress through the investigation was smooth and fairly quick. I tried to follow the guidelines in the core book to wrap up scenes once all the clues are gathered. This is a rather new thing for me, since I usually let the player bumble around for however long they want. As such the progress in most of my games is rather slow.
Over all there are some interesting concepts in the game, and I did enjoy having this huge amount of handouts for the players. Since the handouts seem to be rather integral to the game, it does discourage home-brewing cases a bit. At least compared to Forbidden Lands where the whole setup invites to just create your own map and just relying on the random tables.
It was a rather fun first session, and I expect that they will be able to close this case the next time we manage a solid afternoon of gaming. At the moment I am so happy with the system and the quality of the case file, that I am intrigued by the further parts of the campaign. Since I expected the system to be only suited for one-shots, this is a rather pleasant surprise for me.