DIRECTIVE 19 — Blade Runner RPG

The World 世界観

Los Angeles, 2037

It has been raining for eleven days. The basin's air recyclers have been failing in micro-cycles and the storm drains run orange with rust. The smog ceiling sits at 600 feet — the upper floors of any tower above that line are above the cloud. Most people can't afford to live that high.

In 2022, the Blackout wiped most of the city's digital records. Births, deaths, criminal histories, replicant manufacture data — gone overnight. Three years later came the Replicant Prohibition Act. Three years after that, the Wallace Corporation quietly bought the Tyrell salvage rights, lobbied the prohibition away, and became the only manufacturer of synthetic human life in the world. They have held that monopoly for nine years.

A Nexus-9 replicant is legal, licensed, and obedient by design. A Nexus-8 — open lifespan, Tyrell-era, pre-Blackout — is wanted. Most were retired after the Prohibition. A small number went underground. Nobody knows exactly how many.

"They live among us. They look like us. They know what they are and we know what they are and neither of us talks about it — until we have to."

The Blackout · 2022

A city-wide electromagnetic event wiped most digital records. Officially attributed to Replicant Liberation Front activity. The true cause remains disputed.

Wallace Corporation

The only legal manufacturer of replicants. Their Nexus-9 models are designed for loyalty, supplied to law enforcement, industry, and government under strict licensing.

Nexus-8 Replicants

Tyrell-era models with open lifespans. Prohibited since 2023, grandfathered survivors went underground. Most have been retired. Some have not.

The Weather · 2037

Constant rain. The smog runs slightly acid every few days. Filter scarves are common. Real coffee costs 80 credits. The city has not seen clear sky in eleven days.

The Mayoral Race

Deputy Mayor Helena Cortez leads the primary by twelve points. Her campaign fundraiser at the Sandoval Tower is in three days. The police federation endorses her.

Your Role 捜査官

You Are Blade Runners

You are detectives in the LAPD's Rep-Detect division — the unit that hunts replicants who have violated their licences, gone underground, or committed crimes the regular police can't explain. You are twelve officers. Two captains. One lieutenant. You are called Blade Runners.

Three of you are human, with all the limitations and freedoms that carries. Two of you are Nexus-9 replicants on Wallace secondment — supplied by the Corporation to do work the Corporation prefers to keep close. Wallace says they are loyal by design. Most of your human colleagues suspect this is exactly the problem.

One of you has been doing this for twenty-four years. Her clearance predates most of the others' careers. Her Voigt-Kampff machine is older than her youngest colleague. Nobody in the division has ever asked to run the test on her.

Retirement

When you retire a replicant, you earn a Promotion Point — a credit that can be spent for advantage on later rolls. Promotion points accumulate. Something else accumulates too, registered on your character sheet under a heading called Humanity. The two values move in opposite directions.

Fairfax Avenue · 01:00 · Persian Quarter

Tonight 今夜

The Call

"It's been raining for eleven days. The basin doesn't drain like it used to and the storm drains around the Bradbury Tower are running orange with rust. It's 3:14 in the morning. Your comms went off forty minutes ago. By the time you got here, the bodies were cold."

"Bradbury Tower. Floor 41. The penthouse belongs — belonged — to Captain Lazlo Voss, retired LAPD, currently chief of private security for the Cortez mayoral campaign. There are three dead in the corridor. There is one in the bathtub. There is something on the mirror."

"Lieutenant Greer arrived three minutes after you. He is in the kitchen now talking to someone on a comm. He has not introduced you to whoever it is. He has said the words 'seventy-two hours' twice."

"Take a breath. The work begins."

Whatever is on that mirror — you won't forget it.

Your Team チーム

The Blade Runners

Six pre-generated investigators. Your GM will tell you which character is yours. Read your sheet quietly before introductions begin. Some things on it are for you alone.

Human

Iris Kovac

Senior Investigator

52 years old. Twenty-four years on the force. She has worked more cases than she can count and closed fewer than she can live with. She carries a pre-Blackout flask and a quietness that is not peace.

24 years on the force

Nexus-9

Marc Esposito

Nexus-9 · Wallace Secondment

Activated three years ago. Combat-trained, tactically excellent, professionally calm. He carries a folded photograph of a woman he believes is his wife. The memory feels completely real.

3 years on the force

Human

Saoirse Lin

Forensic Specialist

Nine years in. She sees things others miss — not because she is gifted but because she does not stop looking. She carries a small photograph of her father, who disappeared in 2027.

9 years on the force

Human

Dmitri Vance

Tactical · Ex-Military

Seven years on the force after a longer stint in the army ended badly. Built for violence, uneasy with it. Carries a folded contract from 2027 that he never signed. He keeps it as a reminder of who he is.

7 years on the force

Human

Talia Ostrow

Field Detective

Eleven years in. She knows everyone in the department and half of City Hall. Her uncle Aaron — a retired judge — died last night. She does not yet know she will be the one to find out how, or why.

11 years on the force

Nexus-9

Cole Whitford

Nexus-9 · Combat Model

Three years since activation. No personal effects. No relationships outside the department. For the last six weeks he has been having flashes — combat, salt wind, a woman's voice saying a word he doesn't recognise. Wallace medical adjusted his dose.

3 years on the force

The Shape of the Night 今夜の形

What You Know

A retired LAPD captain is dead. A retired judge is dead. The same mark on both — four characters someone wrote before leaving. Something happened in this city ten years ago that someone has spent ten years trying to forget. Someone else has spent ten years remembering.

Your lieutenant wants the case wrapped in seventy-two hours. He has already spoken to the Deputy Mayor's office. He wants it clean. You will discover, slowly, that clean and true are not the same thing tonight.

By the end of the evening you will have decisions to make about which laws you serve. You are LAPD. Whether you are also human is part of the question.

DIR-019