OK I know the technology in the blade runner movies won't happen in the timeline as according to it Roy batty has already been "incepted" by now.
But if we create an alternate timeline where something "jump started" a human tech advancement that made flying cars, replicants, off world colonies, star travel, etc (possibly fubaring earth's ecosystem like it was shown in the movies) then the blade runner universe would make an interesting RPG setting especially if we had the aforementioned off world colonies as part of the setting. Roy batty was a warrior, he'd seen c beams glittering in the dark bear the Tannhäuser gate, he'd seen attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. Who was fighting? Human vs human or something else?
Would anyone else be interested in a blade runner RPG universe? If so is there any company you'd like to see get it?
For me, i'd like to see FFG do it. Their 40K RPG stuff was pretty high quality and had damn good atmospheric writing. Plus their basic system was pretty good, easy to learn and not bad to play.
One fix might be an alien artifact found at some point in the recent past that gave human tech a massive boost but side effects fucked our weather badly. The existence if aliens might explain who was fighting in the off world colonies.
Quote from: Schwartzwald;1003744One fix might be an alien artifact found at some point in the recent past that gave human tech a massive boost but side effects fucked our weather badly. The existence if aliens might explain who was fighting in the off world colonies.
Ugh.
What is with people in this hobby always wanting to introduce magic or aliens into everything. Might as well play Shadowrun if you introduce that to the BR setting.
Just accept it's an alternate timeline, like CP2020, and it's all set.
As I said it might explain who they were at war with.
Quote from: Schwartzwald;1003750As I said it might explain who they were at war with.
It has to be aliens since humans never war against each other.
There have been Easter eggs and one deleted scene in Prometheus hinting that the Aliens franchise may be in the same universe. So um... Phoenix Command. :D
Quote from: Krimson;1003787There have been Easter eggs and one deleted scene in Prometheus hinting that the Aliens franchise may be in the same universe. So um... Phoenix Command. :D
I had repressed that memory. Thanks for victimizing me again.
They're at war with the Socialist hordes of the Union of Progressive Peoples, from William Gibson's rejected Alien 3 script.
I even made a cover... Gives you a hint about the system.
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For that proper dystopian feel, no aliens. Should definitely be at war with The Russians.
No need for another full fledged hard sci-ish game/setting, IMO. Transhuman Space and Eclipse Phase already allow the exploration of those themes seen in the movies, and even more.
Oh, and about the wars in space that Batty saw? They were wars among replicants. Corp A's replicant army vs Corp B replicant army. The new film seem to corroborate on this.
Quote from: kobayashi;1003835I even made a cover... Gives you a hint about the system.
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Kult?
That's a bold choice, mate!
Quote from: kobayashi;1003835I even made a cover... Gives you a hint about the system.
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West End Games? :confused:
Bladerunner was one of those movies that was always held up as an exemplar for Cyberpunk and related games. As such it is already represented through a lot of the games already mentioned - Shadowrun included. Eclipse Phase and Transhuman Space were directly trying to create games with a greater depth looking at the same themes as Bladerunner, while you can get some dark urban games that at least create the same oppressive, melancholy atmosphere (World of Darkness, Kult, etc).
So there isn't really any drive to make a Bladerunner RPG itself - it's already there really. However, if there was a broader game based upon the worlds of Phillip K. Dick, I'd be interested in that.
Dialed down tech in Stars without Number with the Polychrome supplement would work nicely.
Quote from: TrippyHippy;1003851So there isn't really any drive to make a Bladerunner RPG itself - it's already there really. However, if there was a broader game based upon the worlds of Phillip K. Dick, I'd be interested in that.
I don't think there is a single game big enough for all of that. Any of the books you mentioned would do well run Bladerunner for a group. I'd add in
Mindjammer as well as
Spycraft tweaked just a bit. With any of these I could run a
Bladerunner game... I know I would enjoy playing in such a game as well.
I'll be honest... I was joking about Kult. You guys though? It doesn't sound like you are joking about some of these suggestions, and that's making me feel like I stepped into the gaming equivalent of the fucking Twilight Zone.
Shit, I'm just waiting for someone to say that Nobilis would do it perfect or something. Hey, howabout Dogs in the Vineyard? We haven't had someone swear that game is perfect for everything. You know what would do Bladerunner Juuuussssttttt Right? Dark Heresy, man! No, no! Deadlands!!! What else have I got on my shelf? Wasteworld!!!! Perfect. Wasteworld would...
See... I sorta feel like its a cross between 'my favorite game' and fucking mad-libs.
This cover alone is enough to justify the game.
Quote from: Spike;1003864I'll be honest... I was joking about Kult. You guys though? It doesn't sound like you are joking about some of these suggestions, and that's making me feel like I stepped into the gaming equivalent of the fucking Twilight Zone.
Shit, I'm just waiting for someone to say that Nobilis would do it perfect or something. Hey, howabout Dogs in the Vineyard? We haven't had someone swear that game is perfect for everything. You know what would do Bladerunner Juuuussssttttt Right? Dark Heresy, man! No, no! Deadlands!!! What else have I got on my shelf? Wasteworld!!!! Perfect. Wasteworld would...
See... I sorta feel like its a cross between 'my favorite game' and fucking mad-libs.
Bro, neither Transhuman Space nor Eclipse Phase are my favorite games. Far from it.
That's a damn cool cover though. :D
Quote from: kobayashi;1003835I even made a cover... Gives you a hint about the system.
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Why WEG and not GDW?
Quote from: Itachi;1003879Bro, neither Transhuman Space nor Eclipse Phase are my favorite games. Far from it.
That's a damn cool cover though. :D
Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't talking about your picks. Now: what specifically makes eclipse phase a good choice.
Improve the signal to noise ratio.
Quote from: kobayashi;1003835I even made a cover... Gives you a hint about the system.
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Hmm... Well there's only one WEG game that features Harrison Ford so it has to be The World of Indiana Jones. :D
EDIT: Okay, so maybe I forgot about that OTHER game with Harrison Ford. :D
Quote from: Krimson;1003914Hmm... Well there's only one WEG game that features Harrison Ford so it has to be The World of Indiana Jones. :D
EDIT: Okay, so maybe I forgot about that OTHER game with Harrison Ford. :D
Paranoia?
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The war is about China waking up Cthulhu out in space somewhere. Outworlders are getting their minds eaten from their insides. Replicants are not affected by the spaceness out there.
Quote from: Dumarest;1003883Why WEG and not GDW?
WEG got some movie licences at the time (Star Wars & Ghostbusters) and they stuck in my mind as the "movie license guys" and I liked the Ghostbusters system a lot. But yeah considering the style of the cover GDW would have been a more logical choice. And for Blade Runner, now I'd use Traveller (1977 version or Mongoose 2nd edition, doesn't matter).
I had great fun making those covers :
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Quote from: Schwartzwald;1003743OK I know the technology in the blade runner movies won't happen in the timeline as according to it Roy batty has already been "incepted" by now.
But if we create an alternate timeline where something "jump started" a human tech advancement that made flying cars, replicants, off world colonies, star travel, etc (possibly fubaring earth's ecosystem like it was shown in the movies) then the blade runner universe would make an interesting RPG setting especially if we had the aforementioned off world colonies as part of the setting. Roy batty was a warrior, he'd seen c beams glittering in the dark bear the Tannhäuser gate, he'd seen attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. Who was fighting? Human vs human or something else?
Would anyone else be interested in a blade runner RPG universe? If so is there any company you'd like to see get it?
For me, i'd like to see FFG do it. Their 40K RPG stuff was pretty high quality and had damn good atmospheric writing. Plus their basic system was pretty good, easy to learn and not bad to play.
The StarCluster 4 - Cold Space and StarCluster 4 - FTL Now universe - one would actually need only the SC4 - FTL Now game book, but both games share a universe - would work, along with StarCluster 4 - Tool Kit 1: People for creating the Replicants as a Bioroid 'species'. That would give you 2017 with flying cars, out-system colonies, space war, no aliens, and a damaged Earth. The only actual work would be using the tool to create the Replicant 'species'
I'd run this using AD2300 (either original or the new version for Mongoose Traveller). The official setting is too upbeat and frankly bland, but there is nothing to make you include all the aliens and so forth, and it is well suited to the sort of environments, characters and action a BR game would call for.
Quote from: Spike;1003898Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't talking about your picks. Now: what specifically makes eclipse phase a good choice.
Improve the signal to noise ratio.
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Well, heres a serious answer: both Transhuman Space and Eclipse Phase already deal with the themes Blade Runner present (replicants and artificial beings struggles, freedom and civil rights issues) in a pretty well-thought way. In TS it's one of the settings central issues, and it shows how different nations and cultures view it, how each have structured their laws around it, etc. (Eg: the in European Union replicants have full human rights, while in USA they're killed on sight, and the off-world habitats usually don't give a fuck). It's worth a read even if one won't play them. My problem with those games is their rules. Both GURPS and EP's are beyond what I consider fun to interact with these days. But your mileage may vary.
Quote from: kobayashi;1003986WEG got some movie licences at the time (Star Wars & Ghostbusters) and they stuck in my mind as the "movie license guys" and I liked the Ghostbusters system a lot. But yeah considering the style of the cover GDW would have been a more logical choice. And for Blade Runner, now I'd use Traveller (1977 version or Mongoose 2nd edition, doesn't matter).
I had great fun making those covers :
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Looks better than the real deal:
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Quote from: ArrozConLeche;1003796I had repressed that memory. Thanks for victimizing me again.
I suppose I shouldn't mention the movie 1998 Soldier with Kurt Russel is set in the same universe as Blade Runner. :D
Quote from: Krimson;1004063I suppose I shouldn't mention the movie 1998 Soldier with Kurt Russel is set in the same universe as Blade Runner. :D
whatchu talkin' bout, Krimson?
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Quote from: tenbones;1004069whatchu talkin' bout, Krimson?
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Give me enough time and I'll find a way to work Gary Coleman into the Blade Runner universe as well. But yes, Soldier (http://lwlies.com/articles/solider-kurt-russell-original-blade-runner-sequel/) and the Aliens franchise both have connection to the Blade Runner universe. Not so great movie wise, but as source material for an RPG it's kind of fun.
Gary Coleman would be a prototype for a comedy replicant designed as a buffoon to laugh at while being physically harmless. He could sing, dance, make funny faces, do impressions, etc.
Quote from: Schwartzwald;1004075Gary Coleman would be a prototype for a comedy replicant designed as a buffoon to laugh at while being physically harmless. He could sing, dance, make funny faces, do impressions, etc.
Maybe a comedy routine with a robotic straight man. Bidi bidi...
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Quote from: Itachi;1004042[ATTACH=CONFIG]1882[/ATTACH]
Well, heres a serious answer: both Transhuman Space and Eclipse Phase already deal with the themes Blade Runner present (replicants and artificial beings struggles, freedom and civil rights issues) in a pretty well-thought way. In TS it's one of the settings central issues, and it shows how different nations and cultures view it, how each have structured their laws around it, etc. (Eg: the in European Union replicants have full human rights, while in USA they're killed on sight, and the off-world habitats usually don't give a fuck). It's worth a read even if one won't play them. My problem with those games is their rules. Both GURPS and EP's are beyond what I consider fun to interact with these days. But your mileage may vary.
Problems:
A: I didn't ask about Transhuman Space.
B: You are purely talking about 'themes' and 'issues', which can be brought organically to the table in just about any game... however the 'setting' may bring it in the book, its the GM and Players who generally have to bring it at the table. So to answer my question, still badly mind, you'd have to talk about the means by which the game assists players and GMs in creating the 'themes' and 'issues'. Generally that would be mechanically in some way, as Call of Cthulu brings, mechanically, the themes to the table via insanity mechanics.
My wild-eyed accusation wasn't at random. ANY random rule set can be forced to support the 'setting' of Blade Runner, the question is how much internal, organic... and yes Mechanical, support the game brings to Blade Runner itself. I mean: I wouldn't personally want to play Blade Runner in the Vineyard because DitV doesn't create a game style I would appreciate, but to me equally important is that nothing in DitV supports, say, the existance of Replicants... but it does (from what I know) support Investigations and shooting shit to death.
My tongue in cheek offering of Wasteworld fails for the exact same reason an earlier comment from another poster about World of Darkness fails: You'd wind up junking far more than it would give you, and would conversely spend far too much energy trying to create your own structures to create a Blade Runner style game.
Offering a game because you 'like it' or because 'it creates a mood' is silly. Its NOISE. Shitposts (which I'm guilty of) aren't signal either, but at least no one is likely to mistake them for Signal (that is to say a meaningful contribution) at first glance.
Me? I could easily turn Transhuman Space into Blade Runner. Most people could. Eclipse Phase? Sure, I could do it. I can even break down the processes by which I'd actually 'make it work', but I'm curious if you can. But here, all you offer is 'Theme' and 'Issue'. Shit, man, I can import Theme and Issue into a game of 20th level D&D characters with magic swords and call it 'Blade Runner'.
Quote from: Krimson;1004063I suppose I shouldn't mention the movie 1998 Soldier with Kurt Russel is set in the same universe as Blade Runner. :D
Soldier is great old-school SF fun and is underrated.
Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;1004104Soldier is great old-school SF fun and is underrated.
Agreed.
And I have no issues with psychic (magic) powers and aliens in my Science Fiction, because no one, and I mean NO ONE gaming is smart enough to know how the world is going to be like in even 10 years, much less 50. And I am so very amused when I see people try with so called 'Hard Science Fiction', which often ends up just being crapsack worlds with a different sort of magic.
Why does everyone forget the FICTION part of the term anyway?
I'm totally convinced. Bladerunner would have been just as fine, or better, if Roy Batty had gone a quest to find the magical life extending unicorn that deckard dreamt about. Maybe add some other aliens and magical beings to his replicant crew.
I can imagine it, a fellowship consisting of Roy, Zhora, Leon, Priss, E.T., Gandalf the White.
"We're off to see the unicorn, the magical unicorn of life!"
Why didn't Ridley Scott think of that?
Quote from: Krimson;1004063I suppose I shouldn't mention the movie 1998 Soldier with Kurt Russel is set in the same universe as Blade Runner. :D
Dude...trigger warnings, pls.
Well, the thing is bladerunner just showed one setting Los Angeles. It showed it as a horrible dystopian living hell in earth where a fortunate few lived in splendor while most of the living suffered in squallor and envied the dead. So it was modern LA with a video blimp overhead. It talked about off world colonies and showed a Forrest at the end. But it was all L.A.
Br2049 is mostly set in LA, even more hellish jus like it is today than in 1982, and a few other desolate areas. Again we hear if new off world colonies but no real details. So if we expanded the br world to encompass these colonies and possibly the solar system if it's been developed, that could make a decent RPG setting.
Quote from: ArrozConLeche;1004127Why didn't Ridley Scott think of that?
Because he's not Phillip K Dick. :D
Anybody know why the movie was set in Los Angeles rather than San Francisco, and why they changed the date by two whole years as if that made a difference somehow? I always thought those were utterly pointless changes. Is there something I missed?
Quote from: Dumarest;1004189Anybody know why the movie was set in Los Angeles rather than San Francisco, and why they changed the date by two whole years as if that made a difference somehow? I always thought those were utterly pointless changes. Is there something I missed?
The original Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep novel was set in 1992, actually, but they changed it in later editions. There is a whole bunch of stuff that is different or not included in the movie from the book, so one can only say it was an inspiration for the movie rather than a straight adaptation. Why is the movie set in Los Angeles? Hollywood, probably. Every other movie to come out of Hollywood is set in Los Angeles, and Ridley Scott probably didn't have much say.
I think BR was set in LA in tribute to the noir movies and Chandler novels it drew visual inspiration from.
Quote from: Dumarest;1004189Anybody know why the movie was set in Los Angeles rather than San Francisco, and why they changed the date by two whole years as if that made a difference somehow? I always thought those were utterly pointless changes. Is there something I missed?
L.A. versus San Francisco, Why L.A.?Well, there is quite a difference in the evocative aspects of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Having the opportunity to walk around both San Francisco, as well as Los Angeles beginning in the late 1960's, my memories of both are quite different. My first memories of San Francisco from 1969 brings back images of large schools of very noisy sea lions, fisherman's wharf, and cannery row. I can remember even now the cool sandy beaches of Monterey, the hippie houseboat colony in the shadows of the Golden Gate bridge, the superdense early morning sea fog, the overpowering smell of the Pacific, the kelp, the jellyfish, and the sea stars. All of this and the Golden Gate in the fog, are the very first things that I think of, whenever envisioning San Francisco, so ...not Noir!
Los Angeles, on the other hand, is landlocked, and developed quite differently. It was originally built like a copy of Gotham, with its dark and brooding buildings, especially in the old downtown, I think there is even a street named Broadway in the old Los Angeles ...downtown ( Yes there is, and the Bradbury Hotels sits on 3rd & Broadway!). Back in the prohibition era, when every basement in old L.A. had a speakeasy complete with a Jazz Band, this was the foundation of Noir, a place just beyond the wild west where real men met in dark alleys near ancient dilapidated warehouses, ...where old meets new in a confusing and disjointed mix, all with fantastic nightclubs, cops, gangsters, explorers, dilettantes, newspaper reporters, wealthy adventurers, and private detectives all mingling on warm cloudless moonlit nights.
These two are very different in my mind from my firsthand experiences of both, and I'm not the only one, it would seem, who caught this vibe.
Music specifically for getting into this mood now;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zl5vpy__dQ&index=3&list=PLaGfAw4Cs-Z-lf-3Wk52v8jgQ-vsUyVS2
Blade Runner's Los Angeles feels lived in and used, like a place with a history. Like a well-developed character, it has its own life and backstory. It serves its own purpose. The movie has stayed relevant for so long in part because its world feels real in a way few science fiction films ever achieve.
I'm going to touch on the deliberate choice of the Bradbury Building for the original Bladerunner, before I finish this post today as well as some salient facts and interesting stories about Bladerunner and L.A. For example. ...Although Philip K. Dick died shortly before the film's release, he was pleased with the rewritten script and with a 20-minute special effects test reel that was screened for him when he was invited to the studio. Despite his well-known skepticism of Hollywood in principle, Dick enthused to Scott that the world created for the film looked exactly as he had imagined it. He said, "I saw a segment of Douglas Trumbull's special effects for Blade Runner on the KNBC-TV news. I recognized it immediately. It was my own interior world. They caught it perfectly." He also approved of the film's script, saying, "After I finished reading the screenplay, I got the novel out and looked through it. The two reinforce each other, so that someone who started with the novel would enjoy the movie and someone who started with the movie would enjoy the novel."
Sammon recounts a story told by the movie's art director, David Snyder, during the building of Blade Runner's elaborate street set -- a re-dressing of a New York street set dubbed Ridleytown -- Scott showed up to inspect the work. The team had worked for months to create the sort of dense, retrofitted industrial look that Scott had in mind, and they were already $1 million over budget. They thought they had done everything they could. Scott arrived, looked around, said, "It's a great start," then left them to figure out how to take his ideas even further.
More good music to keep you in the mood: Dale Cooper Quartet and the Dictaphones – Parole de Navarre (2007)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awUsLrEb1EU
On Bladerunner, Noir, and Dashiell HammettAnother person that I believe who can best speak as to why the L.A. Noir style was deliberately chosen for the original Blade Runner would be Lillian Hellman, who provides the following introduction for Dashiell Hammetts "The Big Knockover", which was an anthology of West Coast Noir stories (mostly set in L.A. in the 1920's and 1930's) that was published five years after his death in nineteen-sixty-six. Coincidentally, this was the very same year that Philip K. Dick wrote "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?";For years we made jokes about the day I would write about him. In the early years, I would say "Tell me more about the girl in San Francisco. The silly one who lived across the hall in Pine Street." And he would laugh and say "She lived across the hall in Pine Street and was silly."
"Tell me more than that. How much did you like her, and...?"
He would yawn. "Finish your drink and go to sleep."
But days later, maybe even that night, if I was on the find-out kick, and I was, most of the years, I would say, "Okay, tell me about your grandmother and what you looked like as a baby."
"I was a very fat baby. My grandmother went to the movies every afternoon. She was very fond of a movie star called Wallace Reid and I have told you all of this before."
I would say I wanted to get everything straight for the days after his death when I would write his biography and he would say that I was not to bother with writing his biography because it would turn out to be the history of Lillian Hellman with occasional references to a friend called Hammett.
The day of his death came almost five years ago, on January 19th, 1961. I will never write that biography because I cannot write about my closest, my most beloved friend. And maybe, too, because all those questions through the thirty-one on and off years, and the sometimes answers, got muddled, and life changed for both of us and the questions and answers became one in the end, flowing together from the days when I was young to the days when I was middle-aged. And so this will be no attempt at a biography of Samuel Dashiell Hammett, born in St. Mary's County, Maryland on May 27th, 1894. Nor will this be a critical appraisal of the stories in the book. There was a day I thought all of them very good. But all of them are not good, though most of them, I think, are very good. It is only right to say immediately that, by publishing them at all, I have done what Hammett did not want to do: He turned down offers to republish the stories although I never knew the reason and never asked. I did know, from what he said about "Tulip" the unfinished novel that is included in this book, that he meant to start a new literary life, and maybe didn't want the old work to get in the way. But sometimes I think he was just to ill to care, too worn out to listen to plans or to read contracts. The fact of breathing, just breathing, took up all the days and nights.
In the First World War, in camp, influenza led to tuberculosis, and Hammett was to spend years after in army hospitals. He came out of the Second World War with emphysema, but how he ever got into the Second World War, at the age of forty-eight, still bewilders me. He telephoned me the day the army accepted him to say it was the happiest day of his life and before I could finish saying it wasn't the happiest day of my life and what about the old scars on his lungs, he laughed and hung up. His death was caused by cancer of the lungs, discovered only two months before he died. It was not operable--I doubt that he would have agreed to an operation even if it had been-and so I decided not to tell him about the cancer. The doctor said that when the pain came, it would come in the right chest, and arm, but that the pain might never come. The doctor was wrong, only a few hours after he told me the pain did come. Hammett had had self-diagnosed rheumatism in the right arm and had always said that was why he had given up hunting. On the day I heard about the cancer, he said his gun shoulder hurt him again, would I rub it for him. I remember sitting behind him, rubbing the shoulder and thinking I hope he always thinks its rheumatism and remember only the autumn hunting days. But the pain never came again, or if it did, he never mentioned it, or maybe death was so close that the shoulder pain faded into other pains.
He did not wish to die, and I like to think he didn't know he was dying. But I keep from myself, even now, the possible meaning of a night, very late, a short time before his death. I came into his room and for the only time in the many years I knew him, there were tears in his eyes, and a book lying unread. I sat down beside him and waited a long time before I could say "Do you want to talk about it?". He said, almost with anger "No, my only chance is not to talk about it.." And he never did. His patience, his courage, and his dignity in those suffering months were very great. It was as if all that makes a man's life had come together to prove itself: Suffering was a private matter and there was to be no invasion of it. He would seldom even ask for anything that he needed, and so the most we did--my secretary and my cook who were devoted to him, as most women had always been--was to carry the meals he barely touched, the books he could now hardly read, the afternoon coffee and the martini that I insisted upon before the dinner that wasn't eaten. One night of the last year, a bad night, I said, "have another martini, it will make you feel better." "No." he said, "I Don't want it." I said "Okay, but I bet you never thought I would urge you to have another drink." He laughed for the first time that day. "Nope. And I never thought I would turn it down."
Because on the night we had first met he was getting over a five-day drunk and he was to drink very heavily for the next eighteen years, and then one day, warned by a doctor, he said he would never have another drink and he kept his word except for that last year of one martini, and that was my idea.
We met when I was twenty-four years old and he was thirty-six in a restaurant in Hollywood. The five day drunk had left the wonderful face looking rumpled and the very tall thin figure was very tired and sagged. We talked of T.S. Elliot, although I no longer remember what we said, and then we went over and sat in his car and talked at each other and over each other until it was daylight. We were to meet again, a few weeks later and, after that, on and sometimes off again for the rest of his life and thirty years of mine.
Thirty years is a long time, I guess, and yet as I come now to write about them the memories skip about and make no pattern and I know only certain of them are to be trusted. I know about that first meeting, and the next, and there are many other pictures and sounds, but they are out of order and out of time, and I don't seem to want to put them into place. (I could have done a research job, I have on other people, but I didn't want to do one on Hammett, or to be a bookkeeper of my own life."
Later on, in another part of this twenty-five page Introduction Lily goes on to speak of Hammett and what he valued when she was arguing with him about his role as a trustee of bail bond fund of the Civil Rights Congress. He had made up Honor early in his life, and stuck with his rules fierce in the protection of them. In 1951 he was a board member, and refused to reveal the names of contributors to the fund. The truth was that he didn't even know the names of the contributors, as he wasn't even on the committee that was in charge of the contributors list, however he had found himself in court being questioned by a Federal Judge after receiving a Subpoena.
Hammett testified on July 9, 1951, in front of United States District Court Judge Sylvester Ryan, facing questioning by Irving Saypol, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, described by Time as "the nation's number one legal hunter of top Communists". During the hearing, Hammett refused to provide the information the government wanted, specifically the list of contributors to the bail fund, "people who might be sympathetic enough to harbor the fugitives."Instead, on every question regarding the CRC or the bail fund, Hammett declined to answer, citing the Fifth Amendment, refusing to even identify his signature or initials on CRC documents the government had subpoenaed. As soon as his testimony concluded, Hammett was found guilty of contempt of court.
Hammett served time in a West Virginia federal penitentiary where, according to Lillian Hellman, he was assigned to clean toilets. Hellman noted in her eulogy of Hammett that he submitted to prison rather than reveal the names of the contributors to the fund because "he had come to the conclusion that a man should keep his word."
About a year after his release in 1953, Hammett was investigated by Congress. He testified on March 26, 1953, before the House Un-American Activities Committee about his own activities but refused to cooperate with the committee. No official action was taken, but his stand led to his being blacklisted, along with others who were blacklisted, as a result of McCarthyism, and his books were no longer being published, or sold. As a veteran of two wars, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
So, ...It turns out that dark Noir has very real roots in the darkness that pervaded L.A. from the 1920's through the mid-1950's. A darkness that was not so much in San Francisco, and very much mirrored in both Blade Runner movies, as well as the novel originally published by Philip K. Dick. Coincidences are not something I much believe in these days.
Also, these real memories won't be lost, ...like tears in the rain, because there is a tradition of storytellers and bards (and now movie makers) that carry these stories through from past to future to reveal that the future Is simply the past, unmasked.
Bryant: "He's not good enough, not good as you. I need you, Deck. This is a bad one, the worst yet. I need the old Blade Runner, I need your magic."
Deckard: "I was quit when I came in here. I'm twice as quit now."
Bryant: "Stop right where you are. You know the score pal. If you're not cop, you're little people."
Deckard: "No Choice, Huh?"
Bryant: "None, Pal."On the Bradbury BuildingThe story of the building's origins is, in itself, bizarre and remarkable: From the outside, the Bradbury in downtown L.A. just looks like a brick office building at the corner of 3rd and Broadway. It seems unremarkable, but the magic happens when you step inside. The Bradbury is basically a tall, narrow courtyard, walled in with terra cotta, covered with a glass ceiling, and flanked with two clanking hydraulic-powered elevators. Human conductors still operate them.
The Bradbury opened in 1893, long before movies ever came to L.A. For the record, it's not named after sci-fi novelist Ray Bradbury, but for Lewis Bradbury--a gold-mining millionaire who decided he wanted to make a building with his name on it. In 1892, Bradbury commissioned Sumner Hunt, a famous architect, to design his building. As the story goes, Bradbury didn't like any of the plans that Hunt showed him, so he pulled aside George Wyman, one of Hunt's young draftsmen, and asked him to build his very important half-million-dollar office building. Wyman had no professional training as an architect. Not only was he totally unqualified, but he also didn't want to be seen taking business away from his boss. But it was an incredible opportunity, so Wyman undertook the then-common practice of attempting to contact a deceased relative for advice on whether to take on the challenge. Wyman attempted to contact his dead brother, Mark, using a planchette, a precursor to a Ouija board that wrote out sentences with a pencil when you rested your hands on it. When Wyman consulted the board, it spelled out in a childlike script: "Take Bradbury … you will be … " before trailing off into an indecipherable scribble. Read upside down, it said:
successful. That was a clear enough message for Wyman, so he said yes.
Wyman was also inspired by Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, a utopian science fiction book set in the futuristic world of 2000.
Wyman gave the building an oversized skylight which Esther McCoy calls "a fairy tale of mathematics." The building features lovely bas-reliefs, ornate wooden doors, geometrically patterned staircases, open-caged elevators (originally steam-powered!), iron grillwork, and marble floors.
So this was a commission based on Ouija board reading. A unique building whose internal look was a guess at what the year 2000 would look like, ...from the viewpoint of 1892. A bold look from the past into the future, used by the movie from the future, as a look into a forlorn and decadent past.
Fact: Today, most of the office space in the Bradbury belongs to the internal affairs division of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Fact: prior to the filming of Blade Runner, The Bradbury was in serious disrepair , and was rotting or decomposing, making it an ideal location for filming requiring very little work to portray. After the movie it was rehabilitated and reinforced to withstand earthquakes in 1991.
Fact: It has been featured in more than fifteen books, movies, and comics, and is an iconic location
On 2049, the Thirty-two Year Jump from the Present. ...As far as I can tell, is without any meaning or purpose, except as another eccentricity or anachronism. The new story was simply crafted to take place 30 years after the original story took place in 2019.
References:
The Big Knockover by
Dashiell Hammetthttps://www.amazon.com/Big-Knockover-Selected-Stories-Novels/dp/0679722599/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509214812&sr=1-1&keywords=the+big+knockover+by+dashiell+hammett+%2Bvintage+books
Blade Runner on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner
Los Angeles Modern Architectural Home Tourshttp://www.cnn.com/travel/article/los-angeles-modern-architecture-home-tours/index.html
Blade Runner's 2019 Los Angeles helped define the American city of the futurehttps://www.vox.com/culture/2017/10/2/16375126/blade-runner-future-city-ridley-scott
Life After Empathy: On Philip K. Dick and Blade Runner 2049https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/10/23/life-after-empathy-on-blade-runner-2049/
'Blade Runner 2049': How does Philip K. Dick's vision hold up?http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-books-blade-runner-2049-philip-k-dick-20171019-story.html
Blade Runner 2049: how Philip K Dick's classic novel has stood the test of*time https://theconversation.com/blade-runner-2049-how-philip-k-dicks-classic-novel-has-stood-the-test-of-time-74940
Why was Blade Runner set in Los Angeles?https://www.google.com/search?q=why+was+blade+runner+set+in+los+angeles
This Building is the Biggest Architectural Movie Star in all of Los Angeleshttp://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2015/07/15/the_bradbury_building_is_the_biggest_architectural_movie_star_in_los_angeles.html
The Bradbury Building Offscreenhttps://la.curbed.com/2017/6/22/15847048/bradbury-building-movies-blade-runner
Better tell Sam Spade that San Francisco is not noir.
Quote from: Dumarest;1004335Better tell Sam Spade that San Francisco is not noir.
Not anymore, I mean, yeah it's probably got some dark aspects, but it's not LA. Which is still violent to this day. San Fran is considered the mecca for the progressives.
Quote from: Dumarest;1004335Better tell Sam Spade that San Francisco is not noir.
Yeah, it's funny. There's not a single city on Earth where you couldn't run noir, IMO:)!
Quote from: Itachi;1003844No need for another full fledged hard sci-ish game/setting, IMO. Transhuman Space and Eclipse Phase already allow the exploration of those themes seen in the movies, and even more.
Oh, and about the wars in space that Batty saw? They were wars among replicants. Corp A's replicant army vs Corp B replicant army. The new film seem to corroborate on this.
I admit, I've also assumed that those were wars between replicants.
But that cover should have read "Far Future Enterprises";).
The person running this website is a racist who publicly advocates genocidal practices.
I am deleting my content.
I recommend you do the same.
IIRC the Soldier's service record listed "Tanhauser Gate" as a tour of duty.
Edit: Arm tatoo. More info here: bladerunner.wikia.com
Yeah, Blade Runner would totally be a decent RPG setting.
Back in the '80s I ran about a year-long Blade Runner campaign set in England using the RQ3 rules (with a bit of CoC sanity thrown in). It was depressing as hell. It was a good time.