The Black Campbell

So…you can use your Promotion Points in the Blade Runner RPG, but what exactly are those awards and medals? Here’s a list of real (and a few imagined for the Blade Runnersetting) for your characters to spend PP on.

Los Angeles Police Department Awards and Decorations

The awards and medals are not presented in their order of precedence when displaced on an officer’s uniform.

Awards for Bravery

Medal of Valor: Given for individual acts of bravery above and beyond the call of duty, this medal is awarded by the Board of Police Commissioners and the Chief of Police, and is the highest award in the department. It was first presented in 1925 and is awarded at a yearly banquet for the medal’s recipients.

Preservation of Life Medal: This medal may be awarded to an officer who has distinguished himself or herself by employing exceptional tactics and exercising sound judgment, beyond the normal demands of duty, to preserve the life of another during a volatile or dangerous encounter while protecting the safety and security of the public or fellow officers.

Police Medal: Awarded for individual acts of bravery in the line of duty (though not above and beyond the call).

Purple Heart: Awarded to officers who sustain traumatic injury due to suspect action in the line of duty. May also be awarded posthumously when officer dies due to suspect’s actions.

Police Star: An award for bravery performed with exceptional judgment and/or utilization of tactics to defuse dangerous situations.

Police Lifesaving Medal: Given for bravery in the act of rescuing or attempting to rescue a fellow officer or other person in imminent danger.

Awards for Service

Police Distinguished Service Medal: The Distinguished Service Medal is the department’s highest award for service and may be awarded to officers or other employees who distinguish themselves by performing exceptional service in a duty of great responsibility or of critical importance to law enforcement.

Police Meritorious Service Medal: This medal is awarded to employees who distinguish themselves by performing exception service in a position of of great responsibility or critical importance to law enforcement, but to a lesser degree than required for the Distinguished Service Medal.

Police Meritorious Achievement Medal: Primarily a civilian award, given for either sustained, long-term, noteworthy achievement or a single significant, noteworthy achievement in the administrative, clerical, or craft duties.

Police Commission Distinguished Service Medal: This medal is given for exceptional performance in service to the LAPD in stressful or emergency situations with good judgment or bravery.

Police Commission Integrity Medal: Awarded for actions of exemplary integrity, requiring personal character, fortitude or moral courage.

Community Policing Medal: This medal is given to personnel who have solved a significant community problem, included the community in the problem solving process, and/or showing a commitment to the department’s community policing philosophy.

Human Relations Medal: Awarded to officers who have shown compassion and gone above and beyond the call of duty in their response to their fellow human beings.

Unit Citations

(These are typically authorized for uniform wear while serving with the unit.)

Police Commission Unit Citation: The highest unit award, this citation is given to an organization unit of the department for bravery or outstanding service by its members functioning as a team.

Police Meritorious Unit Citation: Awarded to an organizational unit of the department for bravery or outstanding service by its members, but to a lesser degree than the Commission Unit Citation.

Commendations

Commendation Ribbon: The ribbon is authorized for wear after the employee has received 40 minor or major commendations or citizen letters. After 80 such commendations, a bronze oak leaf is worn on the ribbon. After 120 commendations, the bronze oak leaf is replaced with a silver star. after 160 commendations, the silver star is replaced by a gold star.

Patrol Service Ribbon: The ribbon is authorized for wear after 5 years of patrol services as an officer, sergeant, or lieutenant. After 10 years, a bronze oak leaf is worn on the ribbon. After 15 years, the leaf is replaced by a silver star, and after 20 years, with a gold star.

Detective Service Ribbon: This ribbon is authorized after 5 years with investigative units as a detective or lieutenant. As with the Patrol Service Ribbon, the bronze oak leaf device is worn on the ribbon after 10 years, a silver star after 15, and gold star after 20 years.

Replicant Detection Ribbon: The ribbon is authorized for wear 5 years with investigative units as a detective or lieutenant and is noted for its metal knife device on detective’s ribbon (hence the nickname “blade runner”). The bronze knife device is replace with a silver blade on the ribbon after 10 years, a gold blade after 15, and gold star after 20 years.

Reserve Service Ribbon: Awarded for 4000 hours of service as a reserve officer.

Event Awards

1984 Summer Olympics Ribbon: Given to any officer who saw service during the period of the Olympic Games in 1984.

1987 Papal Visit Ribbon: Given to any officer who saw service during the period of the Papal visit in 1987.

1992 Civil Disturbance Ribbon: Given to any officer who saw service during the period of the riots of 1992.

1994 Earthquake Ribbon: Given to any officer who saw service during the period of Jan 17-18, 1994.

2000 Democratic National Convention Ribbon: Given to any officer who saw service during the period of the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

2010 Replicant Rebellion Ribbon: Given to officers who saw service during the events of the 2010 Nexus 5 rebellion.

2022 Blackout Ribbon: Given to any officer who saw service during the period of the Blackout in 2022.

Qualification Ribbons

Urban Police Rifle Cadre Ribbon: Given to any officer who is qualified to use a police urban rifle.

Shotgun Slug Ammunition Cadre Ribbon: Given to any officer who is qualified to use a shotgun with slug ammunition.

Voight-Kampf Testing Ribbon: Officers must have qualified with use of the Voight-Kampf Detection Device.

Aerial Vehicle Ribbon: Officer must have passed classroom and solo flight testing for use of dpartmental aerial vehicles.

Distinguished Expert Marksman Badge: Officers must score 2310 out of 2400in a consecutive six-month period in voluntary bonus qualification shoots held each month. (Characters must have a B or higher in both Agility and Firearms, gives 1 chiyen per session.)

Expert Marksman Badge: Offices must score 380 out of a possible 400 in voluntary qualification shoots held each month. (Characters must have a B in either Agility and Firearms, gives 1 chiyen per session. does not stack with DEM Badge.)

Sharpshooter Marksman Badge: Offices must score 340 out of a possible 400 in voluntary qualification shoots held each month. (Characters must have a C or higher in both Agility and Firearms.)

Marksmanship Badge: Offices must score 300 out of a possible 400 in voluntary qualification shoots held each month. (Characters must have a C in either Agility and Firearms.)

I remember seeing Blade Runner in the theaters in 1982 and being stunned by the visuals, the noir flavor, and the “big questions” that the movie asked. I was 15 or 16, at the time. The movie stuck with me, and with the release of the director’s cut, cemented as my favorite movie. I was adamantly opposed to the sequel movie, almost offended by the very notion — even though I had preferred the director’s, then the “Final Cut” more than the original release version. (I especially like that the Final Cut is just a cleaned up release of Ridley Scott’s workprint — a giant “up yours!” to the producers that mucked with the picture before release. Then I surrendered and watched Blade Runner: 2049 because Denis Villeneuve is a superb director and the original writer was in. I was not disappointed: although it’s long at three hours, the movie is gorgeous, well-acted and written, the movie score by Hans Zimmer blends well with the original Vangelis soundtrack, and the pacing is better than the original. Overall, I found it to be a better movie.

So I was all in when Free League, the Swedish RPG company that’s given us the excellent Tales From the Loop, Forbidden Lands, and Alien, announced their Kickstarter to push Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game out the door. (You can still do a late pledge!)

The game is up to the usual Free League standards, with atmospheric art that evokes the world of the movies, straightforward writing for the rules and good interstitial pieces to set the tone (a difficult task, as I can attest to, having started in RPGs doing the latter, then graduating to the former.) The layouts are clean, and similar in style to the Alien RPG. The game is set in 2037, after the revocation of the ban of replicants and draws from the two movies, the Black Lotus animated series, and hints from a few of the books and comic books. The players can play a replicant or a human, and the differences show up in their attributes vs. skills — humans are usually around longer and have higher skills; replicants are younger (unless you’re one of those old models…) and have higher physical and mental attributes, but lower skills in general. There are rules for key memories and relationships that can be roleplayed for “promotion points” that allow you to improve the character. There are also “humanity points” that allow a character to become more human or empathic, and lastly there’s a Chiyen point — essentially the “currency” of the world. This is not a game where you sweat money; you either have chiyen to buy something, or you’re reduced to basics until you get some.

The characters, like most FL games based on the Mutant Year Zero ruleset have four attributes: Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Empathy that tie to certain skills. There are three generalized skills under each (for instance Connections, Insight, and Manipulation under Empathy). The dearth of skills in the MYZ systems worked well for Tales from the Loop, but my players thought them a bit lacking for Alien, so I was interested to see what they thought of the changes made for Blade Runner. The main differences are, similar to their Twilight: 2000 RPG reboot, the characters are graded on their skills and attributes with an A-F scale (although players are never lower than D in Blade Runner.) These equate to a die d12 for an A down to d6 for a D; players roll their skill and the attribute die and want to hit a 6 or higher to have a success. Ten or higher is a critical success.

The simplicity of the d6 die pool from Alien is gone, but the group seemed to prefer this for several reasons. 1) There’s a visual and tactile difference in your abilities with different die (and for those who like different dice, this can be more fun!) 2) It’s more simple that simple the d6 die pool but we found — strangely — your ability to get a success was enhanced with the two dice. We’ve had games were well over a dozen dice were rolled and no successes. 3) With an advantage or disadvantage, you gain another of the lowest die you were rolling, or on a disadvantage, lost that lowest die.

Combat is vicious, and more so than Alien. The damage is set for weapon types plus the number of successes rolled and taken from your health, which represents stamina, pain, etc. Critical success roll a die based on the weapon (or your Strength for HTH and melee) and do some form of damage that lasts, similar to Alien. Additionally, you still take stress like in Alien, but it comes out of your Resolve — your “mental health”. Critical damage to your resolve can break you temporarily. I found I thought this would be an excellent 2nd Edition for Alien, which is already pretty bloody deadly. For this initial release of the game (I have the “early release” beta of the PDF), the characters are all assumed to be members of the LAPD and Blade Runners of some sort, but with a bit of finagling, you could fudge civilian characters without much trouble.

The setting is outlined over 80 or so pages. There’s information on the government, media, Wallace Corporation, etc. There is also a decent bit of material on the structure of the police department, how promotion points play into commendations, promotions, or use for gear or other benefits. There’s a nice section on police procedures and how to work a crime scene that would make a good handout.

Our first play session was just a few days ago, and afterward I talked to the group about the experience. We all seemed to prefer the use of different dice. (I was skeptical, but it works better than the d6 pools.) The addition of a DRIVE skill that wasn’t tied to your attribute, but rather the maneuverability of the vehicle was a nice touch. The ability to aid other players by throwing in a skill die into the pool was a good addition — during their sweep of the streets after they caught a triple homicide, the character with the best EMPATHY+CONNECTIONS rolled, while the other two players involved rolled their skill and added successes.

So…is it worth it? The core book is likely to be somewhere in the usual $60 range. It’s got good art, a playable system, and loads of information to be able to hit the ground in this universe. I’d say yes, it’s worth it. Even at the $130 or so my pledge was gives me the starter set, the core book, and all the digital add-ons. I don’t feel I lost out at that price, either.