Interesting!
I think we have to look at the tenses in which we use the verbs.
In the present continuous :
"Get him, he's running away!" This means "escaping". I can't think of a sentence with "He's running off"
In the past tense, I think there are slight differences between the two verbs.
I would say that" running away" is more calculated. "They ran away to Spain to get married"
"My dog ran off and I haven't seen him in 2 weeks"
"He ran off with some girl he'd just met"
"Running off" may be more spontaneous, less calculated.