I know there's been a couple of threads about a Borderlands RPG, saying people mod one system or another, but this isn't one of those. This is a call for a concerted effort to make a Borderlands specific tabletop RPG.
I've been thinking about it for, okay seriously, only two days as of the posting of this thread (yeah, maybe I should have thought about it longer, but oh well.)
The idea I have is to have this fairly awesome and creative community of players (you guys, yes I'm kissing butt right now) to pull together and make a fully-functional BL RPG.
We start with the D20 Open Gaming License rules found here: http://www.d20srd.org/ogl.htm, from Wizards of the Coast (3.5 rules). Because they're open source, we can use it, modify, and post it - as long as we don't use any 'flavor' text from any of their books (which, since the worlds are so different, I don't see an issue.)
We then modify it to come up with new weapons, new feats, new ways of attack, classes, races, and so forth, until we have solid game.
Here are the rules:
If you're interested, post.
We're all going to assume people have read the D20 system and are familiar with it.
This is a community effort, not a 'team' effort. Everyone is welcome, there's no tryouts.
No-one, in any way (except Gearbox) is allowed to attempt to make any monetary profit from this. This idea is now, and will remain non-profit and open-source.
If someone comes up with a rule you don't like, explain POLITELY why you don't think it'll work. Alternate rules can always be suggested.
I will attempt to collate the rules as we go and post a link to a document containing the rules, but they'll also always be listed here.
Borderlands, all it's characters, and everything about it is trademarked and/or copyrighted. If Gearbox doesn't think this is cool, and they shut it down, or parts of it, it's completely within their rights to do so.
Hopefully, there are enough people who are possibly excited about this universe, and want to take it out of the 'box' and onto the tabletop to make something like this work.
If you're not familiar with the SRD/D20 Opensource system, look here: http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm
Some new stats and things I'm thinking about, to start a small game:
Races: Everyone's human. No Eridians, sorry. Although, humans can take a 'Birth Defect' at character creation to become 'Big Boned' (think Brick, Goliaths) and get -2 to INT and WIS and +2 to STR and CON, or they can be a 'Midgit' and take -2 to STR and CON and +2 to DEX and INT.
Classes = the core Borderlands classes will be there, with some minor differences:
Commando/Soldier (let's face it, they're the same class)
Berserker (Heavy Melee based class)
Gunzerker (Heavy Weapons based class)
Hunter (Uses 'natural' animal pets)
Mechromancer (Uses robotic pets)
Phasewalker (Siryn with the phasewalk ability)
Phaseshifter (Siryn with the Phase Lock ability)
Assassin (stealth and sniping)
Each of these classes can diversify their core abilities through newly created feats based on the game, and can be taken directly from the skill tree.
As far as combat is concerned, obviously, there's going to be a lot of gunplay. I'm thinking that, for the most part, we include bits from the game into this. Such as:
Accuracy (remember, as anyone knows who plays RPGs, sometimes the rules overwrite common sense, so the game can be both challenging and fair.) Accuracy will be represented by both a percentage and a range. For instance, a standard pistol might have a 67%/20' rating, which means if you shoot at your target from /within/ 20', you don't have to worry about it. From 20-30 feet, you have to roll both your 'to hit' roll and a percentage dice. If you make both rolls, you hit. Accuracy drops ten percent every 'range increment' after that.
Once we have the core figured out, such as class progression and combat, I think as a community we can really get a very rich gaming atmosphere going. Let's discuss!
I've been thinking about it for, okay seriously, only two days as of the posting of this thread (yeah, maybe I should have thought about it longer, but oh well.)
The idea I have is to have this fairly awesome and creative community of players (you guys, yes I'm kissing butt right now) to pull together and make a fully-functional BL RPG.
We start with the D20 Open Gaming License rules found here: http://www.d20srd.org/ogl.htm, from Wizards of the Coast (3.5 rules). Because they're open source, we can use it, modify, and post it - as long as we don't use any 'flavor' text from any of their books (which, since the worlds are so different, I don't see an issue.)
We then modify it to come up with new weapons, new feats, new ways of attack, classes, races, and so forth, until we have solid game.
Here are the rules:
If you're interested, post.
We're all going to assume people have read the D20 system and are familiar with it.
This is a community effort, not a 'team' effort. Everyone is welcome, there's no tryouts.
No-one, in any way (except Gearbox) is allowed to attempt to make any monetary profit from this. This idea is now, and will remain non-profit and open-source.
If someone comes up with a rule you don't like, explain POLITELY why you don't think it'll work. Alternate rules can always be suggested.
I will attempt to collate the rules as we go and post a link to a document containing the rules, but they'll also always be listed here.
Borderlands, all it's characters, and everything about it is trademarked and/or copyrighted. If Gearbox doesn't think this is cool, and they shut it down, or parts of it, it's completely within their rights to do so.
Hopefully, there are enough people who are possibly excited about this universe, and want to take it out of the 'box' and onto the tabletop to make something like this work.
If you're not familiar with the SRD/D20 Opensource system, look here: http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm
Some new stats and things I'm thinking about, to start a small game:
Races: Everyone's human. No Eridians, sorry. Although, humans can take a 'Birth Defect' at character creation to become 'Big Boned' (think Brick, Goliaths) and get -2 to INT and WIS and +2 to STR and CON, or they can be a 'Midgit' and take -2 to STR and CON and +2 to DEX and INT.
Classes = the core Borderlands classes will be there, with some minor differences:
Commando/Soldier (let's face it, they're the same class)
Berserker (Heavy Melee based class)
Gunzerker (Heavy Weapons based class)
Hunter (Uses 'natural' animal pets)
Mechromancer (Uses robotic pets)
Phasewalker (Siryn with the phasewalk ability)
Phaseshifter (Siryn with the Phase Lock ability)
Assassin (stealth and sniping)
Each of these classes can diversify their core abilities through newly created feats based on the game, and can be taken directly from the skill tree.
As far as combat is concerned, obviously, there's going to be a lot of gunplay. I'm thinking that, for the most part, we include bits from the game into this. Such as:
Accuracy (remember, as anyone knows who plays RPGs, sometimes the rules overwrite common sense, so the game can be both challenging and fair.) Accuracy will be represented by both a percentage and a range. For instance, a standard pistol might have a 67%/20' rating, which means if you shoot at your target from /within/ 20', you don't have to worry about it. From 20-30 feet, you have to roll both your 'to hit' roll and a percentage dice. If you make both rolls, you hit. Accuracy drops ten percent every 'range increment' after that.
Once we have the core figured out, such as class progression and combat, I think as a community we can really get a very rich gaming atmosphere going. Let's discuss!