So before I start feedback both good and bad I think will be great for this project. I don’t know what everyone is thinking for rules and how to play so I thought I would toss out quite a few ideas.
I’ve played a fair amount of CCG’s, table top miniature games, some D&D and I think taking things from all of these can be helpful.
I think a combo or Warmachine/magic/hearthstone could make a good match to Borderlands and give you a bit of the game feeling on the table.
The Basic set up I am thinking of is have your Vault Hunter as your “caster” if they die you loose and you start with them on the table. This is where warmachine comes in. When I think of this I think warmachine casters relate really well to our vault hunters. Yes its a miniature game but they do have cards and stats and I think those stats can work.
If you guys are unfamiliar with that I’ll explain how they work and how it can relate. If you want all the details click on this link, if you want the short version I’ll lay it out for you here.
All your cards in warmachine have same basic stat line, Speed, Strength, MAT (melee attack), RAT (ranged attack), Defense, Armor, and Command. Then they also have hitboxes, field allowance, and cost of card/model. Last they have their weapons melee weapons have a pow that you add to strength to see how hard they hit and range guns just have pow and range. Casters have a few additional stats, Focus (this is how they cast spells and run Jacks), and WJ points which is additional points you can spend on building your Army.
Warcasters have 2 cards to give all their rules, front of card A is the stats and weapons above, the back of that card will describe any extra abilities on their weapons or special rules they have to help their army. Card B on the front will have a spell list and on the back will have the Feat, which is a once again super ability they can do (action skill… much)
So to explain how a lot of that goes into play really quick. If I want to do a melee attack I would take my casters MAT and roll two 6 sided die. If my 2 die and MAT combined to equal or exceed my targets defense I hit them, If I hit I roll two die again and add that to my pow and strengths and anything I do past my targets armor goes into the hitboxes, if you do more damage than hitboxes they die.
Pretty standard RPG stuff but it also gives us some RNG.
So to relate that to Vault Hunters… Since this is a card game there is no need for speed so we take that out. But the rest of the stats I think can work well. Focus points can be changed to skill points and instead of spells on a card you can have skills. Then instead of Warjack points you can have gear points. Then instead of feats and being once a game you can have action skills with cooldown and duration.
Some skills can be upkeepable, some can be cast once a turn. 2-3 skill points to cast, 1 to upkeep. Thats all up to balance.
Take maya for example you can cast Reaper for 2 points and upkeep it for one, or scorn would be a once a turn spell to cast for maybe 2 points.
Then on the Gear Points, gear would only be on your caster, not any other bandits or skags or anything. You would get a certain amount of points lets say 12 points for 2 guns, 1 shield, 1 com, 1 grenade and 1 relic that you would have picked out and equipped on your VH before the game. Thats 2 points for item and items would cost between 1-3 points depending on how good they were. So lets say you want a legendary com they would be 3 points so one of your items would have to be lesser quality at 1 point.
Then for your army you get a deck of 40-60 cards, magic/hearthstone style. You have a mana type source that you spend to bring those cards out, eridium maybe. Then you put them into positions in front of your Vault Hunter or rows like Exo showed above. You use the warmachine MAT and RAT combat system.
Start the game with your Vault Hunter out, almost Hearthstone style and each player draws 6 cards. Roll 1d6 to see who goes first. Then you either have your mana source as a card like Magic, or you gain some each turn like hearthstone. So things like psychos could be a single point to cast or UBA’s could be 4 points, etc…
To make melee attacks you could only attack a target if there was no enemies in the row in front of your target. Maybe zer0’s deception would over ride that rule… A ranged attack could hit any target as long as you make your roll.
NPC’s like scooter and moxxi could be like enchantments giving support rather than just more cards to attack.
I’ll finish this later, I have to go watch Frank the Tank and Slammin Sam get drafted.
In the mean time let me know what you think, yes, no, maybe, go home derch your drunk, what ever…