The Savage Worlds of Borderlands (need help)

[Beacon of Chaos]

Hey all, so, I want to run a Borderlands-themed campaign for my IRL group. I've decided on using Savage Worlds for the game as it seems pretty easy to run and it comes with gun rules that I can modify to produce a decent variety of guns for my players to pick up as loot. (Yes, I know there's already a fan-made BL RP out there but I don't really like it).

Now, I haven't actually played SW before, so I need some help with something. I'm trying to come up with ideas for how shields will work in this game. In theory I can just refluff armour as shields and call it a day but I want something to give the feel of Borderlands shields, like the "uh-oh" moment of a shield getting depleted mid-fight and having to hunker down behind cover while it recharges, or debating whether to use a shield with a higher stat or a better bonus ability. So I came up with the idea of a shield which is essentially an extra wound that can recharge in battle. I am worried that this makes players even harder to kill than they should be but then I don't really know how lethal the system is. I want the players to feel like badasses but I also want them to occasionally feel like they are in danger. I think I'd have to limit armour bonuses as a result, maybe a max of +4? I also feel like the Blood and Guts rule would make sense for the setting but I don't exactly know how that would affect the kind of toughness players would need. I've done some very brief testing with some simple characters fighting each other and it worked out okay, but I could use an experienced eye to look over things.

As an example, here are the rules for shields and a sample shield:

A shield is either full or depleted. A shield allows the wearer to take an extra wound when full, which is always removed first when hit. This depletes the shield. The shield does not prevent the shaken status but the wound on the shield does not cause a wound penalty. A shield has a fixed toughness that replaces the wearer's toughness while full.

At the beginning of your turn, if your shield is depleted and you have not taken damage since the end of your last turn, you may roll your shield's recharge die. If the result is 4 or higher, the shield recharges to full, regaining your extra wound. You gain a +2 on this roll if you are behind cover and spend your action to defend. The shield's recharge die is based on its toughness; the higher the toughness, the lower the recharge die.

Example:
Anshin Healthy Shield
Toughness 6. Recharge d8. Gives the wearer a +1 bonus on vigor rolls.

And some example weapons to give an idea of the kind of attacks the characters would be facing. I've altered the ranges based on my group's tabletop space, which is why they might look a little small.

Dahl Pistol
2d6+1 damage, RoF: 1, Shots:15, range 8/16/32, Semi-Auto, Three-Round-Burst

Vladof Assault Rifle
2d8 damage, RoF: 4, Shots:20, range 10/20/40, Full-Auto

Jakobs Sniper Rifle
2d12 damage, RoF: 1, Shots:6, 12/24/48, Snapfire Penalty, Scope


Any thoughts would be appreciated :smallsmile:

[LibraryOgre]

It looks pretty good. I like your shield mechanic, as it captures the flavor pretty well, but I think the "replace your toughness with the shield's" might get problematic for weak shields or high toughness characters... if the character's toughness is higher than the shield's, then they should get the benefit of that.

Also, I would look at the various elemental trappings and consider how you'd add those to a weapon... if I have a Flaming Jakobs Sniper Rifle, it should be different than a normal Jakobs.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Yeah, I see your point. I wanted the shield's defence to matter but if it's too low compared with the character's toughness it becomes a liability. Maybe the toughness is a modifier based on character toughness? So the shield's toughness modifier might be +0 or -1 for a weak but fast recharging shield, and maybe up to +3 or +4 for a strong shield? Makes it similar to armour without actually being armour.

As for elements, an incindiary weapon deals +2 damage to bare flesh, a shock weapon does +2 to shields, and corosive does +2 to armour. The target then gets to make a vigor roll to see if they get a damage over time effect or not. I believe fire does 2d10 per round but I might reduce that a little bit, say 2d6 normally or 2d8 for a Maliwan. Explosive weapons don't do extra damage but deal damage in a small burst around the target. Slag and Ice makes the target roll vigor to avoid being slagged or frozen, respectively, though I'm still roughing out what those will do.

Jakobs don't get elements normally so the manufacturer effect is increasing the weapon's damage dice by one size (so most snipers would be 2d10 not 2d12). Basically all weapons will have the base gun, the manufacturer effect, plus a random bonus like an element, extra ammo, or better range etc. I can roll these randomly so the players can have fun searching for the perfect loot. Bosses will have better, unique guns, naturally. :smallcool:

[LibraryOgre]

Yeah, I see your point. I wanted the shield's defence to matter but if it's too low compared with the character's toughness it becomes a liability. Maybe the toughness is a modifier based on character toughness? So the shield's toughness modifier might be +0 or -1 for a weak but fast recharging shield, and maybe up to +3 or +4 for a strong shield? Makes it similar to armour without actually being armour.


You might simply do a variant on what Palladium fans call the "GI Joe Rule"... if a hit takes out your shield, then you don't suffer anything further from that. If you have your shield up and take a hit that would normally cause 6 wounds... your shield is down and you're fine. That makes shields REALLY important, though.

Or, you can use Your Toughness or the Shield's toughness, whichever is better, when your shield is up. So, if I'm Bruiser McBruiserpants with a 10 Toughness, I might choose a weak, fast-charging shield because it's just an ablative layer of health... but Weedy McWeederson might want a tough shield for the rare hits that get to them, but take cover whenever its down.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Or, you can use Your Toughness or the Shield's toughness, whichever is better, when your shield is up. So, if I'm Bruiser McBruiserpants with a 10 Toughness, I might choose a weak, fast-charging shield because it's just an ablative layer of health... but Weedy McWeederson might want a tough shield for the rare hits that get to them, but take cover whenever its down.
Yeah, I think this is probably the best option. Makes things nice and simple and gives the players some options. Thanks for the help!

[Knaight]

Another option is the Shaken mechanic - shields are ubiquitous enough to make Shaken become Unshielded, with the various ways of interacting with Shaken tweaked accordingly. Messing with the standardized raise between shaken and the first wound also gives a lot of leeway for getting basic shield touchness across.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Another option is the Shaken mechanic - shields are ubiquitous enough to make Shaken become Unshielded, with the various ways of interacting with Shaken tweaked accordingly. Messing with the standardized raise between shaken and the first wound also gives a lot of leeway for getting basic shield touchness across.
That's a good rule for extras so I don't have to worry about keeping track of who has their shield and who doesn't, but for wild cards it doesn't really make sense that, for example, you can't fight back while Unshielded. I can houserule it, of course, but I'd rather leave the core mechanics intact and add stuff on top of them rather than change them.