Is there a system compatible with Borderlands?

[Pleh]

I get that the Borderlands games are FPS Looter Shooters with little mechanical resemblance to Turn Based RPGs like D&D (even though many of the game's elements show a strong affection for and inspiration from D&D).

I would love to run a game for this, but what I'd really like is to see the Weapon/Combat system from Borderlands somewhat believably run in a TTRPG. That is to say, there's only maybe a handful of weapon types (Pistols, SMGs, Shotguns, Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Rocket Launchers) with each weapon type having a few relevant stats (damage, accuracy, fire rate, recoil, reload speed, magazine size) and a few manufacturers (Jakobs for raw power and requires the most skill, Maliwan is most reliable for Elemental Damage Effects, Vladof increases fire rate the longer you keep firing, etc) and finally interesting ways that these subtle stat differences synergize with character abilities.

I've played around with ideas for adapting D&D games to try to recreate some of these player choices, but my mechanics feel pretty rickety (tempting to try to equate Fire Rate with Attacks per Round, but in D&D that gets real broken, real fast). Before I pour a ton of hours into trying to invent a wheel, though I'd check and make sure I'm not reinventing it first.

Anyone got any systems that treat weapons with this style and level of crunch?

[Quertus]

(tempting to try to equate Fire Rate with Attacks per Round, but in D&D that gets real broken, real fast).

That's how 2e handled it.

[Xervous]

You’ll need a percentile system for dice rolls to properly reflect the range of stats on weapons IMO, otherwise there’s not enough granularity to really delve into the minor variations in weapon performance that come with borderlands weapon parts. Once you start defining fire rates on weapons you may be approaching an action point based system that devolves into its own nightmare of what is effectively dynamic initiative. One alternative is to define different attack modes like you see in shadowrun, single shot through full auto, where firing multiple bullets is modeled as a modified attack rather than multiple attacks.

[Mordar]

It has been far too long, but thematically I think Twilight 2000 might be a match. Has the same sort of post-apocalyptic thing mixed with some granularity on weapon types and resource/inventory management.

- M

[Guizonde]

the rules for automatic weapons in the dark heresy/ only war rpg's are really solid, and quite deadly: percentile system, armor piercing, multiple effects, different types of weapons (plasma, explosives, laser, bullet, etc)... only problem is the high lethality of the system.

[Grim Portent]

the rules for automatic weapons in the dark heresy/ only war rpg's are really solid, and quite deadly: percentile system, armor piercing, multiple effects, different types of weapons (plasma, explosives, laser, bullet, etc)... only problem is the high lethality of the system.

The lethality is easy enough to fix, just up wounds to the point they resemble D&D hp more and tweak toughness and armour so mitigating damage is less of a thing. Fiddling with the damage types from Borderlands would be more awkward, but just doubling/halving damage based on type would be a simple way to do it. You could even make regenerating shields a thing by giving the shield it's own wounds, a recharge time of how many rounds it takes to start healing and a rate at which it recharges per round.

I could see the guns in the FFG 40k rpgs being turned into Borderlands style guns really easily. A simple table of random stats with the ranges being based on manufacturer could churn out some pretty variable weapons. Say all Jakobs firearms have a clip of 1-6 barring special exceptions, has a minimum damage modifier that's above average for the manufacturers, maybe a modest bonus to hit.

[Knaight]

It might be pretty easy to hack Planet Mercenary into fitting well, and there's a definite case for Nemesis (which has two weapon tables, one for if you want to run at the abstraction of "it's an assault rifle", one if you want to go full gun porn). The latter is free too.

[Mr.Sandman]

I personally am thinking of tweaking Starfinder to do this. This guy even has a cool random weapon generator that even names them in a manner similar to Borderlands 1.

[Psyren]

I personally am thinking of tweaking Starfinder to do this. This guy even has a cool random weapon generator that even names them in a manner similar to Borderlands 1.

Seconding this suggestion - and they did come up with an alternative to rapid-fire weapons besides having half a dozen attacks per round so you may want to look into that. You could tweak the existing classes to be various vault hunter archetypes with their subclass driving their specific powers, like Siren, Commando, Berserker or... well, Operative. You can even do the Mechromancer fairly well with the right Mechanic build.

[braveheart]

I'm actually in the process of making borderlands inspired system, that procedurally generates equipment. It is currently able to be played, but not really tested, or balanced, and there are some weapon categories that still need to be developed.