Computer Games That Have Inspired you To Write

[Thought]

Of course, having mentioned X-Com off the top of my head above, I now can't seem to stop thinking about a potential game based on it. So I will probably start that soon, just after I can get a full document of my other game written. So I guess I should upgrade my comment about it.

X-Com has totally inspired me to write.

[WittyDroog]

I feel bad about bumping this guy up the list, but I love the topic and it is relevant to one of the reasons I've come here. The project I'm currently working on before coming to this site was actually inspired from a very recent game, Borderlands.

Now scratch what you're thinking. Most of my buddies gasp in awe when I say this but it's not what yout hink. I'm not making a post apocalyptic game. Instead I'm making a "weird west" game that incorporates the most important element of Borderlands: the guns.

I absolutely loved the "random gun" element, and felt that the anticipation when opening a weapons crate comes from my excitement playing random table heavy rpgs (rolling up a completely random character in WHRP 2nd Ed, for example. "AWW YEAH I GOT A WART!"). So I want to bridge this passion by making an RPG which randomly determines discovered guns, and since I both absolutely love westerns and felt guns are a pinnacle theme of the genre, that it would be a marriage of peanut butter and jelly.

Borderlands' concept of different manufactuers having different overall effects, such as Malwan mostly producing elemental weaponry, or Jakobs with high damage output, was a huge design element so far. I'm trying to incorporate as much of the game's charm into my own as I can while retaining a super lightweight mechanical structure for fast shootouts.

[Rob Lang]

Borderlands would make a superb Roleplaying game - just get rid of the set on another planet idea and make the Vault some kind of mine protected by natives and it's looking very weird west.

Nice.

[WittyDroog]

So far the "Vault" and "Pandora" and all that is thrown out of the window. The basic plot (and it sure is basic, I've been working out mechanics, mostly) is that you're in a place called San Lorenzo, which is famous for the mysterious "Black Silver" that fetch extremely high prices, a neo gold rush if you will. Black Silver is rumored to be a metal in which the souls of the damned are trapped for eternity, and San Lorenzo has a dark harrowing past that I've yet to actually come up with...

Mechanic-wise, Black Silver is the primary goal of the player, much like Wyrdstone in Mordheim. Although most of your weapons can be found throughout the mission in lockers and chest and what not, you can pay ounces of Black Silver to roll up a new weapon. However, instead of rolling completely randomly you get to select which TYPE of gun is rolling on the table. Spending an ounce of Black SIlver will make a pretty neat gun, at least slightly above your level, spend more and you'll get an even nicer weapon, etc. Still random, just more awe inspiring the more you spend.

Also for the "weird" elements, Undead, Demons, and what not mixed in with Native American Spirit Talkers who can enchant guns with ancestral ghosts.

We're about to play-test the basic mechanics soon, I'll throw them into a new thread once I feel they're past the alpha phase.

[Rob Lang]

Love the black silver mechanic. Will you be modelling Borderlands' escalation mechanics - where weapons and bad guys get progressively more powerful?

[WittyDroog]

Absolutely. The primary choice of this was to help make gameplay easier for the GM. The "bestiary", we'll call it, will not be chapters upon chapters of individual badguys. Instead it'll be sections about types of bad guys, like bandits or zombies and whatnot. The rules would show how to level the monsters based upon the level of the party, and at certain "tiers" the monsters get newfound abilities and access to better equipment. In addition each monster type will have a "Villan" which is a customizable template to create an especially bad honcho, almost always with the very same random guns the players have (as opposed to generic cheapies that most monsters get).

The example I've used so far is you've got zombies, at low levels players basically fight shambling hordes, as they level up they start finding zombies who can shoot back at them, and the "Villian" could be something like a Gunlich or whatever. It's still very fresh so I'll drop a working copy after we playtest it.

As far as guns, instead of flat damage outputs the damage they inflict is connected to the player level, this way no matter how you roll on the tables to generate a weapon you'll get a weapon that at worst isn't throwaway garbage and at best isn't a campaign breaking super gun.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

If you don't already have a weapon system in hand, feel free to check out my old game Gangland in the 1km1kt archives. The weapons system for that games is designed as mix and match as well. All the guns are designed from a quick table - caliber, type, range, and capacity. Add an extra column or two for any other applicable add-ons for borderlands, and you can get started pretty quick.

[WittyDroog]

I kinda got a system rolling, but I'll be more than happy to take a look at it, perhaps gain some inspiration from it.