Borderlands 3: Andromeda (Interest Check)

[SheepishRogue]

Within the Vault of the Warrior…
“No!” Handsome Jack screams in outrage as the Warrior, giving one last roar, falls to the ground, dead. “This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening!” he cries. As the barrier around Lilith and Jack dissolves, he turns to face you, the anger in his eyes plain as day.

“No, no, no… I can’t die like this… not when I’m so close… and not at the hands of a filthy ban-“*bang*. With this one bullet, Jack, like the Warrior before him, falls lifelessly to the ground. Lilith, exhausted but clearly relieved, flashes you a small but weary smile.

“It’s finally over… Good going, Vault Hunter. You… are a badass. Now… we just gotta get rid of that key.” As you approach the key, a thought occurs to Lilith, so she stops you. “Wait a sec – let me. You don’t wanna touch this thing right now, trust me.” Crouching to grab the key, she murmurs ”If I never see this key again, it’ll be too soon…It’s been fun, you alien piece of shi-”

Lilith is interrupted by a sudden beam of light that bursts from the key, startling everyone present. The light expands to what appears to be a solar system, with one planet marked by the symbol of the Vault. Before anyone can get a word in, multiple solar systems appear, each with their own Vault-marked planets. Mordecai and Brick, who arrived as Lilith went for the Vault key, appear just as shocked. Brick is the first to speak.

“What the – are those Vaults?” Mordecai chuckles.

“You know what that means…” Lilith gives her own chuckle.

“Yeah, no rest for the wicked…”

Borderlands 3: Andromeda

I'm a big fan of the Borderlands series, and I've been tossing around this idea for a while, so I figured I would share it and see how many people were interested. The general idea is that:

• This will be taking place on Andromeda, another planet with a Vault. I haven't worked out any specifics just yet.
• Like the other BL games, this will have a four-player "Vault-Hunter" scheme, although we don't have to use the already existing classes.
• Those four characters don't have to be the only players: people can (if they want) suggest character roles they'd like to try out (i.e.: a "Zed" or "Marcus"), especially if your interested but have less free time to work with.
• I'm still thinking about how I want battles to work, but I'm completely open to any ideas.
• I'd like this to be as fun and quirky as the games themselves: be creative!

If you want to help me shape the game/world, I'm open to suggestions. Let me know what you think!

~ Sheepish

[Cold Heritage]

I am also a big fan of the Borderlands series, and I express interest in this idea. I would like to play a Vault Hunter.

[Wargtass]

Is it juvenile of me to call dibs on a Vault Hunter? Because in that case I am such a child. 

[SheepishRogue]

I am also a big fan of the Borderlands series, and I express interest in this idea. I would like to play a Vault Hunter.

Noted, I'll provide character sheets and more details sometime this week.

Is it juvenile of me to call dibs on a Vault Hunter? Because in that case I am such a child. 

Pssh, no such thing :) First come first serve

Out of curiosity, which existing classes did you prefer? I'm a Siren through and through (though I'm not sure I'll play one here). We can do custom classes, but I like the idea that there are "only 6 Sirens in existence at any point in time"- will probably keep that.

[Cold Heritage]

I played Brick exclusively in Borderlands 1, and Salvador in Borderlands 2. I plan to get Krieg when he comes out. Which I hope is soon.

[Wargtass]

Mordechai and Zero... I'm a sucker for headgear. 

Now that I'm given the chance of making my own, I'll probably stay with the theme of the hunter but give it a heavy twist with the Big Game Hunter, using rocket launchers and heavy pistols to bring home the trophies and a Composite bow to bring down the real nasties (secret's in the tips). There will be a lot of bush hats croikies and shrimps on the barbie I assure you. 

[ZephySempai]

*Interest has been piqued*

Big fan of Borderlands and I'd love to be apart of this. I even have a character in mind who isn't a vault hunter.

Unless you already have something in mind, I'd like to play the part of the "Mysterious Guide" that usually helps the hunters out during their quests.

My character would be an Expert hacker doing what he can to fight back against whoever the protagonist of the story is, or just helping out the hunters because he's a nice guy. Though his main Role is keeping the Vault Hunters on course with providing info about the world, he can also hack into computer systems; allowing him to open locked doors for the Hunters, activate and control any defense systems that might otherwise work against the hunters: support actions like that.

So tell me what you think and, even if it doesn't work, I can always just make him vault hunter and be happy :3

[SheepishRogue]

Hey all,

Sorry for the delay, extra RL work got piled on last minute. :(

Welcome aboard Zephy! I wasn't planning on doing a "Mysterious Guide" with this world, but I would love to have you stay as a hacker! :) Vault Hunter or not, you could function a Scooter of sorts, as I really would love a tech-based character.

I'm away from home (and PC) for a couple more days, but I'm working on some details and will post them when I can.

As always, if you'd like to help with any aspect or have questions feel free to post them!

~Sheepish

[Revenent]

So I'm kind of interested, but I'm actually quite new to the Borderlands series (I've only played about five hours or so into the second one, and although I own the first, I haven't played it yet). Is this going to be particularly lore-intensive? I.E. anything that I can't figure out with a quick visit to the wiki?

[SheepishRogue]

So I'm kind of interested, but I'm actually quite new to the Borderlands series (I've only played about five hours or so into the second one, and although I own the first, I haven't played it yet). Is this going to be particularly lore-intensive? I.E. anything that I can't figure out with a quick visit to the wiki?

A lot of it will be lore-based, but still easy to follow/wiki. If there's anything that I think may be somewhat vague, I'll probably just give a short note or clarification in an OOC thread where you could also ask questions.

[Revenent]

Alright, sounds good. Honestly, with the rate at which group RPs actually progress on Elliquiy, I'll probably have some time to go ahead and play through the games, anyway.

Depending on the amount of interest, I can either be one of the Vault Haunters, or I'll gladly stand aside and play a support character. I've always had a love for playing weapon/gear smiths and such in RPG-based games, anyway. In a game not to long ago, I played a potion-maker/alchemist who had a hobby for creating and testing "recreational" substances.

[SheepishRogue]

Cool! Not sure what my role will be just yet, and characters from 1&2 more than likely won't show up.

The plan was to have this occur around the same time as the 2nd game, with some lore-based references/connections here and there. For Andromeda, the Vault-Hunters dont have to "arrive" together like in 1/2, especially since no other planets (according to the games) had Vault legends/awareness like Pandora did. In that sense, the VHs can customize their characters' classes and backstory a little more.

Will be back home with a proper PC and internet Friday, and will upload char sheets then.

[ZephySempai]

I can't wait to see how the Vault Hunters look. I've always been a fan of the series; especially the creative and balanced skill trees. It'd be pretty sweet if, even though everyone doesn't have to arrive together, they all somehow ended up with unique skill sets that balances out the team.

Also, I had a quick question about the tech-level of the world. Borderlands One was pretty heavily post-apoc with remnants of high-tech, while Two had a much higher concentration of tech due to Hyperion's grip on the world. Personally, I favor the high-tech in Borderlands two, but of course there will be areas of Andromeda that is still primordial and such.

And what do you think of having a main antagonist? It was really fun having a main guy to hunt down in two, plus Handsome Jack was pretty funny in his own sense.

I was thinking of the possibility that Andromeda has also been invaded by Hyperion as well; under the command of a different antagonist; possibly a female officer who was a colleague of Jack; maybe even his sister. What do you guys think about that?

[SheepishRogue]

I was also thinking of having a corporation involved with this game. However, I wasn't planning on it being Hyperion because when HJ took over, he turns the group's immediate sights on Pandora (he briefly mentions this in recordings in BL2).

Just a list of current ideas (once this is more concrete I'll update the first post):

• Hyperion will make an appearance, but will not be the main corporation of this story
• I plan on having a sort of anti-VH playing in this game (maybe a Siren), possibly playable by someone else.
• I'm making classes similar in style to Brick(Muscle), Zero (Stealth); not sure about a Siren just yet, since I might make it the antagonist.
• Another class I have an idea for is a Scooter/Axton (Tech) hybrid of sorts. As a character, he could combine otherwise useless pieces that are scavenged in battles, his ability to do so coming from one of the skill trees.
• There was also a plan for a Mr. Torque (explosives) character, although it could also just become a tree for Brick.
• The plan is still to have classes that complement each other (i.e. a Scavange skill to complement a Tech skill, or Sirens health/support tree in bl2)
• I'm still working out ideas for biomes, though I do have a couple of standard and unusual ones lined up. Some of the regions will have technical hubs, similar to Sanctuary from bl2. These may or may not be where most of the main quests/intel would be obtained.
• Was thinking about having something like a rare-but-advanced Bounty board, where the missions could be purely for cash/skill-ups/gear proportional to your level.
• I was planning on having Andromeda be more tech-based than Pandora, possibly more seedy where Pandora was Arid/barren.
• I was thinking of making one of each character's trees an "environment" tree, where they are able to improve their ability to interact with certain parts of Andromeda (hacking, scavenging, stealth kills, etc).

Let me know what you think. I might just make a seperate post in the World Building forum so that you could comment/contribute ideas as well.

[Revenent]

So what's the word on this? Is everybody still around?

[SheepishRogue]

Hello everyone, sorry for the delay.

So I'm in the process of identifying everything you'll need to provide (character sheets, skills) to get started, and how I'll set this up (starting gear, etc.). I'll also have a "World Building" thread that will periodically updated with relevant info so we can continue on through the story with as little pausing as possible.

The Character Sheet I had in mind was something like this:

Code Select Expand


[b]Name:[/b]

[b]Class:[/b] (Scavenger, Assassin, Muscle, Mercenary, Hacker)

[spoiler=Appearance][/spoiler] (if using an image)

[b]Action Skill:[/b]

[b]Weapon(s) of Choice:[/b] (e.g.: pistol and sniper).

[b]Skill 1 and 2,etc.:[/b]

[b]Personality:[/b] Short blurb about yourself.


Some of you mentioned custom classes/abilities, so I figured you had ideas for what kind of skills you wanted your VHs to have. I'm not sure how hands on you want me to be with the classes, but if you want to create skills (be reasonable, of course), feel free to name them and give a description. Feel free to also use skills from the games themselves.

Will be working on some other details, then we should be able to get started soon-ish.

~ Sheepish

[Revenent]

I kind of had an idea for my character be a Gunslinger of some sort, i.e. specializing in pistols/revolvers and being able to do stuff like rebound bullets, curve bullets around corners, and more complex stuff as they get more advanced. Maybe even being able to disarm enemies with a shot, for what little that would be worth.

[SheepishRogue]

That disarming ability (and class) would actually be pretty awesome. I see it being very useful, depending on the enemy or weapon (e.g.: disarming someone with elemental DoT). Maybe a future ability could combine the ricochet with reduced chance of disarming a second target.

The one thing I'm trying to work out is the actual battles. I don't want to be bogged down by turn-based combat, especially since BL is pretty fast-paced, but there should be some kind of checks/balances.Thoughts?

[Revenent]

Are we looking to implement a system for battles?

[SheepishRogue]

I had initially thought maybe, but then realized we'd get bogged down by turns and specifics that weren't necessary.

[ZephySempai]

How I usually go about battles depends on the amount of enemies. Now, if we're raiding a bandit camp with like 20 enemies, What I usually do is allow the members to take a little control of the NPCs themselves. Say, VH 1 Fights his five, VH 2 fights another 5, then uses his ricochet ability to disarm some baddies for 3 & 4.

But if there's like only four enemies, or one big boss enemy, then that is left for the GM and becomes turn-based.

Long story short, play it by situation. Sometimes the players can have some freestyle control, other times the GM decides yur fate :)

[SheepishRogue]

Makes sense to me. How do you guys suggest handling weapons/armor? Was thinking everyone just rolls with 2-3 weapons and a fourth "relic item" dependent on their class. Like a hacking device for hack, blade for assassin, special gun that houses one bullet (of a rare type) for 'slinger...

[ZephySempai]

That sounds good to me. Question though: Do the VH start out will three weapons and get a bonus later, or do they only start with one? Also I think, for literary's sake, we should limit the ability to carry around a hundred items at a time. Maybe a shield, grenade mod, 4 weapons max, and maybe some miscellaneous like health vials, artifacts, class mods etc. It'll save a lot of time and brainpower if we're not trying to recall all the different guns we have in our inventory.

I have trouble doing that even in the game, lol.

[Revenent]

I think we should specialize in one or maybe two gun types each, depending on your class. No reason to have a gun of every type if you already have a guy who's good with explosives, a guy who's good with shotguns and machine guns, etc.

[SheepishRogue]

I say two, but that was partially to add some dynamic to RP (switch instead of reload during a fight), but the second slot could be earned as  a holster looted from a boss battle later on (same with grenade mod?). The given the categories in game are:

• Snipers
• Pistols/Revolvers (were separate in BL)
• Rocket Launcher
• SMGs
• Assault Rifles
• Shotguns

Whether we roll with one or two, we can choose one to start with. If we roll with one only, maybe earn elemental damage mods for our weapons instead of a "holster" later on.