'Borderlands 2' Meets Dungeons And Dragons In 'Tiny Tina's Assault On Dragon Keep' DL

'Borderlands 2' Meets Dungeons And Dragons In 'Tiny Tina's Assault On Dragon Keep' DLC

I’ve been pretty critical of Gearbox, the developer of Borderlands 2, in the past, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Tiny Tina.

In fact, I found the whole “Tiny Tina is racist” controversy entirely without merit. There are much better controversies to focus on when it comes to Gearbox.

And honestly, even though I find those controversies extremely distasteful, I really enjoyed Borderlands 2 and each of its DLCs—downloadable content for those of you unfamiliar with the term. (Except for its level cap raise DLC, which shouldn’t have been a paid DLC at all.)

In any case, now we have Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, which is easily the most interesting concept of any of the DLC releases for the game thus far. Basically, it’s a game of Bunkers & Badasses, the Borderlands 2 version of Dungeons & Dragons.

The premise is simple enough: the characters from the first Borderlands game are playing a tabletop game with Tiny Tina as the GM (game master) and you as the players. It’s very meta. It’s pretty brilliant, really. And I’m certainly drawn to the concept simply because I’ve been devouring rules systems for every tabletop game I can get my hands on, from 4th Edition D&D to Pathfinder to a whole plethora of indie games like Torchbearer and Dungeon World (and dozens of others.)

Tiny Tina would be a horrible GM. A horrible, wonderful GM. Quite honestly, the irreverent, silly, maniacal writing in Borderlands 2 is probably my favorite part. There’s been some valid criticism of it, of course, but I love playing games that have a sense of humor, that don’t take themselves so seriously.

Borderlands 2 is just that type of game, and each of its DLC releases have built on that concept. Tiny Tina’s tabletop adventure promises to be the biggest one yet. For season pass holders it will come as part of the package. For everyone else it’s $9.99.

You can roll some dice—sort of—and hop into the wacky adventure on June 25th.

P.S. It would be really cool if the gameplay changed entirely to fit the game. Turn-based combat, for instance.

forbes