FTL Combat in a Tabletop RPG

[Sanerem]

Long version: (tl;dr below)

I enjoy homebrewing tabletop RPGs as a hobby. I was thinking about working on a Sci-Fi RPG to my existing homebrew system, and thought about the things that I would want to involve in it. Standard DnD in-person exploration, with an added component of space-travel and space-combat, with corresponding skills. When brainstorming this system, I found that a decent way of doing the ship-ship combat was basically just like FTL. When I went searching for more information and existing ship-ship combat systems, I found this old thread from 2012. http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 5&start=10 . And it has some pretty inspiring ideas in it.

My current premise is on making a system of standard single, first-person RPG style in a customized 7-die d20 based system. Basically Space DnD, controlling a single character from a first-person perspective. The best similar concept I can think of is System Shock 2. This would be for ship and planetary exploration. Then with an added component when traveling through systems of a semi-randomized or tabulated random encounters for ships, stations, and planets. (Roll 1d20 for ship size/armaments/special factors, or to find out what items are available from a station or what planet is encountered and its habitability.)

I'm having a few issues here with the idea however. Would the FTL development team have any issues with me going forward using a premise for a combat system similar to the one existing in FTL? There are obvious differences, but the top-down view of ships and their systems are fairly similar. It's not the basis of the game and certainly not required, but I would like to know before moving further with the ship combat system for now.

Right now the player chooses several backgrounds for their character creation, customization has to be a bit flexible currently there are only humans planned to be inhabiting the universe, (think Firefly?). These backgrounds (Examples: CEO, Diplomat, Terratologist, Custodian, Mechanic, Researcher, Doctor) influence the number of points the character possess in a set of skills, both personal skills for planets and use in spaceships (Around 20 right now: Strength, agility, endurance, hacking, lock-picking, diplomacy, biology, medicine, linguistics, robotics, electronics, etc.) as well as space-combat skills (Piloting, hull repair, emergency medicine, engine management, boarding, weapon control, internal systems control (Door locks/internal security)) These gives +1 bonuses on the respective checks of a d20.

tl;dr:

This has good ideas: http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 5&start=10
I'd like to have a system inspired by FTL in a custom tabletop RPG.

What do people think about FTL ship-ship combat as part of a tabletop RPG?
Are people interested in this kind of tabletop game?
What is necessary to make this combat system work?
Are there any issues, legal or otherwise, with using a system inspired by FTL for a tabletop RPG?
What could be done to improve upon FTL combat, that could be done through using tabletop RPG tools?
(For example, anything can be done in a tabletop RPG, how would the combat system benefit from more versatility?

[Eliminator]

Sounds awesome.

[Leylite]

I'm not a lawyer, but there shouldn't be any problems if this is just an RPG you're playing with your friends (and enemies).

You should probably consult one and talk to the dev team if you're thinking about selling the tabletop RPG as a commercial product, though. Gameplay mechanics can't be copyrighted and most of the story concepts of FTL are extremely general, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious and cooperative.