PDA

View Full Version : Elder Scrolls D&D?



Dsurion
2010-09-22, 08:23 AM
Ever since my friends found out that the Elder Scrolls games originated from a D&D campaign, they've wanted to try one out. I've seen many failed attempts at a tabletop "conversion", usually entailing lots of d% rolling and terrible mechanics that didn't really make sense.

I was thinking that instead of trying to design it like that, just keep the Elder Scrolls flavor and stick to mostly standard D&D, converting maybe a spell or two, the races, and a few creatures.

I'm sure this topic has probably cropped up a few times and died without much afterthought, but would anyone know of any such attempts that didn't, well, suck? I've already put in my own attempts at the races, but another person's version might be nice to see their angle.

Just a note that this would be 3.5, and most likely set in Morrowind, if it helps.

Kislath
2010-09-22, 08:32 AM
That would be awesome!

I guess it's just a matter of, like you said, tweaking a few racial bits for all those elf types and changing the availability of magic spells and schools.

I never knew that TES came from D&D. I guess that seems fitting somehow.

As for changing the whole game mechanics in an attempt to play the computer games with dice.. I wouldn't bother.
I'd just play D&D with the above changes.

boj0
2010-09-22, 08:45 AM
Well, we could just move this to Homebrew and get cracking! :smallsmile:
Seriously, let's do it.

And to answer the OP, the best conversion I saw was for 4E over at the WotC boards, but that died to obscurity after a few months.

Yora
2010-09-22, 08:55 AM
I think I've seen some TES conversions for 3rd Edition. Might be worth to take a look at them before trying to do everything yourself.

From my experience with Morrowind, I'd rather do it for 4th Ed. though.

Dsurion
2010-09-22, 09:00 AM
I think I've seen some TES conversions for 3rd Edition. Might be worth to take a look at them before trying to do everything yourself.

From my experience with Morrowind, I'd rather do it for 4th Ed. though.

That's what I meant in the first post. I was hoping someone would point me to something specific. We also don't play 4th edition, but any insight would be useful and appreciated.

Yora
2010-09-22, 09:05 AM
These two might be worth a look:
http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Tamriel,_TES_%283.5e_Campaign_Setting%29
http://www.dndonlinegames.com/showthread.php?t=15517

Gensh
2010-09-22, 09:26 AM
Actually there was a thread about converting some of the monsters in the homebrew section a while back, so you might want to try and find it. As far as the rest of it goes, though, I'd consider making entirely new races at about a +1 adjustment to allot for all the goodies the Elder Scrolls races have and using psionics instead of the standard spell list. Maybe even confine it to E6, but that's more of a personal choice.

Keld Denar
2010-09-22, 11:26 AM
I acutally ran a 2e game a long while back based on Daggerfall (the TES II, the game prior to Morrowind, circa 1996 or so). Daggerfall has a HUGE world, much bigger than Morrowind, and there are literally millions of NPCs already named, and even city maps and organizations and factions and all that done up. My dungeons weren't nearly as elaborate or long as Daggerfall's (seriously, a billion over-caffinated dwarves couldn't build that many dungeons in a thousand years!), but it worked out well.

For those who don't know:

Daggerfall is a city in the Breton homeland of High Rock. The player is sent here at the personal request of the emperor. He wants the player to do two things. First, the player must free the ghost of the late King Lysandus from his earthly shackles. Second, the player must discover what happened to a letter from the emperor to a Blades spy in the court of Daggerfall. The letter reveals that Lysandus's mother, Nulfaga, knows the location of the Mantella, the key to resurrecting the first Numidium, a powerful iron golem. The emperor wants his spy to force Nulfaga into revealing the location of the Mantella so that the Blades can finish the reconstruction of the Numidium. Through a series of mishaps and confusions the letter fell into the hands of an orc by the name of Gortworg. Not knowing what the Mantella is, Gortworg consults Mannimarco, the King of Worms (the leader of the Necromancers). During this time the Underking, who originally destroyed the first Numidium because of its misuse by Tiber Septim, is recuperating deep within a tomb of High Rock after expending so much energy destroying it the first time. In order for the player to give the Mantella to anyone, the player must kill King Lysandus's murderer and put his ghost to rest. After accomplishing this, stealing the totem of Tiber Septim from King Gothryd of Daggerfall, and freeing the Mantella from its prison in Aetherius, the power of the Mantella restores the Underking's power.

Dsurion
2010-09-22, 11:43 AM
I always liked Daggerfall, but I prefer the exotic setting of Vvardenfell, and I think it'll be more of a refreshing change for the players who just finished their High Fantasy Tolkein-esque campaign (hence the Oblivion version of Cyrodiil is off-limits. I might work on the lore version that's supposed to be tropical). Using Hammerfell would be really cool, though. It'd be a great excuse to buy and use Sandstorm, and Redguard lore is awesome.

Daggerfall's wacky holidays could be put to use, too.

Keld Denar
2010-09-22, 12:09 PM
You could always do Daggerfall, but set it in Sentinal for a more deserty feel, or Wayrest for a more jungley feel. Both are major kingdoms around Lilac Bay. The plot of Daggerfall has you venture to both of them, but you could easily swap the names and have Wayrest be your main city with a couple of minor stops over in Daggerfall and Sentinal or in Sentinal with minor stops in Wayrest and Daggerfall.

Anyway, I think the plotline in Daggerfall is more condusive to a party situation than Morrowind. Dagoth-Ur and friends just don't make that convincing of bad guys, IMO, and you'd have to change the ending a bit because that ending is kinda...wierd.

Plus, you can have a lot of in-party fightingroleplaying on who to give the Mantella to, with secret offers of power from the King of Worms or even one of the tricksier Daedra Lords like Mehruns Dagon (sp?).

And yea, I LOVED the Daggerfall calender. Its so neat. Well, other than the fact that the stupid bank was never open because it was the wrong time, or a holiday, or whatever. Stupid bank...

Dsurion
2010-09-22, 12:32 PM
The idea was to have a plot either pre-Nerevarine and have nothing to do with the prophecies, or post-Nerevarine and deal with the fall of the Tribunal, while simultaneously disregarding that idiot plot of Red Mountain erupting in Infernal City. I preferred the retconning of the Warp in the West to that crap.

The group likes free adventuring and they don't particularly whether or not there's an overall plot, and I suppose either setting would work well for that. I mean, nothing is really stopping them from traveling the entire continent unless I fiat something due to the containment of the Blight. Besides, I know the only thing they're going to care about are the consequences and rewards of doing quests for the various Daedra Princes, and to be honest, those are going to be fun for all involved regardless of setting.

As an aside, though, a theoretical Dragon Break would allow for all of this to happen in a single campaign!

Edit: I agree, though. That ending was weird. Azura basically thanks you for being her pawn and gives you a ring for it. Wouldn't be a bad deal if it was more than Night-Eye and Restore Fatigue, even at constant effect. That was actually worse than most of the gear you should have amassed earlier in the game.

Kislath
2010-09-23, 08:32 AM
Ha!
YOU tell her that!

I would prefer a post-Neravarine setting if I were playing. There's still plenty left to do from the game, and lots of possibilities to invent on your own.

Emperor Tippy
2010-09-23, 08:42 AM
Play it triple gestalt making use of 1 casting class, 1 melee class, and 1 skill monkey class.

Most of the monsters can be handled by stealing a preexisting stat block are re-fluffing.

Have only a single player in the party.

---
That should do it. Triple gestalt can generally handle a CR encounter equal to it's level, but if you are playing with a party (instead of 1 adventurer) then you need to take much more care with enemy selection.

Dsurion
2010-09-23, 09:22 AM
Ha!
YOU tell her that!

I would prefer a post-Neravarine setting if I were playing. There's still plenty left to do from the game, and lots of possibilities to invent on your own.

That's the angle I'm hoping to get. I mean, just because more Blight creatures (Ascended Sleepers and Ash dudes and the like) are no longer being created, doesn't mean they ceased to exist immediately. And with Ghostfence out of commission, they'll still be a problem, roughly as much so as before. I'm seeing more of the Corprus creatures infesting homes like in Morvayn manor.

Although having the characters deal with the Ashlands and getting Blight diseases would be quite good fun for me, so pre-Nerevarine has some good stuff going for it as well.


Play it triple gestalt making use of 1 casting class, 1 melee class, and 1 skill monkey class.

Most of the monsters can be handled by stealing a preexisting stat block are re-fluffing.

Have only a single player in the party.

---
That should do it. Triple gestalt can generally handle a CR encounter equal to it's level, but if you are playing with a party (instead of 1 adventurer) then you need to take much more care with enemy selection.

That actually sounds like a cool idea, one that I may try later on, but I'd like to keep this as simple as possible, and just stick to regular D&D classes in an Elder Scrolls world.

Refluffing may be my backbone to be honest. I see no reason to create a new Flame Atronach statblock when I could just steal varying types of Fire Elemental for strength.