Adapting Morrowind to D&D

[PopeStig]

Hi all,

After a long hiatus from DM'ing D&D (since AD&D 2nd ed) I've decided to pick up the gauntlet again and run a campaign. I've invested in the 3.5 rulebooks and quickly drafted together a campaign world that's pretty much what Europe could have been in the middle ages if Rome hadn't collapsed on itself and have nicked most of the names and moods of places from Guy Gavriel Kay and David Gemmel. Into this I've added a solid helping of background from the Elder Scroll series of games, and will set the initial series of adventures in Morrowind some five hundred years after the defeat of Dagoth Ur and the fall of the Tribunal. This form of world-building shorthand has enabled me to quickly cobble together a backdrop and will enable me to consentrate on adventures and with the plethora of walkthroughs available of the web, designing adventures for the players should be a relative walk in the park.

Before I embark on translating the various monsters into D&D terms, I just wanted to check with the rest of you if any of you have tried translating Morrowind into D&D and any experience you've had with it, any pitfalls I should avoid and work that has already been done for me that I can nick, to keep up the thieving spirit of the world-building so far

The rich backstory of the world seems to lend itself nicely to adventure hooks.

 

[serleran]

Already done. Stopped playing 3.5 though, for my own reasons, and, lack of anyone worth gaming with.

Though, as far as PC games go, Arcanum is more interesting to convert to a non-CRPG.

 

[dvvega]

There was a thread somewhere that dealth with ideas for this many months ago. I have no search facility I cannot help you out there.

However my own opinions on the matter are:

1. Morrowind has a rich history and setting - these alone can see you through, without having to convert anything.

2. You can use the standard d20 D&D 3.5 and just use all the flavour and richness. You don't have to change the races and give them all the special resistances and so forth. It will save you time and effort.

3. The monsters have suitable replacements everywhere. Most of the Morrowind monsters were in fact normal characters (race + class) that you had to overcome. The vampires are obviously a vampire template on a normal character.

4. Of the monsters I remember, most of them could be dinosaurs (the flying terrodactyl things, the guars) or dire animals like dire rats, and dire piranhas. The summoned creatures were pretty much elementals and/or demons/devils.

5. The hardest thing to do would be the magic feeling of the world, however Unearth Arcana has options for mana style magic and so on. And magic item creation doesn't have to be redesigned since your normal feats take care of the creation, however the gathering of ingredients etc are adventures themselves.

6. I found the biggest flavoure of the game was that not all shops of the same type had the same stuff available. So generating a roster or some form of "roll it up" tables for stores might help.

Hope that helps/inspires.
D

 

[prodigyxss]

Morrowind

Also there is also ton of lore and history to be found at the Imperial Library site that has to do with morrowind. It also contains many great articles that can be used, as well as every single book in the game can be read on the site. I made a morrowind type world a while ago which Im running too that used its history and Lore extensively. Good Luck.

http://til.gamingsource.net/

 

[Turjan]

I suppose you know the link, but if anyone else likes to get to know a bit more about the background of the Elder Scrolls setting, there's a lot of material in the Imperial Library. Tamriel is one of the most interesting settings that I know .

Edit: D'oh! I know that I sometimes type slow, but today it seems particularly slow .

 

[PopeStig]

Thanks

Excellent

That helps.

Good advice on the monsters and the shop, like that.

Thanks guys.

 

[Suldulin]

Elements of Magic fits the Elderscrolls/Morrowind Casting system perfectly imho

*wishes he could find a pbp Elderscrolls game*

 

[eris404]

I think this is the thread they were talking about:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=105403

 

[Joba Tett]

Hello there Morrowind/D20 lovers. I'm here to guide show you the way to greatness....with my WIP MorrowinD20! It's called MorrowinD20 because I started with Morrowind, though I plan on adding content from all the games!

It will be available in a free pdf form. I'm looking for people who are dedicated and want to see an unofficial Morrowind RPG. If you'd like to join, House Rules <that site has my progress so far, though I plan on making new classes/spells/ect. so please join that site and PM ASAP! And if that wasn't enough, look at this:

Join now!