Elder Scrolls - Tabletop RPG?

remraub16_ESO

Hi, I was wondering.. with all the lore that already exist, wouldn't a tabletop RPG make sense?
Dragon Age did that move and having a Tabletop RPG next to the computer game is really awesome as you can draw on inspiration from "rreal" events in the games into the tabletop game.

Anyone know if this is in the works already? There are a few amature versions of it, but why not make an official tabletop RPG?

I have personally been running a campaign setting based on the ES lore and it is so well suited for good old fashioned dice rolling.

Necrelios

I like the idea. My 65" touchscreen monitor imbedded into a coffee table for ESO. A very good idea indeed.

Shadesofkin

I've always wanted there to be a TES official Campaign Setting. I've used plenty of it in my own games using a Unviersal System like Savage Worlds and Cortex Plus, but it would be fantastic to see it given treatment as a fully licensed product.

Dreamo84

I would play the $&@" out of this.

Shadesofkin

Green Ronin has shown they can craft a great Tabletop game from a video game product, Dragon Age was so big that it sparked a massive desire to create even more AGE products, the core books are being condensed into an Ultimate Edition and they are at work producing the Inquisition sourcebook.

Not every game deserves the Tabletop treatment but if there was ever a game that did, it's The Elder Scrolls Series.

starkerealm

I could be wrong, but I remember Arena was actually fairly transparent with it's ruleset. So there is that option.

Shadesofkin

Arena definitely used a percentile system that you could easily follow if you were familiar with how Tabletop games worked.

While I mentioned Dragon Age and Green Ronin, I would suggest Margaret Weis Productions. Not only have they handled numerous Intellectual Properties (Serenity; Battlestar Galactica; Supernatural; Smallville; Leverage; Marvel Comics; and Firefly) their Cortex Plus rules are well done and would suit the ability to "play as you please" in a way that most more mainstream systems aren't quite capable of.

drschplatt

While it was fun, I wonder if Dragon Age actually made any money though. Table top RPG gaming is notoriously difficult to turn a profit on because it's so easy to duplicate without purchasing. I mean, one reason D&D comes out with a new edition every few years is to keep people buying their stuff.

AngryNord

According to romours, Todd Howard originally made Tamriel/Nirn for D&D sessions with his R-L friends.

starkerealm

AngryNord wrote: »

According to romours, Todd Howard originally made Tamriel/Nirn for D&D sessions with his R-L friends.

Yeah, I remember stuff in Arena like basic attack modifiers.

Honestly, with the setting, you could reverse engineer a homebrew pretty easily. It would be pretty cool if Bethesda released a D20 ruleset for it, but I don't think you'd need one per say.

Necrelios

I'm really stupid, I mean, I'm just a giant floating eyeball with 12 tentacles and no brains, but with 3D rendering becoming a browser thing and really wide spread at that, they should totally consider making this a reality for ESO. I mean with a certain dawn your trench coats/berets and step into the dim war table imbedded touchscreen monitor style of elder scrolls online alliance vs. alliance, with a roleplay progression system kind of game.

Now just look at games like EndWar Online. A really awesome concept happening there with world wide, community participation driving the game forward. It's browser based, so anybody can play it. It's much like an old tabletop game, except with lots of explosions, and cool excitement! I think there could really be a market for this sort of thing with the Elder Scrolls franchise. It is so much fun with a touchscreen monitor. You literally have the forces of good or evil at your fingertips. Imagine if instead of being forced into the role of the "Vestige" and having all the unnecessary added stress of saving the world loaded on to your shoulders, if you could actually just take sides with Molag Bal and wreak havok on the world of Tamriel? What if you could prevent this in others? Wouldn't this be an amazing concept worthy of all the new 3D rendering technology now being thrown to the browser market?

Squa

I actually made a table top Elder Scrolls, based on white wolf's World of Darkness rules. Its not finished, but I did run a test campaign with it which was pretty successful. If any one wants what I have, I can send you the PDF. (just need to find it first)


*edit-

Now that i am looking through it there are a lot of small errors (such as I sometimes say verve instead of magika) but the rules are pretty well detailed.

cyqa

I would totally be down for an ES tabletop! It's been too long since I've had a decent tabletop group, but I'd definitely be motivated to find one. I enjoyed the DA game immensely.

Gidorick

Ok. Here's what they do. Create the ruleset and release the rules and play tools WITHIN ESO... let us sit in taverns, , roll characters, collect different style dice, make little figurines... Let us play a pen & paper rpg within the MMO.

Heh.

wraith808

I have one... I just haven't released it at all because of licensing concerns. It's based on an altered version of Dungeon World/Apocalypse World, and has the feel of ESO (at least from those that I've had read it). If I could find out if I could release it for free, I'd do so. But until then, it will unfortunately be only for friends and such.

@ZOS_GinaBruno - is there somewhere I could check if I could release it for free with no problems?

Gidorick

wraith808 wrote: »

I have one... I just haven't released it at all because of licensing concerns. It's based on an altered version of Dungeon World/Apocalypse World, and has the feel of ESO (at least from those that I've had read it). If I could find out if I could release it for free, I'd do so. But until then, it will unfortunately be only for friends and such.

@ZOS_GinaBruno - is there somewhere I could check if I could release it for free with no problems?

I'm pretty sure add long as no money is made there's nothing they could do.

Shadesofkin

the FATE Core rules would be another engine to run Elder Scrolls RPG from, FATE is so fluid and capable of doing just about anything that it'd be extremely easy to build the character you want.

I've modified rules for the Firefly RPG by Margaret Weis Productions, just a few notes and crude drawings of what I'd expect the Character Sheet to look like, but if I ever get around to it I'd consider trying to create a much cleaner looking idea. With the way skills work, the three primary stats, and the Distinction System (which allows you to create things like the Constellations) it seems to be a working theory.

Krym

there is a homebrew floating around, and also a miniature game (scrollhammer).

Obscure

I created a Morrowind table top conversion back in 2006 of my own using the D20 system. It was actually really easy, and I near literally pilfered the quests from the game including quest dialogue to do it. I made the Nerevarine an NPC of incredible power that the party got to occasionally experience run ins with, and try to help out, as he was on his quest to bring down Dagoth Ur and the Tribunal. Possibly one of the best table top games I've ever run.

Naturally since it's using a licenced property, releasing it would be violating their copyright, but suffice it to say, at least where Morrowind is concerned, it was easy to convert since it was so heavily based on old school table top games to begin with. ESO is a far cry from the table top game design of the older TES games, and thus the conversion back into one might be a fair amount to difficult to capture. Suppose I'd just use Morrowind as a basis, and just pilfer all the quests from ESO to do it personally... but I'm not quite as ambitious as I used to be in my table top gaming. Just give me my 3.5 D&D, my Pathfinder, and my 4e Shadowrun, and I'm good lol.

Shadesofkin

Yeah that is the problem with homebrew (though you can release it for free as a fan created product) is that it requires you to do all the work and no real credit. That being said, there's hundreds of thousands of "mods" created for ES products out there, I can't imagine they would balk at a Tabletop game "mod" being released by fans, heck it might even get on Fan Creations for ESO Live.

If I were going to go D20 of any stripe with a TES Campaign Setting, I'd rely heavily on Blue Rose, True20 and Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Edition. Most of the ideas behind the ES games have been a way to allow you to play as you please, sure you have core skills and abilities, but if you want to master a sword it's not difficult to head that direction.

I may have to poke at it more when I'm done with our Fifth Edition game.

wraith808

Gidorick wrote: »

wraith808 wrote: »

I have one... I just haven't released it at all because of licensing concerns. It's based on an altered version of Dungeon World/Apocalypse World, and has the feel of ESO (at least from those that I've had read it). If I could find out if I could release it for free, I'd do so. But until then, it will unfortunately be only for friends and such.

@ZOS_GinaBruno - is there somewhere I could check if I could release it for free with no problems?

I'm pretty sure add long as no money is made there's nothing they could do.

You are incorrect. I'm no lawyer, but I know enough (and have seen enough) to know that there's a lot they could do, and I'd be the one taking the risk.

firstdecan

How difficult would it be to take almost any existing P&P RPG and just play it using ES lore? The only thing you might get hung up on is formalizing a classless progression system, but a little creative thinking can go a long way there. I used to play a lot of RPGs in high school (Whitewolf games, 1st and 2nd edition AD&D, MERPS, Cyberpunk 2020, almost every game published by Palladium, Amber, etc) and I could take any of those rule sets and run a TES campaign (with a little work around defining races and removing classes).

For example, if you wanted to use the AD&D ruleset, you just make sure you've got your races defined with ES lore appropriate bonuses. From there you just use a hybrid of the multi-class / dual class rules where everyone starts at level 1 in all the basic classes (fighter, thief, mage, priest) and let them level the classes individually to their taste. OR you start at level 0 and force an initial leveling into classes of interest. There's no need to reinvent the wheel, and the rest is just a story / adventure in TES loredom.

Edit: How did I leave out shadowrun?

LameoveR

Time of tabletop games is far away.
Better buy this plush netch.

Gidorick

wraith808 wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

wraith808 wrote: »

I have one... I just haven't released it at all because of licensing concerns. It's based on an altered version of Dungeon World/Apocalypse World, and has the feel of ESO (at least from those that I've had read it). If I could find out if I could release it for free, I'd do so. But until then, it will unfortunately be only for friends and such.

@ZOS_GinaBruno - is there somewhere I could check if I could release it for free with no problems?

I'm pretty sure add long as no money is made there's nothing they could do.

You are incorrect. I'm no lawyer, but I know enough (and have seen enough) to know that there's a lot they could do, and I'd be the one taking the risk.

Fair enough!

sylviermoone

Tabletop ES game??

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.



(In other words, I would really like this please).

Shadesofkin

firstdecan wrote: »

How difficult would it be to take almost any existing P&P RPG and just play it using ES lore? The only thing you might get hung up on is formalizing a classless progression system, but a little creative thinking can go a long way there. I used to play a lot of RPGs in high school (Whitewolf games, 1st and 2nd edition AD&D, MERPS, Cyberpunk 2020, almost every game published by Palladium, Amber, etc) and I could take any of those rule sets and run a TES campaign (with a little work around defining races and removing classes).

For example, if you wanted to use the AD&D ruleset, you just make sure you've got your races defined with ES lore appropriate bonuses. From there you just use a hybrid of the multi-class / dual class rules where everyone starts at level 1 in all the basic classes (fighter, thief, mage, priest) and let them level the classes individually to their taste. OR you start at level 0 and force an initial leveling into classes of interest. There's no need to reinvent the wheel, and the rest is just a story / adventure in TES loredom.

Edit: How did I leave out shadowrun?

It depends a lot on how much work you want to do to make it fit. In my very old 2e game I totally used a lot of the Lore as it was and ignored things like the spell points and stamina. Now as I've gotten older and I am more creative than I was as a kid I'd like to do more with those core stats than I would have then.

Ideally I would use die ratings (D6-D12) to represent Health, Magicka, and Stamina, with experience points increasing the die rating for each gain. Skills would also have a die rating (D4-D10) and would be adjusted at character creation based on certain factors (a path of choices which directly affect skills as they're chosen). Distinctive traits such as race, background, constellation would each have special abilities attached to them or bonuses to the skills.

When rolling for whatever obstacle I might be encountering, the roll would depend on what I am doing. Throwing a spell? Magicka Die + School of Magick Die + miscellaneous die (perhaps Breton gains a bonus die or a weapon can have one) and roll. Take the two highest, add them together to get a final result, compare it to the obstacles results and you pick a winner.

But that's just a preliminary idea I had. You're right, just about any rules system could cover it with pure lore alone, but I can and do see the benefit of coming up with a system tailored specifically to the setting material to try and capture that "feel" the game gives.

Woolenthreads

I'd prefer it was based on Morrowind if they were dealing with Elder Scrolls. It had Flying and Teleport Spells. The potions/spells/enchantment crafting was less limited.

There were a lot of complaints about how it could be broken but theycomplainers tended to forget that you had to have played a lot of the game to have learned how to do so in the first place and then it was your choice.

ESO as a tabletop campaign might be interesting but in terms of system it's a different, limited game.

Natjur

Shadesofkin

Woolenthreads wrote: »

I'd prefer it was based on Morrowind if they were dealing with Elder Scrolls. It had Flying and Teleport Spells. The potions/spells/enchantment crafting was less limited.

There were a lot of complaints about how it could be broken but theycomplainers tended to forget that you had to have played a lot of the game to have learned how to do so in the first place and then it was your choice.

ESO as a tabletop campaign might be interesting but in terms of system it's a different, limited game.

I strongly disagree. If you're doing a Campaign Setting you keep it neutral from the games, setting it in between the series or after.

The Elder Scrolls Campaign Setting would have to take that stance in order to cater to all the fans from across the board.

Mephilis78

According to legend Tamriel (Nirn) is actually a world that the guys at Bethesda created for their own petsonal D&D campaigns. Way back when Bethesda just made sports games.
Edit: and Terminator games

FloppyTouch

If we are talking about models we build and paint then battle on a field with dice roll and stats this would be really cool.

If we are talking about a top view imitation video game of a table top game then no ty