Playing Elder Scrolls at the Tabletop?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

So far, it seems the only attempt to bring the popular Elder Scrolls series to the tabletop was a promotional module for The Elder Scrolls Online that turned out upon closer examination to be plagiarized from a published 5e D&D module...

Given this, it seems unlikely that an OFFICIAL tabletop game based in the setting of Tamriel will emerge any time soon. But for those of us who'd like to combine our PnP gaming chocolate with Elder Scrolls peanut butter like a delicious, delicious Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, what would be the best system to adapt the setting to WITHOUT ripping off D&D?

[Lord Raziere]

pretty sure there are Elder Scrolls fan rpgs made, but they're probably DnD related.

but that aside, it all depends.

you can probably make a M&M game out of Elder Scrolls and it would fit. things like Dovahkiin, Chim, Nerevar are pretty much superheroes by themselves. the magic can in general can get pretty superheroic. Chim people can even act as deadpool-esque characters!

Fate rpg, as always, works with everything as long you like narrative mechanics, and Elder Scrolls can sometimes be narrative in how it works, why the entire concept of mantling is like a story or narrative you play out.

Cortex system will probably work to. universal systems generally do, just in different ways.

[Spore]

I feel D&D is actually a pretty good fit. If you avoid player characters with divine powers like CHIM etc. the power disparity of casters and melees is well represented by the system. The only caveat I would make is that I would start at 3rd level always.

To catch the feel of TES your character is always a somewhat competent individual that just lost all of their belongings. I mean you can pick up a dagger or your starting spell and take down a bandit camp almost on your own.

Of course you need to homebrew races. Refluffing many core races is nice and all but dark elves are not suffering from light blindness nor would elves in general be immune to sleep.

[NichG]

There's UESRPG, which isn't D&D-based actually, it's a completely from-scratch system. I played in a campaign using it for about a year, and I'd say it's got plusses and minuses, but could be vaguely reasonable depending on exactly what you want to do.

I think it requires a bit of thought to make the combats interesting after the first few. There's a 'distribute your actions' mini-game with how the initiative/actions system works, and once you have figured that out then fights can turn out to just be a matter of grinding through - it requires a bit more explicit work on the part of the DM to make there be changing tides of battle compared to something like D&D, because the spells and effects that can be deployed are a lot more one-note (generally there are lots of different ways to get things which remove enemy HP or things that preserve party HP, but there isn't so much in the way of battlefield control, mobility, etc abilities in the system, so things can reduce to exchanging hits until one side drops).

There's also some wonkiness in the power curve. Everything is percentile based and rolled against the character's own stats, with degrees of success for how much you exceed what you needed. So that means that starting characters have a period of time where they only have something like a 40% chance of even getting zero degrees of success. When that transitions over to characters actually hitting the basic zero degrees of success point, there's kind of an uneven feel in how play shifts (because before, everything was about 'if I roll, there's a good chance I'll fail' and it suddenly changes to 'for these things, I need enough degrees of success to achieve my goals but I pretty much will never fail'). There are some methods in the system to bypass rolls or make rolls ahead of time (alchemy and enchanting, in particular) and so those end up being pretty potent early-game options since they can basically double your success rates when it matters.

[NNescio]

I feel D&D is actually a pretty good fit. If you avoid player characters with divine powers like CHIM etc. the power disparity of casters and melees is well represented by the system. The only caveat I would make is that I would start at 3rd level always.

To catch the feel of TES your character is always a somewhat competent individual that just lost all of their belongings. I mean you can pick up a dagger or your starting spell and take down a bandit camp almost on your own.

Definitely not the case for Morrowind and Oblivion.

(And probably Arena, but I haven't played that one. Though I heard classes [only three] with access to plate armor had it significantly easier.)

[LibraryOgre]

If I may...

It's based on Deluxe edition, not Adventure Edition (the new one), and needs a bit of updating to meet that, but it's designed to run fairly well in the Morrowind-Skyrim milleu.

[Morty]

D&D's rigid classes and levels aren't a good fit for Elder Scrolls' famed freedom in character creation. And in TES, magic is amazing for utility and healing but frequently a pain to use in combat, so the disparity isn't really there.

[LibraryOgre]

If I may...

It's based on Deluxe edition, not Adventure Edition (the new one), and needs a bit of updating to meet that, but it's designed to run fairly well in the Morrowind-Skyrim milleu.

So, tooting my own horn... why Savage Worlds?

1) Character creation is freeform; pick the skills and abilities you like. Want to build a combat monster? Build it. Want to be a spellcaster? Build it. Your choice of edges determines what you're really good at... I could have a very high Fighting skill, but if I don't back it up with some fighting edges, I'll only be mediocre at combat until I pick them up.

2) Breadth of material. Want to throw in some weird, high tech, Dwemer ****? There's plenty of material for that... You could run a Dwemer Centurion out of the book with the "Mech" monster in Deluxe edition.

3) What Savage Worlds always bills itself as... Fast, Furious, Fun. The system is easy to teach, emphasizes PCs and important characters, but still leaves mooks a threat.

[Imbalance]

Arena and Daggerfall are very D&D. Morrowind had heavy influences from Ken Rolston's previous work on RuneQuest. Oblivion seems generic enough for just about any system, and Skyrim is so casual-friendly that what was boiled down to three starting classes to start immediately allows for limitless expansion and cross-classing (ie.: I wanna be a wizard! First I'll warrior these spiders then thief past a bear).

[Rynjin]

I'm currently GMing an Elder Scrolls (Oblivion Crisis era but set in Hammerfell) game using Pathfinder and my Freeform Class Selection system and custom races and birthsigns. It's working out pretty well.

[Eldan]

I just played D&D straight up in D&D 3.5 with custom races. It worked... fine.

[Seb Wiers]

I don't know about "best" but I played a pretty fun game based in the Morrowind set setting using Harnmaster rules. Upside was it had an equal level of fiddly bits as the computer game. Downside was ... equal level of fiddly bits. Very simulationist, and we made no attempts to alter the Harnmaster magic system to me more like Elder Scrolls (they match decently, though combat magic is harder to pull off in Harnmaster).

[RedMage125]

D&D's rigid classes and levels aren't a good fit for Elder Scrolls' famed freedom in character creation. And in TES, magic is amazing for utility and healing but frequently a pain to use in combat, so the disparity isn't really there.

Doesn't Elder Scrolls Online have more rigid classes?

[Lord Raziere]

Doesn't Elder Scrolls Online have more rigid classes?

Yeah but its an mmo. so. not worth our time. they don't map to how anything works in mainline elder scrolls games and everything they can do, can be replicated with something less rigid.

Edit: and even then, the MMO doesn't really lock you out of anything with those classes. mage and rogue equivalents can still wear heavy armor, warrior equivalents can use staves with no problem, anyone learn how to steal and stealth, those classes only determine three ability trees out of many you can pick up and use. so really, there is hardly even a point to emulating them as strict classes, because those classes don't lock out you out of things like DnD does.

[Morty]

Doesn't Elder Scrolls Online have more rigid classes?

Apparently, but I've never played it, so when I think "Elder Scrolls", my mind goes to the wonderful freeform mess of the single-player games' character creation. If one wished to emulate ESO rather than the main series, I suppose D&D would work better. Though as far as I can tell, every class in ESO has magic powers, so you'd have to work that in.

[Spore]

Yeah but its an mmo. so. not worth our time. they don't map to how anything works in mainline elder scrolls games and everything they can do, can be replicated with something less rigid.

I disagree for a bit here. It kinda show how divine powers could be fluffed in a gameplay setting (which is kinda weird since the aedra do not directly influence Mundus but hey, maybe in your game they do).

Aedric Spear is a skill tree for templars that is a great example. In the MMO it is a spear made from pure light used for various combat maneuvers. It does "magic" damage whatever this means but it glows in a holy light. Templars are "quasi-paladins" who use light and sun to aid their martial endeavor.

If you translated it to Skyrim or Oblivion, this class would likely have heavy armor, one type of weapon skill, restoration magic (for the radiant damage, healing) and would slightly dabble in destruction (because fire magic). A slightly more defensive character would probably switch from destruction to block.

A 5e character would probably just be a cleric or paladin and be done with it.

D&D's rigid classes and levels aren't a good fit for Elder Scrolls' famed freedom in character creation. And in TES, magic is amazing for utility and healing but frequently a pain to use in combat, so the disparity isn't really there.

While I agree, it is an arduous journey if you want to find a system that fits TES in both crunch and fluff feeling.

[Mordaedil]

While I agree, it is an arduous journey if you want to find a system that fits TES in both crunch and fluff feeling.

You could just adopt the video game mechanics to crunch. Maybe replacing percentile with d20 where it can be to make it more playable, but like, it's all out there.

[GloatingSwine]

Leftfield suggestion, but you could probably adapt Call of Cthulhu.

It is a skills driven system where skills develop when used, you'd just need to patch out sanity for magicka points and increase character durability by a factor of four or five.

[Celestia]

I don't see why you can't just use whatever fantasy game you like best for the mechanics. The appeal of Elder Scrolls lie predominantly in two areas: the open world exploration and dungeon delving (which all ttrpgs can accommodate) and the lore (which is [mostly] separate from the mechanics). The leveling system is, at best, secondary.

Now sure, you could try building a game off the mechanics, but what would be the point? If you get too accurate, it'll be super fiddly and annoying without the automated computer keeping track of it, and if you try to compromise between accuracy and usability, then you're making a standard skill-based game, and there are plenty of those already to choose from. Just pick a pre-existing system and set it in the Elder Scrolls world.

[Beleriphon]

I don't see why you can't just use whatever fantasy game you like best for the mechanics. The appeal of Elder Scrolls lie predominantly in two areas: the open world exploration and dungeon delving (which all ttrpgs can accommodate) and the lore (which is [mostly] separate from the mechanics). The leveling system is, at best, secondary.

Now sure, you could try building a game off the mechanics, but what would be the point? If you get too accurate, it'll be super fiddly and annoying without the automated computer keeping track of it, and if you try to compromise between accuracy and usability, then you're making a standard skill-based game, and there are plenty of those already to choose from. Just pick a pre-existing system and set it in the Elder Scrolls world.

The biggest rub is the fixed abilities of the characters. A Breton is different than a Redguard is different then an Argonian.

[Lapak]

The biggest rub is the fixed abilities of the characters. A Breton is different than a Redguard is different then an Argonian.

That's not such a hurdle, but the non-class based structure is. There are a number of systems that would work with minimal tweaking, but not all of them would allow you to represent the weird grab-bag array of skillsets common in Elder Scrolls characters, where it's not uncommon to see a rogue-type who is also a master of just one school of magic or a sorcerer who wears heavy combat armor but has no other physical combat skills or whatever. So I wouldn't probably recommend a strictly class-based game but that leaves you quite a few things to choose from.

[Chauncymancer]

BRP or GURPS are probably the games that best capture skyrims "Skills go up when you use them" gameplay leveling loop, although GURPS has such high lethality that you won't get that bandit clearing flavor, and I don't remember if BRP has anything like talent trees.

[Rynjin]

BRP? I haven't heard of that one.

[Kadzar]

Yeah, I really think the best bet would be to take a percentile-based system like Call of Cthulhu or Runequest and replace all the skills and attributes with Elder Scrolls versions. It has the advantage that skills can have the same numbers as in the video games, and you'll level up skills that you use the most.

There will definitely be more work needed for adaptation, but probably not much more that you'd need with any other system, and I don't think there's any part of the percentile system that actively hinders your ability to use it for Elder Scroll like some other ones do.

EDIT:

BRP? I haven't heard of that one.

Basic Role-Playing, the system used for Runequest and Call of Cthulhu.

[stack]

You really need a system that encourages jumping everywhere to level athletics, then spamming an unlocking cantrip to level that skill when you aren't constantly casting 1 damage spells in yourself to boost those skills.

"Do you investigate the plothook?"
"Nope, grinding skills."
"Sigh. Maybe next session."

[NNescio]

You really need a system that encourages jumping everywhere to level athletics, then spamming an unlocking cantrip to level that skill when you aren't constantly casting 1 damage spells in yourself to boost those skills.

"Do you investigate the plothook?"
"Nope, grinding skills."
"Sigh. Maybe next session."

So... basically a Chaosium system like RuneQuest (2 or 3) or Call of Cthulhu?

(It's done more 'sensibly' in that you get one chance to advance a skill if you used it at least once during a session [or whenever the GM/Keeper feels you got enough downtime], instead of every time you use the skill, but for some players it still 'encourages' skill grinding.)

[Onos]

Personally I think Trudvang Chronicles would be a more or less ideal system with minimal changes required. It's skill based and you "level" by spending xp on features you want, the fear mechanic could be a cool addition to elder Scrolls given some of the more extreme encounters though could be dropped easily enough and the magic system is almost perfect for Scrolls-esque casting (and Thu'um). Add a stamina based subsystem mirroring mana and it'd be pretty much perfect.

Anyone up for putting base systems to a vote and doing a community let's-build?

[Celestia]

The biggest rub is the fixed abilities of the characters. A Breton is different than a Redguard is different then an Argonian.

*shrug*
That difference barely exists anymore in Skyrim, so clearly even Bethesda doesn't think it's all that important.

[GloatingSwine]

They keep changing what the race specials are in Elder Scrolls anyway.

[Malphegor]

Okay so first off the racial abilities fit nicely in 3.5 as racial SLAs. Given that a silverbrow human with a ability to cast featherfall isn't that much different to a Nord who can cast Battlecry, it's mainly a matter of adding Elder Scrolls spells to the D&D framework.

Now, races. We're going to need to refer to the similar races by their meric names. Orcs are Orsimer. We do not want to mix them... though thematically...

gah.

Okay, how about this, Orsimer are considered orcs for all intents and purposes, but are considered a variant, like how midgard dwarves are effectively dwarves whilst being outsiders.

The gods and powers largely can fit 1-1 with existing stuff albeit some wiggling is required.

I'd have to have a look, but in terms of mechanical stuff, I feel Skyrim's mechanics at least can easily be fitted into 3.5. Oblivion, Morrowind, or earlier? Unsure.

Depends if you want game mechanics level or lore level.