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Elder Scrolls HERO [TES Conversion]

eternal_sage

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eternal_sage Community Regular

eternal_sage

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ok, inspired by Thia and his Halo conversion, i decided to tackle my other favorite game series, and do a conversion of the Elder Scrolls universe. this is all based off of in-game information gleaned on my numerous travels in Tamriel, as well as the UESP Wiki (Unoffical Elder Scrolls Page Wiki) http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page. these will be primarily lore free (so as to limit the possible copyright issues).

 

this will not be a strict conversion, as many of the game elements do not include concepts useful in non-combat situations, or those options are very limited. this is mostly in the concept of skills and magick. those who have played the games and know whats up, feel free to tear me apart. i want nitty gritty, nit picky, brutal criticism, and nothing less.

 

also, this is going by the same rules that Bethesda holds themselves to: the newest info is the most correct. therefore, most of this is coming from Oblivion, although some i thought was better in Morrowind, as it was a little more RPG, a little less action game.

 

first up is the races.

 

once these are done, i'll post the HD files. tying to learn from some of the things i saw about Thia's posts :).

 

edit: racial packages finished. feedback PLEASE!! :):)

 

edit: HERO Designer Template uploaded. it has the new Characteristics built in, as well as all other adjustments made to the base rules. it does not have any skills/powers changes that may be neccessary.

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eternal_sage Community Regular

eternal_sage

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Re: Elder Scrolls HERO [TES Conversion]

 

and just for the record, i'm getting the Characteristics adjustments straight from the game, converting the 100 point scale to a 20 point scale (dividing by 5), and going from there.

 

 
Strength     -> STR
Agility      -> DEX
Endurance    -> CON
Speed        -> RUNNING
Intelligence -> INT
Willpower    -> EGO
Personality  -> PRE

 

Body was the toughy, but I decided to go with an average of STR, DEX, and CON to get BODY, since the closest thing was HP, which doesn't convert to HERO well (or to d20, since the HP/level is based on Endurance.)

 

if any one disputes these, we can talk about it. most of the racial abilities i droped or changed greatly to make it more about the RP aspects, and less about the action game ideas.

 

as for the Magicka stat (MAG), its basically a END clone, but built as INT x2.

REC still just gives back STUN and END. MREC (Magicka Recovery) recovers MAG, and is Int/5 + Ego/5.

 

ED is now MD, Magicka Defense, and is calculated as EGO/5, and PD is CON/5.

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eternal_sage Community Regular

eternal_sage

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Re: Elder Scrolls HERO [TES Conversion]

 

Magic

--------

7 schools, each governing a different area of Magical Power. Each is bought mechanically as a multi-power with at least the following common limitations:

 

Costs Magicka, not END (+0), Costs END (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Limited Special Effect (School, -1/2), Requires a Skill Roll, (Basic RSR, Magic School Skill, -1/2)

 

Which is a total of a -1 1/2 on each spell put in the multipower.

 

Schools of Magic

---------------------

Each school is governed by a specific Characteristic, and influences certain spheres.

 

INT based Magical Skills

 

Destruction: Cast spells to inflict magical fire, frost, or shock, reduce resistances, and drain attributes.

 

Mysticism: Cast spells that absorb, reflect, and dispel magic, move objects, enhance senses and bind souls.

 

Necromancy: Cast spells involving the creation, destruction, and command of the Undead. Unavailable for PCs in game, but many quests involve the actions of practitioners. Illegal in all provinces except Morrowind, and only in certain cases there.

 

Ego based Magical Skills

 

Conjuration: Cast spells to call otherworldly creatures, and command creatures mundane and magical to do your bidding.

 

Restoration: Cast spells to restore and fortify Characteristics, cure disease, and resist magical attacks.

 

Alteration: Cast spells to breathe or walk upon water, open locks, improve the working of devices, and make things lighter or heavier.

 

PRE based Magical Skills

 

Illusion:Cast spells to charm, conceal, create light, silence, command, and otherwise affect morale.

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Nolgroth Grand Master

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Re: Elder Scrolls HERO [TES Conversion]

 

Re: Racial Packages

 

Dark Elf: The Safe Environment is only partially inline. Shouldn't there be some ED (fire only) Damage Reduction? Why only 1/month on Ancestral Spirit?

 

Nord: Same question about Damage Reduction vs Cold?

 

Everything else looks real well done. :thumbup:

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eternal_sage Community Regular

eternal_sage

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Re: Elder Scrolls HERO [TES Conversion]

 

i wanted to lessen the "i'm a video game character" feel, and i'm not really going into the DnD style "times/day" set up. however, i can see your point, as those are the biggest deviations from the game world. they also seem the most contrived, to me, as far as Table Top goes. i can understand a resistance to the predominate weather conditions, but neither damage reduction nor points of MD (only "x" element) really seem in line there. i dunno. i similarly stripped the nords of their Frost attack on touch power, and gave the Argonians some "swift swimming" plus many abilities became constant effect.

 

i want the world to retain its high fantasy feel, though, so maybe these changes are out of place? i'm somewhat conflicted, personally, because several of those things make the races recognizable, but just feel weird as racial abilities for a table top game.

 

i'm also unsure about the whole disease resistance thing. on one hand, its a big deal in the game world, because getting a disease sucks, because its a pain to go back to town to a shrine, or to carry/make cure disease potions. in table top, though, thats going to be mostly played out as downtime, simply skipped by "then you guys arrive in Ald Ruhn". if i do make the diseases (or at least the "spirit" of some of them) i know i want them to be drains with gradual effect, but i'm not even sure how i want to resist them. the Argonian has Power Defense vs. Disease, but that will not keep them from getting the disease, just offset it. i've thought about a CON roll of some sort (like a Fort save in d20), to see if its contracted or not, but that seems wrong too. so until i figure it out, i'm leaving it only on the Argonians (as it seems a major part of their race) and just letting the Redguards and Wood Elves slide.

 

although i just thought about the idea that perhaps a life support would take care of this problem. are there rules for contracting diseases in HERO, or is it a GM call? i don't have my books at the moment, and i'm knee deep in an art project and preparing for my groups Werewolf game Sat.

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Nolgroth Grand Master

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Re: Elder Scrolls HERO [TES Conversion]

 

I can understand wanting to de-console the game, but part of the attraction I would have to such a conversion is the very things you stated would be awkward in a table top game. I can play a variety of Fantasy settings from Tolkien to Forgotten Realms to Ars Magica, When Elder Scrolls is mentioned, I have a specific image in mind. That includes the Diseases being semi-permant stat drains, elemental resistance (and weaknesses as appropriate), or whatever bit that is a trademark of the Elder Scrolls universe.

 

So, as always, you as the converter must make the ultimate choice as to how you want the conversion to look. If you deviate too far though, it will be only something that resembles Elder Scrolls. My suggestion though, is to make the conversion right on with the source. That would give me and anybody interested a distinct flavor to look forward to.

 

And good luck btw.

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eternal_sage Community Regular

eternal_sage

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Re: Elder Scrolls HERO [TES Conversion]

 

oh, and i forgot in my reply to you, that your other suggestions were good, and i'll look them over this weekend.

 

i'll likely produce a "direct" version, and a "rp" version, basically the first tailored to be as precise as possible to the source material, and the latter to have some of the "adventure video game" elements reduced or eliminated. hopefully i'll have them up this weekend.

 

next up is a template for HDv3, so i can make these prefabs. then, i'll likely work on the magic system (although it should be fairly easy). after that, i'll likely look into the items/materials, as those have a huge impact on the game, again, with two versions, one accurate, and one that is a possible "non-video game" version.

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azato Experienced

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Re: Elder Scrolls HERO [TES Conversion]

 

RE: the Argonian package deal -- I think that 15 pts for a poison immunity is very high unless poison plays a common role in your campaign. I know that is according to Hoyle, BUT I know if I had to spend that kind of pointage I would be very upset if it did not protect me often. On the other hand, the other players may not applicate poison being made more common in a campaign!

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eternal_sage Community Regular

eternal_sage

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Re: Elder Scrolls HERO [TES Conversion]

 

well, they aren't actually immune, but in the series, poison is an especially common occurance, especially in the latest game, Oblivion. since i was trying to go for a direct conversion, and there is no partial immunity in HERO like there is in TES (as far as life support goes, at any rate) i opted for power defense...and i'm still not sure i like it that way, but since disease and poison are major parts of the games, i wanted to be as close as possible to the source materials (in the direct version).

 

the rp version is no where near a final version yet, though, as i will be tweaking it for some time as i create other facets of the world.

 

do you have any good ideas on how to avoid the power defense method of poison defense (and disease defense, too, btw) i would certainly appriciate it, as i said, it is my least favorite part, and the only one that feels weird so far.

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azato Experienced

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Re: Elder Scrolls HERO [TES Conversion]

 

I am not the best person to ask regarding this but:

 

Extra Body, only versus poison

Extra PD, only versus poison

 

Or

 

Regeneration only versus poison

 

or

 

Do your own system:

Define the different types of poison and have a set point cost for each one. But do it in a couple or several broad categories:

Blood Destroying 5 pts

Nerve Destroying 5 pts

Magic 5 pts

 

 

Or

 

Damage Resistance, only vs Poison.

 

 

do you have any good ideas on how to avoid the power defense method of poison defense (and disease defense, too, btw) i would certainly appriciate it, as i said, it is my least favorite part, and the only one that feels weird so far.

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eternal_sage

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Re: Elder Scrolls HERO [TES Conversion]

 

hmmmm...damage reduction vs poison/disease....

 

thats not a bad idea, actually....not exactly the same mechanism as in the games (as at 75%, which is the highest level in HERO, you'd still take 25% of the drain damage.)

 

hmmm, something else i just thought of....instead of drains (which isn't quite right for diseases anyway, as they don't fade away in game) maybe transforms (humanoid into humanoid with Bitterjoint, for example)

 

with that idea then what you need is just extra body to make the process more difficult/take longer.....

 

hmmmm.....

 

anyway, next on my list (other than these issues with disease and poison) is a simple class list. classes in game are nothing other than a list of skills that you get something of a discount on. figure i'll likely go with a list of skills which are discounted via a common adder. i'll be basing the classes off of those in Morrowind, because it had more skills to choose from, and classes were 10 skills instead of 7 (maybe 8 can't remember) in Oblivion. i'll be converting directly from those lists in game (tweaking a little one way or another to add some flavor, similar to the cultural packages). i'll likely have a direct and rp flavor of this list as well, since some of the classes have skills that don't make much sense in a table top game.

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eternal_sage

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Re: Elder Scrolls HERO [TES Conversion]

 

actually, i was working on the class list, and i got to thinking...

 

 

how many people actually use their silly classes to begin with??? i always have built my own, even back in the old days (can't remember if you had that ability in Arena, but i'm 75% sure you did)

 

if people overwhelmingly reply YES to wanting the classes converted, then i will do them, but until then, i'm going to skip those, and move onto bigger and better things.

 

what should i do next? birthsigns?

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