In January of 2016, Daniel Dover of
Mailanka's Musings, started his Psi-Wars blog series. His way of filing off the serial number of Star Wars and creating his own setting to be used with GURPS. This is another example of that process. Showing its versatility by going in another direction from another starting point. The Elder Scrolls (or TES).
He pointed out a few reasons why creating something new is better than simply converting something old to GURPS:
* The new product is yours; it doesn’t belong to someone else. So you can do whatever you want with it.
* Things work the way you want them to work and avoids any inconsistencies or varying interpretations of the original.
* You can add stuff from multiple sources and make your unique creation larger than the sum of its parts.
* GURPS has already filed off the serial number of some stuff.
* Creation allows you to be creative, while conversion stifles creativity.
His process is to quickly get something playable, by creating the setting step by step. Starting with a simple core and adding complexity with each iteration, while simultaneously fixing flaws. Or in other words, creating an imperfect setting that can be used NOW! And improving it with each cycle.
For the first step, we’ll need
GURPS Basic Set,
GURPS Fantasy,
GURPS Low-Tech,
GURPS Magic, and
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers.
The Dragon Tablets: The Concept
What is The Dragon Tablets? It is The Elder Scrolls with the serial number filed off. A single player fantasy computer roleplaying game turned into an RPG setting for groups that can be used without computers. The Elder Scrolls is a very cinematic setting and the hero can learn how to do just about anything and become larger than life. Including learning how to kill dragons permanently by stealing their souls. There are kill moves, powering magic items by stealing lesser beings’ souls, multiple pantheons, joining and progressing in the ranks of guilds/factions, choosing sides in conflicts that aren’t black and white. It’s about saving the world while helping the little guy along the way.
Designing the Fantasy Campaign: The Core Activity
So what are you going to do? What is the “core activity” of Elder Scrolls? Trying to answer that from the tools GURPS Fantasy gives us, starting at page 6 for genre and setting and on page 174 for adventures.
* The genre seems to be a mix of High Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery.
* The setting is a fantasy world, or more specifically, limited to the continent of Tamriel.
* Into the Labyrinth: TES has a lot of quests that take the hero underground, normally into natural caverns or forgotten ruins. These are generally quite small compared to most D&D dungeons.
* Perilous Journeys: Exploration and quests are other big things in TES. Though they are not usually as long as mentioned here.
* Hunting Parties: Some of the quests in TES are to kill monsters.
* Treasons, Stratagems, and Spoils: There are a few covert/espionage quests in TES, but these are rare.
* Diplomacy: On the small scale, such as trading. Courtship is generally handled differently in the game if it’s there at all. But this seems the best place to put it in The Dragon Tablets.
* Investigation: There are a few investigation type quests in TES, but they are rare.
* Confrontations: Most things end up with confrontation, but only a rare few start there in TES.
* Shore Leave: Doesn’t really offer quests in TES, but it exists between quests and could be a part of The Dragon Tablets.
The stories tend to be exploration and quest driven, with a distinct fantasy action focus. Sometimes with the aid of stealth or negotiation. Politics and religion play a role, but mostly in the background as motivations for action or as groups to join for additional quests. Or as a source of healing and blessings that temporarily improve the character.
Economics can play a big or small part. It can be in the background as motivation, the hero goes on quests to get more money so that he can buy better gear. Or it can be in the foreground as the hero finds raw material, crafts stuff to use or to sell, alchemy and enchantment work similarly, and there can be plenty of trade, for those that so chooses.
Designing the Fantasy Campaign: Motifs
GURPS Fantasy has two sidebars about motifs that players might expect.
* Cook’s Tour: The hero travels and explores as much as he likes, despite any other goings-on. Well, most of the time. The beginning of Elder Scrolls games can limit this somewhat. And away from the computer, this is too unrealistic to keep in The Dragon Tablets.
* Flashy Magic: Magic is combat ready, including fireballs, and can be quite deadly.
* Healers: Healing magic is available both to the heroes and others.
* Letter of the Law: Wishes/Prayers can be dicey, depending on whom you are dealing with.
* Lingua Franca: There is a Common tongue, though there are separate languages as well.
* Nonhumans: There are a number of different races.
* Taverns: You can find taverns or inns all over the place.
* Women Warriors: Women, at least if she is a hero or an important NPC, can become pretty much what she wants.
Though The Elder Scrolls pits the hero against the world, or whatever part of the world that irks him or his employer at the time, Duels isn’t really applicable as mass combat isn’t part of the game’s core activity.
Designing the Fantasy Campaign: Scope
Where is the hero? Scope covers the location(s) used in the campaign. As exploration is so important, the hero can travel where ever. Various games have allowed travel over all of Tamriel, one or two provinces, or less than a province. But travel and exploration have always been of great importance.
Designing the Fantasy Campaign: Realism
This is fantasy and magic, so the campaign isn’t realistic, but there are still elements of realism.
Action
In the games, you can save and are technically immune to Bad Stuff ™. But this is going to be a multiplayer experience, so saving is unpractical. As a computer game, the hero doesn’t need to sleep or eat. Doesn’t have to worry about the temperature, being wet, getting dirty, or using the bathroom. Away from the computer, the heroes have to worry about these things, except, perhaps, the dirt and the bathroom.
Action is cinematic to the extent that a single hero is much more combat capable than most characters. Gear and weapons don’t have to be maintained.
Action is realistic to the extent that there is danger. Injury, fatigue, and magicka are tracked and limited. You have to roll to pick a campsite or set up camp. Forage for food if you don’t have any and roll for the suitable skill to do so. Someone has to stand watch if you don’t want to risk surprise. And a skill roll is needed to do so.
Characterization
In a computer game, the hero has the personality the player decides. So characters are as human, complex, flawed, stereotypical, and archetypical as the player wants.
Setting
The setting is cinematic enough that the differences to the game world introduced by magic aren’t explored. It is a happier place than the real past. Though there is abject poverty, there doesn’t seem to be any serfs. Torture is generally not used. The rich and the highborn may marry for political reasons, but the rest marry for whatever reasons they like. War may be in the background, but the brutal details are beyond the scope of the setting.
Style
As mentioned before, there is poverty, but starvation is beyond the scope of the setting. You have sometimes been able to toggle blood and gore on and off in the game and sometimes not. As I don’t like such things, blood and gore is turned off in The Dragon Tablets. There may be corruption and other political machinations.
Designing the Fantasy Campaign: The Setting
The Elder Scrolls setting is the continent of Tamriel on Nirn and the games have spread out pretty well all over the continent. Some areas more than others. So let’s call the The Dragon Tablets world Boros and the continent Regnarok. This is only iteration one and we can figure out a better name later.
Here is a quick image of the nine provinces:
* Celement is a Control Rating 3 Feudal Colony of the Cornian Empire.
* Cornia has a Control Rating 4 Feudal government with an Emperor at its head.
* Gordfast has a Control Rating 2 Tribal government that recently has left the Cornian Empire.
* Lunarstream is a Control Rating 3 Colony of the Cornian Empire, with a titular king to lead it.
* Marshlands is a Control Rating 4 Dictatorship (Monarchy).
* Rockwell doesn’t have a province-wide government; it is divided into smaller kingdoms and city-states.
* Shokwood is a Control Rating 3 Dictatorship (Monarchy)
* Springfell Isles is a Control Rating 3 Colony of the Cornian Empire, with a titular king to lead it.
* Urdinia is a Control Rating 3 Theocracy.
A quick list of the organizations the hero can join, all of whom will need more detail in future iterations; for now, all we need to know is what they do and that there is some sort of ranking system:
* Wizard Guild: Teaches magic and have magic related quests.
* Warriors Guild: Teaches combat skills and have combat related quests.
* Thieves Guild: Teaches thief skills and have theft related quests.
* Assassins Guild: Has assassination related quests, where there may be instructions on how the mark is supposed to die.
There are other organizations, of course. Most of them are outside the scope of the setting. Organizations the heroes might interact with include, various city watches, that may be different in different cities/towns, various temples/shrines, though a temple devoted to the same god will be similar even in different provinces. The military may be involved, on a small scale.
Designing the Fantasy Campaign: The Supernatural
TES has magic and so does The Dragon Tablets. For now, we simply use the magic rules from GURPS Magic. More detail has to be added to magic as well as to what kind of supernatural creatures and realms exist in the setting.
Designing the Fantasy Campaign: The Technology
The dwarves had a much more advanced technology than what is left in Tamriel now. For the heroes, we can ignore that as it doesn’t have to be explained to them. They may find it. It works, but they have no chance of discovering how. I’m probably being too detailed in this section, for iteration one.
The setting is TL 3 with some deviations here and there.
* Transportation is TL 4, but navigational tools are still only TL3.
* Black powder/gunpowder doesn’t exist. So there are no weapons that need them or fireworks.
* Spider silk is used as a fiber, as are reeds, cotton, wool, and silk.
* The following TL4 weapons are available: Cavalry Saber, Edged Rapier, Late Katana, and Saber
* The following TL3 weapons don’t exist: Flamethrowers, Rockets
* The following TL 4 armors are available: Brigandine (all), Plate (all)
* Animals aren’t armored.
* Submarines don’t exist.
The Dragon Tablets Characters
Now that there is a core setting, we need characters to fill it. Both GURPS Fantasy and GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1 Adventurers have templates to help create these characters, though neither is as powerful as I want them to be. I am used to PCs in the 400 character points neighborhood, but these lesser templates can be useful for NPCs.
Looking at the Fantasy templates first, the following jump out at me as particularly useful as a starting point for the heroes: Archer, Assassin, Bandit, Battle Wizard, Holy Man, Knight, Spellcaster, and Thief. All of the Dungeon Fantasy templates are more or less useful.
Races
As mentioned earlier, humans are not the only race around. Fortunately, there are racial templates in the Basic Set and Fantasy. There are other GURPS books with additional races, such as Dungeon Fantasy 3 The Next Level, Monster Hunters 3 The Enemy, Bio-Tech, as well as some 3rd edition GURPS books such as Aliens and Fantasy Folk. Some of those books are not written with Fantasy in mind, but they could be used anyway, perhaps after a little modification.
The Dragon Tablets!
And there we are. The first draft of The Dragon Tablets. There are still things to do. The continent is not well described, for those interested there’s nearly an infinite amount of work to do on that point alone. The organizations need to be fleshed out, as does the supernatural. I need to design templates that are suitable to the power level I want and decide what races I want and if the templates for those available in GURPS products are what I want or if something else is needed, I bet it’s the latter. Still, it is a workable setting that you can play in.
