The Elder Scrolls: Doom Drum | Morrowind 3e 427
The Third Era is ending. Gods, Great Houses, ashlanders, and madmen are all making their moves. Where will you stand when the music ends?
$12.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Friday - 1:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 3–4 hours
Campaign Length / 8+ Sessions
0 / 5 Seats Filled
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About the adventure
Morrowind, 3E 427 You might not be the prophesied return of any ancient Dunmer generals. You might be a prisoner. You might be nobody at all, in fact. The Empire holds Morrowind, but its grip is complicated. The Great Houses pursue their own interests. The Ashlander tribes remember older ways. The Tribunal Temple guards its mysteries. The Blades have their orders. The Sixth House remains unmourned. So the story goes. - Doom Drum is a GURPS campaign set in the world of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, using the events and circumstances surrounding the game as our starting point, but this is not a recreation of the videogame's story. There is no predetermined Nerevarine. There is no guarantee that the same people will rise to the same positions, that the same factions will win, or that the same prophecies will come to pass. You decide who your characters are. Perhaps you are an Imperial agent sent to the province to keep an increasingly troublesome colony under control. Perhaps you are a Dunmer caught between the traditions of your ancestors and the realities of Imperial rule. You might be a House retainer, a Temple initiate, an Ashlander, a scholar, a mercenary, a thief, a smuggler, a member of the Blades, a time traveling mining robot who gets really ticked off about elves, or a wanderer. And, if you wish, you may believe yourself a candidate for the Nerevarine. The campaign will begin at ground level. You'll encounter the people, institutions, prejudices, religions, economies, and political structures that make Morrowind what it is. Your decisions will determine which doors open to you and which ones close. You might become involved in the affairs of the Great Houses. You might earn the trust of the Ashlanders. You might find yourself navigating the peculiar bureaucracy of the Imperial occupation. You might discover that the Temple's theology doesn't quite withstand scrutiny. Or maybe your just a mercenary who likes getting paid. - Due to the limitations of a video game from the early 2000s, despite the games phenomenal open world, it still is limited in the kind of story it can give you, the kind of endings you can get. Rest assured, I have no such limitation. When any offer comes, you may feel free to accept it. If your character comes to believe that the Empire is an occupying power, that the Tribunal has betrayed its people, or that ***'s vision represents a better future for Morrowind, you are free to act on that belief. - We will be using GURPS to run this game. I would point out the availability of the unofficial Elder Scrolls RPG system (UESRPG. Please go and check it out.), but it is imperfect for our uses. I quite like it, I've used it many times, I've developed for it, I've maintained some user materials. It's complicated and its not newbie friendly. GURPS can be altered to perform similarly to the gameworld. It's user and newbie friendly, and I can make using it terribly easy for you.
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Sandbox / Open World
Theater of the Mind
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(6)
Less than a year on StartPlaying
2 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, Rule of Cool, Storytelling
Average response time: 11 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
Well, hello there. I'm Daz. I've been playing tabletop games for 25 years, and I've been GMing regularly for about 20 of them. At this point, I've come to realize that I didn't really choose to GM. I have to. I _must_ It's much the same with writing: the ideas get into my head, and eventually they simply have to get out. My first games were a few rinky-dink affairs in high school, followed by my first *real* campaign in college with a few dear friends. Before long, I found myself imagining worlds of my own, strange characters with interesting backstories, settings, narrative arcs, and wild ideas that didn't quite fit into any existing box. So I decided to test my mettle and run a game for those same friends. We played a game that was a mix of Animal Crossing and Silent Hill. It was horrifying. But lots of fun! Twenty years later, I'm still at it. For most of those two decades I've been concocting plots behind my screen, running games across a wide variety of systems and settings. Along the way, I've become something of a student of the hobby itself: I love digging into the history of settings, understanding how mechanics have evolved, and figuring out what the intention was behind which dice are rolled. More importantly, I've learned that a good GM isn't simply the person who knows the rules or tells the story. A good GM makes it easy for everyone else to participate in creating the experience. That's something I've worked hard to develop over the years. I enjoy teaching systems by playing them rather than burying new players beneath a rulebook. I like games where the players and GM can actually talk to one another, reach a communal decision about what will make the game more fun, and then get on with absolutely annihilating the plot points I had planned for. I've developed guidelines and approaches that let players engage as deeply as they want to, whether that's bringing a character that is a challenge for the player to the table, or trying a bit of high RP when its a bit outside the players comfort zone. And while I certainly love a good fantasy campaign, I've spent much of my time GMing branching out. Cyberpunk. Low Magic. High Lethality. Grimdark. Heartwarming (Princess: The Hopeful anyone?). Some of the most fun games I've run recently have been one-shot campaigns inspired by movies, television, video games, and books. Both from things I discovered recently to things I loved when I was younger. How I would character myself being is GM is: An experimenter empath who tries to help the players tell the story they want to weave. I like discovering what happens when you take an idea seriously. I like finding the weird corner of a setting that nobody thought to explore. I like watching players take something I prepared, turn it sideways, and come up with something I never expected. (::sound of me dumping my session notes in the trash::) After 25 years, I'm still fascinated by this hobby. I still have worlds I want to build, stories I want to tell, systems I want to try, but also potentially develop. Probably with your help. So if this sounds like your kind of table, I'd love to have you along for the ride.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
I intend to have a free individual or group session(s) 0 to do chargen and chat about expections (this doesnt have to be at the scheduled time, and really shouldnt take long.). Players can choose from some sheets I have created for the characters I've made for other games in the setting. They may also create their own characters. Guidelines: Standard GURPs chargen, 100 pt character, 40 max disadvantage. No magic/supernatural/psionic elements. If you take a disadvantage, I do expect you to play it when it comes up. Characters are from Tamriel. Standard regions and peoples. Of course, I'm open to creative use of the lore and I have some funny ideas that might come up, so chat with me about your wild idea. I want to hear it. This narrative is intended to be transformative in nature, as in, within moments of starting the game, we are likely to diverge from the path of the game. Indeed, I will be changing aspects of the narrative/Big Bad Evil Guy significantly. I would recommend you build the character from an RP perspective vs minmaxing. This is a soft guideline. Minmaxxed characters have weak points usually, and this is a game with possible character mortality. As this is a one shot, the focus is more on the story telling/narrative/vibe. Playing the game is very helpful, but not required for enjoyment. Although the game is considered a classic for a reason, whether or not you play, you should check it out. As this is a game with HP and mechanics for injuries and death, you might find yourself on the wrong end of a fire spell or arrow. A total party (or universe) wipe is very possible although not intended. Player characters might pass on from their mortal coil, I'm only warning you that it is possible. Although I would fairly characterize myself as a somewhat forgiving GM. I have employed, in the past, a sort of quickload system, where we all pick a point earlier and go back to see if doing something different would change things, in the case of a TPK. Naturally flagrant violations of causality are not allowed, as I dont need the time police on my doorstep. Don't worry, I'll brandish that old chestnut, "Are you sure about that?" like all good GMs do if you are doing something your character would know is dangerous. Lastly, if you want to want to research the theme and vibe of this game, check out the early 2000s game: The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind. Also check out: Arena Daggerfall Oblivion Skyrim There were also some mobile games on old flip phones back in the day, lol. And there is plenty of lore discussion and fiction out there to snack on. Geez, normally I point to a movie or book for this stuff, but this one is hard to nail down.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
I typically run voice over Discord, I'll be making a server specifically for this game, its the most stable I've found for VoIP. And I run rolls on Roll20 typically. But dice as you know, are fickle, and if dice rolls are not random-seeming enough on Roll20, I also allow dicebots on discord or any other public facing dice roller. For GURPs, I use GCS (GURPs Character Sheet generator) to keep track of point expenditures and dice rolls. But you are not required if you are familiar enough with the system. As long as I have a sheet that follows all the chargen guidelines, it's fine. If you happen to be brand new, that is absolutely not a problem at all! I'll walk with you through the steps of the sheets, the system, and general play. Genuinely, it takes 10 minutes to go through it all, and I promise you, you will not feel left behind when we are done. In the case that you are new and do not want to engage with GCS, excel, or any other automated methods. You can just chat with me for ten minutes and we can knock one out very quickly. I'll send you the finished PDF and we'll be set to roll.
What Dazzle brings to the table
You can expect us to have a free session 0 which might come individually with just us speaking over voice chat. We'll probably be typing messages now and then as well. If a group session 0 is possible, it may seemlessly move into a session 1 if there is time left over (still free until the next session). During that time, we'll be chatting about your expectations, what kind of story you might want to have, what kind of story you DON'T want to have, discussing the character or characters you are bringing to the table/the character you are getting from me. Make last minute adjustments to your sheets like freebies and unique attributes you might have from your past. Maybe a storytime if anyone has a cool story to tell about TTRPGs (I have a collection). Lastly, this is GURPS, which in the book states, if you use absolutely every rule in the GURPs books/system, the game is unplayable. GURPs by definition is pick and choose how realistic you want to be. We're gonna fall right in the middle between rules as written and rule of cool. But the very basics of GURPs are fairly concrete. We'll follow them, and if we find any problems, we'll take a minute to discuss. My philosophy is that we discuss how the letter of law may have failed, and what change would suit the spirit of the law, if the spirit is insufficient then we discuss and agree as a group what new rule feels fair for all involved.
Homebrew rules
If I ask you to roll dice and I say the words, "Just don't roll a critical failure." and then you roll a critical failure, you are allowed to cuss me out. But seriously, not really any homebrew. I just reference back to consensus based rule alterations, only when they are required.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Dazzle creates a safe table
I do not have a physical NO-card to put down in front of everyone, but I can have one on the roll20 board. I have a direct message with all players. And simply stating "Veto" or some version of "I'm not comfortable with this" will illicit me to move on from the scene or merely abstract the events down to the necessary story bits prior to the moving on. Session 0 is typically as far as I've ever needed to go for the tempering and setting of expectations from everyone. I'm very accommodating. And if you are uncomfortable by any subject, let me know your limits whenever you feel comfortable sharing them. I can voice them as if they were my own to everyone else. And we'll probably agree on those limits anyway. I tend to shy away from gratuitous descriptions of the unpleasant or grotesque if they aren't completely necessary. Basically, anything down in the content warnings is negotiable. There IS slavery in the lore, especially Morrowind as a province. However, again, negotiable bringing it up. Most citizens of the Empire detest it and actively fight it. It simply may get brought up. We will not be glorifying it in game in any manner.
Content warnings
Safety tools used