Inanius Egg Mine
I started adapting the campaign with the town of Suran, a Dunmer market city between Pelagiad and Molag Mar, just on the border between the Ashlands to the north and the Ascadian Isles to the south. There are several quests associated with the region, but I'm deliberately going to choose one of the more boring ones; Inanius Egg Mine.
Egg Mines are the hives of a local creature called a Kwama, similar to ants. Their eggs, which egg miners harvest from inside, are a dietary staple of central Morrowind. This egg mine is owned by Serjo Avon Oran, the governor of nearby Suran. It's also afflicted by the blight.
In this quest, the player is told by Nileno Dorvayn, a rival of Oran's in the same political party, to sabotage the mine for a reward. The player has several options. They can go through with the sabotage as asked. They can refuse the quest altogether. They can accept the quest then instead go to Oran, and extort double the quest reward from him. They can go to Oran and extort the funds while also sabotaging the mine anyway, getting three times the initial reward and special dialogue from Nileno. It's this level of choice, even in one of the more routine quests which makes Morrowind a special game.
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| By 'sabotage' I mean kill that thing |
But the total freedom available in a tabletop roleplaying game blows Morrowind wide open. In order to adapt a quest from a videogame, necessarily containing less freedom and choice than we want, we have to clear away the detritus and get right at the meat. I conceptualize them as nodes.
Serjo Avon Oran is a node. So is Nileno Dorvayn. So is the blighted mine. Three nodes gives us a solid starting point. Then we have the entry, the method, and the consequence. In Morrowind, this quest, subplot, whatever you want to call it, has only one method of entry, and one state for the player to be in when they enter; in the service of Dorvayn. But we have more flexibility.
The players might be entering this through Dorvayn's request. Or, Dorvayn hired someone else to do it, and they are hired by Oran to figure out who did this and pay them back. Or the players are tasked by the temple to investigate and treat the blight infecting the mine, when they encounter Dorvayn's rogues in sabotage. Maybe they're pulling a Robin Hood, stealing food to give to the poor, or deliberately getting blighted eggs to poison someone discreetly.
While pursuing this quest, the party may be straightforward and just do the job. They may attempt the extortion, which they may succeed or fail. They may inform Oran to get on his good side, offering to double-cross Dorvayn. They may frame another rival for the sabotage.
And then, there must be consequence. The reward is often a part of it, but if the party is unlucky or indiscreet enough, they may get no reward. Letting slip Dorvayn's name while extorting Oran will come to bite Dorvayn later, and will likely impact the players. The loss, curing or maintenance of a blighted mine must be having some effect on the area. If the mine remains open, the health of the locals will flag, and they may starve or be forced to pay higher prices for foods if it closes down. Curing the blight will only benefit Oran, enriching him and allowing him to further entrench his own power.
All of this we get from a few nodes interacting in predictable ways, and the utter unpredictability of both players and dice. We can, with altogether little work, turn Morrowind's static and deterministic (albeit beautiful and engaging) world and make it a place the PCs can have real adventures in.
Locations and Hooks
That's a pretty detailed writeup of just one quest. Actually, it's more than I would ever write for such a small quest. The key to this approach is that events are hung on the nodes, then developed through player action and the GM's common sense. Everything written above can be spooled out from the existing possibilities, in the moment, by anybody with basic creative faculties. So, in keeping with the Law of Maximization of Conceptual Density, I should be putting this stuff down in a scannable, readable, and easy-to-run form that makes the presence of nodes obvious.
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| A Quiet Night in Suran |
Suran
Market Town, Dunmer, Ascadian Isles (interactive map)
Major NPCs
Serjo Avon Oran (Governor, Oran Manor)
Merchants: Apothecary, Smith, Pawnbroker, Outfitter, Clothier (Market Square)
Helviane Desele (Innkeeper, Desele's House of Earthly Delights, Market Square)
Daric Bielle (Bounty Hunter, Desele's House of Earthly Delights)
Dranas Sarathram, (Slaver, Slave Market)
Elvil Vidron (False Prophet, Market Square)
Hides-His-Eyes/Haj-Ei (Scout/escaped slave, Suran Tradehouse)
Ashumanu Eraishah (Tavern-keeper, Suran Tradehouse)
Elynu Saren (Priest, Suran Temple)
Nevena Ules (Hlaalu Councilor, Ules Manor)
Umbra (Warlord, Suran Hills)
Leles Birian (Master of Destruction, Piernette's Farmhouse)
Even if you've never played the game, looking at that list should give you plenty of ideas for drama. Preexisting quests connect some of these nodes, but keeping just a few facts about each in mind, you can go hog wild. Some of these NPCs are those you should meet quickly; the merchants are the main reason for being in Suran, and the tavern and inn keepers are the prime source for news. Others, like the governor, should be more difficult to access unless you have relevant business.
And some are outright secrets. Nobody knows that Leles Birian, a Master of the School of Destruction magic, quite possibly the most capable practitioner of combat magic in the province, listed in the game's stats as being more powerful than the current Archmage of the Mages' Guild... is living on a little farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Nobody will tell you this, but she's the only person who can offer Master level training in Destruction. Is she related to Piernette, the other Breton who runs the farm she lives on? Is there past drama that made her leave or never join the Mages Guild? Is she deliberately in hiding?
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| Ascadian Isles |
If one of the players winds up being a Destruction mage and they want to find the Master trainer in order to legitimize themselves, finding her will be a task in and of itself. Or maybe the party winds up befriending Piernette and stays in her farmhouse whenever they pass by, getting to know Leles as a minor NPC with no inkling of her real importance or power.
All these options and more are at your disposal. With a few regional nodes, some common sense and a taste for drama, you can build a living world on the fly. Here are a few hooks to get you started, adapted from the in-game quests.
Desele's Debt
Helviane Desele, proprietor of Desele's House of Earthly Delights, owes a substantial amount of money to the Fighter's Guild. You may be tasked by the guild to collect, or involved in one of Desele's get-rich-quick schemes to pay it off (which may or may not involve you going into a dungeon).
False Incarnate
Elvil Vidron, local religious nut, has read the portents and decreed that the time of the Incarnate is at hand. He preaches in rags in the market square, claiming that he is the Nerevarine. Elynu from the local temple has tried to talk him down and beg mercy from her superiors. But the Temple decrees that there is no such Incarnate, and any heretics must be silenced, by force if necessary. If it is found that Elvil carries a Sixth House ash statue (which is clouding his mind and giving him visions) it will be all the worse for him.
Drunken Bounty Hunter
Daric Bielle, Bounty Hunter, is charged with finding an escaped Argonian slave, Haj-Ei. He has been helped by a local guide, the Argonian Hides-His-Eyes, and has had no success, so has been drinking in Desele's instead. A basic understanding of the Argonian language, a conversation with the slaver, or a lick of common sense will inform the players that Haj-Ei is Argonian for Hides-His-Eyes, and that the slave has disguised himself as his own hunter.
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| Umbra and his wielder |
Umbra
The players are celebrating. Perhaps they are in Desele's after a risky dungeon raid, or the town is throwing a festival and feast. Either way, people are partying. Then, a young Dunmer man in dented armor, ragged and emaciated, crashes in. He is Governor Oran's son. He and his companion, another young Dunmer noble, went into the hills some time ago in search of Umbra, a towering orc warlord, a barbarian whose caravan of warriors were part mercenary company, part wandering dueling school. They had gone to test their mettle, and the elder had tried to fight Umbra for the leadership of the group. He was killed, and all the worse, his soul siphoned by Umbra's soul-catching ebony blade. When Oran's son protested, Umbra beat him, pulping his armor and sending him wandering through the hills without rations for days before he stumbled back home.
Umbra is a plate-armored, ABCD Fighter carrying Umbra, a sentient +2 soul-trapping greatsword. He wears a necklace of black soul gems into which his victims are imprisoned. Five gems are filled, and three are empty. Each gem (and the soul within) can be destroyed to cast a MD of Reflect with an action. His caravan of warriors, running the gamut from experienced mercenaries, to aspiring duelists, to roguish sycophants, care for nothing but drink and plunder.
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Using the above system will get you a long way whenever adapting content, especially content as dense as Morrowind, to tabletop. The most important thing to remember is that your campaign is its own beast, and the restrictions in the videogame don't apply here. This loose system is best when the players are taking nodes that have nothing to do with each other and let the sparks fly. What mischief will take place when the PCs seek Leles Birian's help in defeating Umbra? Can the players use Haj-Ei's help to lead the bounty hunters around and take their money to resolve Desele's debt? Can they bring down the local slave market by extorting the governor? All that is to be played out at the table, not set in stone.
So play with it already.
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