I've got a problem maybe y'all can help me with.
I've got some friends who want to play D&D again but nobody wants to DM. It occurred to me that this is a great opportunity for me to trick them into finally playing Morrowind by disguising it as a D&D campaign.
This isn't the first time I've had this thought, but AI has come a long way in the last couple years, enough that putting together the visual assets would probably be a much more manageable undertaking -- if I could get my hands on a library of maps of interior and exterior cells.
I know Morrowind has a console command to export a 256x256 bitmap of every exterior cell, which is a start, but it's too low-res, and excludes interior cells. Does anyone know if there's a way to tweak it to generate higher res maps, and/or maps of interior cells?
Alternatively, does anyone know of another way to accomplish this? Specifically, getting high-res, game-accurate maps of the interior and exterior cells? As in, detailed enough to play tabletop on?
I distinctly remember that the Prima strategy guide back in the day had greyscale maps of interiors, so I know it can be done, I'm just not sure how.
I don't have the answers to make your method work, but I'll give you my thoughts on the matter anyhow. The idea is novel, but I don't think it'll provide the quality maps you're looking for.
The
UESP interior map collection have close facsimiles of what you're trying to achieve, albeit non-orthographic and in 00-10s quality. Some of the maps look perfect for what you'd use them for, like many of the ancestral tombs - the problem is the maps that aren't there: Multi-story buildings, temples and other Velothi buildings, forts, etc. etc. Wall meshes very often have ceillings and floors built into them, with some rooms even being a single mesh, meaning that simply peeling away the ceilling for a good top-down map isn't possible. You'd end up having to come up with an alternative for buildings like these, meaning you'd need another method for making maps anyways.
I don't know the expectations you or your group have in terms of visuals, but you could consider drawing basic black-and-white maps (or stitching one together by generating a load of maps from a generator like
this and gluing parts together) and pulling up a relevant in-game screenshot (or a short looping .mp4 if you have the time and effort) on the side. You'd get easy clear-cut battlemaps while setting the tone.
Also, even if you're running an edition of D&D, it might also be worth looking into the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Role-Playing Game (UESRPG) for ideas if nothing else. Not every Khajiit you meet in the game need be a Suthay-raht, for example. There's also a 5E-based system with TES flavour you could do the same for, but I don't recall the name.
And thanks for reminding me how I, back in 2018, used the TES-overhaul for Crusader Kings II to generate easy character tokens. Ran a campaign wherein the players needed to establish the first Mage's Guild in Torval, played as a Mecca-like closed city which was fun. I constructed the main antagonist, a Prince of Paupers-esque character, with thinly-veiled Dostoyevsky quotes ("There is no crime and no sin, but only hungry men. Feed them first, then ask virtue of them", and the like). Character attached down below was just supposed to be a throwaway, but ended up being integral. My main advice for a TES-TTRPG would be to keep things weird and roll with whatever ad-hoc solution you conjure up when your players ask for elaboration.
