LE Skyrim's Odd Jobs

[Dequire]

Recently, I got a new computer and re-downloaded all of the mods that I wanted. One of them, included Live Another Life, and I chose to be a bandit. It set me in these two towers near Whiterun, and all of the bandits were friendly to me. I got some decent fur armor, a mace, a crappy shield, and went out. I promptly noticed a Thorian, from the MoMonsters mod, and started hunting it down. Several bandits from the bridge between the two towers began firing arrows at it, and one of the bandits at the foot of the towers came down and helped me hunt it down. Now to me, THAT'S an extremely good feeling of immersion. It dropped me in a home with a bunch of bandits that actually helped me out and were friendly to me. I felt like I could stay in those towers and rob passing caravans and actually BE a bandit.

 

Unfortunately, that's where it stops. You can't actually be a bandit and rob caravans and the like. You can't go out and rob passer by on the roads. And that's when I realized how much opportunity for immersion is missed with vanilla Skyrim. There are indeed a fair few jobs you can take up, from wood cutting to hunting down bounties, to doing missions for the Dark Brotherhood. But it's still rather lacking with the MASSIVE amount of jobs you could really do. And that's where Odd Jobs could come in to pick up the slack, much like Alternate Life did to fix up the linear game intro.

 

There could perhaps be job listing boards, or just people around towns and such that you could talk to, or bandits at certain locations that would be willing to offer you jobs. Jobs at the job listing boards could be chopping up a certain amount of wood, or getting materials, or finding a certain set of armor, or just upgrading someone's equipment with your smithing skills. By talking to people looking to hire, you could provide escort services (Mind out of the gutter, people). You simply follow them along the roads, whether they be alone, with a horse and carriage, or other guards as well, and protect them from various threats. Wild animals, bandit raids, roaming giants, etc. These would be almost entirely set up to Skyrim's own natural creature generation, happening by chance depending on if creatures just happen along your path. Only some things, like bandit raids and ambushes, would be randomly generated by the mod itself. By talking to a bandit (At certain locations) you could join up with a group of outlaws to roam the roads, rob passerby or ambush carriages and the like, or to sit back, relax, and wait for the bigger caravans to come by your area. This could even go up to raiding small towns and villages (Nothing major, to keep from getting complicated).

 

Even just those few things would give the more common swordsman or spell user the ability to make gold doing what they do best. Of course, adding even more possible jobs, like spying on someone, casting a certain spell on a person, following someone silently to make sure a trade goes down well, etc would add much more diversity.

[Arimikami]

I'm not sure how you would make it so a player could join a group of bandits but, I do know that it's possible to rob a select few NPCs because I've had that dialogue options come up, though it's very rare.

 

If someone were to take that dialogue option and the accompanying NPC reactions and make them regular options, you could very easily play a highwayman.

[Dequire]

Actually, going with a group of bandits would be easy, I think. Simply make a select group of NPC's friendly towards you, and have them move along roads, guard a select spot and attack/extort passerby, etc, and you basically just follow along. A quest marker could appear above the group leader's head in case you lose them. At the end of the mission/day, the leader talks to you and you get a share of the pay. Of course, in order to make sure that people don't just take the mission, stand there and do nothing, you'd HAVE to protect your fellow bandits. Too many die and you don't get paid, or if you don't do your job of protecting, or if you don't kill enough, etc.

 

In fact, just becoming a regular solo highwayman would be great. If an NPC is out on the open road, or a group of them, what have you, you can talk to them and force them into paying you for passage, giving you items, etc. If they resist, you punch/attack them until they're about to die, then talk to them again. Doing this too much in a certain area, however, would attract the guards to you. Attack and kill the guards, and a larger group of guards will be sent. Perhaps even mercenaries if a rob a particularly rich person.

[Arimikami]

 

In fact, just becoming a regular solo highwayman would be great. If an NPC is out on the open road, or a group of them, what have you, you can talk to them and force them into paying you for passage, giving you items, etc. If they resist, you punch/attack them until they're about to die, then talk to them again. Doing this too much in a certain area, however, would attract the guards to you. Attack and kill the guards, and a larger group of guards will be sent. Perhaps even mercenaries if a rob a particularly rich person.

 

What you described right here is actually very similar to what Is already in game. When I had the option to rob people, I basically talked to someone that was walking on an open road and one of the dialogue options was something like, "I'll be taking that off your yhands.", or something along those lines. I don't remember exactly but, if someone took that dialogue option and made it more common, perhaps only becoming available when outside of cities, you could basically mug anyone you came across when not inside a walled city.

[Dequire]

 

 

In fact, just becoming a regular solo highwayman would be great. If an NPC is out on the open road, or a group of them, what have you, you can talk to them and force them into paying you for passage, giving you items, etc. If they resist, you punch/attack them until they're about to die, then talk to them again. Doing this too much in a certain area, however, would attract the guards to you. Attack and kill the guards, and a larger group of guards will be sent. Perhaps even mercenaries if a rob a particularly rich person.

 

What you described right here is actually very similar to what Is already in game. When I had the option to rob people, I basically talked to someone that was walking on an open road and one of the dialogue options was something like, "I'll be taking that off your yhands.", or something along those lines. I don't remember exactly but, if someone took that dialogue option and made it more common, perhaps only becoming available when outside of cities, you could basically mug anyone you came across when not inside a walled city.

 

Exactly! There is a lot of opportunity like this in the game, but Bethesda, for whatever reason, didn't cultivate on it very much. You can only rob certain people, despite the mass of opportunity, and it leaves it rather restricted. Even simply removing that blockage would make things feel much more open in terms of not playing the hero of Skyrim.

[ltknight88]

There is a mid called inconsequential npcs and another called adventures and travelers. Both add more characters to the game. And I have spent a lot of time hunting the travelers and adventureers. Travelers are easy prey. The adventures travel in groups and are more challenging.

[Dequire]

There is a mid called inconsequential npcs and another called adventures and travelers. Both add more characters to the game. And I have spent a lot of time hunting the travelers and adventureers. Travelers are easy prey. The adventures travel in groups and are more challenging.

While that is neat, it doesn't exactly add to the list of job opportunities in Skyrim. More people to hunt down is great but it still leaves a heavy gap for actual work.