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What kind of alternate starts would work for skyrim?


Barlas

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After putting Mr.House to eternal zombie sleep, or outright killing him, you venture back out to the Penthouse, but before you do, Doc Brown flashes in through the sky in some silver flying vehicle.

 

"Great scott!" he says. "It's your ancestors! Killing Mr.House inadvertently changes the course of time requiring extensive damage-control. We've got to go back to the past and save the Arl!"

 

So you jump in his time machine and when you appear you land in someone's barn. They catch you at bow-point and have you arrested, charged with conspiracy of theft or something, which warrants execution. So then you go to the chopping block and the game starts there.

 

Or something like that.

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I'm a wizard so my natural form of transportation is to fall from the sky after a failed teleportation, screaming obscenities about how the world is out to get me, until I gently land unharmed on the ground with everybody looking at me like I'm some sort of insane freak of nature (which is true, by some accounts!). I then howl, scream and prepare a few spells for my big dramatic escape and... BOOM.

 

Here comes that big ol' bastard dragon rushing in to steal my thunder, AGAIN! He just doesn't know when to give up! He burns all of Helgen, to my complete and utter indifference, and then flies off laughing about how awesome he is for ruining my grand entrance.

 

From that point on, I decided that dragon's gonna pay.

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  • 1 month later...

This is a post I made in a similar thread:

 

So I got to thinking about how to start the game differently. FYI I might spoil the beginning of the game a little bit. As it stands, you really start the game when you emerge from the tunnel out of Helgen. At that point, you can pretty much do as you please, coming back to Riverwood if you want to start getting the main quest going. Instead of starting like that, I would like to see a mod that gives a number of different starting points to the player, perhaps allowing the player to start the main quest by talking to the court wizard of Whiterun about the stone in the barrow. I have a number of ideas for alternative beginnings. Some actually start the player off in a better position than in Vanilla, others start the player in a significantly worse position and still some ideas just start the player off in a 'different' position, with its own pro's and con's.

 

Easiest start: Player begins as a neutral Thane.

Has an essential companion, a small fortress with fully stocked home, about a half dozen guards and a small farm attached with a half dozen servants and peasants, perhaps a number of horses. The player also has the major cities already added to the map and perhaps starts with everything at level 20. There can be some excellent background info as to why the player is a Thane to flesh it all out. Player also gets income of 500 gold per day.

 

Easy start: Player begins as a land owner with a farm and mill.

Has a non-essential companion, a horse, set of decent weapons/armor but not as much of a stat boost, but can clear out a nearby cave to get rolling. The player also owns a home, has a pair of workers who give a small income of 100 gold a day whenever the player asks for it. This farm also has a pair of guards posted to it.

 

Somewhat easy start: Player starts as stall owner in major town/city.

Has one worker who gives daily income of 200 gold per week, starts with 2000 gold and basic equipment equivalent to what you get in Vanilla. Also starts with small shack in a major city.

 

Neutral start: Player begins as hunter/mercenary/wanderer.

Has basic weapons/armor roughly equal to what you get from Vanilla start, but begins in different location, perhaps has a non-essential companion.

 

Neutral start: Player is home owner in major city

Has 1000 gold, small house, but no equipment besides a sword and clothing.

 

Neutral/slightly harder Start: Player begins as a bandit.

Starts with basic bandit weapons/armor and a few weak, non-essential companions. Has a small bounty in all cities.

 

Hard start: Player is a peddler.

Player starts with normal clothes plus one piece of armor, a random weapon, 100 gold, a dozen random clutter items of low value and starts at a random farm/mine/mill instead of a city. This farm/mine/ whatever is distant from any city.

 

Harder start: Player is a beggar in a major city.

Player starts with a dagger, beggar clothes, one random food item and a dozen gold coins.

 

Very hard start: Player spawns in cave with a weapon, crummy clothes and has to fight their way out past basic monsters.

Perhaps the player was knocked out by a bear/troll and now has to escape while avoiding said bear/troll, or just outrunning it.

 

Delayed start/very hard start: Player is a bandit slave.

This was originally intended to be used with adult mods, but I am going to leave that out, it obviously doesn't need to be an adult mod thing. Player starts without any items, has bandits all around but they are neutral. Player is given a series of small quests, like cooking food, entertaining the bandits and foraging around their camp and having to bring them items. The player will get some little opportunities to steal some things here and there, but for the first few days of the new game, the player is basically a slave. To make it even harder, the player will have to do some quests that involve poaching animals/robbing people, effectively giving the player a small bounty in each city even though you are forced to do it, or get attacked.

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So I got to thinking about how to start the game differently...

 

Like the thought put into starting conditions, but what is missing here is a narrative push forward. Maybe for some, this is satisfying to be left completely free?

 

But for each of these I would want some initial quest that starts things moving forward, inserting the player into the drama, you know what I mean?

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I thought if several unique starts for each race.

 

Imperial

- You are a rich mercant and having recently closed off a lucrative deal with the Legion, you ride to Skyrim to close the deal with General Tullius, on the way there you and your caravan are intercepted by well armed and armoured bandits, your whole caravan except for a female Argonian labourer and you are killed and dumped while you two are sent down to the fighting pits....

 

- You are a agent of the Penitus Occulatus, sent to Skyrim as an undercover agent, to gain access to the Stormcloak ranks and also to report on any Thalmor movements. Your partner, a surly old redguard, is supposed to meet you at a predetermined location, once arriving there, you find that he is fighting a Dragon, and you immediately rush to his aid....

 

- You are the only son/daughter of a very important figure in the Empire, and after witnessing your father's cruel assassination, are sent to Skyrim to go into hiding, you pass through the ruined town of Helgen, just recently destroyed by Alduin mere hours before. From here you decide what to do....

 

Redguard

- You are a nobleman/woman from Hammerfell suspected to be in false league with the Thalmor, you are spirited away to Skyrim, in order to meet with a old friend who has evidence that will clear your name back home, but he or she betrays you, and leaves you for dead on the frozen coast of the pale......

 

- A highly skilled pirate, you (or your captain, depending on how old you are) have been the bane of High Rock and Skyrims coasts for months, the Legion sends a fleet of three ships filled with battlemages, to put and end to you of the coast of Winterhold, you destroy them but your boat is wrecked, and forced to land on the nearby small island, this island has a ominous looking door on it.....

 

- As one of the highest ranking Far-seers of the Synod, you have recieved a vision of terrible events unfolding in Skyrim, immediately you beseech the council of the Synod to send a contingent of mages, but they turn you down. Determined you set out with a small but elite group of Synod agents to Whiterun, the location of the vision.....

 

Dunmer

- Enslaved. You and your family live in a Legion sanctioned farm in the fertile south western corner of mainland Morrowind, but all that changed when your family was slaughtered in cold blood by a band of marauding Argonian slavers, who burned down your farmstead and took you and the love of your life alive. You are taken to a dark ruin under a lake in Skyrim, to be handed over to a dark group of hooded people...

 

- Betrayal! As the main bodyguard of your lord, one of the few descendants of the great house of Hlaalu, you are no stranger to the backstabbing party that is politics. Argonian troops assault the city of your birth, Mournhold, and you escape with your lord to Skyrim, from there you are put in chains by the very man you adopted as father.....

 

- Honored. As a disciple of the long diminished ALSIVI, you know what it is like to place faith in a increasing distant concept, yet you are honoured for doing so. One day an old man comes up to you, claiming to be Vivec, only having just escaped from the planes of Oblivion. He takes you to Skyrim, in order to find a magical artifact that will restore his power and make morrowind great again.....You reach the location of the artifact, a vast Dwemer ruin, once inside you manage to reach the vault, only to find that the artifact is gone, you then pledge to Vivec that you will scour the land for this artifact....

 

Argonian

 

- A priestess/priest of one of the ancient Hist trees, you have a honour few children of the Hist recieve, you tend to its roots, clean its bark, and extract the priceless sap from it, but something went wrong, thunderstorms were recorded all over Black Marsh that day.

 

One of the Hist had been corrupted.

 

Anger, everyone pegged you as the culprit, in a last ditch effort to clear your name, you exiled yourself to Skyrim, one of the only known locations known to hold life giving water, in the form of the Eldergleam tree....But you were caught by a corrupt guard patrol from Windhelm, and have been sent to the dungeons in the palace of Kings....

 

Khaajit

- The Mane is dying, you are one of his 20 sons, it is Khaajiti tradition that whoever goes out into the world and brings back a miraculous artifact of use to the Mane, will become his successor. Your clan's ancestral home lies in the border between Anequina and Cathar, and will not be there forever. You are sent to Skyrim to retrieve a mystical Elven Artifact of unimaginable power, but you have been intercepted by the Thalmor, deemed a enemy agent, and sentenced to be exectuded, you meet an old Khaajit warrior, and with him, you break out, ending up in the Western mountains of Skyrim.....

 

- You are a Pantheron, a member of one of the most elite organisations in Western Tamriel, focused on espionage, assassination and politics, you and your comrades are sent across Tamriel to do the Claw's bidding. You are a young and upcoming member, and for your initiation test, are sent into the wilds of Skyrim to protect and expand the Khaajiti caravans through any means neccessary...

 

- A simple slave, taken when a maruading band of Nordic savages burned and slaughtered your caravan, you were taken to Darkwater crossing, and will be forced to do their bidding for the rest of your days, luckily for you, there's another prisoner in the room, and a old rusty shard of metal.....

 

Orsimer

 

- A up and coming clan chief must prove himself to the people before he can take his place as leader, and so you have been sent to Skyrim from Orsinium on a importan quest: To gain the armour of Lagark sho thu'um, a legendary folk hero of the Orcs who was reported to destroy the enemy with only his voice, you possess the same ability, and many wonder if you are his reincarnation.....

 

- A simple warrior leader, in charge of his group of warriors known as the band of the Hawk, must save his friend from Umbra, the mysterious weapon that has plagued Tamriel since time immemorial, he found the weapon during a simple sweep of a bandit camp, and has know barricaded himself inside a Dwemer tower, save your friend!

 

- As a shaman, your duties are central to the tenets and beliefs of the Orcs, the Chief shaman has ordered you, a new member of the hallowed order, to travel to Skyrim, and cleanse four focal points of natural energy, hereby cleansing the taint in the magic of the Orcs.

Were it so easy.....

 

High Elf

 

- You are Alt-born, one of few members of the Altmer rumoured to still contain a portion of the Aedric essence of your ancestors, you are devoted and loyal to the Thalmor cause, and are sent on a important mission: To find and locate the Snow tower of Skyrim, and then find any artifacts of unimaginable power, and report back to the Thalmor. You infiltrate Markarth to investigate the ruin of N-Zand.....

 

- A rebel against the Thalmor, you have been alive for hundreds of years, and you know what the true goals of the Thalmor are, you go to Skyrim, to stop the Thalmor there, and in doing so, prevent the Thalmor from achieving their ultimate goal.

 

- You were born in the mist of the Oblivion crisis, and snatched away from your parents by fell demonic creatures, and taken to Oblivion, you survived, grew stronger, and changed. You make your escape on your 201st year of birth, escaping through a portal conjured by a mad man in a Dwemer ruin....

Edited by huntsman2310
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- Captured by the Thalmor. Basically building the story towards wanting to take down the Thalmor.

- Being in a random village, and set a few quests which leads up to you being in Whiterun?

- Being a random Bob who ends up joining the guards of Whiterun, where you join up to take down the dragon.

- Why not starting in one of the guilds? Being a random mage sent to Whiterun to help defend it. Or being one of the companion, sent to help out the guards take down a dragon.

- You are a traveller, passing by the cave where you end up after Helgen. You see 2 people running out, and Alduin flying above. Some chat, some panicking, and your on your way to Riverwood.

- Start as an Imperial Soldier in Helgen, first capturing Ulfric and waiting for the excecutioning. Instead of going through the cave, you try to fend off Alduin. You and Tullius manage to escape. He later send you to Whiterun, undercover, to see what happens. You then decide from there.

- Same as above, but one of the Stormcloaks. You run with Ulfric.

- Perhaps something a little more fun. One of the dadreic princes sends you to Skyrim, for some odd reason. I can see Sheogorath having some fun here.

 

I could go on forever :>

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Arrive in Solitude as a prisoner on a boat, main quest starts the first time you go to Helgen, with character as a bystander instead of a prisoner there. Being forced to start the main quest is lame. I think I'll try this myself when the CK is released.
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why not just make it like the one in oblivion where it drop you of a boat after you filled out the papers. to let the main quest start if you are arested in riften or whiterun or falkreath you are plased on the waggon with ulfric
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