Those "What have I done?" Moments

[Kayyyleb]

But regular bandit areas don't have werewolf heads on spikes, torture implements and dead people on dissecting tables. If there are dead people, they are usually sprawled somewhere like they'd been looted and killed, not laid out on tables near tools that could have been used for experimentation described in the book physicalities of werewolves. Besides, such victims are present in pre-determined Silver Hand bases too, like Gallows Rock which is not a radiant location.

Sure, I can see your point. I still see them in a similar way to the Dawnguard though. There really aren't any "good" factions in Skyrim. Just some are worse than others. The Companions themselves are little more than over-glorified mercenaries. Kodlak was the only one out of the whole bunch I actually liked and he's dead halfway through the questline.

[LithiumPower]

Depends on your definition of 'good' frankly. There are no factions that are perfect embodiments of the ideals they represent but there are factions with flawed people working towards a noble goal. The Companions are a fighter's guild. They protect people's homes, they rescue people from bandits, they clear out dungeons and they solve disputes by brawling on behalf of the aggrieved - which in Skyrim's tradition is a fair and honourable way to decide things. They do these things for coin, but what sets them apart from regular mercenaries is that they also take the principled stand of protecting the weak. As individuals they are flawed, Aela is vengeful, Vilkas is a bit of a douche, Farkas is simple-minded, etc. which I think is a more realistic portrayal of characters than a cut and dry paladin faction where everyone is a paragon of virtue.

 

Dawnguard are extremist and fundamental - similar to the Silver Hand but with more development. I would have really liked the Silver Hand to have been joinable similar to the DG and serve as a foil to the Companions. The DG had a noble ideal which they sacrificed almost from the get-go. They were raised to protect the Jarl of Riften's son from his own vampirism - to safeguard him, make sure he didn't hurt anyone and also to protect him from those who would kill him just because he was vampire.

 

Over time they have turned into a death squad, singling out vampires regardless of whether they're actually evil and killing them. They have even taken to killing and looting normal people to incite hate and fill their own coffers.

 

The TES universe doesn't cast all vampires in the same mould, they are sapient and capable of everything people are - including great heroism like that demonstrated by Janus Hassildor, friendship and commaraderie like Serana, strive for the Simple Life like Hert and Hern or loyalty and civic duty like Sybille Stentor.

 

At the end of the DG questline, you have some resolution when even Isran acknowledges this and accepts Serana as a resident of the fort.

 

At the end nobody is wholly good or wholly evil, and I think this lack of clarity, this difficulty in separating black from white is intentional. Bethesda want the player to second-guess themselves time and again and that's great.

[Kayyyleb]

I wouldn't say Hert and Hern are just looking for a simple life. It's just a cover for their real intentions to feed on travelers.

 

One thing that I did get from your post is an idea for Bethesda in the future to have more Civil War/Dawnguard style factions and quests with decisions that are mutually exclusive. Maybe I'm expecting too much of a Mass Effect approach to decisions, but I think that forcing players to make difficult decisions or choose what they deem the lesser of two evils makes for very fascinating and engaging storytelling. The Civil War gives you a unique opportunity to choose between 2 factions that are both good and bad in their own ways whereas all the other guilds in the game give you a very linear "Join? Y/N" approach that can break roleplay unless you're just going to completely deny in game content for the sake of keeping with your roleplaying.

 

Instead of:

 

Join Companions: yes or no?

 

How about:

 

Join Companions or the Silver Hand?

Edited March 29, 2013 by Kayyyleb

[LithiumPower]

Oh I agree completely with that. And faction prerequisites, I don't like how any idiot off the street can be archmage without knowing a thing about magic. etc etc.

 

I never get attacked by H&H, nor find them trying to eat travellers, maybe they feed on bandits, there's loads in those parts. Innocent until proven guilty!

Edited March 29, 2013 by Lithium Flower

[Amoryenar]

once, when I still had the Vanilla opening sequence, I decide to TFC 1. Bad idea. I screwed up my scripts and had to reload.

 

One does not simply TFC 1 during scripted dialogue.

[Sianama]

There were many of those moments in my Skyrim experience, but two come to my mind at once: setting foot on the Icerunner, looking around. And listening to Gaius Maro saying good bye to his love at Dragonbridge (that is more of a 'what am I going to do!'-moment, but still ..^^)

[Relativelybest]

So a while back my slightly overpowered character was taking the mountain shortcut from Whiterun to Riften and ran across some deers after clearing the pass. The next moment I hear the familiar cry of "You won't leave here alive!" and I turn around to see two bandit archers coming at me. I didn't want to waste time playing around with them so I immediately drew my swords and cut them down easily.

 

Then I noticed they weren't bandits. They were hunters. s#*!.

 

In my defense, though, the hunters dress and talk exactly like bandits, so I consider an honest mistake.

[Moshadawg]

Sometimes I look at my stats, see that I've killed thousands of people, and just think... 'Damn dude'. There aren't even a thousand people living in all the cities and settlements in all of Skyrim! How have I managed to kill so many freakin people? I mean, what would you think if you met someone and they told you, with complete honesty, that they've killed like 2000 people in the past few months? Not to mention the thousands of creatures and animals that I've slaughtered as well...

 

I just find this kind of funny and ridiculous.

[SayinNuthin]

Play throughs - 20 plus, Bunnies slaughtered - 0. . . Thieves Guild - played once, Dark Brotherhood - went back to a previous save and killed Astrid instead. Avoid the book of Boethiah like the plague, firmly decline to help the plonker outside the house in Markarth. You see where this is going there's about half of the game I avoid. Oh, and one reason I usually play imperials is for the 'voice of the emperor' which can save quite a lot of carnage.

 

I don't mind killing anyone that comes at me with a weapon but I would really Really! like a "Are_you_quite_certain_you_want_to_do_this?" mod that would obviously entail re-scripting every potential belligerent in the damned game so is probably not going to happen. But would it be possible to include an "Oh-oh, better not f**k with him" effect into say the Arch-Mage's outfit? really who is really going to attack the Arch-Mage (unless they actually want to end up a frog!)

 

More bribes, persuasions and intimidation for me, any fool can kill.

[Ausbeindur]

I have three characters. Two of them are heroes, the third is neutral.

As my neutral character, Akrir, I killed Barbas, and then felt like a horrible person for hours afterward. That poor dog...

Even as Akrir, I couldn't bring myself to kill Paarthurnax, though.