Is there a place for poetry in Skyrim?

[cumbrianlad]

I think there is.

 

The vanilla books are sometimes OK, but mostly dull and boring. This makes the player collect the book (if it's valuable enough) and promptly forget about it, until they sell it.

 

I'm putting out a mod that really requires the player to read the books they are provided with. If they don't they could well die, and I couldn't give a Monkey's t*** one way or the other. As far as I'm concerned, they were given all of the facts, but chose to ignore them... not my fault.

 

However, since I chose this route, I've been very careful to weave a story into the books that the player finds, writing accounts from different NPCs to be found as the player progresses.

 

I then hit a point where I'd written that a certain ancient legionairre's father said he should be a bard, because he was so good with 'words'.

 

I needed poetry.

 

In one of his journals I added a poem.

 

Reach up, young lad

Look to the skies

Spread your arms

Embrace the light

 

Life's not so bad

Soak up the rain

Nothing warms

Like leaves lit bright

 

Summon the hawk

Let it thrive

It warms my heart

To you, from me

 

It is meant to encapsulate his longing for a world beyond the dark and dingy cavern he is stuck in. He also sees trees and hawks when he is on 'latrine duyty' and has to cart the poo and wee out of the cavern. This NPC also plants a tree. Fair -play to make him write a poem?

[cumbrianlad]

Seems like the answer to my original post is "no"

 

GodsDamn-It ! I honestly thought people liked poetry. If not, then they liked music. What's music, or songs, if they aren't poetry set to music?

[anjenthedog]

Why not? a poem can be a riddle of sorts, or contain clues to solve a riddle, or whatnot. You're the one writing the mod, so you pretty much set the tone and governing rules.

 

I suppose it'd be fair to at least provide the "audience" with a clue that carefully reading the provided materials included with your mod is necessary to finish the quest. Otherwise (imo) it'd be a bit douchy (again, imo) , but personally I wouldn't have any issue with such an inclusion, and as you said, you really don't give a rats __ what anyone thinks anyway, so there you have it.

 

Good luck completing it. Does it have a name so I can look out for it?

[anjenthedog]

BTW, posting in these forums is a slugs fest. I watch them with great routine and posts dribble in at an incredibly slow rate. If you want a wider response I'd suggest that you need to wait wait at least a week or two. Even then you may only end up with two or three responses. Maybe post to other site forums as well to cover a larger audience. Not sure why but the Nexus Skryim SE (SE and LE) forums have very little traffic.I'm not telling you to, but suggesting that you have a bit more patience waiting for replies.

 

PS> coming back to edit this post, I discovered that it was for Skyrim LE not SE. as such, hopefully you'll bring this mod to SE as well. Stupid right panel "Recent topics" listings get me into the "wrong" forum too often.

[cumbrianlad]

Why not? a poem can be a riddle of sorts, or contain clues to solve a riddle, or whatnot. You're the one writing the mod, so you pretty much set the tone and governing rules.

 

I suppose it'd be fair to at least provide the "audience" with a clue that carefully reading the provided materials included with your mod is necessary to finish the quest. Otherwise (imo) it'd be a bit douchy (again, imo) , but personally I wouldn't have any issue with such an inclusion, and as you said, you really don't give a rats __ what anyone thinks anyway, so there you have it.

 

Good luck completing it. Does it have a name so I can look out for it?

given what you said about a 'slug-fest', I'm happy for the reply! The poem is not in the least bit significant to how any quest will work out. It is just there, as part of a set of books/diaries which complete the player's understanding of the story. I love poetry but didn't know if anyone else would share my interest. i guess I'll just put it in and see.

[enriquegtz2]

Dude, i was planning to do a poetry mod for skyrim. dialogues from unnamed npcs (laborers) could be a good starting point for homage to some poems i like (non elevated poems) [if battleborn is a bard, why cant an old hag have some crushing verse-dialogues?]

I know its not the same approach, but if you need help i would love to work in something that focus on poetry (zero modding skills but willing to learn)

[NexusComa]

Creating books for Skyrim is super easy stuff. Some of us collect books. Myself I love to pore me a cup of mead and relax by the fireplace. Snuggled up to a good book after a hard day of slaying dragons.
Possibly you could create a mod that holds a very nice item. Then from a collection of poem books weave a riddle that leads you to it. The only way to get the item would be to solve the riddles. The poem books

lead you to other poem books that in turn lead you to the item. Not all players are total hack and slash. Some like to smell the roses along the way. And so the journey begins ...

Or you could simply put out a collection of books. To this day I'm still looking for the rest of some book volumes. Maybe you could even go all out and create a npc with bookstore just trying to make a living.

[enriquegtz2]

Maybe you could even go all out and create a npc with bookstore just trying to make a living.

I think there is a mod that adds a bookstore at Solitude. It includes poems, lore (essay-ish), short stories, novels, not sure if dramaturgy

[NexusComa]

@enriguegtz2 ... Nice. I looked it up and I'll surly check that out.