How can anybody srsly play as a Vampire Hunter?

[MidbossVyers]

You perpetrator of Van Helsing hate crimes...

[Amaxi]

You are sent there to investigate what the vampires are up to. You open a strange puzzle, and out comes a vampire lady. You can immeditely see there's something something special about her, she's pretty, she wears a special armor AND she carrys and elder scroll... and your reaction would be to immediatly strike her down?.. you would obviously want to know why she has an ELDER SCROLL?, and then you learn she won't tell you but she'll lead you to the castle in which the vampire leaders reside..

 

I think it makes perfect sence, and during your time with her you might find that it would not be so easy to just kill her.. you might even find yourself...liking her?.. maby you'll learn that everything isn't so black and white.. maby you'll learn alot about yourself.

 

I for one think it's a great storyline.

[StayFrosty05]

@Amaxi....Sorry, I can't see much 'special' myself....'Pretty' means absolutely nothing, 'Armor' means nothing...as for the Scroll, I have to RP my Dovahkin to make sure he has never laid eyes on a Scroll before he picks her up (leave that stage of the MQ until afterwards) otherwise it would make much more sense to me to kill her on the spot, as a Vamp with an Elder Scroll can not bode good tidings, too dangerous to take any chances....and her not telling why only encourages and solidifies that the best course would be to cut her down and take the Scroll if my Dovah knew what she has.

 

I have done three runs with her now through the story...as an older female gamer I guess I am just not enamored by Serana....as her appearance has no effect on me and as for her personality, that's a from player to player perspective I guess....I am not fond of her myself...I don't hate her, but I do find her a pain in the *ss to drag around....her battle and idle AI's are shocking and the majority of her free roaming dialog is a string of complaints....I simply don't find her appealing and I am not a fan of Vampires anyway....am a Werewolf fan myself....:)

[Amaxi]

@Frosty

Alright, so i get what your saying. But regardless of what your first impressions of Serana are, you're sent to that place on a mission. And that mission is to find out what the vampires are up to. Were you to simply strike her down on the spot, you would not find out what the vampires are up to. And thus you would fail your mission right?

Since Serana doesn't show any signs of being hostile when you release her, that would atleast make me inclined to atleast let her live long enough to see if she has anything useful to say.

When i said you get the feel there's something special about Serana, i didn't just mean she looks pretty and all that. She's locked away in that tomb, protected by a puzzle, and she's carrying a elder scroll (that giant scroll on her back would cartainly catch my eye, regardless if i knew what it was or not). You also know the simple fact that the vampires wants whatever is in that tomb.

With this in mind, i would certainly be intrigued enough to not strike her down instantly, regardless if i were an evil villian or a hero or whatever.

But that's just my take of it ofcourse, i guess my characters always end up being somewhat thoughtful and careful. So i guess i can't relate to well with a more impulsive character.

Btw im not out to argue with you or anyone else here, im simply hoping that my take on the whole thing might help someone make sence of it all (from an in character PoV) :)

Edited March 1, 2013 by Amaxi

[StayFrosty05]

@Amaxi

 

Your spot on...it all does come down to the characters POV....I love my RP and play it to the hilt....but due to Bethesda's choice to severely limit the Dovahkins number of responses and investigative dialog tree's and choices throughout the game, I find I am myself limited in the array of RP's I can utilize to satisfaction without breaks in immersion.

 

If Bethesda had allowed a much broader investigative dialog tree with Serana I would RP an investigative and curious Dovah...but as it stands, his being unable to ask enough questions...I tend to RP more reactive 'shoot first, ask questions later' kind of Dovah's. My favorite Dovah of mine is a Pure Blood (born) Werewolf (very detailed and isolated lifestyle back story and heavily RP'ed personality)...thus he has a natural aversion to Vamps, is isolated from general society with very little interest in the culture around him (giving him reason not to question the golden tube on her back, he has no idea what it is and doesn't really care) and has joined the Dawnguard to kill Vamps and Serana is a Vamp....His views are rather black and white.... :ohdear: ...personally I would find him quite frightening and threatening in RL, but his a blast to play.... :happy:

 

I personally would be a lot more curious about who she is than my Dovah and would have a lot of questions to ask....I would not trust as easily as we are forced to in game and to be honest I think that's what gets on my goat the most, not being able to investigate, just forced to go along....that is a failure on Bethesda's part....the other failure is not removing her 'essential' tag once the mission is complete....So even RP'ing a Dovah who plays along to gather intel, but does not forget she is a Vamp, we are still forced into some kind of friendship with her whether we wish it or not, it is very immersion breaking....Those are my issues with the whole Serana deal.

[gingersnapples]

yes and no, while i usually wipe out the volkahair vampires (bar serana) i cannot bring myself to kill her [serana]. my practical mind states that its much more effective to have access to an ally that shares the same blood as what you hunting (maybe even be what your hunting.)

[kabar1969]

Just got done reading all the posts. I have not played Dawnguard, however, I would consider myself a vampire hunter. I have no sympathy for the vanilla vamps.

 

After reading the posts, I kept thinking back to the blades and Parthanax delima. It didn't matter the good that Parthy did, the only thing the Blades saw was Parthy is a dragon, has committed high crimes against mankind and must die no matter what. This is almost the same type of delima, I'm a vampire hunter, Serana is a vampire, I must kill without hesitation. It doesn't matter, the outcome of my actions, she must die.

 

Just my thoughts.

[MidbossVyers]

So you're a sword. A mindless soldier, whose life I can take without hesitation or remorse.

[mikeprok17]

I completely understand where the OP is coming from about the limited choices for his vampire hunter character. Unfortunately, Beth could only offer two main paths for the Dawnguard DLC's main quest. Both parts of the story do force you to interact with Serana rather than the way you may envision your character acting. There are very few computer RPGs with the TES' level of flexibility. The only way to have this level of freedom is to play table top or a computer RPG with a human GM to moderate choices that are not written into the games' story.

 

The TES games do offer a huge amout of flexibilty for players, especially on the PC due to the Creation Kit/construction sets. Unfortunately, no computer RPG will ever be able to match the huge diversity of character ideas or creativity that the players can dream up. Sometimes, you just have to say, "this does not fit my character, but I will have to ride the plot train to advance the story if I want to complete the quest(s)." There have been a number of times that my character would have simply killed Tulius, Elenwen, or Ulfric becaused they infuriated him/her but they were essential characters at that point in the game's story and I just had to suck it up as one of the limits of a computer RPG.

 

Just my $0.02 and best regards,

 

Mike

[sisterof]

The TES games do offer a huge amout of flexibilty for players, especially on the PC due to the Creation Kit/construction sets. Unfortunately, no computer RPG will ever be able to match the huge diversity of character ideas or creativity that the players can dream up. Sometimes, you just have to say, "this does not fit my character, but I will have to ride the plot train to advance the story if I want to complete the quest(s)." There have been a number of times that my character would have simply killed Tulius, Elenwen, or Ulfric becaused they infuriated him/her but they were essential characters at that point in the game's story and I just had to suck it up as one of the limits of a computer RPG.

I'm another one that had a total "wtf!" moment when having no choice but to escort Serana, with a very obvious Elder Scroll on her back, into a coven of deluded vampires. One of my characters would play it just fine cause she's pretty and not aggressive, and he has a weakness for women in general. But my Dovahkiin would never ever let it happen.

 

So I did something very usual: I played it as it was, but in my head it happen differently (doesn't that sound a wee bit insane? alas!). For my Dovahkiin, I just pretend Serana travelled with him for a while and then slipped away and disappeared once she was close enough and feeling safe. He followed her, learned of the castle, but didn't take her in hand-in-hand like a fool.

 

Also, @mikeprok17, if we had the option of killing either of those characters, the game would also have to deal with the aftermath. There's no way there wouldn't be retribution. Ah, and the b!tch Elenwen isn't essential after the business with Odaviing is concluded, I think. Though maybe she disappears from the game then (smart move).