First thread can be found here

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1066138



Basically the point of this thread is try and come up with possible stories that stick to the lore that could be used for the next ES.

At the end of the last thread there were several people who still writing as well as discussion going on about how Bethseda could implement multiple paths/alignments into the story.

Going to insert a point about the Dark Brotherhood I made before the last thread was closed and their alignment

In DF, they were more like "necessary evil." Every faction had members that would either bring great shame, discredit and/or whopping fines due to bad behavior. So, how is a bunch of honorable knights/mages/etc bound by a code going to do when a member is sleeping around with the very people he was supposed to protect/going on a rampage/being very scandalous, and that very faction doesn't want to make a scene by sending one of their own guys? They hire out the Dark Brotherhood. And there's the nobles who want to you to eliminate a bard whose smack talking, go after other nobles, going after your own faction because they're betraying the brotherhood, or other assassin factions/freelancers and there employers.

They were paid by everybody to kill anyone. They were very neutral, factionwise, and worked only for the highest bidder. They did good, they did bad, but all they really do is kill professionally. What they did in the personal lives didn't matter, as long as they did their job, and did it well. Of course, stealing and killing a brother in good standing is grounds for removal, via being assassinated.

Sure, why not. I think about stories all the time, so here's what I'd do if I was writing the beginning of TES V.

You start out in a small cabin, swaying up and down you can hear the sounds of a restless sea lapping against the outside of the boat. Character creation time! You get to choose your race/six/appearance. Stepping out of the cabin you find a well lit but crowded hold. Several passengers look green, and most of them aren't Argonian. One runs for topside, as he opens the hatch a dull patter suggests the beginnings of rain outside. You notice wooden floor to ceiling cages, a few well armed men sit outside them but they don't look particularly interested in being attentive. In one of the cages you spot a young, bedraggled looking man in formerly nice clothes. Walking over he looks up and smiles at someone paying attention to him.

"Oh, hi. I suppose you've been duped into the whole 'Exciting adventures and New opportunities' spiel like all the rest right? Well let me tell you, you're in for quite a surprise. The Isle's have gotten dangerous, real dangerous. No one knows why, but the call for mercenaries and any number of other workers is something to do with it. If you think your going to make some quick gold and ship out guess again. Just because there's a lot of boats going in doesn't mean there's a lot coming back."

You "What does that mean?"

"Well, we don't quite now. Some come out just fine, but apparently the crews are never let outside of the docks, or even off their ships; and the people that do go out never return. That was months ago, latest I'd heard before being shipped off was that no one was coming back. Entire crews gangpressed into service as soon as they make landfall. At least that was the rumor."

You "Well why are you here?"

"Ha, think I'm behind these bars because I had a choice?"

You "Go on"

"Well if you must know. I'm an unkillable. Not very catchy I know. But it means I was arrested for high crimes against the Emperor. They caught me fraternizing with the Resurgence, ha! All the dumb bastards could get on me. They'd have killed me anyway, but the thing is I'm nobility. Count Engle's brother in fact. They can't kill me without having a huge problem with the nobility, not with such weak charges. So our great and powerful Emperor decides to ship me and the rest of the unkillables out to Summerset. Figured they'd ship us off and never see us again, someone else's problem."

Looking at the other cells you see one man in particular, one that doesn't act like he's a prisoner at all. His eyes dart around, attentive and alert. Trying to talk to him earns you a glare. Giving up you go talk to a grizzled looking man, scars on his face and grin on his mouth.

"Well hey there stranger. Don't believe we've met, but I can tell a lot about people from observing them..." (cue character class and etc.)

Finally done with downstairs you go towards the hatch which has been dogged down again. As you walk up top a cry can be heard from the bow. Seconds later the ship is sideways, crashing into the heaving waves.

As you regain consciousness on a strange shore, your eyes bleary and the sun blinding, you can see another survivor rooting through bodies lying on the beach. It's the attentive looking man from the cell, he runs off as you pass out. Cue "Are you sure you want to be etc. etc. ?" Hours later you find someone waking you up, a dark shape you can't quite make out-

"Well, you're a lucky one. I could use someone like that; and you, you could use someone like me. Welcome the Summerset Isle's stranger."

Well the first thread was about coming up with a better story than Bethesda, and sharing your stories. But what ever. I just dont want it beign merged into TESV Ideas and sugerstions like all the other threads I have made.

Yeah... I'd say that the thread topic is about ideas for a good TES story... not limited exclusively to ideas for the next game.

http://anticlere.webs.com/skyrim.htm

Bump!

I totally forgot about this thread

The PC is in a prison. A ward is walking around, and is interrogating the prisoner next o you. The prisoner apparently [censored] and murdered somebody, and in in jail for life. Then the Warden reaches you and asks a guard about you. They have no files on you, so the Warden asks you what you did (Class creation), why you did it (Pre-set faction like-dislikes). He Then asks you about your family (race) and your bithsighn (obvius.) He wants to give you a longer sentence, but before he can he and the other guard go flying into the bars in front of you, and the bars get sharp. ou are thrown against the rock wall of the building and are dased. You wake up and The roof has flown off the building, and the wall between you and the other prisoner is broken. You have to defend yourself from him, and upon his death a old guy with a greybeard claps his hands. "Good job" he says. "I think our movment could use you" A loud, low sound echo's from his mouth, and you both appear at the base of a mountain. "Reach the top" he says, "And I'll train you." Before you can say anything else, he yells again and disappears. The mountain Is a long steep slope full of lower level monsters (you'd be just starting out.) Once You reached the top, the Greybeard would be shocked, and send you back down to go find X, who was researching around Y town. You get to the town and it is all the Empire, and by paying beggars for information you get to the shack were this guy is being held. When you find him (no enemies here, it's just a maze) you are confronted by the general in charge of the Skyrim campaign, and he explains the Imperial side of the story. If you agree to join him, then you execute the greybeard. if you don't, than you and the greybeard escape.

When you and your new friend reach the top of the mountain, you are sent off again to find information about Mehrunes Razor. If you chose to join the Imperial army, you are sent to collect taxes in the town near the cave in which you would be heading to as a Resistance fighter. The cave would be a very tough fight, and at the end you'd find a shrine to Dagon and how to summon him. If an Imperial, then you see Greybeards leaving and you must get the book from them before they escape.

Whichever side has the book sends you to collect a special Daedric helmet, a rusty iron weapon, and whatever is dropped by Dremora, Dark Seducers, Daedroth, Scamps, and Clannifer. Each of these has a specific quest (One cave is over-run by Daedra, every weapon in the game has a rusty iron type locked away somewhere, And there is a large Tomb that holds the Daedric helm, still on the body of it's last wearer.)

When all of the materials are gathered, you rip a hole in the Liminal Barrear (The Daedric parts and the helmet disappear, as well as a random soldier from your side) small enough for a contained amount of Dagon to push his way through. he appears as a human sized version of himself, and you ask him to turn the rusty iron weapon into his razor. Dagon refuses saying you have done nothing for him, and sends you to destroy an entire village for him. The village is quite small (20-30 people) and none of them are well armed. when you return, Dagon is gone but there is a note and the weapon now as a cool texture. The note tells you that as long as you are in possession of the razor, you will dream every night of having murdered the town and will not gain experience well using the dagger.

The dageer would be enchanted to have 6 uses of instant kill, and would be rechargble normally (taking a lesser soul) or through murdering an innocent. Each murder raises the number of charges (maxed out at 66.)

Once you had the Dagger, The Imperials would seige the Greybeards mountain. If you are a greybeard, you fight on the feild. If you are an Imperial, you are sent to personally assasinate Jurgen. either way, you end up next to Jurgen and in the distance you see Titus Mede's Imperial army clashes with the Nords of Skyrim in an all out battle. Shocked the (insert hero's title) stares with disbelief as the lines of the Imperial legion breaks. in the massacre, a burst of flame falls from the sky. the character looks up, and sees a massive dragon who is turning the tides of battle single-handedly (in TES lore they are SUPER AWESOME.) From the mountainside in which the (insert hero's title) watches, Jurgen the Clam stands up and rips off his gag to the astonishment of his 17 disciples. As Jurgen opens his mouth, ice and wind shoot forward. As he yells, all goes silent, and it is as if a missile has hit the dragon. the dragon retaliates with a burst from it's mouth, but Jurgen laughs, and that alone dissipates the flames. Jurgen yells again, and the dragon is launched far into the air. I t lands 20 seconds later, crushing a squad of Legion soldiers.
As the carnage is being cleaned up, Jurgen stickes out his powerful tounge, and screams at the top of his lungs, and light shoots from his mouth. "A powerful animals have been put to rest today. However, there are more of those creatures. hundreds of them. The Imperial might is a constant, and we might as well submit. I pity that Dragon, but i did what I did to save the lives of my brothers on both sides of this war" as soon as the light dissappears, all the weopons on the battlefield shatter, and the soldiers cease their conflict.

Whoever was in charge of you (An Imperial General or a Greybeard) died in the battle, and the other one gives you the gift of the Imperial Dragon armor "left on the side of the gate to madness." The Imperial Dragon Armor would have 50% Reflect Damage, 50% Reflect Spell, and decrease your fatigue and health by 50 points each.

A main quest that practically requires you to be a complete ass? I'll pass...

Just in case your post isn't a sarcastic request for an "Oblivion 2", here's my "The reason it svcks" speech.

While apparently we don't like having a main quest that forces us to do nothing but heroic actions for altruistic means, what you've suggested immediately has the player character cross the Moral Event Horizon and undo everything Oblivion's main quest got right. Also, what you have is an absolutely insane Deus Ex Machina (Jurgen speaks and ends all hostilities, being a Magical Mighty Whitey that is a mockery of the power of Thu'um.) The fact that it concerns itself solely with the events of Oblivion, and not the wealth of lore from the three games (and now novel) before it earns absolutely no positive points in its favor.

Or is it intentionally designed to drive players away from the Main Quest?

Oh yeah... in before Qawsed Asap: "No Prisoner intro!"

A story relies on its setting, a good setting can conjure any good story. A story will be weird and detached if the setting is not detailed, and doesn't seem to be there for other than aestethics. Or it will be distracting, big and take all the place if the setting is just used as a background for the story to stand on, how detailed it might be. Oblivion is a great example of the latter, even if they detailed the setting more and all, it would make no difference, because the whole main quest revolves around saving the entire world, and doesn't leave place for more of it, you need to close the gates of oblivion, you are in cyrodiil, but that's it.

I don't believe in writing story ideas here, they are probably making their own story, more important is what makes a good story, the setting is very important, especially in a computer game, and even more in an open world RPG where you can explore it on your own, it needs to be consistent with all that happens.

I'll admit it isn't the est story.. i'm only good at making stories when I'm actually writing them as in writing a book. However, my plot had nothing to do with Oblivion, and was based heavily on the book(Titus mede trying to re-conquer Skyrim

bump

Bump

Hey! Bumping isn't cool here, DaMuncha. If the topic is dead, it's dead. Unless you have something to contribute, don't bump

Ok, sorry.

Any ole story my pop once told
by Aut Gund, a college educated Nord
....
On this trek, far past the ruby steppes, he chanced upon a large hill, which rose out of the horizon, abruptly and without his permission. Upon closer detail ... the hill was like any other hill. Only it wasn't.
"Burp! What in the Forty-third Hell of all that is holy do you want?!"
Our brave paladin would have been knocked to his ass with such a shout, but the belch forced his legs several feet, into the rock.
"Only to pass, yon jagged peaks and behold my birth-right, before my heart breaks!"
....
"Up yours!"
....
and so, after seven-hundred and sixty-two frozen stairs, the Crusader's heart broke the dawn with a great, crimson geyser, which gave us our first red, morn' in, God, who's got the fingers to count?

The moral of the story? Never let a southern cousin hop the border, they might get their heart blown out. If you insist, remind them not to listen to tall mountains.

The player starts out in a small farm settlement as a child wandering around without parents. A family takes them in, and the player thus gets a family.
(At this time you'd choose race right before you started wandering around)
Time skips ahead and the player is shown that their character was watching a bird fly by and you hear somebody call you. Your character looks over and sees the character's adoptive mother inside.

Your mother asks you to go out back and see what's taking your father so long. And when you go back you see him plowing the fields. A rabid fox wanders into the yard, and your father doesn't notice, it goes after you and you have to defend yourself. After you kill the fox, you father congratulates you and asks you to close the gate. When you go out to close the gate a small girl calls you over into the woods, and she seems to have a snobby aura about her.

"Guess what I learned?" she haughtily asks, not particularly caring what you reply is (You can choose to be nice, mean, or neutral). "My daddy taught me a fireball spell!" she rubs in your face, and demonstrates by frying a crow in a tree. The crow's laying on the ground, nearly dead, and you have a choice to pick one of three choices to use on it: a Damaging Spell, a Healing Spell, or a Social Skill (A "Help!" command). She leaves either way saying "See isn't it fun?" for choice #1, "I didn't know you were such a baby." for choice #2, or "You're no fun at all!".

Any way, you father comes to see if you're alright and brings you to the front of the house where he's set up some straw dummies. "It's a dangerous world out there, I want to see how good you are. I've set up an enchanted scarecrow training dummy. Go ahead, pick a weapon." You get to choose a wooden sword, a makeshift bow, or to go at it with your hands, or even magic.

You do the basic skills for each. (Armed melee has block, attack, counter. Ranged has sneak attack, power-shot, and camouflage. While hand-to-hand has Trip, Punch, and Dodge. Magic has a destruction spell, an illusion spell, and an alteration spell)

Then, a caravan of adventurers walks by the road outside of the fence, the stereotypical 3 classes. A Mage, A Warrior, and a Thief. Your mother calls you both inside, and you sit down at the table, where you father discusses how you had a note in your pocket of your pants/skirt (depending on gender) and how you were born under the sign of _______. Eventually, your father looks over at your mother and says "You know, your mother and I have been talking, and we think you should be a _______" (whatever class suits your choices) You can respond with "No, I want to be a...", "That sounds like fun!", or "How come you never talked to me about it...?"

The third response would bring you to a quiz-type scenario where they ask you what you want to do. The "No, I want to be a..." lets you create your own class or choose from a list. And the "That sounds like fun!" goes along with their opinion.

Your father sends you up to bed, and the next day your mother calls you downstairs saying that your father had to go trade in (far-away place) and that he will be back in a while. She then tells you that the local store-keeper's been asking to see you, and when you go they teach you about Alchemy, and then the Trio you saw from the day before come in and they ask you what you'd like to be when you grow up. After you tell them you go with the appropriate class(es) so they can train you on what you want to be. The mage would teach you about magicka, teach you a few spells, and teach you a bit about alchemy. While the thief would teach you social skills, sneaking, and acrobatic skills. The warrior would teach you hand-to-hand, melee weapons, blocking.

After the three leave, you return home.

The time skips to 6-8 years later (when your character is a young advlt) and your mother gives you some supplies, your father gives you some advice and some money, and you start off on your adventure.

[Insert Main Quest Start Here]

No offense, but that sounds a lot like Fable. The main problem though is that you essentially force the main character into a role that the player may not want. Similar to how Oblivion forced the Main Quest upon you.

Morrowind forced you onto a boat, being imprisoned for w/e.

It wouldn't be like Fable. I haven't played Fable in over a year, and it didn't cross my mind while I was making up that story.

It would let you do whatever you wanted after that, you could turn around, kill the whole village, and sit in the corner of the house for the whole time if you wanted, but I've always hated how you would start off as an advlt in so many games and not have any backstory.

And it's not like I'm saying people run in and burn down the whole place, or your sent off an on epic quest afterward. You find the main quest, or you don't if you don't want to.

Besides, if there's a construction set you won't have to worry about a main quest being too pushy, no matter how the game is.

dood, that's inexcusable

I dunno, considering the way alot of people whine about the main quest being too pushy, it sounds like the ideal story would be:

"Your wake up in a field with no memory of how you got there. . ."


That's it, the rest is up to you, have fun.

I'm confused by it too. I mean, there's no lore progression in the slightest if there isn't a main quest of any sort, or if the main quest is just torpid.

Besides, if someone doesn't like the main quest for being too pushy they don't necessarily have to start it.

And that's also why I was saying people could easily make mods to make the main quest as pushy, or as mild as they want in the beginning.

DF and MW did it better. With DF, the emperor sent you on a boat to the bay area. The boat hits some nasty weather, sinks, and you barely make it to a cave. From there, you can do what ever the hell you want. Don't want to do the MQ? Go right ahead! The world isn't going to punish you.

In MW, you begin in a ship, get signed in, given some papers, and you are pushed right out the door. From there, you can do whatever you want, and the world isn't going to punish you. Don't want to be the nerevarine? Go right ahead!

Heck, Beth's latest game, FO3, handled the MQ akin to that of MW and DF. Sure, the MQ started immediately, but once you are out of the vault, we are given the ample excuse that we're a new comer in a strange land. We have no idea where anything is, and it's this point that we begin to integrate ourselves into the post-apocalyptic DC. Since our character has no idea where anything is, he/she will explore the area, and hopefully find Megaton. From there, he/she explores the wasteland, in search of where daddy is, or on an endless journey to survive.

But in OB from the get go, the MQ is thrusted upon you, Kvatch has been torn asunder, and ever NPC seems to tell you to do a task RIGHT NOW! The sense of urgency between DF/MW/FO3 and OB is nearly the difference between night and day. In DF, MW, and FO3, the MQ didn't rev into full gear till late in the game (~middle in FO3). In the early and middle parts of the MQ, you were highly encouraged to explore the land, join some guilds/houses/etc, do some jobs, and basically be a citizen of the land you are in.

And that is what a lot of us want. Also, amnesia is something a lot of us don't want and try to avoid. Instead, something that FO3, MW, and DF did is what a lot of us prefer. Sure, there is some base of the MQ being there from the get go, but there was a LOT more wiggle room to bend the story to fit our character and ignore the MQ without any sense of regret later, or immersion breaking (I'm looking at you, Kvatch!).

Yeah, I remember riding by Kvatch on one character who was a Breton mother of two, and all of the sudden, Hirtel pulls me over and starts screaming about Kvatch. I was thinking: As a middle-class mother of two, who hasn't been fighting for ten years and is mostly a healer, what do you honestly expect her to do?

But instead I was forced to shrug it off as "Poor thing, the sun's fried his brain." and took the kids off to pick berries as planned. Darned wolves almost killed them, and then somebody threw all of the blackberries around, not to mention it got dark faster than I expected and only one person could fit on a horse...

Anyway!

I'm not saying afterward you're in the middle of the main quest, I meant that after you grow up, you can do whatever you want.

But like I've said in other threads, people tend to learn from their mistakes and work forwards, not backwards. Hopefully the new game will have a better story with less "pushiness" than Oblivion. I didn't find it very pushy at all, but if enough people complained about it that they made Fallout 3 the way they did, we shouldn't have to worry.