OK,, I give up,, This must be an art or speciality. Every time I try to bribe someone ( to get my speechcraft skills up ) It talke me over 20 minutes to get out out this screen...WHATS THE TRICK ??

After 5 years if playing Oblivion. I still don't know how. I say just give up and carries about 1k on you at all times just in case you need to bribe someone.

So you don't mean bribing, you mean Speechcraft?

When you put the cursor over a certain option, such as Joke, the NPC you're talking to will make a face, either happy or angry or somewhere inbetween. When the bar is at its largest over the option that makes them happiest, that'll get you the biggest positive effect. Ideally, you want the bar to be as small as possible over the option that makes them angriest and as large as possible over the option that makes them happiest. Rinse and repeat.

I just play one round useing the smallest bar for all traits.Notice wich ones have the positive impacts.
After that first round I just use the largest bar on the traits that had a positive impact.
I don't worry about the negative impacts,if you hit all the right positive traits you will gain ground.

That said,every once in a while I will come across a routine that doesn't allow me to gain ground.
When that happens I try to do what Velorien suggested above.

Easiest way to train speechcraft is to talk to guards and just keep spinning through the persuasion mini-game. It doesn't matter if they like you or not, and they will rarely max their disposition toward you. Takes time, and not really worth it except for role-playing purposes. imho.

Even less worth it for roleplaying, in my opinion. What are you supposed to be doing during the Speechcraft minigame from a roleplaying perspective? Repeatedly telling jokes, boasting, admiring, and coercing someone over and over? Hardly an average conversation, and not really appropriate behavior for someone who can supposedly talk their way out of situations.

Never had to use speechcraft and I don't think I ever will

Here′s a neat little trick. When you′ve maxed out someone′s disposition towards you in the mini-game and it′s still below 100, exit the mini-game, pull out whatever weapon you have (or just your fists) and re-enter it. The person′s disposition will have dropped by ten points and from there you can boost it a little further

I only use speechcraft on these forums to coerce you experts into helping me. :biggrin:

And apparently it′s working :wink_smile:

Hmmm... My disposition just dropped to 23. :wink_smile:

JOKE COERCE BOAST ADMIRE

Try to do this for real and post it on youtube. Would be hilarious.

On-topic: Bribing becomes unrealistic at higher levels. My main character is level 18 at the moment, and he needs to pay a beggar 150-200 gold to make him like me more. Of course, a simple charm spell also does the trick. Still, playing the speechcraft mini-game a few times is a good way to "have conversation", otherwise you can only speak about rumors and maybe the town the other person is living in.

Tosses Glargg some :cake: and :icecream: . Glargg disposition now over 100.

Well you really don′t speak at all, you listen. In a game such as Deus Ex, there you actually speak. Or more correctly, Denton speaks for you

Yeah, that did it.