I'm curious as to what drives your characters to go dungeon diving. Simple curiosity? Trying to rid Cyrodiil of bandits? Something else entirely? It's always interesting to read about the motivations behind characters' actions.

EDIT: I guess this is more aimed at people not pursuing the main quest. Dungeon diving to get better loot to better fight off the Daedric invasion makes sense. Take away the invasion, though, and it makes considerably less sense.

My characters do few quests. Some of my characters don't do quests at all. They explore, and when they see a place that interests them, they go in. I make up a narrative about my character's adventures as we go along, tying the various dungeons and overland adventures together. I make up my own stories. I often roleplay that someone has sent my character to explore a certain dungeon.

Hmm with me its mostly a role thing.
With the current characters I have my Dunmer noble I really dislike delving, as non story based delving just feels wrong for some reason with him.
My Khajiit loves it, going round ruins and caves just seeing who she can best, what new toys she can find, what tricks she can pull.
A cross between Martial honour, huntsman instinct and pure wonderlust abandonment.
The Altmer pure mage, is looking for arcane and elven secrets, pure delving just to loot is of no interest at all really.

Why does my character love dungeon diving?

- She finds killing with her bow exhilerating, yet she won't kill innocents and turns down many quests. Dungeons however, offer plenty of legitimate targets for hunting.
- With 500 hours under her skirts and no end in sight, we favor things that will not run out. Since dungeons respawn they fit that bill perfectly. Not surprisingly, she loves traveling, wandering, visiting her friends and exploring for the same reasons - those activities are neverending.
- Quests run out, dungeons don't (again, since they respawn).
- She is perfectly delighted taking a week to leisurely travel all the way across Cyrodiil with her black mare, Superian, so she can run a respawned dungeon that she has already cleared. There are so many flowers to pick, waterfalls to play in, Legionaires to talk to, friends to visit on the way. Oh, and she gets to kill stuff that would otherwise try to hurt her. :dance:

-Loot? Nah. The only things she normally picks up are gold coins and arrows.

Loot.

My altmer mage is only interested in magical relics, so only ayleid for him.

Like the man sez. You don't seriously expect my Breton necromancer go out and get a JOB, do you? How boring. :yawn:
That and there's a wide streak of "Hmmm. Wonder what's down there?"

More of an exploration or quest related. Also looting and rescuing people (via mod).

I only go dungeon diving on my Warrior-type characters (unless it's quest related). And with them, since I RP, I do it as their job. To go out of town for a few weeks, and not come back till I have, say, atleast 5000 Gold worth of stuff, and come back. These trips can take time, so it's like a mini-campaign, where I open the map, mark where I want to go, and head there, stop on a campsite on the way for the night, hunt for food, eat, sleep, wake-up, travel, rinse and repeat till I arrive. Upon arrival I just loot and ransack the place, and sell the bandits/marauders armor back at the city from whence I came. Also, my character feels like he's done some good, since he's rid the world of a little evil. It all works out great.

In the beginning it was just because I love to sneak around and find things. Then it was a mix of taking care of bandits and just exploring when I got to a cave/ruin I hadn′t gone through yet. Nowadays... I don′t know, I just take a dive whenever I feel like it

One of my characters is the Archmage, and not satisfied with puttering around the school doing menial Archmagery things, so he took it upon himself to rid the land of necromancers and rogue mages. My vampire hunts other vampires, and my Orc who came from Morrowind searches out bandit lairs from habit as a member of House Redoran. For me it's mostly about exploring some old ruins, then discovering its secrets, than actively looking for junk to sell.

slicing stuff up and listen to the song of steel on steel never gets old. so even my characters that are more motivated by quests, will find reason sometime interspersed on quests when able or after all are done, to just go slaying, and while there might as well pick up some loot.

Thanks to the Better Music System mod i explore Oblivion Planes and Ayleid ruins just to hear the great music

Other than that exploration, loot and leveling, in that order.

My character Vikuhn, Khajit assassin is a treasure hunter. When he's not completing contracts he's either looking for treasure in ruins, or sneaking through Noble's homes looking for valuable items to steal.

Some of my characters don't really dungeon-dive at all. They do quests for individuals or factions or are following the main quest, and just go in the dungeons that are a part of whatever they're doing. Others dungeon-dive somewhat randomly, and some do it pretty much exclusively. I have an Orc Adventurer that I created specifically for that-- all he does is clean out dungeons, so that he can accumulate loot to offer up to Gortwog for the glory of Orsinium.

Mostly, for me and for the characters so inclined, it's just about seeing what's inside. It's little more than, "Huh.... I wonder what's in here? Oh look!" I have a few who particularly relish killing, but none who hunt any specific thing (other than for immediate ends, such as going after conjurers when they want more potions or better alchemical equipment or going after marauders when they want to upgrade their heavy armor or what-have-you).

Why go dungeon-diving? Mostly because it's fun (for me). It requires actual strategy to survive. It's also cool to find that rare item or weapon or armor.

My chars all have different reesons for grinding. For the paladin, dungeon diving is all about banishing evil. But for my black-magic witch, it's more about proving herself that SHE'S the most evil in the land.

So far, I've only had one character who didn't like to dungeon-dive (the slave/theif) and that's mostly because she was horrible as a fighter. I planned on getting around this by gaining a high SNeak for her, but then all the saves got lost.

I like finding interesting places.

Haa-Rei finds ruins and cave very interesting. Ayleid ruins have lots of hidden knowledge and lots to learn about. Regular caves and forts are less visited by him because they usually contain nasty Goblins. Loot has no value unless it consists of books or master alchemy equipment...ooh and those nice Varla and Welkynd stones. :read:

Depends on which character I play.

http://i39.tinypic.com/ajrz7l.jpg wants fortune and glory. Better yet when blood is spilled in the process.

http://i52.tinypic.com/2w7hh6c.jpg hates necromancers, bandits/marauders, and vampires, and seeks them out specifically in ruins and caverns.

He will avoid conflict in creature inhabited dwellings though.

ayleid ruins, pure and simple. they look really cool, each one is actully pretty different (compared to a cave where its the constant rock and wood). plus the welkynd stones arnt bad for my magic skills :shocking: :cold: :flamethrower: :goodjob:

Corpses. Necromancy research does not come from alone

*shivers*

To retrieve items of great value and importance. And for the thrill of it.

Better music than original? Is that even possible? :blink:

Roleplaying. My characters are nature spirits, and they are very curious by nature (pun intended). In addition, they are "good" with respect to abhoring things that twist nature or abuse natural forces (conjurers sometimes, and necromancers almost always, not to mention stuff like Daedra and thieving bandits who are simply a nuisance and should know better than to attack a poor l'il helpless-looking fairy girl... )