I speak of the Companions, of the College of Winterhold, etc. Why are they designed with linear, preset quest series instead of solely having services and random, radiant quests? The majority of them were either haphazardly assembled and had poor plot lines. Skyrim is an open-world game, and as such, benefits more from minimalistic plots with story content generally the subject of the game world's backstory. I cannot understand why they insisted on railroading the player into linear questlines; this isn't like KOTOR or Final Fantasy with a focused setting.

I know they apparently ran out of time 11/11/11, but that doesn't explain why they chose to go with hastily written questlines (that hand you the meaningless title of leader at the end) instead of just leaving the guilds open-ended and gameplay-oriented. I mean, most of this game is very gameplay-oriented, so why weren't the factions given the same approach? After all, I thought they wanted to adopt a Daggerfall-style system with Radiant Story.

The Companions and CoW were terrible. It was pretty much nothing but dungeon diving.

Because that would be boring and meaningless. The story, if it is a compelling one, enhances the experience greatly.

I will never understand these hardcoe roleplayers who wish the game had no plot at all. Maybe not even quests, hmm?

Just aimless roaming.

Actually, they kinda did do what you're suggesting---at least, much more so than MW and OB. Each of the four guilds has plenty of "random" jobs that are unrelated to the guild's central plot. SR is halfway between DF on the one hand, and MW + OB on the other. The guilds have a central, cumulative plot line as in MW + OB; but they also serve as "quest hubs" for random, unconnected jobs, as in DF.

Personally, I think this was a good move---although, I agree with the prevailing sentiment that a lot of the writing was clunky and poorly thought out.

I would prefered the Thieves' Guild to have more infrastructure in cities, with radiant missions like smuggling, drug dealing, blackmailing and the likes... Because frankly, for a faction that is so powerful it can pay off the entire force of city guards and imperial troops, it doesn't really seem that way out front (

). Maybe I'm supposed to assume that there is a sewer beneath that well in Whiterun marketplace, and I'm sort of the Thieves' Guild representative instead of a grunt.

Next game, maybe?

Some people want to be told a story. Others want to create their own story.

These "hardcoe roleplayers" do a lot more than "just aimless roaming." They create stories and bring their characters to life.

I rather like the idea of factions with no preset linear quest line, as the OP suggests, with just interesting things to do and learn, along the lines of the Atronach forge, which lets you learn the history and how to use it without any predetermined quest line.

I doubt Bethesda will ever go this route. They are a for profit enterprise and too many of their customers want to be told stories for Bethesda to abandon them in favor of the "hardcoe roleplayer" fanatics.

-And how exactly would they translate these stories to gameplay?

-You do know it's about more than profit. TES has always been driven by a vast lore and the many events that take place in each Era.

Now, the thing with telling a story or being told a story is that... the latter actually is real. If there were a game mechanic that allowed your RP to become canon somehow, that would be interesting. Otherwise you just rely on the power of imagination.

A lot of roleplayers write fanfic about their characters adventures. They weave events and encounters together to make a story. Translated into gameplay, their characters do what they would do at any given moment living in the world. Personally I find this more difficult to do in Skyrim than Oblivion, so I could give you some concrete examples but I would have to start talking about my Oblivion characters. I have a hard time roleplaying in Skyrim, but I know others on this forum who are the opposite and prefer creating their own stories in Skyrim.


TES contains a vast and interesting lore, but I do not believe the goal of the company includes creation of lore, except to the extent that the lore they create helps to increase the profit from the sales of their games.

I am not saying there is necessarily anything wrong with that per se, but I don't believe for a second that the owners of Bethesda are about to donate their money to some philanthropic goal of creating lore for lore's sake.


In a fantasy game I would dispute that anything is more" real" than anything else.

A lot of roleplayers are not all that interested in roleplaying the "chosen one." They would rather invent stories of simpler characters just living in the world, inventing quests like stocking the college with filled grand soul gems so the mages there can enchant things without being tempted to trap black souls. A lot of it is just in the imagination but that's because using your imagination is what makes it fun and the game offers only limited support for this type of play.

Canon is important for this type of player too because it creates a rich canvas upon which to play and create their stories. But we all don't need to "be" Tiber Septim. It is enough to read about him.

"If it don't work, cut it." - Beth