I've just posted this little project of mine at TES Nexus. I'd love some inputs from you on the idea.

Going Rogue

A while back, I created the Bards of Cyrodiil mod, which, among other things, allowed the PC to join the various evil NPC factions like bandits and necromancers. Then, I wondered how a player could roleplay as a marauder, bandit, conjurer, or necromancer. First off, the PC would have to avoid cities because of the bounty that would remain on his head. He would need access to merchants, horses, and spells. The PC would also need some sort of base of operations, and maybe a gang of his own. The product of my goal is a mod that allows the PC to go rogue.

This mod serves to breathe some life into the bands of men and mer that live outside of society: bandits, conjurers, marauders, and necromancers. Separate, they are nothing more than small groups of enemies that you face, but as a whole, they are a society all to themselves, and now you can join it. With this mod, you can do everything you need without entering a city. This is a work-in-progress, since I am going to keep adding to it, (so many ideas, but so little modding skills) but I have completed many of the main aspects of the mod. These are listed below.

ROGUE PARTNERS
Going Rogue allows the PC to do just that, live outside the law, outside of society's restraints. Partners of every rogue class wait to join up with you so you can have his own conjurer coven, necromancer enclave, bandit gang, or marauder group, but you have to find them first. They are scattered across Cyrodiil, but they will be found with others of their kind.

PARTNER HELP
Your human partners can help you in various ways by giving you food, hammers, lockpicks, and Welkynd stones. They can also make you potions for specific occasions. For instance, if you want some help getting ready for a battle, a warrior partner might have a potion that will boost your strength and health. If you want to play a sniper, your stealth partner might have something that will help you make your shot with deadly accuracy. A mage partner might be able to give you a potion that boosts your magicka. The items the partner can give you depend on their class and they won't always be available, especially if you just took one. Plus, they have to like you. If they don't like you, then they will probably just insult you and watch you suffer. They are rogues, after all.

MINIONS
There are also monster partners that you can recruit to fill out your necromancer or conjurer group. These include a ghost, zombie, melee skeleton and archer skeleton for the former and a clannfear runt, Dremora warrior, Dremora mage and a scamp for the latter. Like the partners, all creatures are essential and will follow you like any other CM partner.

JOIN FACTIONS
Each human partner will have a note with him or her that inducts you into a particular faction. For instance, bandit partners can place you in the bandit faction. Once you have this note in your possession, you will not be attacked by that specific group, but you may make new enemies, so be careful.

ROGUE BASES
When you are part of a faction, you can use any faction hideout, whether a bandit camp, a fort or an Aeylid ruin, as your base because each one has a personal non-respawning chest (or coffin for necromancers) for your use. The normal inhabitants that spawn in that base are your guards and comrades and the respawning chests in these bases are the loot that they bring back to you, their leader.

INTRUDERS
You will have to protect your base against the occassional group of adventurers. There is slight chance every respawn that your abode will be the target of intrepid explorers out to get your treasure. Position your partners and minions around your lair to do battle with them. The size of the party depends upon your level and the individual adventurers can be greater or lower than your level by 5.

ROGUE MERCHANTS
Going Rogue also introduces rogue merchants to the world, men who deal with the outcasts of society. Rogues have to get their supplies from somewhere, so these arms dealers, poisoners and outcast mages are there to offer them the things they can't get in town. Their supply includes specialty weapons, armor and potions. The outcast mages can let you enchant an item or make a spell. They travel all around, so whenever you are on the road or coming upon a rogue hideout, you may meet one of these men. But watch out, if you are not a rogue, then they may just attack you!

STOLEN HORSES
This mod places horses in several of the forts and ruins populated by rogues figuring that some of them own horses, and some of them steal horses. These horses are ridable, but they are either semi-trained from the wild or stolen. This means that they will never be "your" horses. They will not stay with you or appear when you fast travel. Each horse will just wander away if you get off one and not keep track of it. Furthermore, if the horse is stolen, and you ride it into town, then you will be blamed for the theft. You may never ride one of these horses, but they will still bring a definite realism to the game.

ROGUE PETS
Rogue groups can now have mascots for their gang and these are trained to fight for them. These pets include boars, imps, rats, wisps, wolves, and rams.

FACTION FIGHTS
Now you can see one faction trying to take over another faction's base. Marauders can move in on bandit camps. Conjurers and necromancers may be going to war over an Ayleid ruin. Goblins will even try their hand at looting another group's plunder. Because this is basically becoming a turf war, the disposition between the factions have been altered accordingly.

NEW TRAVELERS
Dozens of travelers have been added to the worldspace via levelled lists, so the roads will now be a lot more populated. Each new NPC is unique and many have traits that stand out above the commoners that compose the majority of the lists. Why are a bunch of travelers added to a mod about going rogue, you ask? Because now, you can...

ROB NPC'S
If you belong to an evil NPC faction, YOU can be a highwayman! You can rob the new travelers and everyone else of their gold merely by beginning a conversation with them and choosing the "Give me all your money" or "Rob" option. What happens depends the type of NPC your choose to rob. You can actually rob anyone but guards, but these new travelers were made just for robbing and won't break any quest lines. Most are generic, but you might also meet a merchant's assistant or two that might have the keys to some particular stores. You could meet a young man carrying an Ayleid statue in response to a letter from a wealthy noble in the I.C. You can even meet a girl in a little red riding hood bringing her grandmother some newly baked goods. There's about a dozen unique NPC's out of the fifty possible. Your infamy grows with every robbery, so it won't take long before every traveler between Cheydinahl and Anvil fears you.

CORRUPT GUARDS
There are also those guards who will look the other way when they come upon a group of rogues. If one sees you, then they will stop you and demand payment for such a service. If you do not comply, then be prepared to pay with your blood! Give them what they want and they also might be willing to tell their fellow guards that they killed you in the wilderness. This zeroes out your bounty since they think they don't have to look for you any longer. Lastly, if you are a rogue, then do not do anything so dumb as talking to a guard for you will immediately be recognized. You will still be given an opportunity to bribe them, however.

NEW ITEMS
There are some new foods carried by the travelers. Your partners may be able to make special potions for specific situations.Also, if your partners don't like you, they are likely to give you some rotten rations if you ask for their help.


Thank you in advancing for trying out my mod. I look forward to hearing what you think. This is so far the best I could do with the mechanics and scripts that I know of, but I hope you like it and would welcome any pointers that could make this mod better.

REQUIREMENTS
CM Partners Mod


CONFLICTS
This adds items to every evil faction lair and also makes some changes to the evil factions, themselves. Anything that changes these things may conflict. It is compatable with my Bards of Cyrodiil mod.

RECOMMENDED
Companion Share Recruit, which allows you to recruit any NPC into your gang of thugs.
Imperial Furniture Store to stock your new base of operations.
Assassin TRipwire Traps, Placeable Log Traps, and or Traps and Tools Beta v1 to provide some nasty surprises for those who would dare enter your base in search of treasure.



THANKS
Bethesda
the Modding Community (you guys all rock!)
Hermes/Mercury/Thoth, god of modding, communications, computers, and this whole internet thing

Here's the link to the mod: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34671

I was reading about this over on Nexus this morning and I just want to say that this sounds really intriguing and fun. I'm always looking for mods that add to the "underbelly" of the gameworld in a non-mustache-twirling, grungy sort of way, so I'll be giving this a try with a future character. ^_^

Hey, a link to the mod! Why didn't I think of that? Thank you!!!

Looking good mate. May I recommend that there be a few quests or something? Its seems a bit cheap to befriend one necromancer and then have everybody working for me. Perhaps something to take command of a certain cell? Like challenge the boss to a duel and have others challenge you for your power, if they win, you have to leave or serve under them until you are strong enough to win power back. Also, it would be cool to have perks once you take over a cave or whatever by having your minions bring you things in person/upgrade certain areas whatever.

Just a few ideas, but great job

Drekes,
Thank you. I do have so much planned for this mod, including such quests. I am limited only by my modding abilities. I've never made a quest before, but I am learning about them and how to script more than the simple things I have been putting in my mods. So, stay tuned. You can see some of the other ideas I have in the comments section of it's TES Nexus page.

An updated version has been posted on Nexus. It includes some minor fixes, a redesigned robbing script and now you can talk to evil NPC factions and they will have unique things to say that actually pertain to their faction!

Very nice. It's exactly what I was looking for. In a few weeks, my next character (a classic stealthy archer thief) will be able to rob travellers on the roads of Cyrodiil. :hehe:

But I must admit I'm still a bit worried about the faction side compatibility with OOO and the very few NPCs that can give you membership to those factions. Three bandits with notes in the entire province seems like extremely difficult to find.

In any case, I'll be keeping an eye on the updates in the meantime. Keep up the good work!

Yes finding the NPC's is a challenge, but I have posted their locations in the comments at TES Nexus