Does it ever bother you that clients are fantastically prompt with their payment, offer you payment when no person would, and sometimes give you a bonus for a job well done? They've got to throw some variation in there, with some clients who won't pay, clients who pay some now and promise to pay more later (which they may or may not do), and characters who try to pay you with crap you don't want.

Then they can have some fun results with how you deal with those clients. Like they've said for Skyrim, you can put someone out of business. How about finding a creative way of doing that for clients who stiff you? Tranquilize a bear and put it in their shop. Steal stuff from their home until they agree to pay. Take them to court. Mug them when they're heading for the bank.

To make these possibilities possible however, they're going to have to make the client pay you directly, and then you give some percentage of your pay to the guild. That feels more natural anyway, and is likely what the guild would want because you aren't going to get every quest from the guildhall. What if a merchant asks you while you're in the store:

You find me in desperate straits, my dear Redguard. I have received word from some Gothway Garden thugs that they intend to ransack my house tonight. I don't suppose you'd be available to do a little creative facial rearrangement on these fellows?

That's a Daggerfall quest, and something the Fighter's Guild would totally do. If you're already in the Fighter's Guild, shouldn't you have to pay your due? If you weren't in the Fighter's Guild, wouldn't you lose reputation with the FG for being a freelancer taking away work from them? Avoiding paying the guild dues if you're in the guild should be a crime like tax evasion is; You're only in trouble if someone finds out.

Then for weirdness of payment, take Fallout 3's Harkness quest. (Spoilers) What the heck? If you reveal to me a startling fact about my life, I'm not handing you my tv or something, that's straight goofy. Adventuring quests aren't the kinds of things that you can make a table of standard costs for, you should haggle some and they should really try to lowball you sometimes. I don't mean they should do this to the point that it isn't fun, but I'm tired of every client being upright and dependable.

Anything you have to add about dealing with clients in Skyrim, say that too.

Your right about all of this. It was weird to get A3-21's Plasma Rifle when you obviously just did the wrong thing.

I agree with everything stated by OP.

Guilds should act more like classical...well guilds with the pro's and cons.

In Daggerfall you would still get reputation as a quest reward even if you don't get everything, in other games you would get XPs.

Sounds good to me B)

Maybe he suddenly realized that he could build himself a new one from a schematic in his data banks

I think a real improvement in gameplay would be for you to ask if you had to pay some guild dues on these freelance jobs you do now and then. Perhaps the person at the guild would tell you that you shouldn't, because you should get what you can outside of the boundaries of the law. Other members should tell you should report everything, and become suspect when you go a month without reporting a task to the guild.

I agree, this can add alot of random surprise making the world more believable with some people trying to get over on the player while others would honor their debts. It could also open up more quest oppertunities such as former employees you did a great job for coming to your aid when you are stiffed by another merchant or not helping at all if you did a bad job or even ripped them off in the past.

In FALLOUT 3 one would get different rewards depending on how well a job was done. If one did a job in a rushed uninterested manner then there were no extra goodies or perks rewarded. This was obvious with alot of the quest for Moira in Megaton.

If I get a job from someone because I am in the Fighter's Guild, ("Hey you're in the guild right? I got this problem, maybe you can help me.") then yes I should have to pay dues. If I complete a job and my staus in the Fighter's Guild is just coincidence then no. Think about it, if I join the guild then all of my quest rewards have been reduced by ten percent or what have you. It would make joining the guild a bad thing.

An idea I have is that there is a job board with random quests in the guild. These quests build your reputation so you can advance in rank. You pay a fee for the information which activates the quest allowing you to complete it. That covers the guild dues aspect without making it annoying.

In regards to clients cheating you; certainly, but it must not be obvious or get repetitive. I really hate as a player seeing a betrayal coming a mile away and there was this one game I can't remember where like 75% of quests had "twist" endings and it was just stupid after awhile. Though that is more of an annoyance in games that do not let you kill whomever you wish, so TES may not have that problem.

This is another suggestion where I feel trying to be "realistic" would detract from it as a game.

But don't you want it to disteact from the feeling of it being a game?
And well, I like the idea because I like unique and suprising things, they add imersion. But I would not want it to be overdone, it needs to be balanced or it will become just as repedetive as any other idea. (aka don't make everyone rip you off, or don't make everyone 'hey you did the quest, now I'm so happy! Here extra item')

Daggerfall actually had a pretty good temple quest that would do this to you sometimes. They give you an expensive talisman to use in an exorcism, then you fight the daedra after the ceremony. Sometimes the kid was faking the possession, and just steals the talisman and runs away. Then you have to ask townspeople where the kid or her father might be, and you find they're staying at a tavern on the other side of town. So, you kick his butt.

If they're going to have repeatable quests in Skyrim like they had in Daggerfall, they might as well change things up here and there.

Maybe in limited circumstances. This falls on the realism side, which when used sparingly, I'm fine with. But when you're a late-level character who's clearly the most badass dude/chick around, would it be realistic for someone to not pay you as they said they would?