For example lets create the scenario of player fighting a group of bandits in the snowy mountains of skyrim and he loses (health 0). he gets taken as a hostage and brought to their base (could be in a dungeon, or cave nearby)

Dovakin awakes and realize himself beeing without clothes and weapons in a little jail build out of wood and spears.
the way he could get his stuff back is by lockpicking, or if strengh is high enough bash the door.
But then he had to face the whole gang, which would be his real death then, if not strong/sneaky enough.
Another opportunity could be calling for his friends and companions to get him out. (if not strong enough they will die)

if the player deciedes to do none of that. bandits go on and travel through the region with you as their hostage.
untill you decide to do something, or the bandits loses to other npcs.
Maybe the same could happen to your friends and companions.
Quest would develope in a more dynamic way (without really beeing a quest) and player will stay in the game. It feels more like real live


kinda like an updated mount and blade system.

I think not every idea in this is convertibel, but still what do you think?

Your second option is hilarious. I first read the poll, so for a moment there I thought it meant 'ideas' in general. I don't know if I'd like this option. I think it's too much hassle.

way to much work for not much hours extra.... for the time it takes to make this i rather have a whole extra questline with a good storyline and good characters...

inb4 the inevitable WoW reference

I actually prefer death to capture, but if implemented right I suppose this could be cool? I just have a hard time picturing how it would be implemented right (then again I'm not a dev )

Also seriously, I loved in Daggerfall if I saved after being poisoned, or getting a plague that I had to haul my butt to a healer asap or I would die and be totally screwed. I actually lost a character because I only had 1 save (nubes mistake) and saved without knowing yet that I had been poisoned. I was too far from anywhere to heal so it was a permadeath. Totally awesome since I've never had to restart from scratch after a character died . In M&B:WB I kinda got ticked off after a while that I couldn't die.

Granted this is just a preference, and I will concede if it could be implemented in a fun and cool way, then obviously I would support it . I just don't see how it could be.

Why don't you just FUS DOH RAH your way out of the cage. And even if they take your gear, you still have magic.You never talked about the options of mages and dragon shouts. It would be stupid if shockwaves and fire/lightning blasts can't get you out of a wood cage.

Really people? He just means as a one-time quest, and it's a clever idea.

what he said wan't meant as a one-time quest.

I actually like this idea. I've never liked dying being the end of your game, and just being able to reload, but I've never had the guts to play ironman-style (when your character dies, you delete the save) and I couldn't think of any better alternatives.

I highly doubt Bethesda would actually implement this themselves, but I could see it being made into a mod at some point.

It would be fun if you can do it the other way around. Kidnap a bandit and put him in a cage. Let him try to escape. Ha!

this would be a problem, but i think something like hand cuffs will keep the player from doing it. but there has to be ways the player can escape.
shouts could be an alternative, but i think you cant use them like 3 times in a row you have to wait for them to reload so there would be a balance to that
and as mentioned the companions and friends would try get him out if he called them.
when they travel throug a region, with the player handcuffed he could try to run away come backk later and get his things back


Really people? He just means as a one-time quest, and it's a clever idea.

thanks.I dont mean a quest i mean always! because in this way youll stay in the world instead of saving before each dangerous fight then death and reload
as a quest would be also a nice idea

A paradox has formed considering you just mentioned WOW.

The only way they could do this is if it was scripted into the game for specific scenarios.