So I am making yet another character and it's going to be an assassin. Joining and aiding the DB is against my character's back story, but destroying it would close off so much money (not to mention Shadowmere). Any advice? Is is worth the character's story to destroy a whole questline?

If you care about RP, kill them. Not every assassin has to be a homocidal maniac.

Or you could just see them as competition and want them out.

Honestly, I think you if you want to make an assassin character, you should join the Dark Brotherhood. Lots of assassinations in that storyline.

I have an assassin character too. But he's an imperial assassin, so i killed the lot of 'em!

My Elder Scrolls games are all about my characters and their stories. Creating characters that matter and telling stories through those characters are the reasons I play these games. So my answer is: do whatever is appropriate to your character. Let your character guide you.

My character is a Crimson Scar (from Oblivion: The Vile Lair expansion), so I'm going to destroy them. My only problem is that there aren't many quests to do besides DG, and I don't want this character to be short lived...

Make your own "contracts." I created a solid backstory for my latest assassin, and took care of quite a few people before even considering the DB.

Yes.... and Astrid will be the first

This is great advice. I did something like this with one character. She joined the Dark Brotherhood briefly, but then quickly became disenchanted with them. So she struck out on her own.

I functioned as a kind of low-rent, DIY Listener surrogate for the character. I'd go on UESP and select a non-essential NPC, completely at random. I didn't who some of these people were myself. So it was kind of an adventure finding them, then studying their schedules and finally devising an appropriate method of assassination.

Frankly, this was a lot more entertaining to me than Bethesda's Oblivion or Skyrim Dark Brotherhood quests.

i did a similar thing, and i agree it being extremely fun

I would even go to the level of stealing possessions of other citizens to "frame" people..

your own imagination can be so much more creative then a story written for you..

Reading all the comments above makes me want to create Altair and be a good assassin. As much as I loved the Dark Brotherhood, I think they were more evil than good. They just assigned contracts for no apparent reason most of the time...

I remember when I first bought Skyrim I was obsessed with Assassin's Creed, so the first thing I tried to do was to join the Dark Brotherhood. My friend told me how to join them, but the journey to Riften and to get into the Brotherhood felt so long, for I had never played a game so big before

I created my second character Ariadne to become a ruthless assasin, she joined the Dark Brotherhood but found the life tiresome... get a contract, sneak around, and kill them, try to avoid getting a bounty, and get the reward for the assasination. So she practically quit the DB, by not pursuing its questline and not visiting the Sanctuary anymore.

My other character Artemis, the hero type, is against the idea of the assasin's guild, but she needed the shrouded armors for her quests, and the second Marked for Death word wall, She got to the Lost Innocence quest, but proceeded to destroy the Dark Brotherhood.

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Perhaps if you want to destroy them yet be an assassin, you could be a vigilante type of assassin. Only doing it for good.

Or you could join them, and maybe use that time as a dark time in your characters life.

No I would still be evil as crap lol. A crimson scar from Oblivion is what I'm going for. I just finished Oblivion main questlines (MQ, DB, TG, Vile Lair, Shivering Isles) a little while ago and the Crimson Scars intrigue me.

If you have dawnguard you dont need shadowmere.

Only ever played the db once and have subsequently destroyed them every time with new characters. Only way to go in my opinion.

This sums up all the guidlines for RP ing.

Shadowmere is a wonderful horse, but Arvak in Dawnguard is even better.

You can still be an assassin without being a member of the Dark Brotherhood.

If you played Mass Effect then your familiar with the Drell Thane. He is an assassin. But he doesn't just take a job to kill someone's wife because the husband wants to run off with the mistress. Leave that sort of thing to a merc. But you could actually have an interesting play as an assassin who takes jobs from inns and stewards. Imagine sneaking through a cave full of bandits, sparing them all just to kill the leader and sneaking away without being seen. or kill everyone, your call.

But there is more to the definition of "assassin" then the Dark Brotherhood standard. Be the tool... the weapon in the hand of those that want justice.

Is there any difference? It seems that Beth only has one plot for DB quest-lines, and at some point the player has to kill most of the other members.

I vote for taking them all out early, and forming your own replacement.

No, not if you join them and go along with the missions you are given.

I had a PC who thought he was part of the Morag Tong (well before Dragonborn came out) and enjoyed killing the DB assassins when they spawn randomly before putting down the organization for good. Might have missed out on Shadowmere and Windshear, but hey it was worth the sacrifice for him. Thus, an assassin does not mean they have to join the DB (or Morag Tong) because of profession. I would suggest the bounty mini quest given by jarl/stewards/inn keepers to keep within the immersion (i.e. my PC assassin pretend they were writs , thus fits with his ties to the organization).