So, how do they know you're the one who killed their family member? Did you drag the shopkeeper into the street, scream for attention until a crowd formed and loudly announce your name and other pertinent information as you killed him?

If other townspeople see you committing the crime you'll likely be forced to kill them to. Otherwise they don't know it was you. There; immersion problem solved.

Yeah but the way Todd was going on about it in Jan, the Shopkeeps wife knew you killed her husband...but gave you the quest to acquire an artifact from a theif...like really, I just jabbed your Husband in the face with a dagger and your giving me a quest to acquire an artifact that was precious to him :facepalm:

I hope thats a one time thing, since it seems that quest is the only quest to get Shouts in the beginning.


nah I don't think so about the quest being a Dragonshout only way to get quest .

I can see how this can break immersion at some point but remember that the Nords are not the most gentle people. Knowing them I would not doubt that this sort of thing happens often.

Don't recall this, but I guess if it's true and the shopkeeps family does acknowledge you killed him then it will depend on how it's handled in-game. If the "wife" comes off as disgusted at even having to speak with you, but feels the task is just too urgent to refuse your help, then it works.

Still, that feels like something that would only happen in very specific circumstances during a chain quest, or something. Every single shopkeeps family member acknowledging you as the killer would be strange, mainly because if they weren't in the room while you did it how would they even know?

Its not Wife, its sister, my bad.

It would be handled best through revenge/ambush quests. It would get repetitive if it's done too much, but i'm definitely expecting a shopkeeper that knows we killed a family member to set us up for an ambush.

"When you kill a shopkeeper, his/her family member will inherit the shop and will be angry about you, but still give you missions."

Does that answer your question, OP?

From my perspective, it's possible the new quest giver, if you kill the older one, may give you less info or perhaps even info that might be bad for you (but still take you into the quest's direction), for instance tell you to go into a cave from an especially dangerous entrance.

Remember that we still know next to nothing about the crime system. It could definitely play a part in this mechanic as well.

The relative will hate you, and not give you the quest if they know.

That would really kill some immersion if the quest giver KNEW I killed their family member but was still all "hey, how are you...will you go in this dungeon and find a precious item of mine, k thx". Surely they either wouldn't talk to you at all or set you up somehow. It would be interesting to see if they had the ability to hire a dark brotherhood member to come after you for revenge. That would be some fun. I would then have to make a trip back to this shop, kick open the door, and toss the head of the assassin at their feet.

What if they didn't know you killed their family member and sent you on a quest to find the killer and slay him. :shifty: <_<

I'm sure his brother will be mad on one hand, but on the other- now he owns a business so how mad can he actually be.

Just slay some random person and dress him/her up as yourself.
"Why is the killer dressed like you?"
"Because it was me"
"Well I'm glad you're dead now"

The problem is... what if you are part of the Brotherhood? Lawlz.
Anyhow, the relative might've called for the assassination of his relative.

Yes, I remember reading this as well, but I'm sure they have been testing the way this plays out a lot since January.

I remember reading that if you killed the quest giver's sister, wife, husband, etc., then the quest would reflect it in some way, like it might be harder for you to convince them, or they would be angry about it. (if it was known that you killed them - I imagine if it was a stealth kill, nobody knows)

Hopefully they have refined this aspect. At any rate, keep in mind it still seems to be a big improvement over Oblivion, where you could kill someone and the relatives wouldn't even bat an eye when they ask you, "And what's going on with you? Look at the muscles on you!"

haha, yeah things could get complicated if they added too much flexibility with the NPCs...but what good stories we could have!

Or maybe he was just a dike? Every family has that one who dies and the funeral is like "...Meh :shrug: "

I just hope this isn't procedurally applied to every questgiving NPC who has family members. If the shopkeeper was to send you on a quest to find another family member or deal with a competing merchant of theirs, then fine. But I don't think a shopkeeper's sister would have much interest in you carrying out her brother's wish of killing his cheating wife.