I was extremely dissappointed with the tutorial in Oblivion. I am hoping Skyrim's tutorial is better. I haven't seen any posts for suggestions for Skyrim's tutorial from anyone (maybe I missed it when I searched for it).

Here are my suggestions for Skyrim's tutorial:

1. Keep it very simple and basic. Morrowind's tutorial was perfect in this regard. Create your character. Walk around, pick up a few items, get introduced to the interface, menus, etc. Maybe pick a lock or two. Then, you're on your own...

2. No major interuptions with tutorial tips, or at least make sure they are well-timed. For example, try not to interupt any major battles with an untimely tip: "Your health is running low".... etc.

3. No major battles during the tutorial. How am I supposed to defeat two rats when I haven't yet even learned how to cast a spell or ready a weapon?

4. Make sure that, right from the start, the character can develop in any direction. In Oblivion's tutorial, the only useful spells available were in destrucion and restoration schools. To my knowledge, for example, no conjuration spells were available until right before you go down into the sewers. Any/every skill should be available to use and develop to an equal degree.

5. I'm not even sure how to suggest this suggestion: At the time, I couldn't understand how/why I went up 10 skill levels in Destruction during part of the tutorial, but then somehow "lost" them and instead only went up 2.... Same thing with Sneak--I gained a bunch of levels in sneak, but after talking to the King at a later time, it turned out I only gained one. Although I understand now why this occured, it was very frustrating at the time because there was no explanation for it. So, I guess my suggestion is to either not have this type of thing occur in Skyrim's tutorial, or at the very least explain it thoroughly so it's understood why it's happening.


I am hoping to see more suggestions from others with the hope that our suggestions can be implemented into Skyrim before it's too late.... :]

The starter Dungeon is both fun and annoying.

I think a Starter Dungeon is a benefit (Morrowind's Tutorial was extremely fast, and didn't teach you the basics of the games at all really), but I do think Oblivion's Starter Dungeon went on far, far too long.

So a happy medium. A starter dungeon to introduce combat/stealth/magic along with dialogue and general creating of your character, but not one so long that you dread it every time you roll a new character. Seriously, the section that you get separated from the Emperor should have been cut in half.

How about after we do it once, a skip button?

I hope they keep it simple, for me Oblivion's was way too long. I also prefer starting in a more civilized place than a dungeon, but if it has to be a dungeon I hope they keep it short.

This was what I was going to suggest.

As for what the tutorial should be, well we already know it starts with you in jail. How bout an actual prison break this time. No secret passage through rats and goblins. Say you and some of the friends on the inside are trying to escape during a riot. For combat you'll fight of some other inmates who have it out for you. Stealth includes sneaking past guards, who you can either stealth kill or not (regardless there will be a tool tip explaining it to you). Oh and being armed prison guards you do have to sneak past them since they can own you. Magic will involve you using a scroll you found to kill one deadra that was summoned by security. You'll pick some locks along the way, yada yada yada. Basically has you do all the basics once then its over.

And as stated its able to be skipped after the first time.

To be honest, TES has never gotten a tutorial completely right. Arena didn't have one, Daggerfall's tutorial popups worked entirely on timers rather than events so if you moved too quickly the messages would get mixed up and become very confusing, Morrowind's was barely informative at all, and Oblivion's was way too long. I hope Skyrim gets it right this time, but that's about the only thing I'm rather pessimistic about for Skyrim. Tutorials have never really been Bethesda's strong suit.

I'm thinking that since we will be escaping from , we might end up having to go through some underground passage again, since I doubt we'll be fighting guards early on and get to loot them, unless they have unlootable equipment of course. I doubt we'll be forced to sneak past all the guards, at the most we'll be sneaking through a section as part of the stealth tutorial.

Due to the ability to loot stuff and opportunity to get some skill levels up during the tutorial though, a skip button might make our future characters miss out on some, even if minor, improvements to our character. Still, it would be very convenient.

Well what I suggested was a riot. The majority of the guards are too busy trying to maintain order. The ones you do come across you have to sneak by because they'll be to well armed and the best weapon you'll have is a shank. So you'll have to sneak past them for basic tutorial purposes. The only people you'll kill are a hand full of inmates who have it out for you.

I'd imagine guards would be very perceptive and hard to sneak by at our level then, but maybe they could be tutorial-guards who are very bad at detecting stuff. Might give people an impression in the beginning that sneak is overpowered though.

I think a riot would be cool, though I wouldn't want to be forced to avoid guards.

How about the concept of pick out your skills/birthsign/etc before doing anything major, like combat? I like a good challenge, but i'd like to have an opportunity to decide what type of attack to specialize in, before scrappin with the baddies....

You don't pick any skills in Skyrim, as there's no class-system. Also, I'm pretty sure it's confirmed that there's no birthsigns as well..

Well the idea isn't perfect I'll agree but in the end the point is to make a tutorial that has you do all the basics at least once or twice then you done. Then after that you can skip it from that point forward.

Oblivions tutorial seemed a bit too "hand holding" for me. It was fun the first time, then it just gets..sigh. You know what I'm saying. It just got old, real fast. And the ability to not be able to skip it is infuriating sometimes. It just is.
I'd like a tutorial that put you in actual danger situations that made you think rather than Oblivions hand holding method. You couldn't die in the Oblivion tutorial even if you tried, hard.

This was discussed in Todd Howard's podcast about Skyrim. He noted that in Morrowind and earlier games, the player had no time to figure out what they wanted to use for their major skills and had little idea what skills did and how they effected gameplay and things like that, so they made Oblivion's tutorial in order to remedy that. However, even after 45 minutes of a dungeon, players still reported wanting to change their minds 3 hours or so into gameplay. Skyrim is making it so you never have to conform to any one style and you can change your mind a few hours into gameplay without having to start the game over.

Hence, the tutorial will be very different.


Huh? Do two rats constitute a major battle? You're also told, just before your first rat encounter, via a tutorial tip, how to ready your weapon and how to swing it and a few steps later you're told how to cast your fireball spell.

Every time you start a new game, it gives you an option to skip the tutorial.

I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of a 'prison riot' because that feels like the game forces you to make a morality decision right from the beginning of the game- prison riots don't really work if you want to be a monk, or whatever. What if you were in prison, and the prison was suddenly under attack? Maybe you can try and save some prisoners or take the easier road and let them die. Maybe there's an easy escape route through a hole blown in the wall, or you can go through the longer route/tutorial in hopes of getting back something that was taken from you upon imprisonment, or save a close friend, get revenge on a certain guard, get gear, etc.

With that variety of choices, there's not only decisions between good/evil but between what kind of player are you, the thief who's going to rob the vault of the jail, the wizard who's going use some fire-blast to work his way out, etc. I hope you get the idea.

You lost skills for balance, they did not count in you attribute increases so you might want to drop them anyway.
But yes the starter dungeon was to long, half as long would work well.

An underground passage would work well for Skyrim as it gives good control, You don't want a huge battle or something distracting.

One thing I missed in Oblivion was a tutorial for the mage university, they should made it an series of tests instead of the stupid quests. Make a specific spell, make a potion and a poison, summon something trap it soul and make an magic item.

Now, after having played the game, sure I can defeat 2 rats. But being brand new to the game, controls, hotkeys, combat/spell system, etc, no, 2 rats is a fairly major battle, especially with the difficulty setting at 100. (I try to play every game at its highest difficulty setting). Even with a high difficulty setting, the tutorial, in my opinion, should just be a quick simple introduction to the game.

I was a Breton and was pretty sure I wanted to be a conjurer. So, there I was walking along with the guards, and affter a few attacks by the bad guys in red armor, the guards leave. Then out of no where, 2 rats pop out and come after me. I tried to shoot them with my newbie fireball spell, but being brand new to the controls I ended up (somewhat) swinging punches in their general direction, because I was hitting the wrong button... On 100 difficulty, they kill me in about 3 shots, so I died, but not before a gratuitous warning that my life was low.

The main point I was making with my suggestion, was that I'd like a chance to get used to the game and the controls before getting dropped into a forced combat situation. Let me get used to how to run, sneak, attack, cast, etc, and if there is going to be a combat situation, let ME be the one to approach it at my pace, at least during the tutorial (later on suprises are most welcome).

Even on the highest difficulty setting, the tutorial should just be a short introduction to the game--not something where ya probably die 5 min into the game.