Part 1: Death Sentences
Liu Bei's topic on a Justice System in Skyrim mentioned the idea of a Death Sentence if you commit enough wrongs. Obviously getting a Death Sentence means escaping or loading an earlier save. Starting with this I would like to see a couple different situations, first being that Death Row is held only in the capitals for the Rebels and Loyalists. As such you would have a static dungeon for these escapes, but they would be separate from regular prisons. It would also be interesting if, when you are caught and sentenced to death in another city, you occasionally get a chance to escape from the transport instead of the prison.

Part 2: The Dark Brotherhood
There have been plenty of murderers in Tamriel, especially with the chaos spreading through the Empire. As such the Dark Brotherhood has had to be more discriminating than before; instead recruiting only those who are sentenced to death for their crimes. The first time you are sent to Death Row a Speaker from the Dark Brotherhood will find you and release you. They will accompany you until your reach the door, after killing a few guards on the way out, you are told to shake the guards and find their sanctuary in Riften. Your joining bonus for the Brotherhood will be access to hidden exits in the Death Rows where you wont be forced to flee a city full of guards.

Discuss.

I love this idea (expecially part 2). It didn't make sense in Oblivion that the Dark Brotherhood would recruit a random unskilled person who commitet only one murder. They should be more picky in who they recruit.
I also think that DB should be more secret organization. In oblivion everyone knows how members of DB are recruited, I imagine a semi-intelligent guard could stage a murder and get recruited into DB and close down the organisation.

Here's a link to that thread: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1174290-justice-system-in-skyrim/


I love the idea of the dark brotherhood realizing your raw talent right before you get executed, but they won't want someone who keeps getting caught, so it should be a one-time deal. Maybe a benefits of being grandmaster of either the DB or the thieves guild should be that you can be will from Death Row.

Actually it is the Night Mother who picks out recruits and she has a supernatural sense for that. Beyond that little tidbit yes I agree with you.



I'm sorry I don't think I quite get all of what you are saying, but to an extent I disagree with you. First off, if the Thieves Guild functions like it did in Oblivion, they wouldn't want murderers. The amount of work it would take to get on Death Row without killing people would be astronomical. Though I could understand a Guild Suspension if you do end up on Death Row. However, the Dark Brotherhood showed in Oblivion a lack of concern for subtlety (outside of bonuses). Perhaps they would be concerned if you sold them out (an option that would be interesting), and perhaps if you were to find yourself on Death Row often. If what you're saying is that the rescue should be one-off (outside of maybe some quest), I absolutely agree with you.

I would love to see a few public executions in the big cities. Would add a lot of life and realism to them.

I'd rather escape from an execution during it, not during transport

I would liked to be BANISHED from towns on pain of death.

I feel like the Dark Brotherhood wouldn't bother rescuing a captured member. They never seemed too bothered by members getting killed if they failed. Something tells me that if you get caught, you're probably on your own.

I absolutely love it. I think the thieves guild should do this too (but not for murder obviously). For the thieves guild maybe it could be a quest, the kind where they were trying to weed out an informant and the plan involved you getting arrested. They sneak into the jail and you break out super stealthily, using non-fatal tactics when necessary on guards.

maybe it would be an additional advantage of being any grandmaster of a faction, provided all of your underlings like you enough they will come rescue you or come watch you get executed. but over all I don't like the idea of an execution unless you can escape it more often than not because I don't want to play a character that does bad things then dies. it would make short play time for evil characters and thats not good.

Thieves guilds in most games abhor excessive violence, because it brings about calls for cracking down on crime, as well as the obvious - bringing attention to the crime. Murder, in particular, should get you tossed out of any self-respecting thieves guild, if for any other reason than you are simply too stupid to be a thief.

A proper heist is one that isn't noticed until much, much later. Getting violent is practically antithetical to secrecy and silence.

That said, a strategic kill should probably be OK. If a guard walks in while you are looting a place, you may have to take them out. However, that should be considered a massive failure on the part of the thief - not a success. A good thief could have gotten in and out without being noticed, while a bad thief has to take out the people who noticed him.

In a perverse sort of way, the same applies to the Dark Brotherhood. They want to get in, take out their target, and get out without being noticed, and should wait until the right time to do so. Killing extra people probably doesn't get you a bonus, it gets you chewed out, or even tossed out.

So they should pick the person caught by the guards? :blink:

I think the prison life should be more detailed too. I mean, morrowind's and oblivion's "sleep for 20 days" system didn't cut it for me. I think that there should be things like routine lunches, workout time in the yard, prison gangs(factions), etc.

The concept i like. Getting caught to be recruited I am not fond of however. The way i invision this is :you kill a random npc as before however the npc you killed was the DB's target. They like the way it was done but not the fact that it was done. So they frame the murder on you sending you to deathrow then approach you hours before your "execution" giving you the only way out. Join or die essentially.
I realize this is far to elaborate and exact for Bethesda to actually do. But i like the idea.

How do they frame the murder on you if you're the one who did it? I'm not sure what you're saying, but I agree they shouldn't want murderers who get caught.

Death row should present many opportunities for escape. Maybe you have a week in the prison before the execution date. If you have enough money and connections on the outside a guard could be bribed to leave your cell door unlocked, but making your way out would be up to you.

They would "frame" you by letting the authority's know about it where'as you would have gotten away with it but the DB ratted you out. sorry for the confusion

Good idea, this should be the way to join the dark brotherhood

I like the idea of Death Row. And, it might be in the game anyway - after all you start the game by seeing your own execution.
As for the DB recruiting you on Death Row - No. They wouldn't want someone who gets caught. In fact, they should do the complete opposite to that. Say you've killed 1 or 2 people and don't get caught, then and only then should you be contacted by the Brotherhood. As much as I hate to say it, the DB are close to the modern conception of Ninja's in the way they work. Unseen. Would they want a clumsy, brutish man running across ceilings and silently stabbing victims in the back? No. So I don't see why the Dark Brotherhood would want a Clumsy, obnoxious, Axe wielding Orc attempting to silently assassinate people. It doesn't make sense like that.

That's called tipping the authorities. You cannot frame someone for something they did.

In Daggerfall they only invited you into the Dark Brotherhood if you made some noticeable murders, like a noble or a dozen peasants.

What if one of the guards working Death Row was in reality a Brotherhood scout of sorts. Upon being placed on death row, they approach you and make the offer. You can refuse, but then it's up to you to make any sort of escape. If you agree, they fake your death (effectively wiping your record), and you are transferred to the sanctuary.

And I like Shade's idea (or Daggerfalls, whatev) that victims of note should be the trigger. Other avenues of joining the Brotherhood should also still exist.