A Skooma guild would be... strange? Perhaps good for a laugh. Certainly though, I would like Skyrim to be more mature and gritty than previous installments. I don't mean taking gore to excessive and ridiculous levels (ala Fallout), but more mature themes and more realistic violence than that of Oblivion, for example, would be appreciated and an improvement in my opinion.

I don't think they should use fantastical swearwords, but rather insults. Preferably to one's mother.

you bust up a Skooma ring as part of the Oblivion Fighter's Guild quest line. I think the insults could be a bit more verbose though. Perhaps something along the lines of, "You smell fouler than a parasite living in the bowels of a slug who imbibes waters downstream from a city sewer drain!" or something.

"Skooma guild" does sound ridiculous. But I think the ability to join one or two "less than legitimate" organizations would be cool. In Morrowind, all of the organizations you could join were, at least somewhat, legitimate. Even the thieves guild and Morag Tong (sp) were considered legitimate (if not always respectable) organizations.

In Oblivion, the thieves guild and the dark brotherhood were both underground, which I liked, but neither seemed all that gritty or nefarious. Neither of them had much of a purpose, no central focus. Giving a faction like this a large goal (like controlling all of the drug/slave trafficking in the area) would make them seem more important in the overall story.

Skyrim should be full of tragedy, like all of the old Northern European legends were.

I'm trying to think of R-rated movies set in fantasy-esque time periods... Like Braveheart, 300, Kingdom of Heaven, Troy and Gladiator... What kind of swearwords were used in those movies. I know those aren't really fantasy, but they're the closest R-rated movies I can think of to the Elder Scrolls. I can't really think of any fantasy movies other than Lord of the Rings...

I'd like to have the option to acts as an undercover narcotics officer and join a gang of Skooma addicts in order to identify the higher level dealers. However, unbeknownst to you, everyone else in the gang is also an undercover narcotics agent, as are the higher level dealers. None of them know that any of the others are undercover agents, and quite a few are legitimately addicted or in the sales business.

Skooma is really getting over done. There are tons of natural drugs in the world, and I believe that Nirn has tons of drugs besides skooma, but it takes too much creativity to think of them. Amanita muscaria are a form of hallucinogenic toadstool, which were in Cyrodiil. Yet eating them did nothing.
But the world definitely needs to be more gritty and dirty.

Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood Wayan Brothers. My son actually pointed out the fact it was the film. I just went with the forum title because it sounded so much like a snoop dog song.. "gin and juice".

Maybe not title it "skooma den dealers" but there could be a plot with skooma, like MW had. Kinda in the shadows, where you have to stumble upon the quest rather than it being blatant. Like another user pointed out, there are so many other natural drugs. Skooma though is a part of the world of Cyrodill, tho played down in OB.

Hell yeah for both options.

Ye olde English insults ftw. They could even throw in a "queynte", which would definitely be out of the question if it were modern English

I like how this is put. I would also like to add to it, by saying I liked how certain clubs and areas in both games (mainly Morrowind, but a bit in Oblivion, too) were their territory. I'd like if they expanded on that, with gang areas in which you could get your ass beat if you messed with the wrong person, or if you hung around enough for people to trust you it would be easier to join these illegal guilds. (On top of that, it should be harder to join. There's a reason illegal orginizations stay under ground, and that is to not be found. Trying to join goes directly against that, so why don't they try harder in hiding?


There should still be recruiter NPCs, of course. It should just be a lot harder to get them to trust you. Maybe it will depend on how often you hang around, or maybe it will depend on how well you preform small tasks for them. Like, you need to do a few quests for them that aren't stated to be part of the guild, but still relate to it. They could be seemingly legal at first, quests to go deliver this gift to a good friend of mine, it's her birthday and I wanted to get her something (but the package has something like drugs in it if opened). Then they could become a little more obvious, until you're trusted enough to do it.

I like how Dark Brotherhood recruitment was in Oblivion. You had to murder someone before they considered you. It would be better if someone like the Grey Prince didn't count, though. It would have been better if after you became the Listener you were actually approached by the remaining branches, though, and there was actually some sense of leading them.

I don't like the idea of an entire guild devoted to skooma, but I wouldn't mind a quest or two where you're involved in smuggling skooma or Nordic whiskey.