I agree. Wouldn't be surprised if they allowed the PC to use non-violent means to even take care of inevitably violent situations. There are lots of companions you can get to protect you and maybe they will have more useful traps the PC could use. Slaying dragons is probably not going to be something you can have someone else do for you completely, but achieving it primarily through cunning is feasible. I tend to prefer clever thief characters over clever speech craft characters, but speech craft is an entire skill with a perk tree so it should carry some considerable weight if you choose to invest in it.

lawl



No more than you used your mad diplomacy skillz to talk him out of it. You got shoved aside by Martin and sat on the sidelines while he handled it. Amirite?



Fallout had diplomacy because its designers had a handle on what real options are, not because players in a forum demanded it be in the sequels. Then after Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel set the bar, Bethesda bought their way in and hopped on the bandwagon.



The Deadlands sure weren't far off based on Oblivion... :rolleyes:

I'd use the phrase 'good' and 'VTM Bloodlines' veeeeery loosely.
That game was almost unplayable at vanilla.

Um... In Skyrim, you can talk your way out of any situation, making Bards very viable...

"Fus Ro Dah" anyone?

This guy pretty much roflstomped all of us.

Bigtime. :thumbsup:

I lol'd.

That reminds me of D&D 4e Bards. I think one of the powers was called Wounding Word, and in roleplay terms it generally ended up as "You svck!" "*takes X damage* Ow!"

I would love to see some real diplomacy options in Skyrim, though. Especially some intimidation options. Instead of just having "Hey, help me fight because you'll be considered a hero!", they should also have options along the lines of "Hey, help me fight and I won't rip out your liver!".

Actually... "Wounding Word" is more than that. You need to either play Monkey Island's "Insult Swordfighting" section more, to understand it, or.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIV4poUZAQo

hahahahhahah /thread :rofl:

but really I don't mind a little more diplomacy but I don't see there being any diplomatic endings determined by speechcraft.

Well, diplomacy could win the Civil War plotline, see in a way similar to Redguard (Cyrus probably had an awesome speechcraft skill)

By the time you are ready for the end of the Alduin plotline, though, you should have plenty of points in your Dragonspeechcraft skill to discuss the terms of his surrender in a mutually-understood language.

No, not having instruments or any performance capabilities makes it impossible to be a bard...

I always thought it was stupid to call a fighting wizard thief a bard. Bards perform so unless bethesdas adding a minigame I doubt bards will ever be realized in ES.

I think what you want to play is some sort of politition or...evangelist maybe?

The original Fallout games tried to take into account any way a player would try to resolve a situation and so that included multiple dialogue options to be good, bad, or ugly for every quest. I have only played Oblivion, but from that experience I think TES is more about running around hitting things and collecting loot and less about creating unique character identities and interacting with the world in any way possible.

But... in Skyrim, you can sing! In Draconic, to boot! Sure, you can't have any tone, and can only sing in Fortissimo, with no control over pitch, but it's a type of singing that will bring down the house!

There was no way to be diplomatic in Oblivion, nor Morrowind, nor in Daggerfall. This is just not that type of game. Just because TES and Bloodlines are RPGs doesnt mean they have to be the same by some special rule, or because RPG means the same thing across styles.

TES has always been more sword and sorcery than high fantasy. (in fact, it was what was in vogue in computer RPGs when the series came out), although I would like TES to have more choices and storypaths.

Vampire The Masquerade and it's Video Game counterparts are excellent roleplaying games for the modern way of thought. I've played them for years and was a member of the national WW Larp circuit in my younger 20's.

But Tamriel isn't the modern world, nor does it follow our real world concepts of behavior, progress, or rationale.

This kind of gameplay just wouldn't be The Elder Scrolls.

However, going down memory lane... I'd love to see a new Fantasy IP revolving around these possibilities.