I have recently decided to make my initial character a thief. But you never start the game playing as a thief rolling in money. The adventurers, they get all the real glory and gold. But I'm interested to spending a good portion of my first playthrough on the street.

Is anyone else taking on this role? As a lowlife street rat who steals for almost all their income?


i plan on playing at least the first few hours of the game in this roll, living in cities, sneaking into all the buildings in search of loot. Avoiding guards like the plague. Oblivion accomodated for this playstyle quite well with places like the waterfront, leyawiin and bravil. The thieves guild questline as a whole was quite enjoyable. I just hope that skyrim has some urban locations that feel downright dirty and poor. In addition, I'd love to see some giant nordic manors full of loot to steal...and at least one with private patrols (like umbacanos manor, but with more to steal than the statues you already sold him).

I fell in love with oblivion and tes as a whole the first day I played it, specifically when i wandered into a random house and held my breath and got very scared as the owner came downstairs while i was raiding their shelves.

I agree, the cities of Oblivion didn't feel like they had any "crime".
Edit: Errr, and yes I will start as a petty street thief.

Being a thief is what I usually do, aside from being an assassin :biggrin:

Great idea. Hope it's in. Maybe some actual rare swords and stuff in the guarded manor, instead of the worthless replicas. :thumbsup:

I've been craving to see some city life. Riverwood was a nice glance at village life. Now show me a glimpse behind the walls of Whiterun.

Yup! I'm hoping the upgrades to the AI will mean more crime like petty theft among NPCs - without it just ending in bloodshed. And there definitely needs to be more expensive and rare items in richer households, paired with tighter security. It always bugged me that I'd break into a display case only to find replica stuff in OB. :/

I love playing as a thief it's always been one of my favourite playstyles. Sneaking around, poking through peoples belongings, all good fun.

Unfortunately Oblivion had major flaws when it came to stealing. Shop items were pitiful quality and didn't respawn. Not to mention you couldn't access the stores inventory which is where the real goodies were. Morrowind was better in alot of cases because it had hand placed loot that wasn't scaled. So if you were lucky enough to get glass armor at level 2 so be it. I'm hoping they've fixed the major problems or at least made it more like Morrowind had it.

Yeah, being able to access the shop keepers inventory should definitely be an option in skyrim. I understand that in oblivion they didn't let us do it because of balancing (same with the replicas). But if you want to balance it just put more guards around shops and tougher locks that can't be picked at level 1 lockpicking. Just need to be a little creative is all, and you can balance the game without cutting out or dumbing down the reward

Being able to -be- a thief will be easy enough, the archetype is encouraged and all as part of the Base Three ( Mage, Warrior, Rouge )
As for if you'll be able too make a living as a petty burglar, I guess it all depends on something being changed that irritated me in Oblivion.
Ok, so you break ten picks getting into a house in the rich part of the Imperial City, right?
Then you start looting as the owner sleeps or whatever, and you realize that the richly appointed silver chalices and gold-embroidered clothing you're stealing
is worth a miserable handful of coins, how is that logical?
If an apple is worth one coin, then something that took precious metals and master craftsmanship should be worth more than ten or fifteen, THAT'S LOGIC.
So being able too be a petty thief depends simply on them making it possible too live well on that life by making the stuff that lays around houses worth a squirt of piss.

I see a lot of thieves, but few go the street rat route. I like the concept.

Starting out as a Thief or Stealth character for me is akin to Bethesda making the game start you out in jail.


Being a Stealth character often means you will be very weak and defenseless on early stages, but on later levels you can easily kill the toughest of foes with 1 hit.
On Fallout 3 for example by level 7~10 I already was 1-shot killing Super Mutant Masters with a pistol at ludicrous distances; but at early levels I would get mauled by easy enemies.