I'm a little aggravated playing Daggerfall tonight, but there was some things I noticed and thought about for Skyrim (maybe it's already in it in a way, who knows).

So, Say you are in the Thieves Guild. Walking around town at night you see a shady character walk out of a house that you know isn't there house. Go talk to them, well look, it's a fellow thief. Better yet you sneak in that house to see them stealing. That would be amazing. In daggerfall I was attacked by the Thieves Guild while guarding a random item for 3 hours (game time).

The Fighter's Guild, to walk out in the wild to see a guild member fighting a bear or some bandits. Escorting merchants, wagons, etc.

A Mage's Guild member gathering outside, casting magic on things, interacting with their daily chores outside.

The Dark Brotherhood assassinating people (although this wouldn't be really easy to witness?)

Even though this may seem difficult, these guys don't even have to be important people. Hell, they can just be giving the generic name that they are a part of the X guild. In Oblivion it seems like a lot goes on inside of the housing for these guilds, but outside, not really. It would be nice to interact with your guild on the outside world and better yet maybe not even give them names. To know that the guild breathes on the outside would be refreshing. Not only that, for them to even help you out with something if you are in a tight spot, (like guards on monsters/bandits/bad people).

I agree! It seems that you are the only member of any guild that ever does anything! It would be really awesome to see "Thieve's Guild Member" lurking around behind some store randomly, or "Fighter's Guild Member" escorting a merchant caravan. If guild members actually were out doing what they supposedly do, along with common people actually farming, building, fishing, hunting, etc. it would be a really busy and immersive world.

Cool idea. Imagine, if you were say a guard and noticed a thief. You could catch them etc.

I know there has to be more people keen on this idea, or do I have to make a mainstream thread? Let's hear some opinions.

Cool ideas you have! Ive aways thought of meeting Fighters Guild people in random caves/dungeons, and it would also be awesome if you walk into a city and see 3 guards arresting a random npc, or maybe you break into someones house and find out that the owner of the house is lying on the floor with vampires feeding on her/him!

If you witnessed the brotherhood murder some one then there is a good chance you are next on the list. (Obviously if you are part the brotherhood then its all good)

That would be so fun, don't you think?

I'm all for it.

My problem is would a mage do? Apart cast spells and gather ingredients.

Field trips? Looking for necromancers?

Is necromancy still illegal in skyrim?

I know Traven banned it but that was awhile ago.

Perhaps something along the lines of random encounters from Fallout. I agree, this could go a long ways in making the world seem less empty. Maybe even news stories about actions your guild has been taking. And maybe having guild members talking about missions around the place, like how DB members would sometimes tell you about previous assignments.

I like this idea.

Yea on Oblivion they put NPC's doing their daily chores but they didn't care about the guilds. That is a must have on the new TES.

Also on MW there's a mod that makes you able to train the skills of lower ranked members of the guilds for money. For example, on the Thieves Guild you can train other members on acrobatics, short blade, sneak and other thieves' guild related skills. And there is another sweet feature on this mod (and sorry if I'm forgetting anything else): if you're on the Morag Tong you can target an NPC and then contract an assassin to kill him. If you're on the Thieves Guild you can target someone to be stealed and hire a thief to do the job. Without wanting to desrespect the modder who did this, is this so difficult to do Bethesda?

Huh, you just reminded me of that Orc guy you'd see randomly in Oblivion, just some random Dungeon, and boom, there he was killing something and looting stuff...can't quite remember what he says though...something about him doing it all for his "master" I think...but still, if they did that in Oblivion, and now they're upgrading damn near everything for Skyrim, maybe they've already added in this feature...and I sincerely hope that they have...

Hey, I'm stupid, just remembered they already have a random event feature in Fallout...well, that's a lie, the guy a couple of posts above me said it and reminded me...but if they've put that feature into Fallout, there's nothing stopping them putting it into Skyrim with a Guild orientation to it...it'd be brilliant to see The Fighters Guild taking on a battalion of Marauders just in the distance as you traverse the open roads...

The Orc Adventurers were plundering ancient ruins searching for treasures for Orsinium, an orc Nation that occupies a damn good chunk of High Rock and maybe northern Hammerfell.

That's the one, thankyou...hmm, you know that little pointless feature in Oblivion made that one experience just fun and gave it more immersion;
"Hey look, I'm not the only one endlessly searching areas for loot"
If they had more experiences like that throughout the game, it would have made it so much better...so here's to hoping Bethesda thought ahead and have already implemented this...

YES!
except for the Gentle Manne of Leisure Tea and Hat Guild

Yes but it was immersion breaking that he was the only adventure besides you. After I meet him in 2-3 diffrent dungeons, with every character, I thought it gold old. Atleast make them random generated next time.

nothing kills immersion more for me than knowing there are lots of people, but lots of people doing SFA

Definitely love that idea although not to sure about the dark brotherhood killing people you know i don't wanna go into a ghost town brotherhood wasted everyone lol maybe they can kill non important people

The guilds may as well be called "Country club with X archtype hanging in it"

Good ideas! Their deeds can also be spoken of by the town crier or news reader. I'd say for the thieves guild, sometimes when they get a mission to steal something it should be guarded by the Fighter's Guild, or the Mage's Guild if the owners are fairly serious about security.

The tasks you could see the mage's guild performing should be similar to those you saw in Daggerfall. Things like casting Sleep on paranoid insomniacs, opening magically sealed chests used for transport or pranks, hunting down frankenstein monsters that the mages guild built (atronachs), hunting down magical creatures in town like Imps, and banishing daedra.

Well a mage could be contracted to use magic to heal, open, magically lock, kill monsters etc. or be out in the libraries and other places where he could learn stuff to enhance his magic skills.

Edit: Just noticed the post above me. xD

a vast improvement to npc ai and interaction is a must.

LOL, the DB taking over a town. Well I feel also the NPC's can be random. They could be replaced with the name of "victim".