Firstpostyay

I was thinking about this today while watching the movie Entrapment. Thieves work alone the majority of the time, or with small teams of specialists. How cool would it be if instead of joining a criminal organization or a group of Robin Hoods, you're contacted by some Gray Fox-type character who trains you as his protege? Maybe you do a whole quest-line that consists of him training you, teaching you knew skills and techniques, gifting you with unique items etc. and eventually telling you that he's grooming you as his replacement.

This way you're not shoe-horned into a group of people you don't care about, and you work alone in the shadows with no killing or fighting involved, the way a thief is meant to be played. Throughout the course of the line, you could become acquainted with a few "specialists" that will also give you side quests depending on their specialty (sort of like Vex and Delvin), except this time once you complete all the sidequests and the main Gray Fox-esque one, a final huge heist will take place that you and your small group will have to pull off using each of their skills, sort of like an Ocean's Eleven type thing.

I guess I just missed actual thief gameplay in Skyrim.

I like the Thieves Guild in Skyrim (the people I mean, not the questline), but I do think there should be a route for a lone-thief kinda legacy character like the Gray Fox. I actually recommended that a while back in the Skyrim forums when we were all talking about what we wanted in DLC.

I thought it'd be cool to have a character like that, sorta like Phantom Thief 1412 from Detective Conan/Case Closed, with a questline with options allowing you being his student, trying to outdo him as a thief, or trying to capture him in the name of the law.

I wouldn't call the Gray Fox a lone-thief, he worked with people and had them doing jobs for him, for the most part he was the leader of a band of thieves which destroys the lone-thief thing. Honestly I was annoyed by the Robin-hood complex thieves guild in Oblivion, I thought it was so uncharacteristic of the actual guild to be like that in it's own home province when compared how the guild operates in the other provinces. The Bal Molagmer made sense because it was just Gentlemen Jim's side project, it wasn't the goal of the whole guild, the guild itself was still dens of thieves working for profit and fun.

I'm open to anything at this point because I honestly hated everything about the Thieves' Guild. The questline was a chore and most of the NPCs were annoying as hell.

I don't know if a more solo role is the answer, but the portrayal of the guild itself could've been better IMO.

I didn't mean to imply that the Gray Fox was a lone-thief in Oblivion. I just meant that mantle of the Gray Fox as a name for a legendary thief would be good for a lone-thief type of character.

As for their portrayal in Oblivion, I think it'd be smart for them to be more benevolent in their home province. Think of it like imperialism itself. They're nicer to those in their home province than they are in others, where they go about and steal all the wealth they can. It's part of the reason I always thought that the Guild should have been nicer in Riften, making it so that they came across as people who would support the locals and steal from the other provinces. That way, the people wouldn't want to get rid of them as bad.

This is a fantastic idea. I think it would be a great new twist on the guild questline: get rid of the guild completely.

I like it. Who wants to see a return of The Gray Fox? I know I do. Pass the torch, Bethesda.

I don't. Nope, not in the slightest. Actually, i despised the whole 'Gray Fox' thing.

I do wish that the Thieves Guilds had a little more in the way of... you know... Thieving. The early parts of Skyrim weren't... well... Bad, but neither was Oblivion. Then both kinda get wrapped up in this "we need to be epic for the sake of being epic" thing that has been going on since Oblivion...The Companion's are the only ones who broke that mold, and while their story had amazing potential, it was cut short and executed in a ham-fisted way.

The Thieves Guild should be about stealing valuable and rare items, bribing officials and making money. Not about epic stories all pertaining to Nocturnal.