» Wed Dec 04, 2013 5:10 pm I've been thinking about how bandits in TES games are used and how little imaginative they are. Bandits are no more than killing material without any depthness whatsoever. The player has absolutely no interactions with them except for combat. Furthermore, the killing practiced by both sides - the player and the bandits - suggests how common and trivial it is to take a life away.
In this sense being a fantasy medieval storyline doesn't mean that murder is completely neglected. Unfortunately what we see is that bandits attack anyone on sight to death, when the possibilities for this encounter could be much more interesting. Sure, in Skyrim the bandits sometimes would just scare the player away and not attack on sight, even so, the interaction is just about the same.
What I proppose is to enhance the interaction with bandits, which is much different than the last installments where they were minimal and definitely could be more explored. The roleplaying opportunities here are almost limitless, and would be even better if different kinds of bandits had different visions on the society. While some bandits could be brute murderers, others may have political inclinations and, therefore, avoid killing or even direct confrontation.
Of course, living a life as an actual outlaw inside of a criminal organization is also a possibility.
After all of this one must be wondering why my concern about this?
There are plenty of reasons:
Political factors. A raiding mudering band would be hunted in no time by the king/baron/whatever, therefore bandits that only steal are less prone of being hunted by elite members of society. It just doesn't make sense those completely insane bandits.
The primary interest of any bandit it's money, so let's apply that.
As an example, the player could be rendered unconscious and then have his items and gold removed from him. Or, instead of being knocked out, the player could reach a point in health where the bandits stops the attack and threat him demanding money and items.
Other situations that comes in mind that might change the way that the player perceives the game would be by applying guerrilla tactics. So that the player could be ambushed and surrounded by a bunch of criminals who demands his goods without a single blood being spilled.
On the other hand, when criminals are at the weaker side the player may choose to extort them and take their money instead, or slaughter them, humiliate them or just let them go free.
Murdering shouldn't be so common, and I don't say that questioning moral related issues, I really don't give a damn about morality in a videogame. I think there are much more opportunities of roleplaying by not killing hundreds of people, or the inverse, hundreds of people trying to kill you.
For example the consequences of killing too many bandits would be the increase of the difficulty of the game, since the player would begin to be hunted, and if his infamy along the bandits are high enough, the player may be hunted to the purpose of murder and not the gold any longer.
This kind of approach would justify entering in a cave with a stealthy way avoid killing and make the player experience different kinds of gameplay.
Extending the last idea, bandits could leave the player alone if they suspect he's just a poor peasant, or hunt him down if they know he's a respected member of an organization. In this way the more fame and/or higher the player is in an hierarchy, the more he could be hunted by some groups.
Along that, if being known to be a mighty warrior, the player could be hunted only by the most braves* of the bandits, while the others would avoid him at all costs.
*But do it the right way, actually showing bandits running scared of the player and not by making this a silly and poor excuse to scale the enemies level with the player.
Finally, the purpose of reducing the number of deaths of sentient beings is to create a more believable world, and make a better joy of actually killing someone (in a videogame, I must make this clear! 
).
