I talk to almost all of the travelers I see, unless they are bards, then I run away.
I usually don't kill any travelers in my games, unless they are hostile of course.
I like to talk to folks I meet on the road. Sometimes an Orc or Nord calls me a milk drinker, sometimes someone has an opinion on the Civil War, sometimes it's a good way to get some Moon Sugar for Elswyr fondue. Occasionally it's a group of vampires in mufti. Or an aspiring mage with a staff that's run out of charges.
I've even met someone who stole someone else's archeological theories & passed them off as his own...
Whom I've never met is the werebear brother to the Skald villager on Solstheim. I've met the trio of werebears, but he's not among them.
This. I usually know who they are and what they're going to say before they open their mouths.
And don't get me started on that stupid 'take this and hold onto it' encounter.. My axe gets lubed whenever I come across that encounter.
The thing is, is that they always seem to turn up at the most awkward of times. I can't recall a single time I've experienced that encounter without the game going schizo on me.
You kill the poor farmer women whose homes/farms were destroyed? I always give them a few coins.
I love running into the Thalmor or Legionnaires with Stormcloak prisoners...I free my bound brothers and slaughter their captors
depends on my character I'm playing.
My forsworn kills on sight in the Reach. Merchants, farmers, travelers. makes no difference to her. Outside of the Reach she tends to leave them all alone. Now skooma dealers she will buy from in any Hold.
My hunter character talks to them to see what they might be up to and if they would like to buy some meat or a flute she crafted from animal bones.
I talk to them sometimes, depending on how I feel at the time. My latest chat had the Noble on his horse and his guards. They were traveling East along the road towards Whiterun (near the Western Watchtower). Kind of the opposite direction to get Solitude...
I duck and cover until i can determine if they are hostile or friendly. It's dangerous in my modded game
I usually have a bit of a chat. My vampire character, though, snuck up on that dreadful man who's always 'heading to Victoria Vici's wedding in Solitude' (and almost never heading anywhere but AWAY from Solitude) and fed from him, before slaughtering his wife and bodyguard.
Those fugitives ALWAYS interrupt me when I'm in the middle of something, I generally rat on them but keep the item, bigger fish to fry, and sometimes you get a nice new enchantment to learn.
ha ok for a second there I thought you mean the female farmers...I was about to have some words with you
So you kill the whole group, including the prisoners?
ha thanks kinsman, someone has to free our brothers from bondage