First of all, I have to say, I am on the side which loved almost everything that was said in the magazine. There's only one thing that worries me, though, and I'll try to formulate it through a question:

If I am already a one-of-a-kind, superhero dragon hunter, how am I going to role play a small town book lover with a passion for Alchemy?

You decide the dragon-hunting thing isn't for you, refuse your call to adventure, and retire to a small town to become a librarian or alchemist.

Then a dragon attacks the town, because refusing the call to adventure never works forever.

I thought about this as well, but I think it will be pretty easy to ignore your dragon hunter blood or whatever it really is. Certainly easier to ignore than Oblivion's "OMG TAKE THE AMULET TO JAWFREE NOW THE WORLD IS DOOMED!!!!"

im curious as well... its not going to be very easy.

hopefully, it'll start us off without the knowledge or gear of a dragon hunter and we can just run away from the story early on before any of that is revealed... like with morrowind.

I'm thinkinghoping Bethesda will incorporate an ignore-your-own-destiny type situation that was present in their past games. Then, you always had the choice to go where you wanted, to not take that package to Balmora, to say 'screw you, old man' and forget all about the amulet after you dropped it off, etc. Maybe you won't just start out as this hero, but would have to train/become/etc. him instead, and as such will have the choice not to. Here's hoping, anyway.

Yeah, could be that we are not properly interpreting what we know. Maybe we will be nothing and then Max von Sydow comes and tells us about our peculiar ancestry. I could work with that.

although, remembering back on that thread revealing info... im worried about another major problem.

DRAGONS...

didnt someone say the dragons will be a regular threat, and even RAVAGE TOWNS?!

i mean, look at how often NPCs died just walking along the streets in oblivion... now what do you think its going to be like in skyrim?

you'll travel to a neighboring town to buy a book that your home town doesnt have... then on your way back, you see a dragon drop in, torch the town, killing everyone, and fly off?

oh, lets see... thats about 20 quests ended prematurely, 3-4 stores destroyed... your house destroyed... and all your friends eaten or toasted alive!

im worried about that, i hope bethesda figured something out to stop dragons from butchering the whole town... cause i doubt a level 1 bookworm is going to be able to fend off the dragon before it stomps the town to dust.

Mods. Unless you're on console.

Hahah, I really liked the way you had presented the problem, but maybe the attacks will be triggered by the second quest in the main quest line, for example.

How is this is a bad thing for roleplaying?

One of the recurring difficulties of roleplaying in Bethesda games is that the world is always extremely static. You can't really "live" in a single location because after you do the quests placed there before hand there's simply nothing to do. The games are generally designed to facilitate a walking-the-earth playstyle that keeps towns from feeling really alive if you spend too much to time there.

There's a few things in the Game Informer article that indicates fixing this kind of thing is a priority for Bethesda (the "radiant stories" concept, the dragon attacks, the crafting and other non-adventure methods of income). Granted, it could just be women fireballing dogs again, but in theory it could be a huge boon to anyone who wants to roleplay a character that has a permanent home.

Im hoping it will be like *You see a bunch of people get slaughtered (the other Dragonborns) and then someone tells you you have hte potential - go here if you want to be a fierce warrior like them!*

Then just walk off into the forest and orgism over how beautiful it is.

It is possible the rest of the world won't know what you are at first, letting you ignore it if you want to

But there will be no town to role-play a calm lifestyle in, if the dragons come and burn it! Apart from that, I agree with you, we need more things happening in cities.

Excellent excellent point OP.

I dont even plan on playing the MQ my first time round.

Im 30 hours in new vegas and havent even touched the MQ.

Im like you OP, I prefer my live my own humble life away from epic world saving shenanigans.

Though I think the arrival of dragons will be like oblivion gates... ie only after several hours in and triggering them.

Perhaps when we meet the hermits at the top of the 7000 stair mountain, you learn about your heritage and alla that.

I am sure they know there's plenty of people like us and they will leave us the possibility. Especially because it's not that hard to leave it. :rolleyes:

Mhm. I'm like that.

Heck, I've roleplayed from Knight, to Noble, to Peasant, to Archmage, to Vigilante, to Dark Mage, to Shopkeeper and everything inbetween. All I do is roleplay.

I intend to beat the main quest once, and then get my RolePlay on!!!

That is a good argument for being able to avoid triggering the dragon attacks somehow, if you absolutely don't want any outside interference.

The possibility still appeals to my inner writer, though. The possibility of a massive tragedy like that happening to your character, thereby moving them in a new direction, is a good thing.

I doubt it would get that out of control so quickly. As the main storyline progresses maybe the attacks become fiercer, thus raising the possibilities of mass destruction?

Well I think it will be random events that occur after you progressed through the MQ a bit. I also believe when it occurs all the people will run into there houses. I don't think dragons will be able to destroy a house unless it's scripted. You'll see people die, but after the battle you'll look over there body and it will read Townsfolk. For second you'll be like, "Who the F was that? I never saw that dude before." Then you think, "Well at least no one important died."

Kind of like South Park, folk die all the time.

^ This ^

When I read your hypothesised dilemma, zero, my first thought was "maybe peeps'll run into their homes, or it'll be a generic NPC"

I don't think they'll destroy a whole towns worth of quests...

This is the difference between a Bethesda game and a Bioware game. In a bioware game, if you refuse your destiny, game over. In a Beth game, you can play for hundreds of hours and never touch the main quest.