I'm seriously caught in two minds for my RP char of Ulda. She's a bow and dagger girl, like a Ranger or Scout. A wannabe warrior, but inexperienced and not that strong, but she has been brought up with the honourable warrior ethic.

Here's the thing...... Does looting the dead make her no better than a disgusting scavenger or is it reasonable to take a better weapon from the fallen....and of course the big question, loot. Gold, gems ingots etc.
I've already decided now that looting Draugr is vile....I wouldn't put my hand inside the husk of a freeze dried zombie to pull out Five Quid....so even if I miss out on a gem or ingot that tough.
But what about slain bandits, or soldiers? Arrows from dead archers? A hood from a theif? ( you can't buy those). Maybe take anything they're not actually wearing?

I need a simple RP rule, but realistic.......so what do you guys think ? Scav scum or spoils of war?

Uh.yeah, before someone says it.....I do have to do the nasty to get the Dragonstone....so ?I'm not including the situations where a specific items I have to recover are on a body, that's just part of the job!

The dead that you killed yourself are fair game. Nothing bad with looting them. But honored dead, ones taken, burried and intered in toombs, its dishonorable to loot them.

When playing Nords I roleplay as well, so I loot bandits, criminals, looters, grave-robbers etc..

But I never loot nord graves, toombs etc unless its something specific quest related (a claw, gauldur amulet etc..)

And if given a chance to return something to a toomb, I do it (Leaving Wuuthrad in toomb of Ysgramor)

And sometimes I also leave an offering to the dead (food, flowers, weapons)

Ok....that's made me think. So....it's ok to loot from my own kills, but not Draugr. That can work.

Oooooooh but that still gives me a problem I think. I'd have to pass up all those loose and available ingots and gems on the shelves in tombs. Hmmmm. I'd not considered that issue......I'll have to think......

There isnt really that much of a loot in draugr toombs anyway. I had more money than I needed, and never managed to sell all my loot, all without looting draugr.

Creating these own looting rules makes, in my opinion, the game bit more challenging and fun. My current rule is not to take anything they're wearing off from the dead - unless it's an unique item I couldn't otherwise obtain. Picking up weapons is fine. This makes vendors actually useful since my character needs to buy most of her equipment and gold is important again. She also sells potions she makes and pelts from animal she hunts (I'm using a mod that makes animal parts more expensive). When I play like these, the dungeons actually feel more intense, since I don't have to stop and pause the game when opening inventories and containers.

This is an RPG, IMO, If you are NOT looting as much as you can, you are playing it wrong

I'm all for looting the dead, after all the loot is of no use to them once you've killed them for whatever reason. Obviously the exception to this would be if it went against a characters roleplay restrictions, otherwise I think it's fair game.

Usually I loot everything I see, but I wasn't able to take Wuuthrad back. If there is a fallen character I like, I leave it in peace. From a moral standpoint I believe that looting is frowned upon by some people of Skyrim.

I quess its okay. I never loot armor off enemies but thats only because it looks silly with naked bodies around..

Wow... There is no wrong way to play an rpg.

As for me, it really depends on the character. The one I'm playing now doesn't loot bodies she finds on her way and whether she loots the bodies of people/creatures she kills is really depending on her mood.

Well when people are killed in battle, the victors usually collect the arms and armor. No one buries that stuff with the bodies. It's different when burying your own. Those might be buried with ceremonial weapons or armor or at least fine clothes. And if it is a companion of yours that got killed you might want at least to carry their weapons back to their families and possibly their armor. But leave them with some clothes at least. It seems undignified to leave them naked. Maybe you could leave a token gift to the dead of some coins on each body.

I think in the primitive world, like Skyrim, that looting the dead would always be done. It's a harsh world, leaving resources you could use to survive to rot would be a sin.

It's not like WW2 where you could find the dead soldiers family and send back his belonging. In Skyrim you either use it or it rots.

The only thing I would find as evil is to just kill someone for their stuff. Something I've never done but I know a lot of people do.

...I was making a joke, that is what the smiley face was for, also the "LOOT ALL THE THINGS" is a perfect (and VERY true) sterotype of tabletop RPG players.

My personal view on these things is to just take everything that isn't soaked in blood or feces (which rules out clothing or armor most of the time unless it's unique). I also kinda don't give a crap about grave robbing. Same deal for both of them: they're just going to stay there and rot or taken by someone else (there's an actual scavenger encounter in-game). May as well use them or sell/give them to someone who actually does have use for it.

I guess it depends on your character's views on this. Does she feel that she's no better than a scavenger or does she believe it's justified? The Nords of Skyrim seem to believe that the interred dead and their belongings should be left alone, so grave robbing might be frowned upon but probably not illegal like in Vvardenfell. Looting the corpses of fallen foes seems to be okay, at least, but some people might have reservations over some things (like taking clothes or armor). So yeah, spoils of war good, grave robbing bad.

Murder Hobos, yo. Most likely everyone's played one at some point.

I agree with this. My characters are not all the same, and they don't approach the world (or the dead) in the same way. I have one character whose habit is to take the boots of everyone she kills, as trophies. She has accumulated a big pile of boots.

I have to wonder about rigid "rules," anyway. There are some fairly rare items that are found on the dead, including items that need to be collected for quests (flawless gems, fire salts, etc.) Does one not even check the pockets of the dead, to see if there is something important hidden there?

Thanks guys great input. It's all helped me finalise my Modus Operandi.....
So, I've made my decision now. Since in the later game finds are plenty valuable, I will start as I mean to go on by:

1. Not looting Draugr cos they're vile and its a desecration.

2. Not looting soldiers, of either side, period....feels kinda immoral or dishonourable to me.

3. Not taking bandit apparel or weapons unless I will actually use the weapon myself.

4. Other bandit goodies, gems, Jewellrey and coin are just loose pocket items and ok to take. Like ...I'll just roll this guy over and ooh! Look what fell out of his pocket....I'll just look after those then!

5. Tomb loot from urns and chests.....now that's a toughie. I want to agree with Hrulj, but the chests do have pretty good loot. It's not just about the cash see. Some items are super rare, Iike malachite ingots and some enchanted gear like water breathing items. Can't afford to pass them up! So my rule on that is....no rifling the dead or cremation urns or what, canopic jars! Yuk! , but stuff left out and in chests is gonna get taken by someone......so I will have it.

Cheers for the brainstorm, Rick

I've always thought that looting bodies was more of a thing for rogue characters, savage characters, low life characters, theif characters, or evil characters.
Though I usually preserve this action for rogue characters (seeing as rogues are infamous for taking whatever they can, from whoever they can, whenever they can$.
But onetime I played a savage primal character who held it in his beliefs that when anything is take , something must be given. So if he ever decided to take something off a body d needed to give them something in return, even if its as unfair as taking an ebony shield and leaving them with a ruined book.

Just food for thought I suppose.

I don't have a general rule when it comes to this, it all depends on a character.

My current character Lucius almost never takes anything from his fallen enemies, the only exception might be arrows if he's running low on them. Occasionally he takes gold from bandit chiefs, they usually carry a lot of gold, and it's better in his coinpurse than in hands of a bandit that'll find his dead chief. He never takes anything from those which he already finds dead, nor does he touch Draugr.

Corcaigh, my previous character, didn't have any qualms about taking from dead, be it weapons, armor or gold. He didn't mind leaving them only in their loincloth on a main road.