NO.

I would miss the prison starting but it would be kind of cool to be found in the wilds by that blade guy while were kid and he takes care of us until we become advlts and then he tells us to part on our quest!

actualy now that i think about it , it would actualy be very cool

By heard do you mean read in the "tracking the magazine" thread a few minutes ago like I did? :batman:

So yeah, /thread you start out in prison again :celebration:

That would be difficult to implement because you have what... 10 diffrent races? Unless of course they went with the generic "your an orphan, the dragonborn cult adopts you and trains you"

Doesn't it say in the GI that you start out as a "lowly prisoner?"

Alternate Start? Sure. Kid?


... /wrists

A kid born in prison. But my decision is no.

It probably isn't. No previous TES heroes' backstory has been important enough to warrant it being forced down your throat, to my knowledge. Just hints that let you decide.

i think its safe to say that Skyrim will not start you off as a kid. Every other Elder Scrolls have started in prision

And yet our lineage was never important in our being the hero, whether chosen by fate or not (unless Arena has a plot point that I'm unaware of).

Unless we were to meet up with other characters that, in the PC's history, we have met up with before, our backstory and heritage shouldn't be forced upon us by playing through our childhood in the beginning. Since, in Fallout, the goal was to meet up with your father, it was important that a relationship be made, and thus important to see him as the PC's sole nurturer. Since Fallout 3 is less RP-friendly than the TES games, and playstyles generally didn't differ other than between sniper and a more up close and personal fighter, a single origin that played through childhood wasn't bad. But in TES where playstyles generally differ much more greatly, having a unique made-up backstory, where my character learns his skills in a way that I feel is appropriate for him, is part of the fun. It's not a gamebreaker for me if we have a forced origin, but it will detract from the experience IMO.

Should start out in a prison ship ala Morrowind, but should get wrecked on the northern coast during a storm. Perhaps found on-shore by that Blade's member, or not.

I like being dropped into a world with little to no help.

:foodndrink:

I could have done without the childhood in FO3, but it was a reasonable background, with NPC's you'd meet later in the game.

But how exactly is Fallout 3 less role play friendly than Oblivion? (I'm inclined to think the exact opposite)

I doubt Skyrim starts you as a kid, (they said prison right?) but they could use that as a way to introduce important figures in your character's early life.

It's because in Fallout 3, your background was forced on you. In TES, it is tradition that the PC's background is obscure so that the player can create their own story for how their character got involved in the events.

Not that in Fallout 3 roleplaying was impossible, it's beginning just limited it a bit.

It seems that way in the TES games I've played ~and I accept it as part of the series, but I notice posts even in this thread that claim to not like the "need" to imagine the background themselves.

Personally I would prefer an in depth background up until the point that you begin the game ~it makes the PC's behavior more accessibly understood. its harder to know how to play the role if you have no idea what it is. :shrug: (Personal histories and political motivations provide that). If your character is a known thief, then you need to know it right?

*(More importantly IMO... You need to know it because if its known, then other people know it; but its moot in TES (I guess), if no one considers your past.

Accidental double post

See, I am the exact opposite. I can make up my characters background easily, along with his personal reasons and motivations for why he does the things he does. Hopefully Skyrim doesn't shove the main quest down your throat, so that you can pretend it's not there. Some of the characters I make wouldn't be interested in being Dovahkiin. Therefore, I would like it to be possible that the events in the main quest don't make a real impact on the world until after you do a few quests.

A lot of my characters WOULD take up the responsibility though, each for their own different reasons.

So can I... But the developers cannot write to my fiction. Accepting theirs is the better choice for me, because it means that the world [potentially] recognizes my PC's past and present behavior. This doesn't happen much in TES.

Not that it was less RP friendly than TES, but that it was a world that I personally wouldn't have wanted to live in, so it stunted my possibilities for roleplaying. Also the fact that I was forced in the Vault Dweller's shoes, when I would've preferred being a raider or something, just made me feel as though it was a game that wasn't as open, even though it was, as MW or OB. FO3 was a brilliant game, but it's the Capital Wasteland is a world that I'd RP in for the duration of the quests but wouldn't necessarily after I'd done everything like I could with Morrowind or Oblivion. I preferred the Capital Wasteland to the Mojave in FNV, but it just felt like a world that I'd be in for the duration of the main quest, and when it ended, it was definite for me.

Not even last night's storm could wake you

nope

Unless your child PC was born and raised a prisoner (and who would do that to a child?? Sickening), I have to say "No".

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind playing as a child or a teenager, I play plenty of other games where the MC isn't an advlt yet, but for Elder Scrolls? No, leave the backstory obscure. That way we can make up our own history.

Plus, if they made us a child, I can too easily see a "your parents/caretakers were horribly murdered in a dragon attack that burnt down your village and you, an orphaned begger in the streets, were thrown in jail for stealing a loaf of bread" cliche.

In fact, that would be the most cliched game ever. I can already see what would happen next. The old guy would bust you out, tell you that you are "The Chosen One" (aka Dragonborn) and train you so you can avenge your parents by slaying the dragon.

I really do hope that doesn't happen.

Being a raider would have been cool. Its far enough into the series that you shouldn't need to be a vault dweller (or even descended from one); but it could be a "law" of the series (just like Prison for TES).

I have a different view of 'role playing possibilities'. I would see the role of the vault dweller as 'alien' and 'unusual' to me and so would have greater role playing possibilities for playing "out of character" for me, and 'in character' for the PC.

To be honest (having played all fallout games aside from FOBOS); Fallout never presented a world that any would want to live in... the game was about role playing someone who had to live in it.

@Esbern: Nice Avatar :tops:

Page 46 of GI says (in big letters): "BUT THERE IS ONE - A LOWLY PRISONER UNAWARE OF HIS DESTINY."

I wanted to say exactly this.

Fallout 3 did it because the character's father was deeply rooted in the story of the game. It would make sense in Skyrim if, for whatever reason, they decided to make a parent a major character. But I just can't see this ever happening. For a start, there are 10 races, which would make it logistically difficult and also lessen the impact such a character might have on the story. Secondly, it's a series tradition that the player character's backstory is never elaborated upon simply because the series relies on the player character to initially be a stanger and a nobody.

I personally wouldn't like to see it anyway. I liked it in Fallout 3. I thought it was a clever tutorial, but I was glad they just got straight to the point in New Vegas.