Assuming they kept the same level of role playing freedom for future Elder Scrolls you'd be slightly restricted what you could do. Prisons, shipwrecks etc are a good way for you to create your character because those scenarios don't neccesarily require a specific character type. For example I intially thought it might be fun if you started the game on a pirate ship heading for dock and then the game proper begins once you arrive on dry land, the tutorial could take place during the voyage as tutorial from another pirate. Problem with that though is that you're immediatley cast as a pirate which wouldn't be a problem for a lot of RPG's but wouldn't really fit with TES. Of course that's more of a variation of ship wreck I suppose. You could begin in a Monastary/priory ect and it could be upto you whether or not you're a monk or someone trying to escape their past life or a traveller stopping for a rest etc.
Or you could simply awake in a forest clearing with no memory and you could then have to track down who you are (though that's a bit of a cliche) though it does give you freedom on what sort of character you are.

Honestly, I think they should put Fallout's start of birth into Elder Scrolls, but allow more influence over childhood life, and age older than 18 (Please!), at least mid 20s.

Only 2 [censored] games had you explicitly in prison, Oblivion and Arena. Oblivion had the problem of having to force the person to think of silly ways how the got in prison. The matter of the fact is, you are some felon from the get-go, and a lot of us do not want to somehow be a felon from the get-go, even if we were innocent or guilty. Arena skirted that, sorta, in that you were one of the few who knew Jagar Tharn wasn't the emperor, and had you imprisoned for that very reason. Both were epics, in that the game was supposed to be epics, but Oblivion has numbed people into blindly believing a prison intro is the ONLY way to start a game, which is complete and utter bull.

Daggerfall, the second game, started with you in a cave before your ship got wrecked and you swam to the nearest piece of land to save yourself from drowning. From there you got out, after testing how viable your character is in Tutorial Cave, was eventually given a letter to start the Main Quest, and from there you did what you wanted. The only thing a player had to do was make up a backstory of how they got on the ship.

Morrowind just had you on a prison ship, that I personally found to be lacking in the whole "this is a prison ship" feel, which was very acceptable. You got off the boat, got put down on the census, and was told to meet some guy, and the game kicked your butt out of the door, saying "okay, have fun. Oh, and good luck not dying." It was quick, short, and much much much easier to create a background of how you got there, instead of the infamous "I WAS FRAMED!!!!"

What people need to realize is that TES is a very big roleplaying game, and probably the most opened game out on the mainstream market. To keep this openness, the intro also needs to be open ended. As I look through a bunch of the posts, people just want an epic intro, which causes the biggest problem of creating too much backstory for the character, that people end up having to either say "I was caught doing a crime" or "I was wrongly imprisoned." As I mentioned before as an example, a shipwreck intro accomplishes the following things:

• It leaves the character's backstory more open for what the player wants it to be. The only thing the player needs to do is say why they're going to Country X
  
• It has justification on why you don't have more stuff with you (your stuff was on that ship, and now it's lost)
  
• A player can be thrown into Tutorial Cave (or Tutorial Dream as some suggested) or skip the tutorial if they wish

With prison intros, the player runs into the issue of:

• You are immediately a felon, given only the options of "I was caught committing a crime" or "I was wrongly imprisoned." Either way, it doesn't matter, because you are still a felon from the get-go.
  
• You have to make up excuses why the guards don't haul your ass back to jail once you do escape, or why the general population still treats you like any other citizen and not some felon.
  
• The chance of the intro being too linear and epic, again causes very little wiggle room with backstory.

"Perhaps the gods have placed you here so that we may meet."

That would be kind of interesting.

Dad Khajiit: Look, it is a boy!

PC: Meow! Meow!

Dad Khajiit: You shall grow up to be a great Alfaq!

Me: Awesome... Wait, Alfaq? Oh, [censored]....

Seriously, though, I think that start would be pretty cool.

Cop [censored] out. May as well say "http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AWizardDidIt" or just Beth's way of http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HandWave as Oblivion was less about you.

Just one of the excuses to start the Main quest right away, start in a prison cell, and to hear Picard's voice actoring before he dies in one whole worthless sentence. What if I don't believe in the Nine or I wanted to kill Picrad then and there or take in the Main Quest right away? Oblivion is the worse offender of these kind of intros.

So? A wizard may have done it. It's TES. The player character was in a cell where nobody should be, Valen Dreth reacted to him/her as if they had never met before, nobody recognized the player character as a criminal once he/she was out, and the CoC was meant, from the very beginning, to save Tamriel from the Oblivion crisis. A god may have done it. If the body-less spirit of Ria Silmane can place a key where she wants, I'm sure a god could place their hero in a place where he/she would meet the emperor.


Right, and in Morrowind, the player character is always an outlander being protected by Azura to be her pawn, in Daggerfall, the player character was sent on an errand as a friend of the emperor with a pre-written backstory, and in Arena, the player character was a member of the Imperial court who must save the emperor.

Char-gen should go by it's name sake, character generation. None of that three hour long dungeon (Daggerfall), forced upon prison (Morrowind and Oblivion), and especially keep the tutorial portion away (Oblivion). The hand holding gets so damn old. Dump the player into the world ala Morrowind, with the couple explaning text blocks, but don't force a role upon a character so soon.

We agree on something!

Just make the Tutorial optional. New players to TES need the Tutorial. Even TES veterans would need a bit of a Tutorial to see whats new TES 5.

In all cases, that just one point of view, but holds many without the need to go further into the Main quest and open up to the PC's background without creating a bunch of loopholes.

Arena-wise, Imposter Picard put ya in a cell of a dungeon for giggles and some hallucination told ya to get out of there. Who say anything ya have to find the staff right away?

Daggerfall-wise, base on many written background already made, the PC did some deeds that already got the King's audience. Ya can do his favor for giggles, as a friend, or ya think he nuts but went to Daggerfall for adventure anyways, but in all cases it is still very open to the PC's background.

Morrowind-wise, who say anything that this was all Azura doing? If she really cares for ya, she give ya an artifact right away. In all cases, one can say it might be divine intervention, but its not the only way to stay the idea of an intro in Morrowind.

Oblivion suffer because ya already made a convict, met with a Key NPC, and force into the Main quest right away, with all the "by the Nine, ya have to do it!"

I like the boat ideas, but the prison beginning doesn't really bother me.

Imagine this though:

You are suddenly bumped awake to find that you are in a wagon and your wrists and ankles are shackled. You look around to find that there are others like you, and by the sound of it, you can tell that you are apart of a large convoy. You deduce by the mutterings and small conversation that you are a prisoner of war, and that you are getting closer to your destination. Then out of nowhere there's a big BOOM and your wagon flips and you blackout. You awake moments later in a haze to find that your shackles broke and you topple out of the destroyed wagon to find utter chaos going as apparently your convoy was ambushed. Amidst the fray you stumble/fight your way out, and once far enough away you begin to run. A short while away you come upon a very small village to see a man tending his small farm. He sees you and rushes to you and, very startled, asks you what happened. You mutter something about convoy and ambush and then you finally pass out. You awaken in a very small cottage to see the farmer eagerly waiting and he asks you your name and thus begins the game.

:laugh:


That is a very true, a lot of games have this these days, TESV should be the same way.

I wouldn't mind a return of daggerfalls background system, but I'm not too displeased with the prison introduction.

Even Daggerfall had a tutorial, but it was toggleable. I don't understand why every tutorial isn't toggleable.

I wouldn't mind the PC being a prisoner in a bandit camp (not a prisoner of war. Already, it gives the PC a reason to hate faction X or a political enemy), but in order to get passed it, there needs to be multiple ways to beat it, like talking your way out, bashing a bunch of skulls, assassination, and sneaking out. And the idea of a chaotic BOOM! You're free! entrance isn't very palatable to me.

That would be cool, as long as the game doesn't guide you through each option with an unnecessary tutorial.

Exactly. Maybe some "here are some game mechanics" but only that. No "Hmm maybe I should talk my way out of this," "Hmm, time to smash some skulls," or the like.

I want to replace the prison theme but I don't know what to replace it with.

i role-play an imperial quadriplegic that cannot swim... by your start im doomed to die... not cool man not cool. I am in favor of the prison it lets you choose a background if you want to role play it or if you don't it provides a reason why you don't know anyone or know how to do much it just works plus its a tradition all games have them they are as important as a theme song

My idea is best. It's on page two or three.

Better than the woman character I suggested, some princess-headhunter anologous to Mia, from Pulp Fiction.

You couldn't escape from a prison anyway so...yeah. Also, it was an example.


Why do you want the game to play you? Play the game! Plus, if you're in prison, you are still just a felon. Again, the only way someone is in prison is if it's "I was caught committing a crime" or "I was wrongly imprisoned." The choice is so small and bad, it's almost as if you were given the "choice" to drink either Keystone Light or Busch Light. Either way, both are very cheap and bland. That is a prisoner intro right there. You need to broaden your horizon! Being stuck in some smelly prison isn't going to accomplish that.


IT IS NOT A TRADITION! Will you people stop perpetuating that fallacy?

I'd like the ability to actually join th ebandits, myself. I mean, if you're the kind of person who wouldn't join the people who done such horrible things to you, you can just escape. It would be nie to actually be a bandit...

That too, as long as they leave the intro open ended.