I like a lot of your ideas SkyStorm77, I see that you are very detailed in your character's history and life "before" the game. I think that's really cool, and just about every one of those ideas sound really interesting. I might use that if it were an optional feature, but that's a lot of details that would be a strain to come up with each time I played through the game. I'd feel like I'd be setting up the game, and not really experience Skyrim as it's own world; Me just being a part of it, not Skyrim revolving around my character's background, or the world of Skyrim changing each time before I enter the game.

It seems overbearing to me. :shrug: haha, perhaps I'm just lazy? I generally write up (or think up) a decent background for my characters, but very rarely do I come up with 100% of the details of my character's past; rather, just a guideline of who they are at their core, where they're from / socioeconomic status, significant or traumatic events that have taken place, significant others/relationships of more than ordinary value, and what happened immediately before the events that have placed my character in prison.

I definitely like the idea of having flaws and things like that, for more of a balancing between traits/talents and the consequent flaws. I'm also in favor of a "hardcoe" setting, or what have you.


But I like where BGS going with Skyrim (from what I've heard).
Nice thread btw, thanks for sharing your ideas, SkyStorm77! :goodjob:

I want an option to skip past the tutorial. It svcks that I need a mod to always get me to a point where I can start playing the game.

:flamethrower:
all RPG games including TES-Skyrim, its about game that you! and only you! choose your path, from how ur charcter look like it the start of the game and how he looks like when its ends.

you choose what to do!
you choose where to go first!
you choose who you like more from the "quest givers"!
you choose how to fight!
you choose how to react!
you choose what to wear!
you choose which weapon u will equip.

its not like=BOOM u are price that have two swords in a boat and ur only enemies is dwarfs...xD this kinds of ideas remind me other games, not TES-Series...

I actually wish they'd let us flesh out characters from the beginning. I mean, it's fun to feel progression but what's nice about Morrowind and even Oblivion is that if you choose a Nord with Blade as a major skill, you start out as a pretty decent combat character. Now what if you could crank that up manually, like, set your Blade skill to 70 at the expense of everything else? Or maybe Blade skill at 50, Block at 50?

Daggerfall seemed to have a good system of Strengths/Weaknesses.

this really isn't the whole "CGI CUTSCENE" type of game series. So no to #1.

Well, Skystorm77, you certainly came up with some food for thought. Good character creation is one of the items I look for in most games. Also, for TES games, I find it entertaining to evolve a reasonably detailed background history for my characters.

On youir concept of bringing certain traits into the game, I believe some of the earlier TES games, Daggerfall, in particular, had http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Background set of questions. Providing certain answers to those questions allowed one to bring certain characterisics with their new character, into that Elder Scrolls game.

However, some players have only experienced Oblivion, or FO3, or, for reason of their own, want to start with a completely clean slate.

Unlike some, I enjoyed the starter dungeon in Oblivion, and went through it several times. It should be said, that I was thankful for the opportunity to save and modify my character(s) at the sewer exit.. The same applies to FO3.

I think some of your ideas, for me at least, would be interesting on a first time through basis. I am certain, however, that some others would not opt for all of these.

You dont need a MOD to do this, just save the game towards the end of the Creation/Tutorial. Both morrowind and obivion gave you chances to change your character just before being let out onto the world (although with Morrowind I think you could just change skills not faces etc, but with Oblivion it gave you a choice to change everything just before leaveing the sewer.) Just load from here when you want a new character and the tutorial dungeon is already done.

I would also vote no for the cutscene. I'm sorry but I'd rather have a character creation screen and detailed input into my character than have my character be voiced... and cutscened. Its MY character, and no matter how hard they try (BioWare) they will never get what he says right for my character or your character.... there is a place for both games, but Bethesda is king of open sandbox rpg for a reason, and I would like them to only get better and stay that way.

Try Dragon Age 2 if you want a cutscene.

Better alternative: Give players an option to "jump in" with a preset character, or take their sweet time.

I actually think that TES is very user-friendly in terms of character creation. You can just pick a premade class, and go. You play with the skills you want and your character develops along those lines. Remove the premade class and start everyone with the same basic character can work, too, but sometimes I like to modify all the little intricacies of my character, and nothing did that better than Daggerfall. You can take all these immunities, but them your difficulty dagger would shoot up (or was it down, I forget), and you'd have a hell of a time trying to level up.

1. No thank you.
2.A and B: Yes
2.C: Only as an appearance thing which has already been confirmed.
2.D-G (Forgot F here btw): No thanks. I hate the concept of HAVING to have a rival of some sort. In most games it is an unneeded annoyance more than anything. I also dislike the idea of writing down all the little things about my character. He/she doesn't need an introductory nametag that has their whole family tree and what they liked to do on the weekends as a kid. This isn't eHarmony this is Skyrim, let me make my person and point me in the direction of Alduin damn it.

^I agree, the Character creation process in OB was fine. Also, Character creation is a way to see what all the NPC's will look somewhat like, and how the races have changed.
I'll cherish the moment I get it, slowly playing it through, checking every nook and cranny... Which means LESS FAST TRAVELING!

Thanks for this link to Daggerfall's List of Questions. If any of you never read those, go now and check it out! This is EXACTLY what I was talking about, and I never played Daggerfall, so I had no idea they thought like this. Bethesda once thought in these very same terms! They created a long list of questions that helped you create a backstory for your character. This is just amazing. I wonder why they abandoned this!? They were already thinking like I am now! This is what made RPG's so fun to start before. Then, after creating your character, the time would come with the wondering about how they were going to use that history against you throughout your game ....

I was a Gamemaster and Dungeon Master for 6 long years of hard work crafting game after game. And the reason my players always told me how good my games were was for a couple of reasons: 1) solid roleplaying and story elements .... that were ... 2) based on extensive character histories my players were required to write detailing their enemies and family members (dead or alive).

I would often use the character's history to create scenes in the game that would draw in the player whose history it was into being the center of attention for a short time. While there are always 5-8 players sitting around your table every week, sometimes it's nice to be the one who the story is about and either get the hatemail from the players who are angry that your sordid backstory got them involved in some illicit adventure that tests their morals, or the players love you for having some backstory where some person comes to save your ass because you all got yourselves into trouble.

From my own personal experience as a DM/GM for various games, whenever the player's enemy (from their character history) arrived to threaten, intimidate, cajole, or taunt them, the players all become instantly more personally involved, damn-near salivating over their character sheets as they began to plan out their revenge. And if you let their enemy escape, and live to bother the group another day, then everyone started to also get involved in hating that guy.... together. Then your team actually began to cohese together into a more solid gaming group, becoming bonded through their shared tribulations.

Whenever I used some random new guy, it was never as exciting for them as those enemies that they created that would then return time and time again to taunt them and then escape just before the kill, to live to taunt again.

That aside, you are not all in my game, you are all individuals with your own ideas about RPG's.... and many of you don't want backstory elements. So like many others suggested on here already, just have them make it conditional upon Startup... you choose your graphic settings and options, and then in the same window you select if you want to play immediately, go to a long and interesting starter dungeon (the first time), or just load a character creation window and choose all of your options (like Oblivion at the Sewer Gates). That way, just about everybody is covered.

Many of you defended me by saying I merely wanted more options at startup and not to replace development throughout the game, which was true, so I thank you for that. Take care, friends.

I just hope they add in the Daggerfall "Advantages and Disadvantages," that was a really neato system. Needs to be reputation options like Daggerfall, too.. really helps you to develop a background story for your character and have it affect gameplay.

There was some cool stuff in the advantages and disadvantages, you can give your character extra magicka, you can make them heal slowly or quickly in sunlight or darkness, you can make certain types of armor and weapons be unwearable, you can give phobias of certain types of creatures, and you can give yourself bonuses in certain weapon types.

The reason background questions were removed is because it didn't added anything other than just a few extra points in some skills, none of these things will ever haunt you during gameplay.

Decidable background stories can be found in other RPGs like in Mass Effect and Dragon Age, where your past actions will be mentioned and there are some quests just for that background.

The reason these can't be found in TES games is because some people like to have their own written background, and pre-written ones limit them. Creating a background generator that everybody would like, and capable of creating interesting backstories, would be next to impossible.

The reason it didn't add anything then was that the technology didn't exist to do anything with those ideas. But now, over 20 years later, it does. They also removed randomly generated things like terrain and quests when making MW because the technology was not good enough, and pretty much still isn't, but that didn't stop them from revisiting random terrain with Oblivion. They did it pretty well, only it sort of backfired in that it removed the feeling of awe and discovery from the world, an unintentional side effect. So now they abandoned random terrain and re-placed every item by hand again. But now they're trying random Quests with Radiant Story. I predict it will be a hit. Radiant Story is the reason I think a CBG "Character Background Generator" (as you so aptly named it) would suit the future so well.



10 years ago, I'm sure you would have been the one saying the idea of (and the implementation of) Radiant Story would be impossible. But now, in 2011, they are doing it. Whether it's a huge plus, or a mistake, whose to say at this point? But they are trying it, so I am giving them props for that. But I also think a CBG would not be impossible. It's just a long questionaire that helps you place names, stats, interesting items, and backstory elements into a list of NPC's reserved for playing the role of your family, old friends, enemies, and schoolmates, or any combination thereof.

And what is limiting is less choice. Not more choice. If you don't want a pre-written backstory, check the box that says "Skip CBG" and you won't see it at load time. Again, it's a choice. For those of us who want to immerse our Mods (and not Skyrim's default game) with other ways of playing, this would be fun and ideal. Maybe it would break Skyrim's main plot to have backstory elements running in it, but why not a downloadable Total Conversion Mod like Nehrim? Why not there? If they don't add it now, we wouldn't be able to even dream about it. That's all.

I just added a new word to my vocabulary. :S

I don't think there's a need for the game to force our hand at creating a backstory for the very good reason that, this backstory shouldn't interact in the game. TES games aren't about the past of the player, they are about what YOU do now, about the present and only the present. It's not like some very heavily scripted RPG where the hero is some limited amount of chosen ones but it still doesn't prevent replayability because you can always decide to start the game with a completely different playstyle for funs.


I like my TES heros to be some kind of http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AFGNCAAP like the Avatar in good old Ultima series and not Shepherd from Mass Effect or Hawke from that mess that is Dragon Age 2. We don't need ALL RPG to use the same formula.