In Morrowind you started out as a prisoner who got released in order to help the blades. In Oblivion you started as a prisoner locked in a prison cell with no explanation what so ever. And now in Skyrim you start out on your way to your execution. Is there a reason why Bethesda keeps having are charcters start out as being convicted of something really bad?

It's a theme in TES like the first fighters guild quests having rats and argonians having funny names!

Well, its mostly so that you, the player, can come up for a reason as to why your character was arrested.

Why? Is it a problem to give the player character a possibly interesting backstory?

Arena started the same way. Daggerfall was sort of an odd one out.

It's sort of an Elder Scrolls tradition, and allows for a solid base to roleplay on with plenty of possibilities.

Yes,to give a starting point and where you can guess/imagine/make up why you're there....

It's a good way to handwave the sudden appearance of your character in the gameworld.

Generic enough to apply to anyone.

It's just a tradition. Also it helps to establish a basic backstory for your individual character. You're in prison, but they let you decide why. Maybe you're a homicidal racist who stalks and murders Argonians. Maybe you got caught stealing a loaf of bread from a well-connected merchant. Maybe you were wrongfully imprisoned -- either through a misunderstanding, or a political coup or something. It's better than being fed an origin story, or choosing from a template.

Couldn't they come up with something new. Like being a solider on patrol or sitting in some barrack.

It's a rather simplistic story device to introduce the concept of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_rasa for an rpg. And as mentioned, also threaded tradition with TES.

Because it takes a real badass who's too sixy for the law to save the world.

That would contradict the backstories I come up with. Why would my ancient force of nature Breton be a soldier on patrol? Laaaaaame.
On the other hand, he could be imprisoned for Witchcraft. Or be LETTING himself be imprisoned for Witchcraft...

I swear I didn't know how old the argonian was they all look the same to me :sweat:

Because that forces your character to have a military background. Not everyone wants that.

It's a silly little tradition.

Like sweet rolls. This one time, when I got cornered by a bunch of thugs, I just had this sweet roll on me...

Have you start out as a clone made by aliens of the last Dragonborn but then you're all like HEY MANG NO IM HUMAN so you kill the aliens and crash land into the land of Skyrim and stuff happens.


Wait... Scratch that. >:l

You can start as someone who simply was wrongly accused?

I'm not talking about whether your guilty or not. I'm talking about why are all are characters being thrown in jail.

Like whats been said, its tradition. Honestly, I hope this never gets changed because I can come up with a backstory pretty well.

lol a merchant is well connected enough to have you excuted for stealing bread.

Asked and answered.

This is Skyrim. The Nords will make any excuse to roll some heads.

You can be anything you want with that start - wrongly accused, petty thief, mass murderer - I tend to swing towards wrongly accused for most of my characters. As for the suggestion of being a soldier, I would hate that, because although it might fit some of my characters, others would never be a soldier. My alchemist wouldn't be found dead in a guard uniform, but he was wrongly accused of poisoning someone who held a grudge against him. My thief character wouldn't be a soldier, but she was caught trying to steal back a peasant's wedding ring that was his only token from his dead wife and was taken by the guard by extortion. My morally upright warrior was arrested defending an unarmed and harmless beggar from a drunken/skooma-addled assailant who turned out to be the son of the local Count. My not very intelligent tavern-crawling character was locked up after a drunken brawl in which someone died, he's guilty as charged, case closed. You can work it any way you want really, it's a very flexible start, more flexible than most alternatives.

Heh, and then denying the player any ability to translate that solid base onto their character. Our characters are the same no matter what kind of interesting back story they have! Yay!

I've all ready made my own thread on this, but I hate the "tradition" excuse. It's lazy writing, plain and simple. I would even be fine with some sort of divine intervention to start the game, but the prison is just getting tiresome and uninvented.

If you want a back story that doesn't involve being a criminal, yeah I would say so.