I am curious, when you are playing an Elder Scrolls game, do you allow for mistakes or do you use the quick save, quick load when something goes wrong?

For example it is very easy just quick save before trying to steal something from an important character, and then just reload if it goes wrong. But maybe it is more fun to just let the game flow and accept that you got yourself in a bad spot. The main reason I often reload is that I don't want to miss out on a quest for example if I accidently piss off or kill an npc that could give a quest. This has often been something I have been thinking about on how to play.

On one hand I am the kind of person that really wants to complete everything and "tick all the boxes", to "experience everything", whatever that means... I don't want to miss a big quest because I killed off the wrong npc. But on the other hand when I think of it some more the most interesting situation are often the ones that end up naturaly and dynamically, like for example you steal something and end up getting chased through town by the guards, escaping into the forest. There is really nothing "new" that happens just because you get a quest notice to complete really.. still it is hard to shake off that feeling on not wanting to "miss out" on something..

Do anyone know what I am talking about or can relate?

Great question.

It really depends on the severity of the mistake.

ie. Stealing something worth 10 gold and getting caught, braking my last lockpick vs failing to protect an NPC.

I used to try very hard to control everything that happened in my games. If something happened that I hadn't planned on, something that felt like a mistake or just slightly "wrong," I would reload and attempt to "do it right."

But I have been moving away from that practice during the past two years. I am gradually becoming more open to the idea of accepting accidents and "imperfections." Nowadays I try my best to incorporate these things into my roleplaying. Once I managed to overcome my nerd anxiety about not having everything go exactly the way I planned I found it was liberating.

It's breathed new life into my roleplaying. My characters and their stories are likely to drift into areas I never would have explored if I had maintained strict control over every aspect of the games. Playing a game is much more of an adventure for me now.

lol, i used to be just like how pseron used to be and, i literally liked the challenge of getting it perfect: perfect sneak hit, oops i missed, reload. ah, man, i got caught, reload. what about that choice? decide between the 2 after a reload.

now, i play as organically as possible within reason, meaning, if i just plain screw something up that just doesn't make sense i reload. it's like how i play my DiD games: controller error, family interrupts, tv blocked by family, game glitch, etc.

but, i do not reload decisions i purposefully make in the game that don't turn out how i'd like. not knowing the consequences is no excuse to reload. wanting to know the other choice is no reason to reload. save that for another playthrough.

no exploitation. no power-gaming. no online help. truly experience the game.

DiD runs a long while back really taught me how to roleplay and play in a way that made the games so much more fun that i'll never go back to my perfection ways. these types of video games are about making decisions and living with the consequences. maybe, i should've thought about it a bit more or been a bit more careful before continuing on.

pseron used a great phrase: "breathed new life." that really is what it was like for me, as well.