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The Roleplaying Help Thread

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  • November 27, 2019

    Okay fascinating stuff Toad (and welcome to the site by the way, awesome to see someone jumping in with something this in-depth already) here, it's taken me a bit of time to collect all my thoughts and make sure that I'm wording them correctly...even that seems wrong, bah anyway. So to answer the question first because I'm strange like that, yeah I think this works, I think it really, really works. The concept of a Tinkerer or Scientist studying Dwemer tech and turning to Bounty Hunting in order to fund his exploration is a pretty logical and downright interesting combination of the two concepts that works to create a consistant enough character for my tastes. More then that, I think the concept of the character justifying it all behind a desire to understand Brass-God is rather fascinating for an Altmer, actually it's really interesting. 

    Now I just need to figure out if I have any recommendations regarding this... So, I guess really it boils down to me being absolutely down for everything you've mentioned but I would ask a question that may help develop a build further. What you have here is essentially the backstory right? It more or less ends shortly after you've started playing, so I'd wonder where he goes from here? What's the roleplaying progression from (just spitballing a level) Level 5 to 50? How does he change during that time? Just something to think about I suppose, personally I think the character has a lot of potential to end up going down multiple different paths that could make for an incredibly cool build. 

  • November 28, 2019

    Thanks alot Dragonborn, it's nice to be here and looking forward to taking this build from WIP to finished! I had initially based this build off an ESO character I made who was an Argonian, but trying to combine scientist/engineer/tinkerer with an almost Mandalorian style bounty hunter meant some justification - Altmer seemed like the most logical choice. But I'm really glad you feel that it's not only justified, but WORKS.

    Yeah this is the basic backstory I've created, although I will be fleshing it out down the line. Although the last paragraph probably ends with him being about level 10 or so, as he's acquired enough skill to fund his first exhibition into a dwemer ruin. There is also a little story I'll share with you on how he acquires bounties, and how that'll function in a roleplay sense as it really describes how he fights and functions, which is key to this build. I've been having some slight issues working out his skill progression, so that he feels viable by lvl 50 or so, as he is split between alot of different disciplines - but I'm confident with more playtesting I'll get there.

    It's a good question though - I haven't really thought about it but, will give it some thought. What I can imagine is that he becomes more ruthless, going from say lawful neutral to lawful evil. He still functions very much within the Law, but when he lived in Alinor you could say that he was a normal citizen but outcasted. However his strangely detached mind had little negative effect on that world, and he was not put in situations where he would explore it, largely staying within his house, reading books and tinkering with machinary. Within the world of Skyrim, I imagine him to become more 'unleashed'; where he values lives as little more than progression for his ultimate goal. He respects the proper order of the world (he's not going to start taking assassin hits or murdering violently in the street), but he would quite happily capture a condemed-to-death bandit and experiment on him if he thought it was useful to his work. I think the turning point for him will be once he has conquered his second Dwemer ruin - he will realise that everything he has sought out is possible, and within his grasp as long as he is strong enough and determined enough to take it, to restore the honor of his people. He will look at the path he has taken and feel no remorse - if anything become more resolute. He starts the game in despair, his exhibition in ruins, and his hopes dashed. Over the course of the game he will change into a machine of war. I almost see his as a cyborg - mostly devoid of emotion, and upgrading himself everytime he dungeon dives. 

    I'll post the story below as a seperate comment as TL;DR.

  • November 28, 2019
    The Scientist is never in one place for too long. He moves where the jobs are, going from city to city looking for the most lucrative paychecks but cares little who hires him or for the morality of the situation. After all, existence is harsh and if he can benefit from the death of another, why shouldn't he? He is only concerned with funding his next exhibition into the great ruins of the Dwemer, whose secrets will help him unlock true potential. 
     
    When he arrives in a new city, like any unknown environment he will spend some time familiarizing himself with the area. Perhaps the political system in this area is corrupt, thieves run rampant through the streets, a religious sect is particularly popular or a group is being discriminated. By spending sometime in the area, speaking with the locals and beginning to blend in, he will arose no suspicions while discerning who the key contacts in the city are. Frequenting the local watering holes, having bar fights, charming the traders and picking up gossip for but a few spare coins from the local beggars are a few of the ways the Scientist will establish not only local trust but connections.
     
    After a few days have passed he will have gained enough information to start pursuing the contract of his choice. Bounty contracts can range from all manner of things, oftentimes it is simple clearing small encampments of bandits that have been causing the local traders and workmen continuous trouble yet occasionally the threat is more serious - such as a lumbering giant causing trade routes to close. And if the weight of gold outweighs the risk, the Scientist will take more unusual, no - more specific jobs.
     
    Once on the road, he will make camp near his destination and scout out the area to determine the best equipment to bring. And by the Nine, does not the wise man bring an arsenal when an army is not available? A great contraption of Dwemer technology, a crossbow is the most remarkable weapon of choice for the hunter of men. However, sometimes the power and brutality of a crossbow is not as effective as the touch of stealth. For these occasions, a great bow fitted with a clever glass device that can magnify and help isolate targets is necessary. Not only are they equipped with regular ammunition to take down men & mer, but a selection of specialist bolts and arrows are selected for the task at hand.
     
    Swords, both long and short. An untrained eye would view them as the work of a poor craftsman for they seem too simple and plainly adorned. But a warrior would realise that they are efficient tools that have been crafted with results not aesthetics in mind - efficiently elegant. Contraptions have been attached with button releases on the sword grip, which when pressed release great sprouts of fire, or with another button pressed, the blade hums with electrical energy. Several throwing daggers, perfectly balanced and designed for opportunistic moments where stealth is necessary but the target is out of range. Another dagger is strapped to his boot; you never know when you might need one. Beyond all these weaponry, stranger things have crept into the arsenal. Pots of oil that explode on impact, great poisons that quickly bring death to even the hardiest of orcs, potions that with but a drop will turn one invisible. Even a couple of scroll cases can be seen, in those emergency situations where all else has failed. 
     
    Once the situation has been apprised, the Scientist will choose the weapons most suited for the job at hand. And so begins his hunt.
  • December 5, 2019

    Hey Toad, really sorry for the delay on getting back to you, just been a bit busy lately and haven't been around as much. 

    I will quickly say that I really enjoyed the opening story you posted, you've written it well and it does a really good job telling us the basics of the character. 

    Yeah this is the basic backstory I've created, although I will be fleshing it out down the line. Although the last paragraph probably ends with him being about level 10 or so, as he's acquired enough skill to fund his first exhibition into a dwemer ruin. There is also a little story I'll share with you on how he acquires bounties, and how that'll function in a roleplay sense as it really describes how he fights and functions, which is key to this build. I've been having some slight issues working out his skill progression, so that he feels viable by lvl 50 or so, as he is split between alot of different disciplines - but I'm confident with more playtesting I'll get there.

    It's a good question though - I haven't really thought about it but, will give it some thought. What I can imagine is that he becomes more ruthless, going from say lawful neutral to lawful evil. He still functions very much within the Law, but when he lived in Alinor you could say that he was a normal citizen but outcasted. However his strangely detached mind had little negative effect on that world, and he was not put in situations where he would explore it, largely staying within his house, reading books and tinkering with machinary. Within the world of Skyrim, I imagine him to become more 'unleashed'; where he values lives as little more than progression for his ultimate goal. He respects the proper order of the world (he's not going to start taking assassin hits or murdering violently in the street), but he would quite happily capture a condemed-to-death bandit and experiment on him if he thought it was useful to his work. I think the turning point for him will be once he has conquered his second Dwemer ruin - he will realise that everything he has sought out is possible, and within his grasp as long as he is strong enough and determined enough to take it, to restore the honor of his people. He will look at the path he has taken and feel no remorse - if anything become more resolute. He starts the game in despair, his exhibition in ruins, and his hopes dashed. Over the course of the game he will change into a machine of war. I almost see his as a cyborg - mostly devoid of emotion, and upgrading himself everytime he dungeon dives. 

    That's actually kind of similar to what I was going to recommend to some degree. Basically I was thinking that he seems like the sort of character who you could easily create a branched build around, the core starting point and then a period where a choice sends him off into a few distinct directions that change the skills/equipment/concept of the character. 

    For example, you could use a few guilds as a branching point at a theoretical point where money becomes an issue for him and Bounty Hunting alone isn't enough to satisfy what he needs. That leads to the largest source of income in Skyrim which really seems to be the Companions, Thieves Guilld (eventually) or Companions where you've got a sort of...scaled morality or a point where killing anyone is fine as long as it helps

    My thoughts were more along the lines of creating a few branching paths to have him end up with a different guild as a source of money outside of Bounty Hunting (basically the amount he gains from bounty slowly becomes trivial compared to what he needs) so you could easily justify him joining the Dark Brotherhood, Companions or Thieves Guild for a bit of a varying morality to him. Companions is basically just 'more legal bounty hunting' and is very much the 'good' side to things (I think there's a nice mod for the Companions which alters the rate in which the questline progresses but I don't remember if it's available on console or SE...or the name right now). The Thieves Guild is a bit more neutral and easily the most profitable but at that point might not be his strongest skill. The Dark Brotherhood is a much darker route where he no longer cares who he kills as long as he gets money and you certainly get money for completing that questline. 

    Just some thoughts but I definitely like your path more really.

    I'll post the story below as a seperate comment as TL;DR.

    No such thing as TL;DR in my world :P Or I'm very long-winded personalyl so there's just about nobody who can ever write something long and I decide not to read it.

  • December 24, 2019
    Thanks again Dragonborn for a wonderfully fleshed out reply which certainly gives me lots to consider. Also apologies for late reply has been a rather hectic Christmas period for me! Sure its been similar for you. So I had been interested in branching paths but not so much from the different guilds. I actually have a fairly concrete idea of which guilds you will be joining, why and to what level. Because my guide will be fairly mod heavy, a couple of mods (specifically Economy Overhaul) will fix the bounty rate as the game progresses so I won't be as reliant on guilds for money. There are different difficulty mods I will be running that will also ensure that bounty hunting stays as a challenge throughout. Like others, I'll post essential and recommended mods and possible a hyperlink to my full mod list. What I had thought for my idea of branching paths was to have my level 50 build, which is the bare bones of the build but add 'specialisations' by acquiring 20% more perks and skyshards. This means that you can follow my guide route to what I consider is the most well rounded base bounty hunter, but then specialise into a playstyle the user prefers. I'll add a few suggested specialist build options that I feel are appropriate, but by giving some freedom to the player I think the overall role-playing experience will be enhanced. I actually need to reinstall Skyrim and remod it to fit this build so I can do a proper play through. I'm really looking forward to begin posting this build on Tamriel Vault, as I plan to do alot of work to it. I've got a multi part story and artwork to go with it that I've begun, and I may even have a go at creating my own armor mod but we will see! May be too ambitious haha. Thanks again Dragonborn, you've been really helpful and have made me feel welcome to this forum. I'm excited to see more comments from you as I start to post the WIP build and story. I might be creeping around looking for more Lore and RP advise again as I continue to play test and write the narrative, not sure yet!
  • March 29, 2020
    How to roleplay a truly evil character? Hello! I don’t think there’s anyone still using this forum, but from what I’ve seen people in Quora or other forums aren’t as knowledgable about Skyrim as those in the Tamriel Vault, so I will try to get an answer from you guys anyway! I’m roleplaying as a chaotic evil Orc, whose goal is to be able to kill people without even touching them (ebony mail + cloak spell + poison rune, then just sheath your weapons and watch the life leave the body of your helpless victims). In the early game he was a Namira worshipper and practiced horrible (but quite insignificant in the grand scheme of things) acts of evil, like slaying the innocent and the righteous and consuming their flesh. He wanted people to feel disgusted when he was around. Therefore, he would wear the ugliest armor and wield weak weapons, to contrast with knights in shining armor with bright swords (his damage come from his powerful poisons). He would also always chose the rudest line of dialogue available and refuse most radiant quests, since even the promise of rewards usually wasn’t enough to convince him to help someone, except when the person was asking him to do an evil deed, in which case he would see the quest giver as a temporary ally and team up with them to make the lives of the people of Skyrim even more miserable. But now his power is growing and he wishes to become a higher threat to Tamriel. He just betrayed the Lady of Decay, sacrificed Eola to Boethiah and reclaimed the Ebony Mail from the former champion, abandoning Namira’s ancient darkness to follow Boethiah’s teaching about deceit, conspiracy, plots, assassination and treason. With that in mind, my question is: what can I do in game to play as big bad guy and how to differentiate this from a smaller bad guy? His level of “evilness” won’t change, but I wanted to feel his progression from a weak evil-doer to an almost dark lord like figure, whose actions have an impact in the world similar to the Dragonborn’s, just on the opposite side of the spectrum. He recently became a member of the Dark Brotherhood and I plan to follow through that questline, because I think it fits perfectly with the champion of the Daedric Prince of secret plots of murder, assassination and unlawful overthrow of authority. What else could I do? Any suggestions of factions I should join, quests I should do, NPCs I should befriend/antagonize, activities I should practice, skills I should learn and any other way to interact with the world of Skyrim, that would make sense for my character? Thanks in advance!!! Some limitations: 1- He isn’t the Dragonborn; 2- He’s the champion of Boethiah, Molag Bal’s greatest rival, so no vampirism (at least he won’t actively go looking for it); 3- He isn’t a thief (not because of a personal code of honor or something like that, just because he lacks the skill. I literally never picked a lock with this caracter, since this isn’t something he learned to do growing up nor is it a skill he’s interest to develop now); 4- He isn’t a mad man (actually, by following Boethiah’s, tenets he’s learning to be more manipulative to make plots and deceive people rather than just be a repulsive and abhorrent monster. Therefore, going on a killing spree and slaying everyone in Skyrim wouldn’t make sense right now); 5- His main skills are: alchemy, sneak, heavy armor, restoration and destruction (in order of importance inside his head) and alchemy, restoration, destruction, heavy armor and sneak (in order of importance for gameplay).
  • Mr.
    Member
    March 29, 2020

    Hello Incanus Olorin, and welcome to the Vault. We're still active, though a few parts are more active than others (blogs and ESO are our main hubs of activity today). We are also very active on our Discord, feel free to join us: https://tamrielvault.com/forums/topic/8521/unveiling-the-tamriel-vault-discord

     

    As for your question, there's a few questlines that you can play that would fit in with your idea. Granted, Skyrim doesn't really allow you to be outright evil, but by complementing what the games gives you with your imagination you can go some places: you could join the Companions, become a werewolf and stop just short of fulfilling Kodlak's wish to be cured, killing all Glenmoril Witches and dropping their heads in the middle of the sea so the Companions could never be cured; becoming Thane of Falkreath to serve their corrupt Jarl; doing the Markarth questlines to free the Forsworn and unleash hell on the Reach; going on rampages as a werewolf; getting Erik the Slayer to follow you and kill him, fulfilling his father's fears...

    As you might have inferred, a strategy you can use is to only play a quest until a point where things aren't resolved. Another idea is that you can arrest the innocent court mage in Windhelm, and let the murders happening there continue indefinitely... It's been a long time since I played Skyrim (I'm building a new playthrough right now, though), but this is what I could come up with right now. Since you're an enemy of Molag Bal, you'll also want to join the Dawnguard, even if they are an order/good faction: maybe use the Dawnguard to kill the Volkihar and then turn into a werewolf and kill all non-essential Dawnguard members.

  • March 29, 2020
    Thank you very much Mr. Edd! “A strategy you can use is to only play a quest until a point where things aren't resolved” so simple... and yet so brilliant. This definitely allows me to play through many more quests than I anticipated and to feel like I am driving Skyrim into chaos, especially since many NPCs will be anxiously waiting for a solution for their problems that will never come. I guess I was already sort of doing this (I’ve been carrying Meridia’s beacon since level 15 to prevent anyone from returning it to her statue), but you definitely opened my eyes to the possibilities here. I also liked your more specific suggestions. The Companions and the Dawnguard aren’t the kind of factions Ugluk-gro-Sharku would be interested to join, but pretending to befriend powerful, noble, good and honorable people, just to backstab them in the end, is exactly the kind of thing he wants to do as a cultist of Boethiah. Imagine Isran’s shock as his trusted friend blot out the sun right after making him believe Skyrim was forever free of the Volkihar menace. Regarding the Discord and the more active Discussions of the Vault, I’m afraid I won’t be a good addition to the surely awesome team. I followed the link to the Discord and read the introduction, but I’m just a casual gamer and, just like you, haven’t played Skyrim in a long time, until this quarantine gave me an opportunity to come back. Thank you for the generous invitation tough! And once again THANKS FOR THE GREAT ANSWER!
  • March 29, 2020
    Ps to Mr. Edd: I would definitely be interested to read about this new playthrough of yours, if you’re planning to share it somewhere!
  • Mr.
    Member
    March 30, 2020

    You're welcome, Incanus. And don't worry, if you want to join the Discord, you don't have to be a mega-geek or anything like that. We talk about other games too, and some shows and movies. It's always good to see our community grow.

    If I share my playthrough anywhere (or at least the background for my "private Elder Scrolls world"), it will be here on the Vault. It's just that I'm excessively perfectionist when planning playthroughs and characters that I usually spend more time planning and thinking about it than actually playing, so it takes a while.