Game: Skyrim

[Buffalobiian]

I suck at close combat. I've been increasing my sneak as much as I can since it's no where near ghost-level yet, and have neglected pretty much everything else.

In my efforts to increase my sneak more I decided to stalk this group of bandits as they left their fort. I followed them, sneaky sneaky, but then my reticle said I was detected. Turned out there was one guy coming towards them from the opposite direction, but the two groups made no contact. Since I was detected, I decided to say hi to the guy, and then proceed to pick-pocket him once we pass each other's gaze.

He said hi, but then a second later decided to attack me. His name changed from Retired Bandit to Hired Bandit (or maybe I read it wrong in the first place). And so for some reason now, I have this guy - along with the other 4 who I was tailing.. all trying to get a piece of me.

I put up a bit of a fight, but then was certain I would get overwhelmed, so I ran towards Whiterun hoping to find some shelter. These guys were persistant though, and made their way through the city gate right after me. The guarded did nothing to help, which I thought was strange, so I ran straight towards one to get his attention.

And.. he ran away from me, telling me he wants no part in it. Instead of helping a poor cat in need, they were gambling on who they thought would be the one to take my life. My brother who's playing Nord got help immediately. Racial discrimination right there..

In the end, I managed to kill them all while the whole city just watched. By kill, I mean I jumped high and low all over Whiterun landing a hit when I can, and running + healing as soon as I get hit pretty much.

I then proceeded to attack their fort, since I needed a place to keep all my stolen goods until I find a house. And their fort had keys. I somehow managed to do that too since the bandits refused to leave their mining-cave, so I just leapt in and out of it.

Thankyou, citizens of Whiterun. I'll remember what happened today. I hate you to the bone, but I'll wait. The day I become a full-fledged assassin is the day Whiterun gets washed with your blood. I'll kill you all just like I killed that poor defenceless woman living by herself in the forest.

That's the sort of character I am.

[Animeniax]

That's awesome how this game produces stories like this. If only real life were so interesting.

I have the hold in Whiterun, but I've read it can get burglarized and NPCs can steal from it.

Not sure if this is a spoiler or not, but you have some hard choices to make, like (highlight to see spoilers):

do I become a werewolf or not (there are downsides) and whether to join the Imperials or the StormCloaks

[Buffalobiian]

That's awesome how this game produces stories like this. If only real life were so interesting.

I looted one of the bodies and found a contract on him. The note says something along the lines of

"Here's the amount we agreed on. Now go teach that thief Rachel a lesson. No need to kill her, but make sure rough her up blah blah blah".

This must have been what happened:

-A guy hired an entire fort-full of bandits to have their way with me. One of them went to take the money/job and was on his way back to the fort. He said hi to me, but then recognised who I was, and called all of his mates that happened to be passing by.

I'm gonna find this guy. He was stupid enough to sign the letter for me.


Then I came across this farmer who said that there's this annoying fellow down the road. The fellow's trying to transport his mum's coffin to her burial, but the wagon has a broken wheel. The farmer wants to get rid of him, so asks me to report the fellow to the guard down the road, to make up some crime so he'd get arrested.

Sounded like fun - so I took him up on it.

[Animeniax]

Is your character a thief named Rachel?

I'm having a crisis of conscience. I've been asked by a disreputable scoundrel to do something that will cause an accident that will provide a lot of loot and gold. Before I could follow through, I entered town and everyone is complaining about this scoundrel and the trouble he causes. So now if I help him, it will directly contradict values I hold dearly in real life. But it's a game, so why shouldn't I do it, especially if it means making a lot of gold?

[Ryllharu]

Not sure if this is a spoiler or not, but you have some hard choices to make, like (highlight to see spoilers):

To the first part, I did. But I thought about it for a good five minutes. I've begun to consider that part as my actual "main storyline."

To the latter part, I'm going to check out both, find out which one is the bigger bunch of douchebags, and join the other.

@Buff: That's really cool about the racial discrimination. I was wondering if it was just going to be additional dialogue, or have real consequences. New Vegas just had NPCs commenting on how they thought ghouls smell bad (if your companion was Raul) or that you friend is quite the hottie (if you paired up with Veronica). Nice to know the factions will actually act differently.

[Buffalobiian]

Is your character a thief named Rachel?

Yep. That's my dorobo neko.

[Animeniax]

To the first part, I did. But I thought about it for a good five minutes. I've begun to consider that part as my actual "main storyline."

To the latter part, I'm going to check out both, find out which one is the bigger bunch of douchebags, and join the other.

For the first part, did you know the consequences of you decision?

For the latter, I think I've encountered a quest that you can only complete if you've decided. I'm going to try to find a workaround to see if it really does require you to make a choice.

[Ryllharu]

For the first part, did you know the consequences of you decision?

Not all of them, but surprisingly, I've come to terms with the downsides. I work around it, use it only when I really need to, in remote areas. I'm keeping the secret as well as any other member. No one knows except for them, and anyone else who has seen it is dead.

It has just sort of become a facet of the character's personality. It's actually a lot more fun roleplaying it that way.

[Animeniax]

Did you know you lose the rested/well rested exp bonus?

I'm dabbling too much in different areas of expertise. Right now I'm a sneaking archer mage and I've wasted some perks on smithing and shield blocking. I need to decide on a character type and stick with it. The problem is, I don't usually replay games to try different character types, so I only have this one go-through to try things out.

[Buffalobiian]

Some people I can't kill. That's gay.

I have no idea if they're some sort of quest-centric character, but basically this guard caught me hurting someone, and I've since "killed" that guard three times. He just does down though, then comes back up again with full health.

I didn't want to pay the bounty, but I didn't have a choice since he simply refuses to die.

-still increasing sneak.. currently it's like 41, and my character's lvl9.

[Animeniax]

It might be a glitch or quest-centric like you thought. I found a glitch with a mission... you can trigger the quest again by reading a book again. I didn't actually visit the quest location a second time to see what happened, plus I had the quest item in my inventory already.

Lvl9 with 41 sneak? Impressive. You must sneak around a lot. I don't have the patience for that, so my sneak is only in the 50s and my character is lvl19. Is this your only character or did you start over?

Has anyone tried any of the Skyrim mods? http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/14/th...m-mods-so-far/

I've installed the enhanced night sky mod (#5) and it's awesome.

[Buffalobiian]

It might be a glitch or quest-centric like you thought. I found a glitch with a mission... you can trigger the quest again by reading a book again. I didn't actually visit the quest location a second time to see what happened, plus I had the quest item in my inventory already.

Lvl9 with 41 sneak? Impressive. You must sneak around a lot. I don't have the patience for that, so my sneak is only in the 50s and my character is lvl19. Is this your only character or did you start over?

Had this guy since the start. I do have the Thief stone to make that skill move along a bit faster. My brother said he got shown to the 3 stones after he left the dragon-attacked keep at the beginning. The guy didn't do that for me. I had my brother show me where it was.

[Animeniax]

Had this guy since the start. I do have the Thief stone to make that skill move along a bit faster. My brother said he got shown to the 3 stones after he left the dragon-attacked keep at the beginning. The guy didn't do that for me. I had my brother show me where it was.

Ahh that sucks. I saw the thief stone in the pause screens when you load the game, but didn't have any idea where to find it in game. I imagine you have to do something impressive when fighting the first dragon in order to get the guy to show you where the stones are at.

[Buffalobiian]

Hmm.. well all I did was run, lol.

I've found sneak to be much more opportunistic to use than say, lock-picking or pickpocketting (well the latter is pretty opportunistic.. just gotta be careful). I've spent a night or two just stealing from people's houses, then dumping the good into the barrels outside in between runs so I don't lose everything when I get caught.

btw, what do your characters look like?

Here's mine:



A guard stole my (stolen) amulet, so I'm still kinda pissed about that. I've got a golden one right now that's worth more, but isn't as nice.

[Splash!]

Ahh that sucks. I saw the thief stone in the pause screens when you load the game, but didn't have any idea where to find it in game. I imagine you have to do something impressive when fighting the first dragon in order to get the guy to show you where the stones are at.

Wow, I really should have paid more attention in the early minutes of the game. Apparently there were 2 different people you could choose to follow when the dragon attacked. Also,the Ralof guy was supposed to show you the stones on the way to Riverwood. I didn't even care about following him. As soon as I got out of Helgen, I started doing my own thing, and then arrived at Riverwood much later.

@Buff: Ah you're a Khajit. The behaviour at Whiterun towards you makes sense. I remember talking to this Nordic woman about how Khajit aren't supposed to be allowed inside the town.

[Buffalobiian]

Master-pickpocket dream ruined. The game caps your success rate at 90% for anything.

Guess I'll spend my time picking locks instead.

[Dark Dragon]

Just got my Daedric Armor set, i'm pretty happy with maxing Smithing first so far. Been going the Paladin route with Sword/Shield and Healing magic.

[Ryllharu]

Did you know you lose the rested/well rested exp bonus?

Yes, and I didn't mind at all. I'm used to playing New Vegas on hardcore. I don't *need* to sleep anymore (at the penalty of stat reducers and death), so I forget do it all the time. I wasn't using it before other than to kill time so shops were open. The 100% resistance to disease more than makes up for it. My Shield-maiden character has already caught three.

That, and I've found most of the southern stones. Thief/Warrior/Mage stones, Shadow Stone, Lady Stone, Apprentice stone.


^ The assassin/huntress

[TwisT]

I'm the same as Ani when it comes to replaying the Elder Scrolls series. I usually replay RPGs many times. Like Final Fantasy, KOTOR, Dragon Age and Mass Effect to name a few. But i played Oblivion half way trough when my hard drive crashed and i had to swap it and reformat. Made me lose everything. So i tried to replay it but it just bored me to death. Tried to replay it probably 5 times but always end with me stopping after a few hours. So I'm guessing it won't be any different with Skyrim.

So i try and make the most of it and trying out different things to find what suits me. i started out with a 1h and shield. I knew i wanted a 1h weapon and not 2h. Rather dual if thats the case. Then i realized that destruction spells is the way to go. With spark i could just nuke every fucker down except boss types. Then i just empty my mana pool and then go with my dagger. Got the double casting which made it even easier. After many hours i started noticing that they just didn't want to die anymore and my Elven dagger did more damage. So i swapped my destruction for the summon flame something. Start out by summoning and then swap to healing and dagger. And that's the formula i use right now. So I've ended up with Resto almost 60, destruction 52-53, Speech 50, One Hand 72ish , Smithing 50+ and most others between 20-30. I've probably explored 70% of the map (i explore allot) and killed about 10 dragons (only 2 from the questline and the rest is unnamed free roaming dragons). Oh and I'm lvl30.

Since i probably won't replay it I'm just trying to experience as much of it as possible and avoiding the main quest line. At least i think it's the main quest. The Graybeard/The Blades quest line. I've also avoided Imperial vs Stormcloaks quests since i get the feeling if i join up with one, some parts of the world will be off limits for me. Like the city that Ulfric is Jarl in i would imagine would all hate me if i joined the Imperials, and as i have understood one of the northern cities (Solice or Dawnstar maybe) is where the Imperials is camped up and strong. And i joined up with The Companions and have done basically everything. I even acquired the power. But now I'm wondering if that is a mistake. As far as i know the Dark Brotherhood is like the "The Hand" thingy (or the exact same guild) that was in Oblivion. I wanna join them once i find them but i just hope my companion status and me accepting the power won't get in the way.

[EpyonNext]

Meliri.jpg

Been playing as a Wood Elf Fighter/Archer. I do a bit of the main quest, and then get sidetracked dungeon diving. This game has consumed 40 hours of my life since Friday.