Things you won't do in open-world games. Options

[Renee]

Our characters tend to do plenty of things we would not do in real-life. I am never going to touch a flamethrower for instance, much less use one. I am never going to use or own a gun, much less fire one, even at a firing range. All of my guys & gals have done so, of course. Never going on a crime spree of any sort, stealing cars and so on (GTA: Liberty City, which was the first open world game I played before discovering Oblivion). I am completely boring in real-life.

Stepping outside the games which are supposed to mock our real world here on Earth, while stepping into Fantasy, there's zero chance of me carrying around a sword or any other hand-weapon in real-life (except maybe, possibly if a friend buys one at Ren Fest, and wants me to see what it feels like to carry one). I am never even going to do anything as mundane as exploring a cave, much less try to find treasure / pretend to fight monsters in one. A girlfriend of mine way back 20 years ago convinced me into a cave when I lived on the west coast, and I can say this for sure: NEVER again.

Mammoth Cave in Kentucky doesn't count, okay? My family went into Mammoth Cave while on vacation, which is a very safe tourist experience. Not literally crawling through gaps, hoping an earthquake doesn't occur, which could trigger boulders to fall underground!

But we can and often do all these things in our games, right? We can play the part of a vile murderer, become a hero, and anything in between. So what will we NOT do? An example: I know one of us here will not roll a character who smokes. 🚬 I'll start with Fallout since it is closest to real-life.


Fallout:
1). Will not roll a slaver. Even though the entire game is a pretend situation, an alternate reality, I cannot go there with my toons. Both my current characters in Fallout 3 are against slaving, and Cho recently got involved with the organization which goes against slaving (forget its name).

2). Will never use the end of Broken Steel to *spoiler* up Megaton, Tenpenny Tower, or any other location which is populated by innocents. A couple of my characters in this game do mildly evil (or at least, disreputable) things such as stealing, but that's as far as it goes.

3). Can't murder innocents, even for 'fun'. However, I can do such a thing in Elder Scrolls games. I've rolled plenty of murderers & other vile sorts, if it fits character roleplay.

It's because Elder Scrolls is not connected to Earth, so it'll be interesting to see if any one of you here have restrictions on being Evil, or are against doing nefarious things in High Fantasy, or even Low Fantasy games like Skyrim.

Table Games:
Back in high school playing around the table, I could never roll anyone truly Evil. All my characters were "Good", except for Randorf, who would do mildly disturbing feats on occasion, used coca leaves and other drugs, and so on. Back then I considered Randorf to be Chaotic Neutral.


Elder Scrolls:
I have trouble coming up with a list of things which I consider off-limits from the Player side of Player-Character.

1). This one is from the character side, though. Eradi~Kate, my vampiress who joined Dark Brotherhood, refused to . Even though this meant I would never see the end of the DB questline, which so many folks have mentioned is one of the 'better' Bethesda quests. She actually tried to *spoiler* Lucien, instead! Which I found is not possible on consoles!

I've had an idea literally for years to roll a Dark Knight who does follow the Purification order. This guy is completely emotionless, will do contracts literally for money, and so on. Unlike Kate, the Dark Knight won't become too attached to his guildmates. Kate, over time, became attached, even the Khajiit merchant who mocked and insulted her. Over time, she began to look forward to his insults! Overall, she found comfort amongst her underground DB mates. These were folks who welcomed her, who were in many ways just like her. Why would she want to *spoiler* them?

2). My characters in Morrowind feel the plight of all the poor beastfolk in this game who are enslaved. I'm not sure if there's an actual questline which goes against slavery or not. If there is, Joan of Arkay is likely to follow it. But none of them will do things which actually assist the slavers in that game.

3). Can't figure out a roleplay which includes playing a beastfolk. I rolled an Argonian years ago, however this guy was actually a lizardman, such as found in DnD and other games, including Arena. My lizard lived under the Imperial City, only rising to steal food or 'shinies'. 💎 I don't think I'll ever play an intelligent Argonian.

My "can't do" list used to include orcs, however I did roll Balztu Dahwalz as a sort of test character when I wanted to explore the Valenwood Improved mod.

That's all I can think of for now, but there's gotta be more self-imposed limits. I'll add to the OP, if so.

This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 1 2024, 07:54 PM

[SubRosa]

My characters won't use drugs in games, nor even pick them up to sell as loot.

Most of my characters won't fight someone who is not hostile. So when the games occasionally glitch and a bandit does not attack, my characters will talk to them to see if they have any dialogue. Sometimes that makes them remember that they hate me and attack. If not, then I move on.

Generally my characters don't steal. It varies though. In the team games like the Baldur's Gate or Pillars of Eternity serieses, I will have the team thief steal stuff. They are thieves, it is in their nature. Even if my main character January or Blood Raven does not approve.

In the Elder Scrolls games my characters don't loot tombs. That would be graverobbing. They will sometimes take things from the monsters after they killed them, like draugr weapons, to use for decorations back home. But that is theirs by right of combat.

Needless to say none of my characters are slavers. Not even my most evil character Loviatar would sink that low. She was fine with nuking Megaton however. She liked the crater it made, the radiation was nice and warm.

There are some anti-slaver quests in Morrowind. They are part of the Hlaalu questline. But you can do them even if you are not Hlaalu. You just need to free enough slaves to get the Twin Lamps dialogue, then talk to a woman in Vivec. She will give you a couple of quests to help smuggle slaves off the island. Naturally of course you can free most of the slaves you come across as long as you can find the key for their bracers.

[Acadian]

Let's see. . . .

Buffy won't kill innocents. She can be deadly, vengeful and even cruel to those who violate her doctrine though.

She will predictably save the one right in front of her right now, when sacrificing them would probably save many more. A good example occurs in ESO when she is asked a hypothetical: You are on a hilltop and your friend - a scout - is in the valley below watching for enemies approaching your town. You see a large force approaching the scout from a direction the scout cannot see. Do you warn and rescue the scout who is in front of you or do you sacrifice the scout in order to warn your town of the impending enemy attack? Buffy chooses to save the one in front of her that she knows she can save, rather than sacrifice the scout and then worry about how to help the town.

Buffy is an accomplished healer. She believes that mastering healing requires knowledge of regenerating tissue. Therefore, she studied not only restoration but necromancy as well. To ignore the aspects of necromancy that regenerate tissue is to short change her patients in her view. So, unlike many mages, she does not condemn necromancy. That said, she will not conjure dead spirits or animate their bodies; that is like enslaving the dead and not something she'll do.

When it comes to stealing, she takes what I'd guess you'd call a chaotic good approach rather than a lawful good approach. She won't hesitate to steal stolen goods and likely return them to their owner. In ESO there are 'thieves troves' you can find in the wild. Thieves use them to pass stolen goods to fences. She won't hesitate to loot those troves if she finds them.

[Lena Wolf]

None of my characters will steal for profit. We also avoid looting tombs. Everything else is allowed, depending on the individual character. But no thieves.

[mirocu]

In whatever game I play, my character won't do evil. If a character is "evil by default" such as in VtM:B, then he will try and do things as ethical as possible within the confines of the world he operates in.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

It depends on the character I’m playing at a given time. If it makes sense for a character to do something that could be considered evil in a situation, then they’ll do it. For instance, I’m currently playing Starfield with one of my Fallout characters, Désirée Devreaux. Now, Dez’s original concept was for a fanfic I thought up which takes place around what used to be New Orleans. She was created as a bit of a “Han Solo type”. Smuggler, scoundrel, you’d like her. Anyway, she doesn’t like pirates (basically just Raiders on a boat), and so took a job with the local government as a pirate hunter/privateer using the paddlewheel riverboat she found and fixed up. So in Starfield, she is much the same, and is currently undergoing a mission that will help bring down the big pirate faction. That said, she isn’t above doing a bit of smuggling, or some other sketchy business to earn an extra cred or two. She doesn’t kill anyone who hasn’t attacked her first, and will try to use her silver tongue to avoid a fight if possible.

[Renee]

Cool, these are good an

[Acadian]

Cool, these are good an

Renee, come back to us! Finish your post.

[Turija]

Interesting thread. I've done a lot of stuff in real life, like carrying a sword. I used to fence competitively, mostly foil, but a little sabre and epee. I also fought once in an SCA competition and came in second place. I used to own a real short swird, a full tang kris that I bought at a flea market, about two feet of sharp double edged steel. I could defend myself quite well in real life with a sword.

I also used to explore caves. There are a lot of lava tubes in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, near where I live, and some of the ones near Mt. Adams are quite complex, with many twisting and intersecting passages that would be easy to get lost in, and when I was young I enjoyed squeezing through the tightest passages I could find. In my late teens/early 20s I was thin and I could get my body through just about anything I could fit my head through.

It's been about 30 years since I was in a cave or swung a sword, so not its just vifeo games for me.


Obviously I don't have trouble playing a Khajiit. I was immediately drawn to them, probably because I find cats fascinating, and also because one of the super powers I would love to have would be to be able to see in the dark. In real life I do a bit of ameteur astronomy, so I have learned to see rather well in low light conditions. Its something that can be learned and improved with practice. Its a matter of training your brain to recognize what your eyes are only very dimly seing, but being able to see in pitch dark, like a cave, would be really neat.

I've never been able to play an Argonian though. I can relate to cat people but have a hard time relating to cold blooded lizard folk.

I don't know there is anything I won't do in a video game. I did an evil character once in FO3 and did that Megaton quest. Kind of felt bad about it, and enjoyed Megaton a lot more than Tenpenny Tower, so it's not something I have done twice.

I have played evil characters in Oblivion and Skyrim, but never got into playing an assassin. I've tried a few times, But most of my characters find themselves gravitating toward a Chaotic Good alignment (from the old AD&D). I have had a few thieves though, who were poor and stole to survive, mostly from rich folk. Poor Khajiit hungry, has to eat, no?

I did play a somewhat evil Necromancer on PS3 named Acerac, named loosely after the demi-lich in Tomb of Horrors (my favorite AD&D Dungeon Module, and the only one I really liked other than the Keep on the Borderlands).

On PS3 Oblivion, you have to use some imagination to play a necromancer, but there are enough skeleton/zombie spells to sort of play a necromancer. But Acerac never did much truly evil. One time he encountered a crooked guard in a quest in the Imperial City, and Acerac tried to cut the quest short by summarily executing the crooked guard. Of course that didn't work because the guard in question was essential. Acerac ended up having to kill a bunch of other guards to escape He racked up a huge bounty, which he refused to pay. So he ended up joining the thieves guild, using magic to complete the initiation quest, just so he could get his bounty removed without having to pay the guard. That was fun.

This post has been edited by Turija: Apr 25 2024, 07:39 AM

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Only one of my characters chose to blow up Megaton, even though I’ve played multiple “evil” aligned characters in Fallout3. I determined that unless I’m playing a character that is just out of their mind psychotic, it always makes more sense to use Megaton for its resources rather than blowing it up. Though I will say that it was kinda amusing talking to Moira afterwards…

[Sakiri]

I don't like urban thieving. I don't do the pickpocket and breaking and entering much, though my first tes chars and my sorc in eso did them once to see the story, and in the case of eso, heckin skill points.

I hate stealth missions in eso. I get caught. A lot. When my mythic ring(oakensoul) required me to get a lead out of a dang safebox, I was irritated. But it's done.

I *do* like murder. My RP for Dreamcypher involves Daedra worship, sugar/skooma smuggling and slavery. Typical dunmer for the second era among the Telvanni.

I don't do games that aren't set in fantasy worlds. I generally avoid playing the races of Men, though I have Nords, and a Redguard in eso, and I've done both in Skyrim. My go to is typically dunmer. I can't play altmer, they bug me. Bosmer are ok. Orsimer are right out. Khajiit and Saxhleel are fine.

I raid tombs. I don't leave containers unlooted. Ever.

Erm... Hm. If I come up with anything ill get back to you.

[Renee]

I hate stealth missions in eso. I get caught. A lot.

Really? So stealth is actually difficult in this game? Intriguing! Does that have anything to do with other players being around?

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

I played ESO for a good little bit and can’t remember anything about the stealth gameplay, lol

[ghastley]

ESO stealth is a bit abrupt in its transition from invisible to detected. There is very little grey area of “chance to be detected” and games like Skyrim have given us all habits that don’t work in ESO, like freezing in place, to eliminate sound.

What is gives instead is a detection radius. Outside that, you can’t be seen, inside, you are fully visible. Some quests have visible detection circles you can skirt around, or hide as they approach. There are perks that reduce the range at which you can be detected, most late in the skill trees. Some guard NPCs get the opposite, and can see farther. The complexity of all these tweaks to the basic mechanism is the worst part, as it gets buggy.