Hey all,

After taking a short break from gaming due to a variety of reasons (coursework, job, college visits), I've gone back to playing my beloved Oblivion. I still have my 20-something Paladin kicking about, but I've always wanted to get a full Dark Brotherhood playthrough on an Assassin-based character. I start up, head through the tutorial, step outside the sewers and stop.

I try to enjoy roleplaying games to their fullest extent, which means I really try to play through as my character. So why would a sneaky, Lawful-Evil Assassin care about the Empire's fate? Why should she go off and embark on a quest to redeem the throne and thwart the Prince of Destruction when she would rather be plotting her next kill? I can't leave the main-story just hanging, no gates and with the Amulet just stuck in my inventory, so I need a way to justify why this evil wench would want to go off and help others.

So, for anyone like me who loves to give their characters a bit of life through Role-Play, what do you do to beat those first few levels until everything really picks up?

Thanks,

-Codemonkey

Your own role-play constraints are up to you of course. I would probably think that by doing some of that she will actually end up helping herself.

You might also want to check out this terrific mod which gives you alternative starts and even allows you to hold off the main quest.

Cheers.

Wow. I've never even heard of this mod before, but it looks fantastic! That is a perfect way to start off, especially for someone whose sick of the same damned tutorial. I'll give this a shot.

I play a similar character build atm

my whole "idea" behind my character was. I started out as some random who just broke out of prison. I don't know what to do with my life and don't know my past. After I exit the sewers, from all the shock of what had just happened through the prison/sewer section/tutorial, I head straight to Weynon Priory to deliver the Amulet. I don't head to the IC, because I was just in prison. I must be a wanted criminal for something, but I don't remember my past. I have broken out of prison and I flee far away, and go deliver the amulet.

After I deliver the amulet and get the free gear, I start off in chorrol as a thief, breaking into people's houses at night and stealing goods and selling them (I used a mod that allowed me to sell stolen goods to vendors- how do they know it's stolen?). I steal from house after house (leveling mostly off of sneak level-ups) and explore goblin mines (level with blade, lightarmor, etc skillups from combat)

still being a random nobody with no life ambitions but stealing, I commit my first murder as I rob a house. Join the Dark Brotherhood and my (character's) life starts to take direction. Evil greed for power and money is what attracts me eventually to enter the Oblivion gates. To combat (and defeat) fierce enemies and collect powerful loot. Greed and lust for power is what continues me to hunt down and defeat the mythic dawn/deadra/etc, to make myself more powerful as I defeat every foe.

that's pretty much how my character is developing right now, and I'm having a blast. Hope it helps. =P

"Instant home owner"?

One of the things that motivated my character during the beginning before things "picked up' was doing things to make money which also helped me level, which also motivated me to do stuff like a lot of exploring, -- making the game anything but boring. There are actually a lot of places to stay for free that aren't in disease-infested hotel rooms or in beggars bedrolls, or abandoned filth.

For example, did you know that you can stay in a room in the Anvil lighthouse just for doing an easy odd-job for the Lightkeeper? You can stay in the Count's castle in Skingrad if you take a job there.

One of the most valuable assets a person can have in V-Oblivion or in real life, is the attribute of speechcraft or in other words the ability to enlist others' help in achieving your goals.

I'm starting to think that was probably the reason why I made such great progress with my first character knowing nada zip nothing about the game before I tossed it into my dvd drive, And the effort I put into exploring gathering and collecting things whether I knew what they were for or not. I'm a pack rat in real life, so.. and running everywhere (with a lot of jumping) since I wanted to cover a lot of ground. One thing I think everyone should do is avoid fast travel unless they need to be somewhere on a tight schedule, like taking a plane in real life. You wouldn't take a plane to work every day. These things all made my character stronger and more acrobatic very quickly.

I just mention it because I read a lot of people complaining about their character being poor, but I was only poor for the first three weeks of gameplay probably and then I started making a little extra money. I mean enough to splurge on a night at the Tiber Septim instead of the abandoned waterfront house, but even that was a safe place among friends.

Zero - I've done a good amount of that with some past characters, though to me it never seems fulfilling enough. I tend to gather a background as the character progresses, be it from events in the game, or ideas that pop into my head.

Myrmaad - What really sold me on the mod was the ability to start elsewhere in the world, and pick up on the main quest line later on. I'll admit, some of the perks (free homes, being one) teeter a little bit on the cheat side of things, but that can easily be ignored. I know what you mean though, my first real character was a Thief, and essentially all I did was run around and nab what I could. Money and time has never really been an issue for me when it comes to character development, but the progress in long quest chains and guilds, just can't seem to stick to it for one reason or another. I have fast-travel disabled now. Used to live by it, but then realized how much of the game I truely was missing.

Thanks for the help thus far!

-Codemonkey

Your own role-play constraints are up to you of course. I would probably think that by doing some of that she will actually end up helping herself.

You might also want to check out this terrific mod which gives you alternative starts and even allows you to hold off the main quest.

Cheers.
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True words.....what ever role playing there is in a game such as Oblivion is up to the player to create because we know that a game like this is not really a "role Playing" game. That however does not keep the player from adding some MOD's to make it easier ... like a MOD to require characters to eat and sleep each 24 hours help create the role playing element.
As for good and evil ....weell I have been playing these games from Wizardry 1 and the best character creation method was the first (Wiz 1).
Each race had a there stats set at a certain number. You then basically roled the dice and got bonus points which you applied to the basic stats to create a character class. Your character could be evil,neutral or good. You had to use graph paper and map each level.....ah for the good old days.

Madgamer

I checked out that mod that the TS was linked to, but there aren't any files on the page to download. Where can I get it?

Whilst I never took the free home I don't see it as so strange. Where were you supposed to be living before you were in jail, the street?

Well, Codemonkey - The first thing I do to start getting exps under my belt is I cross from the sewers over to Vilverin and whack everyone over there. Of course, there's an ulterior motive for me to conquer Vilverin. The Bag of Holding is waiting for my arrival.

Then I go up the road to Bruma, fighting everything that challenges me. Since I prefer a combo magic-fighter, I go to Bruma to join the Mages Guild.

Joining a faction also means you get to work a little mischief and totally get away with it. Once you're a member, you can take nearly everything and sell it, thus building up other stats such as gold, Mercantile, etc.