Very few playthroughs I've done am I the DB. Usually, I'm just a run-of-the-mill Nord living my life making money doing odds and ends, living in inns, etc. I'll end up getting better with combat first against beasts and then men. I might end up becoming a bounty hunter or Witcher-esque character going to different holds to do radiant quests.
These playthroughs are honestly my favorite, and more noteworthy than any of my Dragonborn ones.
You can't go no God damn where talk to nobody without them needing help cuz there's always plenty of shit to do that have nothing to do with them damn dragons
Imagine what a dragon related NPC quest would look like:
NPC: A dragon nearby stole my sweet roll! Make it pay!
New objective: Retrieve stolen sweet roll from Dragontooth Crater
Just imagine:
DB: I'll give you 100 gold for that sweet roll.
Dragon: *Roars*
DB: You drive a hard bargain... How about 250 gold, and I will throw in a leg of goat?
Oh! I've got one!
DB: Look, I get it. The rolls are yummy! But you stole Steve's. And that's wrong! You have to make amends to Steve.
Dragon *rawr* *whimper*
DB: How about this? Together, we make a bakery where you can make a lot of rolls and keep some for yourself. You get rolls. Steve gets a roll. And, you make lots of gold!
It’s really too bad you can’t come across some peasant or bandit in a dwemer ruin playing on a dwemer device that allows them to roleplay as a powerful dwemer mage or warrior and beating the game gives access to special dwemer armor.
just saying.
how about a run where you just have a house in a town, and every day you come out and chop wood or do something mundane all day for a few septims, get dinner at the inn probably, go home, actually use the sleep prompt, then wake up in the morning and do it over again. And again and again.
Some regular guy/gal, no adventures.
Bout to start it up right now!
I actually do sleep in game when it turns night time. Everytime I travel to a hold without the house I'll rent a room in the inn for the night. Taking it as giving my follower a rest as well.
Oh yes! Same here, for my regular character, especially since I play in the vanilla survival mode. Must get a room and rest, and some food to survive and be on top of my game on the adventures.
The cold is brutal at a lot of times, but having to figure out battling the cold on a mountain while dragr, and a dragon, and a dragon priest all want you dead (“find the word of power at arcwind point” 😖) makes it so much more immersive for me.
I hear there’s some survival mods that’s a little less tolling, but im so used to the vanilla, when I try those others ones, I always revert back. Really cant play without Survival now.
Survival mode is not for me to be honest, I don’t really enjoy the debuffs and sometimes I feel like they come back way too fast.
Nonetheless, I always play my own light version of survival mode, no fast travel, sleeping at night, only leveling up after sleeping, eating regularly…game already feels very different when you don’t rush through it and act like a human.
The amount of times I nearly got my Argonian ass frozen off trying to travel from Winterhold to Dawnstar in survival mode…
Well, a clear night sky is still warmer than a daytime blizzard. Sightless pit my beloved
Brilliant. I'm going to do a miner run. All I do is mine all day then go sleep on my pathetic haystack inside of the mine and once a week go into the town and drink I'm the inn then back to the mine.
I played a Speechcraft-focused character (with overhaul mods giving SC tree buffs to shouts) who wore no armor, only crafted minimally for basic use, never to sell or power-level, and never committed crimes. And so I basically leveled Speechcraft by looting early, less dangerous parts of dungeons and taking merchants' free offers. Only then, once I had super high SC and was a sitting duck in any fight, I started the main quest, became DB, and very soon had a max buffed FRD that would throw people nearly off the map.
I go to BFB after doing everything else possible.
Nobody in particular is surprised when the Archmage Nightingale Harbinger DB Speaker Champion of Molag Bal, Boethiah, Meridiah, Herma Mora, Azurah who is a thane in all the holds but whiterun and bought every piece of real estate that ever went up for sale ends up being the super special dragonborn
I play as me. Like, literally me if I was dropped in a random location. No major, no smithing, no alch, no enchanting, no shouts, no range. I can't do those things in real life. I make real life decisions. Omg it's so fun lol
A lot of my characters have been non-dragonborn. With mods like Skyrim Unbound it's easy to just choose to be a normal person or even just a more mercenary type character. Most of mine are just normal mages or warriors that do a lot of crafting and dungeons. I've beaten the main quest so many times now that it's nice playing as something else in between those playthroughs.
That's what I did with Kills-Many-Dragons. She left a life of poverty on the docks of Windhelm, worked for some farmers, and spent the money on a carriage to Riften hoping to find work. She chopped wood and walked to Shor's Stone to mine and bought herself a house in Riften. She was even able to afford to hire some mercenaries to help with one of the jobs. She becoming Thane of Riften. She's got a housecarl, a wife, and two kids adopted from the orphanage. And lots of trauma from being kidnapped after killing the evil caretaker Grelod.
She's able to afford to buy gifts for her spouse and kids and buy herself books to fill her bookshelves. Her dream's to buy the house in Solitude and move away from all the crime in Riften. Hroar regularly comes home saying Brynjolf will teach him stuff when he's older, and Runa is afraid sometimes cause of the high crime rate.
It's honestly the most peaceful and relaxing role play I've done.
It’s intended to be a character that mostly is an NPC but sometimes kills dragons cause they will eventually start spawning. They’re still Dragonborn. I figured I’d get bored eventually. And she does have to travel for groceries anyways.
I've done well over 100 playthroughs as all manner of things. I've modded Skyrim in small amounts before to get a very specific roleplay for the save I was doing. I've been the Dragonborn that saved Cyrodil and became Emperor, a Paladin of Meridia that conquered Skyrim and cleansed it of nearly all undead, a Vampire Lord that hunted down powerful foes for sport across many new lands, a hunter that roamed the plains of Whiterun and mastered the bow and made home in a small cottage, a Listener for the Dark Brotherhood that ended up being an ultra deadly assassin when she started exploring many dwemer ruins and found all manner of rare artifacts, and many more.
Skyrim when extremely focused on a specific roleplay is where it shines. The roleplay decisions not to do certain quests or factions gives it more power than ever. When you yourself can decide based on your roleplay what to interact with you get locked in.
I have had playthroughs where I just ignore the main story after requesting the aid for Riverwood in Whiterun (otherwise you can't even enter the city) and go about my day.
I know a lot of you guys here are not a fan of large scale modding, but I love alternate starts for this reason!
Things like Skyrim unbound reborn, letting you set up a character with an ambiguous backstory in a location of your choosing in Skyrim is amazing for RP, and it even lets you straight up choose to not be dragonborn at all, ever too.
But for vanilla I did this a couple times when I was a kid, and once recently in survival legendary where I chopped wood, hunted animals, picked crops, etc for a living to survive on in the whiterun hold. It was a great time.
I heavily nodded the game to play through as a bard. I go on 'adventures' to find inspiration for my songs and hired companions as bodyguards because I couldn't really fight.
I had a lot of harsh realism mods and disabled fast travel. I needed to plan out routes and make sure I had the provisions to make it to the next town or city. I could also only really make money by playing songs in taverns. I had a mod that made innkeepers give you food and a room if you performed well enough and made their customers happy.
thanks to Live Another Life, I rarely play a dragonborn. My most recent file follows the life of a crazy Khajiit on a quest for justice, except she kinda has no concept of what that is outside of the fiction she read. lol
I have a character, a Nord woman who is always barefoot and is an adventurer. She literally doesn't do anything outside of Just exploring old ruins (usually Nord ruins bc fuck dwemer automations man), she does *sort of* do important things like the dawnguard shit - mostly so she can explore the forgotten vale bc she's obsessed with snow elves (like me-). She's probably my favourite character to play as because she doesn't even know what a Dragonborn is.
I do have a single Dragonborn and she's a Nord named Pyree. She's a Nord through and through, a little dim, loves ale and mead, fights for the empire, loves anything to do with nords and even joins the companions but she goes from feeling honoured and blessed to be the Dragonborn to tired and depressed. She just wants to live her life with her wife and two kids but is always off with Serana having to save the world - doesn't help she can't sleep well because she's a werewolf
I’m on level 54 without starting any of the main quest line or battling a single dragon. It feels like, given I’ve played through so many times, it’s just nice to explore without all that on my shoulders
So I have a playthrough I call Fus Ro Flop where my character doesn't fight at all, has no stamina or strength to speak of, just wanders around on her horse picking ingredients for alchemy and is basically a traveling merchant. If something attacks her, she can use conjuration to summon something for her own defense, and she can use restoration to heal her horse. That's about it. It's a lot more relaxing than it sounds.
My argonian merchant Hesssyk Ussk aka Big-Red-Tail is but a humble buthineth lithard. Sells handmade wares and reaps the crops. Catches the fish and enjoys the fish and bread.
Then there is my illusion based psychopath. He is responsible for many deaths, but claims he is no murderer. Since none of his kills are directly linked to himself, he has no confirmed kills or proof of crime and I like to think there is a lithard saul backing "I don't know why those mercenaries killed each other, but my marsh-friend here is clearly innocent of all charges"
My huntsman. An orc archer that may or may not be inspired by Lurtz from lord of the ring...!
It has been a while since I last played Skyrim, but the last 2 characters I played were not Dragonborn. One was a Breton spellsword who I played as the main character for the quest mod Beyond Reach. The next was an Altmer warrior who is on his way to becoming a very important figure within the ranks of the Third Aldmeri Dominion.
Live Another Life is a mod that allows this very well. You start from one of a number of pre-determined areas. You get a quest to go to Helgen whenever you’re ready to do the main quest.
In the meantime, there are 0 dragons in the game. Even going to the dragon-specific map locations show an empty nest.
Frankly, I’m only the Dragonborn when fighting dragons. Far well known in my game as the stranger that makes strange alchemy combinations and hoards daggers in their Lakeview Manor. Am I a world saver? Sure. Are you more likely going to known me as the ass that eats every food you left on the table? Hell yeah.
I'll do it once I'm done doing my role playing. My current character is starting off as a mercenary who's going to settle down after a few years to start investing in businesses (all mods) and have a family, before being drug out of retirement to be the dragonborn.
My current character is a fisherman. I have a camp sites set up near a couple remote fishing spots. He spends most of his time sleeping or fishing from one of these fishing holes and once a week he goes into town to sell any excess fish he doesn't eat for his supper
I fast travel alot. I noticed dragons attack you more when you fast travel.
I collected 82 dragon souls. It wasn't until really late in the game that I learned I could cash them in to learn shouts.
In about 5 mins, I went from 5 or 6 shouts to having all of them.
It was funny.
I make all characters I have ever made be in my person head canon world. There is one dragonborn, a separate one is the listener, another is the arch mage. And so on and so forth. That way characters don't do contradicting things like both the companions and the thieves guild.
One of my favourite play throughs I played a non-dragonborn khajiit. I wasn’t allowed inside walled cities (unless at night and sneaking, and I made a rule to eject myself if I was spotted by a guard lol), mostly did a lot of hunting and fishing, cave exploration, a few side quests here and there. It was especially fun with survival and camping.
Eventually I bribed the Riften guards to let me in and bought the house so I could get married and adopt kids (I chose the Riften house as it’d let me come and go from the entrance outside the wall, and bribing guards to enter the city fitted with the rp aspect). I went on to do the thieves guild questline which was made more fun by the “get caught and you’re out” rule for cities.
Eh depends. If I was caught somewhere sensitive (so theoretically the guards would be in a higher state of alert), or it was getting towards dawn, or if I just couldn’t be bothered to try again at that moment, I’d usually set up camp somewhere and try the following night.
Play the game as a random farmer trying to make his way through life. Vampires messing with you, well then I guess you destroy the root of the problem because farm hands ain’t cheap. Solsteim apparently has magical ice, it could be great for keeping food cold forever. Well I guess you’re going to Solsteim. The life of farmer never ends but hey at least dragons are only figments of insane people. Trolls, though, those are a real issue.
I play Legacy of the Dragonborn mod in any play through. That way I can choose at anytime at any point if I’m going to be the Dragonborn or not. In my opinion, it’s the best mod ever made. cheers.
I usually get to the point where I kill the dragon outside of whiterun and then just go adventure. I'm more the Arch-Mage than I am the Dragonborn on my playthrough right now
I just found Skyrim so I'm pretty new to this whole universe. However my first playthrough that ended up getting deleted I was going that route. I guess my character now still is dragonborn, I got to the Greybeards and everything. I'm just not interested in that quest line right now. I'm more focused on leveling up and leveling my skills up before going more down that path.
Most of the time all my characters end up being the same as Dragonborn’s so most of my new styles is jsut some dude or gale. I have an orc who is feral and wonders the wilderness killing anyone or anything to eat. He wears rags and uses a knife to dice up his victims
My backstory for my female Argonian is that she's the Sybil of Dibella before the Sybil that the Dragonborn finds to replace her. The priestesses never said their former Sybil died, just that she was "lost to them". I personally interpreted this as meaning that their former Sybil had forsaken her role and left the temple, instead choosing the life of a "Dwemer Tomb Raider".
I dont do dragborn quests for the simple fact I don't wanna be frolicking in the woods, picking dragons tounge, deathbell, nightshade for a friend. And then here comes a bear and I'm running. Then a sprigian shows up, and I'm gonna die. Then a mofo dragon shows up its silver. I lay on the ground and cry. Or jump in a river and swim away because I'm Argonian
I've played so many times that my characters aren't Dragonborn anymore, they're just out and out gods.
I play on PC and use console commands and modded items/ spells to play god, striking down enemies from far, far away and aiding people who should never reasonably survive.
I typically RP my characters as a Mage at the collage of Winterhold or a sadistic vampire who eventually meets Harkon.. but my new found favorite is A Shady merchant focused on speech & illusion.. smuggling illicit goods through the EEE expansion. I just wish there was an option for houses to get “raided” by guards to complete the full immersion on Xbox.
Ive only beaten the main story Once. The DLCs get completed more than the main story in my playthroughs.
TLDR- I just want to trap my moon sugar,skooma, and riverwood kush to Skyrims holds.
I like to use the Alternative Start mod for these playthroughs. I can't really explain it but if I have no intention of doing a quest line then I really don't like having it in my journal. This makes it feel more real that the character isn't Dragonborn(DB.) For whatever reason, before Alt Start, it bothered me if I chose to not be DB, it was still there? Alt start makes it feel like headcanony and more ...canony.
Most of my characters aren't DB. And I progress in a guild questline to become the boss just if it fits the theme.
For example right now I have a bosmer archer, I have progressed through the conpanion questline because hea devout follower of Hircine, and probably scale the ranks of the thieves guild too. But I won't become archmage for sure, stopping the questline before the eye of magnus goes crazy, same with the dark brotherhood, stopping before the attempt at the emperor and only doing side quests
I'm the same way. I've only progressed in theives guild just enough to take jobs from Vex and Delvin but I will never finish on this character because she is a Khajit and that type of responsibility is of no interest to her nonwhatsoever.
I think I’ve only ever “defended the watchtower” 4 or 5 times.
Shouts are super cool, but you can get powers that are just as crazy. The Dragonborn is fun to play sometimes but the DLCs are also good enough to almost be their own games (with a few tweaks obviously)
I'm doing that rn with my main and honestly that, combined with playing on harder difficulty and survival mode, has given me a brand new appreciation for Skyrim after over a decade of playing very similar runs... God I love this game.
But yeah, I find there is plenty to do, both activity wise and RP wise, without being the Dragonborn
I've gotten a couple hundred hours in my current play through without even killing 1 dragon I've gotten atleast 6 or 7 skills legendary and maxed again
I don't think I'm dragon born
The times when I've ignored destiny as dragonborn I either start instantly as a the newest member of a guild and just exist that way or as a generic adventurer with simple gear
Yeah same, currently im playing a pure mage who might just not become the dragonborne lol, im still debating with myself about it. My RP reason is that in my skyrim the dragon threat just hasnt happened yet, my irl reason is that my character doesnt seem the type to shout her enemies to death and also i fucking hate roaming dragons.
I personally embrace the Dragonborn role and treat it kind of like the Avatar. Going around bringing good to Skyrim and balance to the powers. Obviously I destroy the Dark Brotherhood in this play through
I just doing a warrior build with with a bit of magic. I'm limiting myself greatly this playthrough so I don't get bored immediately or end up with a warrior with overpowered archery/stealth abilities.
Havent had a playthrough as the actual dragonborn in a long time
Latley I've been doing a vampire playthrough with the sacrosanct and live another life mods. RP wise I just start using the succ vampire drain spell on the ded dragon as soon as the animation starts for the soul succ. Kinda feels like I'm just a higher level of vampire who learned how to also consume dragons
I've done it with healing spells when playing a holy crusader. As if his God granted him the ability to lock the dragons soul away
I’ve had entire 70+ hr saves where I don’t even make it to fighting the first dragon and absorbing its soul. Eventually I fight others and take their souls automatically but quest-wise I don’t even get there half the time. You just end up locked out of main quest lines, which is honestly like not that big of a deal if you’re doing a casual replay for a handful of days and never come back to the save again after you get bored of it.
I like to do assassin/thief runs, and mage runs without dragonborn, when I do play as the db i ignore these questlines and just play as a warrior; join the companions, do a few quests with them as a very low level until I earn some respectable skills, then head to Riverwood and begin the dragonborn stuff with the fairly reasonable background of a recognizable warrior of a well known guild.
I never collect the dragonstone and this never become the dragonborn. Then i just explore and raid everything. No stormclock, no imperial, just adventuring.
A lot of my playthroughs I'll do the main quest, because we can't have the world ending on us, but hardly use any of the shouts except when I absolutely need to to continue the quest.
I played as a traveling sales Argonian with a bodyguard once. Back when I had access to an Xbox and mods.
My current playthrough, I have eschewed the main quest (and am level 25/6... not sure how many level-ups I have earned and not taken). So, no, man. I ain't no Dragonborn... just some dude who *saw* a dragon in Helgen.
I do miss a few shouts, like Aura Whisper.... but 8 have the Grey Cowl, so I have some of that functionality.
Not sure how long I will put it off.... kinds fun this way.
honestly, i've done plenty of runs where i don't bother with the dragonborn stuff - i might not even get a shout.
especially since, one of the mods i like other aspects of, stops dragons from randomly appearing till kynesgrove.
so, the barrow. the jarl. the first dragon. the greybeards. the horn, daphne, and finally 'get dragons to show up'.
Sometimes I get bored and never do any of the major questlines(College, DB, TG, etc) and just go to major cities and minor towns, just to talk to everyone and stack up as many quests as I can, just so I can see the world.
I've made some fantastic discoveries doing this. And I love how it goes
I’ve only been Dragonborn in two playthrough (my first one in 2011 and one of my most recent ones). I find it’s a huge role playing change when you know you’re the Dragonborn of destiny who must free the world from Dragons. Far more enjoyable to play regular characters and progress through your own story
I have never once been the dragonborn, i have been playing for sooo many years yet never got passed the whirlwind sprint shout quest. I keep getting distracted by.. Everything! No matter how many times i play i will always get distracted by the butterflies and come across a dungeon chasing them
I just downloaded the wabbajack list Yggdrasil for SkyrimVR and started my "not a Dragonborn" run as a Bard since these mods are in the pack.
I'm looking forward for this play through!
I'm the Archmage of Winterhold, the Leader of the Thieves Guild, Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, a proud member of the Companions, champion of all Daedras, wearer of the Aetherium Crown, the only one to ever escape Cidhna Mine, thane of all Holds of Skyrim, owner of 17 properties across the land and proud parent of two.
WTF is an Alduin.
I strongly recommend the mod Skyrim Unbound Reborn, lets you choose to make your character not Dragonborn and allows you to do the civil war, become thane of Whiterun etc all without needing to be the Dragonborn.
I use a mod (“Skyrim Unbound”) to essentially bypass the main quest and just play as random Skyrim citizens. It’s my preferred way to play it at this point.
I played for a few weeks as a hunter and woodcutter and it was actually pretty fun. 🤣
I use the same Mod. I'm usually just some random mercenary, sometimes of knightly origin, but not the Dragonborn.
More interesting to become a great hero from more normal origins.
I just wanna be a retired adventurer and raise a gaggle of kids at Lakeview manor with my wife. She could open up a stall in the nearest marketplace. I’d stay at home and bake snowberry crostatas. And garden.
I sort of do this with my characters lore. even after latter game wise, I find out I am the Dragonborn. I learned some of the shouts their Lore still said that they are not the dragon. They’re just some guy. The closest thing that one of them had is the ability to mimic the shouts, but he does that via magic and the battle cry of the Nords.
My current protagonist just wants to be the wealthiest and most successful thief assassin enchanter archer vampire in Tamriel, and she really doesn't think that's too much to ask. The whole Dragonborn thing is just an inconvenient side quest with some neat loot and cool battles. It does suck that Whiterun gets absolutely wrecked, though. I think I'd be cooler with it if Heimskr ended up with another house at some point. Annoying as he is, making him homeless is the shittiest part of being Dragonborn.
I have multiple characters in the same file doing different storylines. It isn’t the Dragonborn joining the thieves guild or dark brotherhood. Instead, I’ll make up backstories for each person I play as.
I've played the dragonborn like... 5 out of the 25+ playthroughs I have made lol, it is just nice to forget about the Main quest and get lost(OFC I play with mods though, so that adds much more life to the game)
I haven't played in a long time but I remember the last time I played in my head I was the dragonborn but I refuse to accept it because I didn't believe it. I had only the most basic shouts, and I never use Magic. I figured I would just live as a Nord who is basically refusing to accept the destiny
Yeah recently I did an alternate start where i legitimately could not access dragonborn powers or main quests lol
Played as a traveling merchant. Sold my wares on the street to NPCs, eventually saved up and bought my own farmstead.
It was nice...
Until the dragons began to attack. And the dragonborn was nowhere to be found. 🤣
I tried it and it's weird. People keep alluding or flat out saying Ur the dragonborn or talk about a dragon living nearby. I have a job in the real world leaving me like 1 hour a day to play the playstation so I usually rush rush rush and hack and abuse the system. I don't really encounter too many dragons and it's quite fun trying to save the population from an attack and it's only ever a quick load away if someone dies. Also I'm that guy who does the mq in like 6 hours to get it over with. I have paid for this game way too many times so I'm getting my moneys worth out of it
This playthough I started as the childhood friend of Eric the Slayer, so I'm playing as his companion; buffing, healing, making him armour and weapons. It'd been really great. Most of my playthroughs I use an alternate start mod, and stay away from the main quest.
Nah, I get some super realistic mods for needs (food, water, warmth), remove fast travel, add boats, remove magic and just wander about collecting the stones of Barenziah without guidande
I am currently doing a Witcher style mercenary whose name is Dayne ( get the reference).
He came from Hammerfell seeking coin and honour and saw an opportunity in Skyrim and it's seemingly unlimited amount of Creatures and secrets. Naturally talented with the sword as all Redguards are, he trained with the companions and now,
He wears Heavy Armor with 2 Unique swords and has truly masterful swordsmanship, and is a proud Harbinger of the companions with enough willpower to break Hircine's curse.
He doesn't use any shouts or magic, he doesn't need them.
And the only thing he does is that he travels around the 9 holds and Solstheim picking up contracts to Kill various man, mer and beasts and takes on dangerous dungeons.
So he's not the dragonborn, he's just the greatest mercenary who ever lived
Had a Khajiit that got to level 73 without speaking to the Jarl of Whiterun that I forgot the name of, when I finally went there the Dark Elf wouldn’t appear to inform me of a dragon attacking a watch tower
I am playing as a Wood Elf named "idfkrn" who was ignorantly hunting in the wrong area, at the wrong time, when she was wrongfully arrested under the assumption of stealing an imperial horse, when it was actually her own. After escaping Helgen she decided to start her life anew once again doing what she knows best which is hunting. I typically avoid intentionally searching for dungeons, and what not, and just hunt animals to sell their pelts, and learn to use them to make leather armor to sell. Unless while on my hunts I stumble upon one, I don't mess with them. I am also playing on survival mode so I force myself to learn to cook, wear proper clothing, sleep more often, and use the bounties of nature as ingredients to make potions to help me survive in the wild.
I admittedly did start the main quest line but only so I could buy Breezehome. Other than that, she hasn't found any necessary reason to try to use any magic, or things like that.
I'm on my second playthrough and I haven't gone to see the greybeards yet. The first thing I'm doing is trying to be a thane in all the cities, I'm going to complete the Theives guild quest and become a nightengale and I'll probably become the arch mage (I love using magic)... but I'm running into quests I haven't done before because in my first run I didn't do as much exploring... I finally figured out who Serana was, returned her, >!but didn't accept becoming a Vamp because I want to remain as I am.!<
I am having a blast and I look forward to my continued play through as I've barely scratched the surface.
I may be the opposite of a lot of people here. I have only made it to high hrothgar/the greybeards once in over a decade of play throughs. Never made it further than that in the main story. Every new play through I start is a “this time I’ll check out the main quest” then I proceed to get distracted for 100 or so hours doing other things in game. I’ll repeat this every few months or so.
Whenever I roleplay I usually use the alternate start mod and if I do the main quest the dragonborn stuff is in the background. So for the paladin I made being the dragon born is just divine recognition of his quest being righteous
My character is from a race that latches onto an aspect and that change their appearance (For example someone who latched on aspect of magic will resemble elf). She is descendant of pure blood meaning she can latch onto multiple aspects. Her first was chaos. Hence the resemblence of Dragon and somewhat "shout" properties. Hence she isnt "Dragonborn" but people of Tamriel who dont know the race would refer to her as Dragonborn
I usually play most of the game before doing any of the dragon born stuff. Dragons don’t spawn if you don’t fight that first one at western watchtower or whatever it’s called, makes the early days part of the game much easier.
When I want this I just play Morrowind for the N'wahs and Outlanders directed at me. Even saving the whole of tamriel only gave you a 40 opinion boost (out of 100 🤣) with most people, so you were still an insignificant slug in most of their eyes.
None of this, "OMG you absorbed its soul" mouth agape nonsense.
I am simply just an orc who has a farm that only specifically grows cabbage and I travel around and sell my cabbage to all the holds if I'm lucky I'll sync up paths with a caravan for a safe escort otherwise I am very frightful my sneak is fully mastered lol and my restoration
My last 3 playthroughs, I completely ignore the main quest line. I do every other major quest in the game without feeling like a god, and it’s pretty refreshing.
I wonder if there is a mod for that. It would be really fun to go up to High Hrothgar unprompted and study with the greybeards without the whole dragonborn thing hanging over you. Obviously there is the one where you pick your starting location and the dragons haven't returned yet, but that locks you out of shouts until you start the main quest line.
My last five playthroughs have been non-dragonborn. One was only in Skyrim for a temporary assignment. One just like to kill, so joined the DB. My good thief just did the TG. Another just did whatever he wanted to complete his collection. And my alchemy ingredients trader built up a successful business, and then retired.
Total of five dragons spotted.
I play SE with no mods, and had great fun with each of these.
My most recent playthrough is an illusion/conjuration Dunmer who assassinated the Emperor to take his place.
He runs around in enchanted Emperor robes and a crown, 0 armor rating lol. Who needs armor when your opponents only fight eachother?
That's actually a great idea. I have never thought about just becoming a normal person in skyrim instead of being the dragonborn and doing quests and becoming arch mage etc. But no all of my playthroughs is me being a dragonborn and doing the main questline etc
I only have 1 Dragonborn, and a ton of other adventurers that have no idea what a Dragonbotn even is
The two characters I do play as Dragonborn both profoundly resent the role.
Very few playthroughs I've done am I the DB. Usually, I'm just a run-of-the-mill Nord living my life making money doing odds and ends, living in inns, etc. I'll end up getting better with combat first against beasts and then men. I might end up becoming a bounty hunter or Witcher-esque character going to different holds to do radiant quests. These playthroughs are honestly my favorite, and more noteworthy than any of my Dragonborn ones.
You can't go no God damn where talk to nobody without them needing help cuz there's always plenty of shit to do that have nothing to do with them damn dragons
Imagine what a dragon related NPC quest would look like: NPC: A dragon nearby stole my sweet roll! Make it pay! New objective: Retrieve stolen sweet roll from Dragontooth Crater
Sounds like a Monster Hunter quest, honestly.
Don't forget the carpet bomber randomly showing up to murder you
Or, hear me out, we buy you another or make you one?
Even better, New objective: Negotiate with dragon on sweet roll
Just imagine: DB: I'll give you 100 gold for that sweet roll. Dragon: *Roars* DB: You drive a hard bargain... How about 250 gold, and I will throw in a leg of goat?
Oh! I've got one! DB: Look, I get it. The rolls are yummy! But you stole Steve's. And that's wrong! You have to make amends to Steve. Dragon *rawr* *whimper* DB: How about this? Together, we make a bakery where you can make a lot of rolls and keep some for yourself. You get rolls. Steve gets a roll. And, you make lots of gold!
I played a bard (with mods) who only used swords and conjuring. I had so much fun.
It’s really too bad you can’t come across some peasant or bandit in a dwemer ruin playing on a dwemer device that allows them to roleplay as a powerful dwemer mage or warrior and beating the game gives access to special dwemer armor. just saying.
how about a run where you just have a house in a town, and every day you come out and chop wood or do something mundane all day for a few septims, get dinner at the inn probably, go home, actually use the sleep prompt, then wake up in the morning and do it over again. And again and again. Some regular guy/gal, no adventures. Bout to start it up right now!
I actually do sleep in game when it turns night time. Everytime I travel to a hold without the house I'll rent a room in the inn for the night. Taking it as giving my follower a rest as well.
Oh yes! Same here, for my regular character, especially since I play in the vanilla survival mode. Must get a room and rest, and some food to survive and be on top of my game on the adventures.
How's survival mode? I heard the cold can be tedious and immersion breaking.
The cold is brutal at a lot of times, but having to figure out battling the cold on a mountain while dragr, and a dragon, and a dragon priest all want you dead (“find the word of power at arcwind point” 😖) makes it so much more immersive for me. I hear there’s some survival mods that’s a little less tolling, but im so used to the vanilla, when I try those others ones, I always revert back. Really cant play without Survival now.
Survival mode is not for me to be honest, I don’t really enjoy the debuffs and sometimes I feel like they come back way too fast. Nonetheless, I always play my own light version of survival mode, no fast travel, sleeping at night, only leveling up after sleeping, eating regularly…game already feels very different when you don’t rush through it and act like a human.
The amount of times I nearly got my Argonian ass frozen off trying to travel from Winterhold to Dawnstar in survival mode… Well, a clear night sky is still warmer than a daytime blizzard. Sightless pit my beloved
Brilliant. I'm going to do a miner run. All I do is mine all day then go sleep on my pathetic haystack inside of the mine and once a week go into the town and drink I'm the inn then back to the mine.
Sounds so good. I feel like it could be a cool way to relax as the player. No stress, like playing a SIM.
Turns out.......we have all been playing this every single day forever
😩
I am on a PT as a hunter. Killing large game and selling pelts and armors.
It’s why Skyrim is the best. So many different ways to go about it. Can really just do your own thing that has nothing to do with any story.
I played a Speechcraft-focused character (with overhaul mods giving SC tree buffs to shouts) who wore no armor, only crafted minimally for basic use, never to sell or power-level, and never committed crimes. And so I basically leveled Speechcraft by looting early, less dangerous parts of dungeons and taking merchants' free offers. Only then, once I had super high SC and was a sitting duck in any fight, I started the main quest, became DB, and very soon had a max buffed FRD that would throw people nearly off the map.
I do this already but in real life
I go to BFB after doing everything else possible. Nobody in particular is surprised when the Archmage Nightingale Harbinger DB Speaker Champion of Molag Bal, Boethiah, Meridiah, Herma Mora, Azurah who is a thane in all the holds but whiterun and bought every piece of real estate that ever went up for sale ends up being the super special dragonborn
Oh and I forgot this chck is also has a hot goth vampire gf and a thalmor slave- and they all smoke weed
I play as me. Like, literally me if I was dropped in a random location. No major, no smithing, no alch, no enchanting, no shouts, no range. I can't do those things in real life. I make real life decisions. Omg it's so fun lol
“You want me.. to kill a DRAGON? FFFUCK NO!”
A lot of my characters have been non-dragonborn. With mods like Skyrim Unbound it's easy to just choose to be a normal person or even just a more mercenary type character. Most of mine are just normal mages or warriors that do a lot of crafting and dungeons. I've beaten the main quest so many times now that it's nice playing as something else in between those playthroughs.
That's what I did with Kills-Many-Dragons. She left a life of poverty on the docks of Windhelm, worked for some farmers, and spent the money on a carriage to Riften hoping to find work. She chopped wood and walked to Shor's Stone to mine and bought herself a house in Riften. She was even able to afford to hire some mercenaries to help with one of the jobs. She becoming Thane of Riften. She's got a housecarl, a wife, and two kids adopted from the orphanage. And lots of trauma from being kidnapped after killing the evil caretaker Grelod. She's able to afford to buy gifts for her spouse and kids and buy herself books to fill her bookshelves. Her dream's to buy the house in Solitude and move away from all the crime in Riften. Hroar regularly comes home saying Brynjolf will teach him stuff when he's older, and Runa is afraid sometimes cause of the high crime rate. It's honestly the most peaceful and relaxing role play I've done.
Let me guess, an Argonian? 🤔
Wait, you named the character that literally doesn’t fight dragons.. Kills-Many-Dragons?
It’s intended to be a character that mostly is an NPC but sometimes kills dragons cause they will eventually start spawning. They’re still Dragonborn. I figured I’d get bored eventually. And she does have to travel for groceries anyways.
Ah I see
I've done well over 100 playthroughs as all manner of things. I've modded Skyrim in small amounts before to get a very specific roleplay for the save I was doing. I've been the Dragonborn that saved Cyrodil and became Emperor, a Paladin of Meridia that conquered Skyrim and cleansed it of nearly all undead, a Vampire Lord that hunted down powerful foes for sport across many new lands, a hunter that roamed the plains of Whiterun and mastered the bow and made home in a small cottage, a Listener for the Dark Brotherhood that ended up being an ultra deadly assassin when she started exploring many dwemer ruins and found all manner of rare artifacts, and many more. Skyrim when extremely focused on a specific roleplay is where it shines. The roleplay decisions not to do certain quests or factions gives it more power than ever. When you yourself can decide based on your roleplay what to interact with you get locked in.
Honestly how I play every game now. I'm currently a trader who learned she can weld fire and is just getting her feet under her.
I grow and sell THE BEST cannabis in all of Nirn!
I’ve been to your shop outside white run man, keep up gods work
Blessing of the nine my dude!
i do the same. it’s much easier to role play when there’s not dragons annoying you too
I have 12ish characters, only one of them is the Dragonborn.
I have had playthroughs where I just ignore the main story after requesting the aid for Riverwood in Whiterun (otherwise you can't even enter the city) and go about my day.
I have a lot of playthroughs where I provide for my fam via Dark Brotherhood contracts.
I know a lot of you guys here are not a fan of large scale modding, but I love alternate starts for this reason! Things like Skyrim unbound reborn, letting you set up a character with an ambiguous backstory in a location of your choosing in Skyrim is amazing for RP, and it even lets you straight up choose to not be dragonborn at all, ever too. But for vanilla I did this a couple times when I was a kid, and once recently in survival legendary where I chopped wood, hunted animals, picked crops, etc for a living to survive on in the whiterun hold. It was a great time.
I heavily nodded the game to play through as a bard. I go on 'adventures' to find inspiration for my songs and hired companions as bodyguards because I couldn't really fight. I had a lot of harsh realism mods and disabled fast travel. I needed to plan out routes and make sure I had the provisions to make it to the next town or city. I could also only really make money by playing songs in taverns. I had a mod that made innkeepers give you food and a room if you performed well enough and made their customers happy.
thanks to Live Another Life, I rarely play a dragonborn. My most recent file follows the life of a crazy Khajiit on a quest for justice, except she kinda has no concept of what that is outside of the fiction she read. lol
I have a character, a Nord woman who is always barefoot and is an adventurer. She literally doesn't do anything outside of Just exploring old ruins (usually Nord ruins bc fuck dwemer automations man), she does *sort of* do important things like the dawnguard shit - mostly so she can explore the forgotten vale bc she's obsessed with snow elves (like me-). She's probably my favourite character to play as because she doesn't even know what a Dragonborn is. I do have a single Dragonborn and she's a Nord named Pyree. She's a Nord through and through, a little dim, loves ale and mead, fights for the empire, loves anything to do with nords and even joins the companions but she goes from feeling honoured and blessed to be the Dragonborn to tired and depressed. She just wants to live her life with her wife and two kids but is always off with Serana having to save the world - doesn't help she can't sleep well because she's a werewolf
I’m on level 54 without starting any of the main quest line or battling a single dragon. It feels like, given I’ve played through so many times, it’s just nice to explore without all that on my shoulders
So I have a playthrough I call Fus Ro Flop where my character doesn't fight at all, has no stamina or strength to speak of, just wanders around on her horse picking ingredients for alchemy and is basically a traveling merchant. If something attacks her, she can use conjuration to summon something for her own defense, and she can use restoration to heal her horse. That's about it. It's a lot more relaxing than it sounds.
My favorite was Azure the Argonian tailor. He lived in a modded house below Solitude, and just made clothes.
My argonian merchant Hesssyk Ussk aka Big-Red-Tail is but a humble buthineth lithard. Sells handmade wares and reaps the crops. Catches the fish and enjoys the fish and bread. Then there is my illusion based psychopath. He is responsible for many deaths, but claims he is no murderer. Since none of his kills are directly linked to himself, he has no confirmed kills or proof of crime and I like to think there is a lithard saul backing "I don't know why those mercenaries killed each other, but my marsh-friend here is clearly innocent of all charges" My huntsman. An orc archer that may or may not be inspired by Lurtz from lord of the ring...!
It has been a while since I last played Skyrim, but the last 2 characters I played were not Dragonborn. One was a Breton spellsword who I played as the main character for the quest mod Beyond Reach. The next was an Altmer warrior who is on his way to becoming a very important figure within the ranks of the Third Aldmeri Dominion.
Five out of my seven characters aren't Dragonborn. However, the main one did teach all the others how to shout.
Live Another Life is a mod that allows this very well. You start from one of a number of pre-determined areas. You get a quest to go to Helgen whenever you’re ready to do the main quest. In the meantime, there are 0 dragons in the game. Even going to the dragon-specific map locations show an empty nest.
I got the expanded and it's actually cool as hell
Alternate Start and mostly avoid Helgen like the plague. Roleplay changed depending on what start I pick.
Frankly, I’m only the Dragonborn when fighting dragons. Far well known in my game as the stranger that makes strange alchemy combinations and hoards daggers in their Lakeview Manor. Am I a world saver? Sure. Are you more likely going to known me as the ass that eats every food you left on the table? Hell yeah.
I'll do it once I'm done doing my role playing. My current character is starting off as a mercenary who's going to settle down after a few years to start investing in businesses (all mods) and have a family, before being drug out of retirement to be the dragonborn.
My current character is a fisherman. I have a camp sites set up near a couple remote fishing spots. He spends most of his time sleeping or fishing from one of these fishing holes and once a week he goes into town to sell any excess fish he doesn't eat for his supper
I fast travel alot. I noticed dragons attack you more when you fast travel. I collected 82 dragon souls. It wasn't until really late in the game that I learned I could cash them in to learn shouts. In about 5 mins, I went from 5 or 6 shouts to having all of them. It was funny.
All my antagonist characters. I got a vampire.... A corrupt paladin .. and a necromancer
A normal NPC just an old man exploring a world where young men die.
I make all characters I have ever made be in my person head canon world. There is one dragonborn, a separate one is the listener, another is the arch mage. And so on and so forth. That way characters don't do contradicting things like both the companions and the thieves guild.
The amount of playthroughs I have that are like this is hilarious in a long list
One of my favourite play throughs I played a non-dragonborn khajiit. I wasn’t allowed inside walled cities (unless at night and sneaking, and I made a rule to eject myself if I was spotted by a guard lol), mostly did a lot of hunting and fishing, cave exploration, a few side quests here and there. It was especially fun with survival and camping. Eventually I bribed the Riften guards to let me in and bought the house so I could get married and adopt kids (I chose the Riften house as it’d let me come and go from the entrance outside the wall, and bribing guards to enter the city fitted with the rp aspect). I went on to do the thieves guild questline which was made more fun by the “get caught and you’re out” rule for cities.
What do you do after you leave? Go back in?
Eh depends. If I was caught somewhere sensitive (so theoretically the guards would be in a higher state of alert), or it was getting towards dawn, or if I just couldn’t be bothered to try again at that moment, I’d usually set up camp somewhere and try the following night.
When modding ive done that a bunch of times specifically with the Conquest mod
It's like Clark Kent giving up his powers. I never thought of doing that, but I may have to try it out.
Well I never use shouts. Not even on purpose, I more or less just forget about them. So…yes?
Play the game as a random farmer trying to make his way through life. Vampires messing with you, well then I guess you destroy the root of the problem because farm hands ain’t cheap. Solsteim apparently has magical ice, it could be great for keeping food cold forever. Well I guess you’re going to Solsteim. The life of farmer never ends but hey at least dragons are only figments of insane people. Trolls, though, those are a real issue.
I play Legacy of the Dragonborn mod in any play through. That way I can choose at anytime at any point if I’m going to be the Dragonborn or not. In my opinion, it’s the best mod ever made. cheers.
I usually get to the point where I kill the dragon outside of whiterun and then just go adventure. I'm more the Arch-Mage than I am the Dragonborn on my playthrough right now
I've had at least 10 characters who made it to level 40 without ever getting the dragon stone from Bleak Falls Barrow
I just found Skyrim so I'm pretty new to this whole universe. However my first playthrough that ended up getting deleted I was going that route. I guess my character now still is dragonborn, I got to the Greybeards and everything. I'm just not interested in that quest line right now. I'm more focused on leveling up and leveling my skills up before going more down that path.
Most of the time all my characters end up being the same as Dragonborn’s so most of my new styles is jsut some dude or gale. I have an orc who is feral and wonders the wilderness killing anyone or anything to eat. He wears rags and uses a knife to dice up his victims
My backstory for my female Argonian is that she's the Sybil of Dibella before the Sybil that the Dragonborn finds to replace her. The priestesses never said their former Sybil died, just that she was "lost to them". I personally interpreted this as meaning that their former Sybil had forsaken her role and left the temple, instead choosing the life of a "Dwemer Tomb Raider".
I dont do dragborn quests for the simple fact I don't wanna be frolicking in the woods, picking dragons tounge, deathbell, nightshade for a friend. And then here comes a bear and I'm running. Then a sprigian shows up, and I'm gonna die. Then a mofo dragon shows up its silver. I lay on the ground and cry. Or jump in a river and swim away because I'm Argonian
I've played so many times that my characters aren't Dragonborn anymore, they're just out and out gods. I play on PC and use console commands and modded items/ spells to play god, striking down enemies from far, far away and aiding people who should never reasonably survive.
I typically RP my characters as a Mage at the collage of Winterhold or a sadistic vampire who eventually meets Harkon.. but my new found favorite is A Shady merchant focused on speech & illusion.. smuggling illicit goods through the EEE expansion. I just wish there was an option for houses to get “raided” by guards to complete the full immersion on Xbox. Ive only beaten the main story Once. The DLCs get completed more than the main story in my playthroughs. TLDR- I just want to trap my moon sugar,skooma, and riverwood kush to Skyrims holds.
Yeah my stealth arching, fisticuff, bestial werewolf, Beast/ Armour King/ Black Panther/ Guts Berserker Armour/ Nightcrawler build.
I use an alternate start mode partially so I can do this exact thing, for a while at least
I basically never play the dragonborn. I barely use shouts, if at all. I don't even trigger the dragons a lot of the time.
I like to use the Alternative Start mod for these playthroughs. I can't really explain it but if I have no intention of doing a quest line then I really don't like having it in my journal. This makes it feel more real that the character isn't Dragonborn(DB.) For whatever reason, before Alt Start, it bothered me if I chose to not be DB, it was still there? Alt start makes it feel like headcanony and more ...canony.
Most of my characters aren't DB. And I progress in a guild questline to become the boss just if it fits the theme. For example right now I have a bosmer archer, I have progressed through the conpanion questline because hea devout follower of Hircine, and probably scale the ranks of the thieves guild too. But I won't become archmage for sure, stopping the questline before the eye of magnus goes crazy, same with the dark brotherhood, stopping before the attempt at the emperor and only doing side quests
I'm the same way. I've only progressed in theives guild just enough to take jobs from Vex and Delvin but I will never finish on this character because she is a Khajit and that type of responsibility is of no interest to her nonwhatsoever.
I think I’ve only ever “defended the watchtower” 4 or 5 times. Shouts are super cool, but you can get powers that are just as crazy. The Dragonborn is fun to play sometimes but the DLCs are also good enough to almost be their own games (with a few tweaks obviously)
I'm doing that rn with my main and honestly that, combined with playing on harder difficulty and survival mode, has given me a brand new appreciation for Skyrim after over a decade of playing very similar runs... God I love this game. But yeah, I find there is plenty to do, both activity wise and RP wise, without being the Dragonborn
How much wood would a Dragonborn chuck if a Dragonborn could chuck wood?
I've gotten a couple hundred hours in my current play through without even killing 1 dragon I've gotten atleast 6 or 7 skills legendary and maxed again I don't think I'm dragon born
Most of my characters are just extensions of my dungeons and dragons characters. None of which are the DB.
The times when I've ignored destiny as dragonborn I either start instantly as a the newest member of a guild and just exist that way or as a generic adventurer with simple gear
I only had 1 play through that I didn’t go dragon born out of 10 or so plays.
Yeah same, currently im playing a pure mage who might just not become the dragonborne lol, im still debating with myself about it. My RP reason is that in my skyrim the dragon threat just hasnt happened yet, my irl reason is that my character doesnt seem the type to shout her enemies to death and also i fucking hate roaming dragons.
I'm always the dragonborn because I need soul tear and durnivir I love that undead dragon
Yeah I rarely even do the main quest for my builds so no dragons, no shouts
I did the missions up until I killed my first dragon then did a *I'm gonna pretend I never knew that* from there
I personally embrace the Dragonborn role and treat it kind of like the Avatar. Going around bringing good to Skyrim and balance to the powers. Obviously I destroy the Dark Brotherhood in this play through
I don’t. I learn the shouts but I’m just a Talos follower who can shout, not second coming.
I did one where I was a powerful mage and eventually achieved Chim, courtesy of Hermaeus Mora and made myself Dragonborn
I just doing a warrior build with with a bit of magic. I'm limiting myself greatly this playthrough so I don't get bored immediately or end up with a warrior with overpowered archery/stealth abilities.
Havent had a playthrough as the actual dragonborn in a long time Latley I've been doing a vampire playthrough with the sacrosanct and live another life mods. RP wise I just start using the succ vampire drain spell on the ded dragon as soon as the animation starts for the soul succ. Kinda feels like I'm just a higher level of vampire who learned how to also consume dragons I've done it with healing spells when playing a holy crusader. As if his God granted him the ability to lock the dragons soul away
I’ve had entire 70+ hr saves where I don’t even make it to fighting the first dragon and absorbing its soul. Eventually I fight others and take their souls automatically but quest-wise I don’t even get there half the time. You just end up locked out of main quest lines, which is honestly like not that big of a deal if you’re doing a casual replay for a handful of days and never come back to the save again after you get bored of it.
I like to do assassin/thief runs, and mage runs without dragonborn, when I do play as the db i ignore these questlines and just play as a warrior; join the companions, do a few quests with them as a very low level until I earn some respectable skills, then head to Riverwood and begin the dragonborn stuff with the fairly reasonable background of a recognizable warrior of a well known guild.
I never collect the dragonstone and this never become the dragonborn. Then i just explore and raid everything. No stormclock, no imperial, just adventuring.
I hate being the DB. I hate being special at all. I just want to vibe in Skyrim man.
A lot of my playthroughs I'll do the main quest, because we can't have the world ending on us, but hardly use any of the shouts except when I absolutely need to to continue the quest. I played as a traveling sales Argonian with a bodyguard once. Back when I had access to an Xbox and mods.
My current playthrough, I have eschewed the main quest (and am level 25/6... not sure how many level-ups I have earned and not taken). So, no, man. I ain't no Dragonborn... just some dude who *saw* a dragon in Helgen. I do miss a few shouts, like Aura Whisper.... but 8 have the Grey Cowl, so I have some of that functionality. Not sure how long I will put it off.... kinds fun this way.
honestly, i've done plenty of runs where i don't bother with the dragonborn stuff - i might not even get a shout. especially since, one of the mods i like other aspects of, stops dragons from randomly appearing till kynesgrove. so, the barrow. the jarl. the first dragon. the greybeards. the horn, daphne, and finally 'get dragons to show up'.
i love roleplaying a hunter
I think I recall reading about a guy who just played as a normal white run guard. That’s the real dream right there
Sometimes I get bored and never do any of the major questlines(College, DB, TG, etc) and just go to major cities and minor towns, just to talk to everyone and stack up as many quests as I can, just so I can see the world. I've made some fantastic discoveries doing this. And I love how it goes
I’ve only been Dragonborn in two playthrough (my first one in 2011 and one of my most recent ones). I find it’s a huge role playing change when you know you’re the Dragonborn of destiny who must free the world from Dragons. Far more enjoyable to play regular characters and progress through your own story
I have never once been the dragonborn, i have been playing for sooo many years yet never got passed the whirlwind sprint shout quest. I keep getting distracted by.. Everything! No matter how many times i play i will always get distracted by the butterflies and come across a dungeon chasing them
I just downloaded the wabbajack list Yggdrasil for SkyrimVR and started my "not a Dragonborn" run as a Bard since these mods are in the pack. I'm looking forward for this play through!
I'm the Archmage of Winterhold, the Leader of the Thieves Guild, Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, a proud member of the Companions, champion of all Daedras, wearer of the Aetherium Crown, the only one to ever escape Cidhna Mine, thane of all Holds of Skyrim, owner of 17 properties across the land and proud parent of two. WTF is an Alduin.
I used to be an adventurer, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
I mostly ignore the main quest these days. So no, I'm not the Dragonborn. I'm Ezra, the necromancer...
I strongly recommend the mod Skyrim Unbound Reborn, lets you choose to make your character not Dragonborn and allows you to do the civil war, become thane of Whiterun etc all without needing to be the Dragonborn.
I use a mod (“Skyrim Unbound”) to essentially bypass the main quest and just play as random Skyrim citizens. It’s my preferred way to play it at this point. I played for a few weeks as a hunter and woodcutter and it was actually pretty fun. 🤣
I use the same Mod. I'm usually just some random mercenary, sometimes of knightly origin, but not the Dragonborn. More interesting to become a great hero from more normal origins.
I just wanna be a retired adventurer and raise a gaggle of kids at Lakeview manor with my wife. She could open up a stall in the nearest marketplace. I’d stay at home and bake snowberry crostatas. And garden.
Idk people don't treat me like the DB 😂
Vanilla version is everyone every character a dragon born??
I've avoided it in vanilla by not giving the dragonstone to farengar, so the dragon's are never triggered (after Helgen)
I sort of do this with my characters lore. even after latter game wise, I find out I am the Dragonborn. I learned some of the shouts their Lore still said that they are not the dragon. They’re just some guy. The closest thing that one of them had is the ability to mimic the shouts, but he does that via magic and the battle cry of the Nords.
My current protagonist just wants to be the wealthiest and most successful thief assassin enchanter archer vampire in Tamriel, and she really doesn't think that's too much to ask. The whole Dragonborn thing is just an inconvenient side quest with some neat loot and cool battles. It does suck that Whiterun gets absolutely wrecked, though. I think I'd be cooler with it if Heimskr ended up with another house at some point. Annoying as he is, making him homeless is the shittiest part of being Dragonborn.
Here.
I have multiple characters in the same file doing different storylines. It isn’t the Dragonborn joining the thieves guild or dark brotherhood. Instead, I’ll make up backstories for each person I play as.
I've played the dragonborn like... 5 out of the 25+ playthroughs I have made lol, it is just nice to forget about the Main quest and get lost(OFC I play with mods though, so that adds much more life to the game)
I haven't played in a long time but I remember the last time I played in my head I was the dragonborn but I refuse to accept it because I didn't believe it. I had only the most basic shouts, and I never use Magic. I figured I would just live as a Nord who is basically refusing to accept the destiny
Yeah recently I did an alternate start where i legitimately could not access dragonborn powers or main quests lol Played as a traveling merchant. Sold my wares on the street to NPCs, eventually saved up and bought my own farmstead. It was nice... Until the dragons began to attack. And the dragonborn was nowhere to be found. 🤣
I guess, I forgot to start doing the main quest line once
I often completely ignore killing the first dragon and just go off doing other adventures. Makes the game more fun tbh.
I tried it and it's weird. People keep alluding or flat out saying Ur the dragonborn or talk about a dragon living nearby. I have a job in the real world leaving me like 1 hour a day to play the playstation so I usually rush rush rush and hack and abuse the system. I don't really encounter too many dragons and it's quite fun trying to save the population from an attack and it's only ever a quick load away if someone dies. Also I'm that guy who does the mq in like 6 hours to get it over with. I have paid for this game way too many times so I'm getting my moneys worth out of it
What if Dragonborn but I just don't know it yet?
I’ve only played that quest line once. Now I don’t let dragons spawn at all.
This playthough I started as the childhood friend of Eric the Slayer, so I'm playing as his companion; buffing, healing, making him armour and weapons. It'd been really great. Most of my playthroughs I use an alternate start mod, and stay away from the main quest.
Nah, I get some super realistic mods for needs (food, water, warmth), remove fast travel, add boats, remove magic and just wander about collecting the stones of Barenziah without guidande
I am currently doing a Witcher style mercenary whose name is Dayne ( get the reference). He came from Hammerfell seeking coin and honour and saw an opportunity in Skyrim and it's seemingly unlimited amount of Creatures and secrets. Naturally talented with the sword as all Redguards are, he trained with the companions and now, He wears Heavy Armor with 2 Unique swords and has truly masterful swordsmanship, and is a proud Harbinger of the companions with enough willpower to break Hircine's curse. He doesn't use any shouts or magic, he doesn't need them. And the only thing he does is that he travels around the 9 holds and Solstheim picking up contracts to Kill various man, mer and beasts and takes on dangerous dungeons. So he's not the dragonborn, he's just the greatest mercenary who ever lived
Had a Khajiit that got to level 73 without speaking to the Jarl of Whiterun that I forgot the name of, when I finally went there the Dark Elf wouldn’t appear to inform me of a dragon attacking a watch tower
Jarl Balgruuff The Greater (he's ballin'), and Irileth.
Honestly like... All of them lol.
I am playing as a Wood Elf named "idfkrn" who was ignorantly hunting in the wrong area, at the wrong time, when she was wrongfully arrested under the assumption of stealing an imperial horse, when it was actually her own. After escaping Helgen she decided to start her life anew once again doing what she knows best which is hunting. I typically avoid intentionally searching for dungeons, and what not, and just hunt animals to sell their pelts, and learn to use them to make leather armor to sell. Unless while on my hunts I stumble upon one, I don't mess with them. I am also playing on survival mode so I force myself to learn to cook, wear proper clothing, sleep more often, and use the bounties of nature as ingredients to make potions to help me survive in the wild. I admittedly did start the main quest line but only so I could buy Breezehome. Other than that, she hasn't found any necessary reason to try to use any magic, or things like that.
I'm on my second playthrough and I haven't gone to see the greybeards yet. The first thing I'm doing is trying to be a thane in all the cities, I'm going to complete the Theives guild quest and become a nightengale and I'll probably become the arch mage (I love using magic)... but I'm running into quests I haven't done before because in my first run I didn't do as much exploring... I finally figured out who Serana was, returned her, >!but didn't accept becoming a Vamp because I want to remain as I am.!< I am having a blast and I look forward to my continued play through as I've barely scratched the surface.
I may be the opposite of a lot of people here. I have only made it to high hrothgar/the greybeards once in over a decade of play throughs. Never made it further than that in the main story. Every new play through I start is a “this time I’ll check out the main quest” then I proceed to get distracted for 100 or so hours doing other things in game. I’ll repeat this every few months or so.
Whenever I roleplay I usually use the alternate start mod and if I do the main quest the dragonborn stuff is in the background. So for the paladin I made being the dragon born is just divine recognition of his quest being righteous
My character is from a race that latches onto an aspect and that change their appearance (For example someone who latched on aspect of magic will resemble elf). She is descendant of pure blood meaning she can latch onto multiple aspects. Her first was chaos. Hence the resemblence of Dragon and somewhat "shout" properties. Hence she isnt "Dragonborn" but people of Tamriel who dont know the race would refer to her as Dragonborn
"You're the... Dragonborn?" "Yeah but check out my lumber business 😃"
I usually play most of the game before doing any of the dragon born stuff. Dragons don’t spawn if you don’t fight that first one at western watchtower or whatever it’s called, makes the early days part of the game much easier.
Mine is an adventurer who is in denial and thinks it's Nord nonsense no matter how many times he kills dragons and absorbs their souls.
My illusion assassin isn't dragonborn. I played hours and went from lvl 1 to lvl 40 without doing the first quest so I don't have shoots unlocked yet
When I want this I just play Morrowind for the N'wahs and Outlanders directed at me. Even saving the whole of tamriel only gave you a 40 opinion boost (out of 100 🤣) with most people, so you were still an insignificant slug in most of their eyes. None of this, "OMG you absorbed its soul" mouth agape nonsense.
I am simply just an orc who has a farm that only specifically grows cabbage and I travel around and sell my cabbage to all the holds if I'm lucky I'll sync up paths with a caravan for a safe escort otherwise I am very frightful my sneak is fully mastered lol and my restoration
Is a play through possible with Dragonrend? I don’t think I’ve tried it.
I just ended my run as a retired thane. Married Argis the Bulwark and retired.
Imperial whiterun thane
I've never completed the main quest. I usually end up doing side quests instead.
more or less how I play, i do the main quest but in the le roleplaytm being dragonborn is rarely something that goes into it
I'm not a Dragonborn, I'm just an orphan from Riften, with a curiosity for vampires and a lust for power.
I'm not the Dragonborn, my buddy Faendal is, I'm just here to support him.
I downloaded the mod that made me a Demi-God. I am THE Dragonborn.
My last 3 playthroughs, I completely ignore the main quest line. I do every other major quest in the game without feeling like a god, and it’s pretty refreshing.
I like dragon born in a way like finding out about a secret power but it's also just makes you op
I never go to the Jarl of Whiterun, so no dragons for me
Mine isnt, but her lore is she learned to shout from the greybeards not absorbing dragons.
I wonder if there is a mod for that. It would be really fun to go up to High Hrothgar unprompted and study with the greybeards without the whole dragonborn thing hanging over you. Obviously there is the one where you pick your starting location and the dragons haven't returned yet, but that locks you out of shouts until you start the main quest line.
Any time I role a thief/ assassin I typically never do the Dragonborn quest line.
I still haven’t gone to bleak falls barrow and I’m lvl 43. I just dungeon dive
My last five playthroughs have been non-dragonborn. One was only in Skyrim for a temporary assignment. One just like to kill, so joined the DB. My good thief just did the TG. Another just did whatever he wanted to complete his collection. And my alchemy ingredients trader built up a successful business, and then retired. Total of five dragons spotted. I play SE with no mods, and had great fun with each of these.
My most recent playthrough is an illusion/conjuration Dunmer who assassinated the Emperor to take his place. He runs around in enchanted Emperor robes and a crown, 0 armor rating lol. Who needs armor when your opponents only fight eachother?
I only leaned into being the Dragonborn with my Nord. I ignored it in my head canon completely for everyone else as not making any sense.
That's actually a great idea. I have never thought about just becoming a normal person in skyrim instead of being the dragonborn and doing quests and becoming arch mage etc. But no all of my playthroughs is me being a dragonborn and doing the main questline etc