RLTTP: Skyrim, My, this is pretty fun, but damn how do you master all factions?

Cornbread78 · Dec 4, 2019

So I put in about 30 hours on PS3 and dropped it after about 10 of that 30 hours was spent on loading screens and I got bored with it.

However, with the PS4 remaster, those loading screens are non-existent now, so I'm all-in and having fun with it; the game has been a great detraction from my normal Destiny addiction/grind!

With that being said, I joined the:

Companions
Mages Guild
Thieves Guild
and I plan on joining the Dark Brotherhood as well

Yes, I'm all-in and will be doing it all! The problem is, like with Oblivion, the quests get intertwined. Is there a way to do all 4 guilds plus Stormcloaks or Legion without screwing up the other guild quest lines? Is there a good app/website that outlines a great route to take through all of the missions with minimum repercussions?

What is the best plan of action to get trough this all?

Also, Stormcloaks or Legion? Which one gives you better story and gear?

Disclaimer · Dec 4, 2019

You can do them all on one character. Only either/or is Imperials or ~~MAGAers~~ Stormcloaks (choose Imperials).

As for when/what order to do them... it makes no difference. You could just do each all the way through one-by-one, to make it easier to follow their stories.

unicornKnight · Dec 4, 2019

Cornbread78 said:
Also, Stormcloaks or Legion? Which one gives you better story and gear?

I went Stormcloaks since I don't like the Empire controlling all Cyrodiil but it was of the least interesting stuff in the game.

Cornbread78 · Dec 4, 2019

Disclaimer said:
You can do them all on one character. Only either/or is Imperials or ~~MAGAers~~ Stormcloaks (choose Imperials).

As for when/what order to do them... it makes no difference. You could just do each all the way through one-by-one, to make it easier to follow their stories.

The what now? Bruh, I'm at lvl. 14 ish....

Also, completing all the thieves guild missions first, doesn't ruin any of the mages guild or companion missions? Dark Brotherhood missions don't kill any of the leaders from any of the other guilds?

Kalentan · Dec 4, 2019

Go Imperials. Stormcloaks are just a bunch of racists.

Don't be a racist. Join the Imperials.

Edgar · Dec 4, 2019

Kalentan said:
Go Imperials. Stormcloaks are just a bunch of racists.

Don't be a racist. Join the Imperials.

You seem suspicious....

Deleted member 9486 · Dec 4, 2019

Disclaimer said:
You can do them all on one character. Only either/or is Imperials or ~~MAGAers~~ Stormcloaks (choose Imperials).

As for when/what order to do them... it makes no difference. You could just do each all the way through one-by-one, to make it easier to follow their stories.

Yep. I recommend doing them all one at a time. I did that and it made it feel like several games in one with the main story and each guild/faction being their own little self contained stories. Did the same thing in Oblivion.

Disclaimer · Dec 4, 2019

Cornbread78 said:
Also, completing all the thieves guild missions first, doesn't ruin any of the mages guild or companion missions? Dark Brotherhood missions don't kill any of the leaders from any of the other guilds?

Nope. None of them interact.

Kalentan · Dec 4, 2019

Edgar said:
You seem suspicious....

Merely speaking the truth.

The Cowpuncher · Dec 4, 2019

Kalentan said:
Go Imperials. Stormcloaks are just a bunch of racists.

Don't be a racist. Join the Imperials.

The Imperials almost execute you at the start of the game, are the Stormcloaks that bad?

I never did the Imperial/Stormcloak questline myself.

Kalentan · Dec 4, 2019

The Cowpuncher said:
The Imperials almost execute you at the start of the game, are the Stormcloaks that bad?

I never did the Imperial/Stormcloak questline myself.

Stormcloaks want everyone who isn't a nord to be kicked out of Skyrim.

But they're fine with you helping even if your not a Nord because "your one of the good ones."

Xalbur · Dec 4, 2019

I'm not sure I follow, Oblivion didn't have intertwining quests at all, and neither does Skyrim.

Cornbread78 · Dec 4, 2019

dmaul1114 said:
Yep. I recommend doing them all one at a time. I did that and it made it feel like several games in one with the main story and each guild/faction being their own little self contained stories. Did the same thing in Oblivion.

I did that with Oblivion too, but I remember killing off "allies" at the same time, lol

Disclaimer said:
Nope. None of them interact.

Very nice

The Cowpuncher said:
The Imperials almost execute you at the start of the game, are the Stormcloaks that bad?

I never did the Imperial/Stormcloak questline myself.

Good point. I picked up both questlines, but haven't continued either..

Deleted member 46948 · Dec 4, 2019

Kalentan said:
Stormcloaks want everyone who isn't a nord to be kicked out of Skyrim.

But they're fine with you helping even if your not a Nord because "your one of the good ones."

But then, the Imperials ostensibly cooperate with Thalmor, which is basically racist Inquisition.
I don't think either side is very nice.

Disclaimer · Dec 4, 2019

The Cowpuncher said:
The Imperials almost execute you at the start of the game, are the Stormcloaks that bad?

I never did the Imperial/Stormcloak questline myself.

The Stormcloaks and their leader Ulfric Stormcloak are white nationalists who literally want to Make Skyrim Great Again, at the expense of non-Nords.

Further (I'll spoil this in case the OP wants to discover it themselves): Ulfric Stormcloak is a brainwashed Thalmor asset. The Thalmor -- the setting's Nazi analogue -- are using the Ulfric and his Stormcloak movement to drive a wedge between the Empire and Skyrim, weakening both and making them easier pickings. The Thalmor's Ambassador Elenwen shows up at Helgen at the beginning of the game in order to prevent General Tullius from executing Ulfric, but Alduin intervenes before she needs to.

SchrodingerC · Dec 4, 2019

It's super silly how one character can be the head of the Dark Brotherhood, the thieves guild AND be the Arch-Mage without much conflict. What's worse is how some mage novice can become the Arch-Mage when other qualified people should've taken the role instead.

Bethesda pls.

Lagamorph · Dec 4, 2019

The other Either/Or is joining either the Vampires or the Vampire hunters in the Dawnguard DLC, pretty sure you can't do both of those quest chains on a single character given that part of the quests involve making the other faction antagonistic towards you.

maximumzero · Dec 4, 2019

I really need to play Skyrim someday. I keep hoping that the Switch version hits $20 but no such luck yet.

Cheesetriangles · Dec 4, 2019

Claven said:
But then, the Imperials ostensibly cooperate with Thalmor, which is basically racist Inquisition.
I don't think either side is very nice.

The Imperials are only cooperating them to bide their time and regain their strength. They were perfectly happy to only pay lip service to the peace treaty terms while waiting to strike back at the Thalmor. Also spoilers for the conflict:

Also Ulfric is a Thalmor agent and being used by them to weaken the Empire

Blue Ninja · Dec 4, 2019

You can easily do everything in Skyrim in one playthrough, the only exceptions being the Legion/Stormcloaks quests and the Dawnguard/Volkihar quests. So if that's what you want, don't worry about screwing anything up.

I always recommend people to just make different characters for all the questlines, though. Just doesn't make sense in-universe to have one character do it all.

I also love how every Skyrim thread becomes a political debate between Imperials and Stormcloaks. Doesn't take long, but it always happen.

Fuck Ulfric.

Deleted member 46948 · Dec 4, 2019

sueil said:
The Imperials are only cooperating them to bide their time and regain their strength. They were perfectly happy to only pay lip service to the peace treaty terms while waiting to strike back at the Thalmor. Also spoilers for the conflict:

Also Ulfric is a Thalmor agent and being used by them to weaken the Empire

Huh, okay, despite sinking more than 300 hours into Skyrim, I never finished either Stormcloak nor Imperial questline, on account of how both factions repulsed me.

Reizzz · Dec 4, 2019

I was one of those weird kids who made different characters for each major story as the dragnborn would never join the Thieves Guild lol

Zocano · Dec 4, 2019

The context and messaging of the Stormcloaks sure got a lot worse post 2016. They were racists before and with a different real world context are even ickier.

Reizzz said:
I was one of those weird kids who made different characters for each major story as the dragnborn would never join the Thieves Guild lol

You're not alone. I just went through a very long 250 our modded playthrough over the summer and explicitly chose not to do the Thieves Guild, Mages' Guild, or Dark Brotherhood because that's not what the character I made would do as a big buff orc man. I started another character to go through those and be a thief magic to cover it but wanted to take a break and play other games before I really commit.

Deleted member 31817 · Dec 4, 2019

Unlike New Vegas there's no consequences to factions whatsoever aside from the boring civil war quest line

skeezx · Dec 4, 2019

Cornbread78 said:
Is there a way to do all 4 guilds plus Stormcloaks or Legion without screwing up the other guild quest lines?

pretty sure each individual quest line is standalone. there's some nuances like you need to do the Dark Brotherhood a certain way to marry Muiri ("the hottest girl in skyrim")

but yeah you can pretty much go nuts

moustascheman · Dec 4, 2019

The quest lines never intersect nor do they ever really have any effect on one another. You can be leader of all guilds in one go just by playing normally (which is weird considering some of the stuff you do in the dark brotherhood quest line should lock you out of at least one questline). Also when it comes to stormcloaks vs empire, there's very little difference besides the colors the guards wear. The civil war is also extremely boring and a real slog to get through, but thankfully you can just leave it on the backburner forever and never have to worry about it.

Cornbread78 · Dec 4, 2019

skeezx said:
pretty sure each individual quest line is standalone. there's some nuances like you need to do the Dark Brotherhood a certain way to marry Muiri ("the hottest girl in skyrim")

but yeah you can pretty much go nuts

I put all my money into the Breezeway house in Whiterun so I could adopt that poor homeless girl there, so I'm a sucker....

How do I take on a wife? Can I have multiple wives?

moustascheman · Dec 4, 2019

Cornbread78 said:
I put all my money into the Breezeway house in Whiterun so I could adopt that poor homeless girl there, so I'm a sucker....

How do I take on a wife? Can I have multiple wives?

Without mods you can only have one spouse. The way to get a spouse is that first they must like you, which you can do by completing a quest for them. For example Ysolda will be willing to marry you after you get her those mammoth tusks. After you've done the quest, wear an amulet of mara (which you can get from Maramal in riften) and talk to them. They should comment on you wearing an amulet of mara and the appropriate marriage dialogue option should be there.

Also if your playing on a platform that allows mods, I recommend you take a look at some mods that let you adopt more children since the hard limit in vanilla is 2 kids and there's a lot of orphans you meet in the game with their own sob stories that make you feel like shit for not adopting them.

skeezx · Dec 4, 2019

Cornbread78 said:
I put all my money into the Breezeway house in Whiterun so I could adopt that poor homeless girl there, so I'm a sucker....

How do I take on a wife? Can I have multiple wives?

https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Marriage_(Skyrim)

should explain everything. my two cents is not to get too fussed with that stuff until you spent like 50-100 hrs in the game already. but if it's what you want to do go for it

Serif · Dec 4, 2019

Might be fun making a High Elf character who takes the 'evil' Dragonborn aspect (like Miraak) to the extreme by becoming an Arch-Mage, a Vampire, and joining the Stormcloaks since a Stormcloak victory would aid the Aldmeri dominion in the long-run.

Imo it's how I reconcile playing as a non-Nord Stormcloak.

Cornbread78 · Dec 4, 2019

moustascheman said:
Without mods you can only have one spouse. The way to get a spouse is that first they must like you, which you can do by completing a quest for them. For example Ysolda will be willing to marry you after you get her those mammoth tusks. After you've done the quest, wear an amulet of mara (which you can get from Maramal in riften) and talk to them. They should comment on you wearing an amulet of mara and the appropriate marriage dialogue option should be there.

Also if your playing on a platform that allows mods, I recommend you take a look at some mods that let you adopt more children since the hard limit in vanilla is 2 kids and there's a lot of orphans you meet in the game with their own sob stories that make you feel like shit for not adopting them.

skeezx said:
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Marriage_(Skyrim)

should explain everything. my two cents is not to get too fussed with that stuff until you spent like 50-100 hrs in the game already. but if it's what you want to do go for it

Great info.

I'll have to go through each storyline and start aiming for a single cutie.

RLTTP: Skyrim, My, this is pretty fun, but damn how do you master all factions?

Cornbread78

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