If I eliminate the DB do I loose out on any cool quests/locations?
I found a couple locations in my wanders that seem to require a quest activation to open - are any of these DB dependent?
On a previous save I began the DB but quickly got bored/uncomfortable with the quests. ie. Kill this person (no good reason). Does it get better? Worth sticking out?
I am playing a selfish character with a good heart. Thieves guild is no problem (money = good , and no one really gets hurt). Don't mind killing if someone gets in my way, but these beginning kills in the DB really seem nonsensical.

The whole point of the Dark Brotherhood is that they're a guild of contract murderers. Basically, hit men. Some guy spat on someone elses shoe, they pay the DB to kill him, the DB carries it out. The only reason that you're killing someone is because somebody paid you to.

They aren't "noble" by any means. If that's what you thought, then maybe you should consider destroying them.

There are a bunch of Dark Brotherhood quests. A whole questline you miss out on. You may want to have a seperate save line for them, not a new character just one of each from that point. The only things I've had issues with are some of the killings you do in that quest. If you're a Call of Duty fan it's like participating in the airport level. You murder people in cold blood and some are not bad people. By issues I mean a couple of the murders I regret doing. Gotta say cool part of the game that you like some NPC's.

Dark Brotherhood quests get a lot better after you′ve done a few "kill the target" missions. Can′t remember how many though, but It′s propably the best questline when it kicks off

The ending of the questline is pretty big IMO. A huge impact (theoretically) on the world. I won't spoil it for you but it is one reason to do the whole quest. Depends on what you RP though. Might want to look at wikia orr UESP.

You miss out on a wedding and a visit with the emperor of Tamriel, and you do not get to enter the Dawnstar sanctuary (as far as I know). The wedding was a nerve wracking experience like most weddings, the Emperor's ship was fun, everything else was so forgettable I have forgotten it. Playing an assassin I am not fond of.

Is there some reason why this is in the Hearthfire forum? Do the DB attack your houses or something?

Thank you for all your responses. I do believe I will give it a try.
Yes - sorry for posting it in this forum. That was an error.

Also, the Dark Brotherhood gets some of the best armor and armor enchantments in the game. The quests are well written and entertaining, and a pretty significant shake-up for the Empire is in store during the questline.

It's well worth it to cruise through it IMO.

It was my favorite questline in the game. Can't say I like the clothes but the quests were awesome.

the quests are awesome. as far as locations you miss out on the emporer's boat in the harbour outside Solitude. I believe thats about it.

You only have to do 3 'questionable' jobs on NPCs from Nazir. The rest are focused and goal-oriented.

The DB might not be an organisation which has any morals, but on an individual level a lot of the members aren't bad people per se, just professionals who do what needs to be done. You'll learn to like most of the people you work with, which makes the questline a very annoying and tragic one. Not as bad as the Oblivion questline in that respect, but still one which seriously calls out to me to leave the questline started but unfinished.

Even if you're playing a high and mighty paladin, you might just want to take a day or two off, keep a savegame handy so you can go back to the time before you joined, and indulge yourself in the questline. I completed it in about two days, enjoyed it thoroughly even though I hated the ending, and reverted back to the earlier save as if the whole thing was a dream. Doesn't stop me thinking hard about the whole thing whenever I encounter people or locations in the game which are related to the questline... and who knows, maybe my heroic character might one day find himself in the company of arguably the closest-knit guild in Skyrim once again. Other guilds lick your boots and hail you and respect you when you find success. The DB just.... accepted you the way you were, and nurtured you - that's what makes me unable to forget them. Try it once and you'll understand.

If you're a collector of in-game items you also get a few nice unique items. The armour looks really good (even on companions), you get a unique book for your bookshelf.. and of course a cool horse. Choosing the "Destroy the Dark Brotherhood" option doesn't really destroy the DB too, as the two most important figures in the DB questline aren't in the sanctuary yet, and with them still alive and untouchable the DB will just start again elsewhere. All you accomplish is destroying that particular sanctuary and all the cool people in it.

And you don't get a set of Ancient Armor that is arguably the best full set of armor in the game if you don't go through it.

Ancient Shrouded Armor for the win.

Not to mention the nice conversations with Lucien LaChance. His companion ship on a cross-Province trip is much enjoyed.

I didn't actually like the Lucien Lachance bits. It felt like Bethesda was trying to milk his Oblivion popularity by including him in a token way in Skyrim. The spell was cool, though - a semi-permanent second follower is always nice. The thralls eventually make him redundant, but it takes a while to get the thralls, while Lucien can be gotten at any level, I think.

Naw, Lucien is cool in Skyrim.

I like how he talks to Shadowmere, and how he prompts you to "keep in practice". Plus his commentary on what you're doing in Dark Brotherhood Contract quests helps keep you on the right side of Sithis. That's important for RP'ers.

I finally started this questline on one of my current characters, and it does get better after the first contracts. But one of those first ones is so nauseatingly unnecessary and pointless I found it really hard to roleplay, even for a supposedly amoral character. That particular contract could make even an evil character feel like a total [censored].

It depends on what you want to RP as. For a loyal DB worshipper it would add a lot of flavour, but for me, I was just RPing a normal person who got accepted into an assassin's community, and if you played through the questline like a normal person rather than someone with a heart for the old ways of the DB, you could easily have mixed feelings. Like Astrid, I saw Cicero's antics as a threat to the existing family we had - and I didn't really care for the Night Mother at all. In essence what you join in Skyrim isn't the DB, but just a little assassin's group, but unfortunately you do not have the option of keeping it as such, and are forced to return it to the old ways. From that RP perspective Lucien was meaningless. The commentary is nice, though, making him more like a companion than a summoned thrall, and I did hear him trying to tell me not to kill Cicero because that would not be what Sithis wanted, but I, not being into the religious part of the DB at all, killed him anyway. Thing is, they could have just named the spirit anything and it would have worked - making it Lucien LaChance was just a nod to Oblivion and the immense popularity he commanded.