Glorified Brigands

A partial conversion

Introduction

By Sheor! What do you mean by it lad? I'll tell you. I was playing Skyrim and crawling through some gods-forsaken fort in the middle of nowhere inhabited by bandits and I realized... Wait a minute. I want to be one of these guys. Why am I killing them? And thus this idea was born. The aim and intent of this mod is to allow the player to play as a bandit/conjurer/witch/etc. in a way that bypasses the entire Main Quest.

Planned Features

- A third aspect added seamlessly to Character Creation allowing the player to avoid the main quest entirely and become a criminal

- A "Criminal" faction that allows you to interact with Skyrim's seedier denizens and prevents you from interacting with Skyrim's noble and upstanding citizens.

- Based on your current bounty, rank in the "Criminal" faction and other factors Guards will either attempt to arrest you or kill you. Citizens will be wary and eventually flee from you (although some of the tougher ones may attempt to collect that bounty on your head)

- Ability to lead your own group of bandits and eventually become King of the Bandits (title not final) with the ability to manage small groups of bandits that you send out to ransack/pillage/capture and do other criminal deeds.

- Holdouts for you and your bandit gang in the Wild

- Establish your own private fortress from which to command your horde of brigands and direct your criminal empire

- Possibly? A rivalry with the Black-Briar clan in which they are constantly trying to kill you.

- The much desired (by the guards at least) bandit raids against you that the guards so frequently mention.

- Infiltrate cities and plant spies to bribe officials and protect your interests.

Current Progress

Planning stages until the CK is released.

allow, but not force. following this.

Absolutely. I suppose it would also be possible to create a way for the player to be pardoned and then rejoin society and then do the main quest. Personally I wouldn't be interested in this option but if enough people want it i can come up with a way that makes logical sense.

how do you plan to merge this with other quests, like Dark Brotherhood?

Well I haven't played through the DB questline yet because my character isn't the best at sneaking around so I don't know how it is in Skyrim but in Oblivion most of the DB stuff revolved around towns. And the sanctuary was in a town, so it would make it more difficult to get in and out of sanctuaries and too complete a job...

Actually now that you mention it I really like this idea. I'll probably end up adding the DB members to the criminal faction as well (as long as the guards aren't running around trying to kill all of them from the start). Not only does this add a layer of realism but it also makes completing your tasks that much more difficult. One of the things I was planning on doing was setting up a system much like mods in Oblivion where putting on a hood or anything that hides your face removes your bounty temporarily and allows you to walk into town. However I'd also like there to be a random chance that someone recognizes you and notifies the guards who try to arrest/kill you, at which point your disguise becomes useless.

For example, lets say you have to kill someone in Whiterun. Walking up to the gate would get you killed very quickly, but if you have a hood you can get past the guards undetected and complete your assignment. Unless someone notices you, and then you have to either abort your assignment or run the risk of getting killed by the guards as you attempt to kill your mark.

Secret entrances to all cities is also a viable idea, but that also depends on what people would like from the mod as I would enjoy both options.

Hows about underground tunnels and smugglers (the tunnels could be used for all evil as an entrance to cities as well).

Hmm.... smuggling is a viable option, although I'm not sure what exactly there is to be smuggled. The point of this mod is mostly to keep the PC away from the cities and have them live life as a bandit in the Wild. Perhaps when you plant a spy in the city you can have them corrupt a shopkeeper in the city and smuggle goods for them to sell at exorbitantly low prices.


And yes, I think I will add tunnels to get into some of the cities. I won't be adding tunnels into any of the cities without walls for obvious reasons, and of the towns with walls I will probably only make tunnels into Whiterun and Riften, although there is a possibility of tunnels for Windhelm. Solitude already has a "secret" entrance so I won't bother with adding one there.

I doubt Night Mother and Sithis would approve. Perhaps an agreement or working relationship similar to that of the Thieves' Guild and the Brotherhood would be better to maintain the faction's integrity.


Balmora Blue, Skooma, and Moon Sugar could be viable options. Trafficking stolen goods and smuggling NPCs across borders or into towns could be options as well, but smuggling is more organized crime than banditry.


The concept has the potential to start as petty bandits that develop into a much deeper organized crime syndicate. I look forward to seeing how this turns out. I've always wanted to play a bandit, but found it quite difficult to role-play without a bandit faction.

@jehoram

Seeing as the point of the mod is to keep the PC away from cities and the like, would you tie it into an expanded foresworn questline, or is it a strictly bandit centric mod ?

Well the criminal faction wouldn't be an actual named in game faction. Much like whiterunfaction isn't an actual faction like the companions. Its just a background functionality to identify a group of people.


Yes, drug smuggling is a good one. And weapon smuggling. Smuggling weapons to the stormcloaks? Or the Blades perhaps?


That was actually my intent. The Player eventually becomes "King of the Bandits" and commands a criminal empire from a base of operations.





Most likely not. I think the Forsworn should stay savages for the most part (Not to say that a few Forsworn might end up in your fortress *hint hint*). However it isn't really a bandit centric mod. There won't be a defining role for your character, (i.e. - wear fur armor and steel weapons and whatnot) but as leader of a group of bandits you are by definition a bandit. You'll be able to interact with other bandits, witches, conjurers, necromancers and other vigilantes as if they were normal people and recruit a fair number of them to your cause (if you want) or kill them. Its a cutthroat world being a criminal in Skyrim...

im not really into the whole organised crime thing thats going on here. im more about the opportunity to form a band of raiders and go have a good plunder. i wanna be a viking!

I intended that post to refer to the integrity of the Dark Brotherhood, not the bandits. I apologize for for not being clear.

There will be that opportunity! The organized crime is more of an "endgame" if you will and you don't necessarily have to do that. You could for instance just form a band of shirtless bearded men with large axes and lay waste to whatever appears in front of you in a more Role-playing oriented experience than vanilla skyrim allows.

I understand where you're coming from. But what I meant was that it has no effect on the game at all other than making the DB characters not want to cut your head off or report you to the guards at the first opportunity. Just playing the mod you would have no idea that there is a Criminal faction at all other than by the fact that any time you get near a town everyone runs away from you or attacks you. But your point has validity. I don't know how faction reactions work without access to the CK but I may be able to just make the DB and Criminal factions "allies" as I believe you suggested earlier.

Any chance of intergrating the civil war by making the 'criminal faction' fight for control. A whole quest Line for them with the base of operation being the castle/fortress you build. I feel like you should use the mask/hood and secret tunnel/smuggling routes so the player has routes into town. You will need a lot of quests to replace the quests given by npcs in towns. Some radiant quests and the ability to command small groups of bandits to do jobs and colllecting items and money from a completed tasks chest, would be cool.

Its not likely that I'll do anything with the civil war except use it as the excuse as for why you're allowed to have your own criminal empire. Not that the Empire/Stormcloaks won't be trying to deal with the threat you pose to society. Thats the plan for getting in/out of towns. And I don't really plan on having too many quests where you're doing things for other people. You probably wouldn't survive long as a bandit if you were everybodies errand boy. Most vigilantes have learned to fend for themselves and don't need to rely on other people to get their jobs done.

Do you like to have only "bad" bandits or some good too (like ?obin Hood - could be a little questline on the edge of this modidea) ?

Bandits live by robbing others of their belongings, so the bandits may need somewhere to unload the loot they do not use themselves, possibly in exchange for supplies they need. Or just to get gold until such a time where the bandit group disbands and the loot is partitioned between the bandits. For inspiration, you may also want to check up on how pirates operated in the 17th and 18th century.

It just seems like without easy access to citys and not being able todo quests given by npcs, civil war etc, options are very limited and could get boring.

Hypothetically speaking you can be as good/bad of a bandit as you want. I'm always open to suggestions for improving the mod. I think one of the things I'll do with the Agent Infiltration idea is have the ability to spread some wealth around the lower classes in town, who in turn pass you information on say, guard rotations, changes around town that might signify an upcoming bandit raid, etc.


Yeah that will be the holdouts/hideaway's and eventually the fortress. As for trading loots for supplies I'm going to see if I can get a khajiit caravan running from Morthal to Riften that stops at your fortress along the way. There will also be merchants in your fortress stronghold once you get it up and running.


Well the game essentially becomes a civil war. You against society, but there will be plenty of options. I'm not removing quests altogether, they just won't be fetch quests and the like.

Probably you can free prisoners who could not pay their debts. Maybe there is a merchant who sales his stuff for a monthly rate plus a little addition. And if someone pays to late he/she will get imprisoned. The Bandits can rob the merchant and give the gold and items/food or whatever to the poor and freed prisoners. Maybe the bandits can pay the debts from the stolen gold instead of the Breakout (the merchant will get his own gold back without profit). I think not all prisoners will be happy to lead a outlaw life after being freed.

Prisons will be involved although I'm not going to mention how

As for interactions with the merchants in game, you will likely be able to pay off one or two of the less scrupulous merchants in the game, and a few others you will be able to ambush their shipments and "ruin" their businesses.

I was thinking along the lines of replacing the main quest with a new and extended take on the civil war. To give the mod some kind of ongoing story. Civil war has ended, now the ruling party has been tasked with eradicating a growing group of bandits said to be led by a powerful warrior. You could add some background to why the player is a bandit, a questline involving your history. Maybe slaughtered family, orphan surviving in the wilderness, who has Learnt to not trust anyone and grown aggressive towarrds everyone due to their history. maybe a showdown with the murderer who killed family. Also quest lines involving bandit members getting greedy and a plot to overthrow you, which you must investigate and stop to show your worth as leader. Other radiant quests involving high ranking bandit members that inform you of Situations such as imperial raids on bandit hideouts, you can select a few bandits to follow you to stop this. Also ability to command raid partys with a loot chest that is filled with items and money from succesful raids. I just think its important to still have a story, quests and background history. Id love to be a bandit but i wouldn't want to sacrifice these todo it.

Just to add, I think the background history quests are important otherwise its like 'your a leader of bandits, why?, you just are, now go...'. Replacing the main quest with a background history quest seems like a viable way to keep an interesting story running Throughout the standard criminality of being a bandit.

In Oblivion the bandit leaders were called "Warlords".

I love the concept.

You might want to review some of the lore concerning famous bandit groups, such as the Horme as well as the witches coven led by Jsashe, priestess of Lorkhan.