I just got to the point in this game where I feel that I can gripe with some of the ways things are handled from an RP perspective.

I have a character who has never done the vanila MQ and everything was going awesome, except he decided to join the Dawnguard. Come to find out I need to get the Elder Scroll from the VMQ to finish Dawnguards MQ...whah?!? Really Bethesda?

Not just that, but Serena suggests to head to the Colledge to find out more about the Dragon Scroll and when I get there I am forced to do the gain entry spell to even get in...My character HATES magic, in the way most Nords supposedly do! Oh and then even if I go ahead and cast a spell, now I'm an appretice of the mages guild...wtf. I'm a bad ass warrior warewolf. Not a mage...no interest actually, but I guess Bethesda knows best.

So bumin right now.

Sorry about the rant, but I had to get it off my chest.

Except you don't need to go to the college, or you could sneak in the back way.

Discerning the Transmundane (quest with Septimus to get the Elder Scroll) really doesn't have any connections to the MQ in and of itself. Its only the Elder Scroll that ties into the MQ and if you aren't doing the MQ your character would know nothing about it anyway.

I take your point to an extent but feel you are being somewhat naiive if you think you can join a faction or guild without becoming embroiled in a quest, or did you not know what quests are?

Right on, I knew I came here for something!

So, it seems as though I can get the scroll without doing the Vanilla MQ. We'll se if its true.

And also, I didn't realize there was a "back way in" to the college. I'll have to look into that one...

Thanks for the hints.

Sadly not if you want to RP. The only ways require metagaming, which IMO is just as bad as joining the College when your character doesn't want to.

Not really a 'back way in', as much as 'glitching to go in through the exit'. A lot of caves in Skyrim have a back exit that's only supposed to be accessible after going through and leaving, but sometimes that exit is in a position that you can barely reach when you know exactly where to go and how to get passed the physical barriers. Even when you get into the College through the exit, the people inside still treat you like you just joined.

Yes, I was a bit disappointed that I had to meta so much to continue on. But at least I could fool myself with the present solution.

I'm just about to head to the cave where you meet the author who knows of the Dragon Scroll. Though I found this info by meta gaming, I can more easily convince myself of finding the info through talking to one of the NPCs outside the college itself, rather than joining the guild and then sarting in on the vannila MQ. I believe I have found the lesser of the evils the way I'm heading at the moment, though we'll see if that pans out.

Fingers Crossed.

Worse yet getting the Elder Scroll (dragon) before speaking to a certain someone (in the MQ) breaks the MQ. So make sure you -really- don't want to do the MQ first.

By break do you mean spoil it or make it unplayable? If you mean the latter, then I will have to disagree.

i didnt visit the college. I cant remember what i did actually. but i didnt go to the college.

If you have the Elder Scroll (Dragon) in your possession when you talk to a certain character the MQ will not progress. The dialogue needed to progress the story does not appear and you cannot finish the MQ. To me, that's pretty bad.