I've been playing my Khajiit Assassin/Thief character, and I recently started the "No Stone Unturned" quest (I think that's the name). Anyway, I was making my way through a list of the 24 stones/gems, and I suddenly see that one of the them is in the Arch-Mages Quarters in Winterhold. I am an ASSASSIN, and this quest if primarily a THIEVES GUILD quest. I use no magic and do not want to join a guild as it feels incredibly weird and stupid and doesn't fit into my character at all. I am not on PC and therefore there is no real fix to this.

Why do I have to join a guild that most people doing this quest don't want to join?

Is it not possible to sneak in?

Think of it as a con. You're joining the College under the pretense that you want to learn magic, but you're really just after its valuables. That will fit your character perfectly.

You can bluff your way into the College with enough speech, but the doors to the Archmage's quarters are plot-locked.

Yeah it's stupid also it's even more stupid that the main quest is involved with the guilds too :/

No. You can get into the College wihtout joining them, but the Archmage's quarters are "key required" locked. Key that doesn't exist.

There should be an alternative. I should be able to pickpocket a key from Faralda or something, idk, I just don't want to join the guild.

using our minds to rationalize poorly implemented gameplay is not a worthy option to actual in-game mechanics.

So it's only black & white in your head... no grey? no great thief.

Last I checked, you aren't forced to do the quest. If you don't like what the quest entails, why do it?

Agreed. There should be an option to break into the Arch-Mage's Quarters, but I have no problem with Savos having one of those stones, and if people are role playing, they should know that there's certain hoops people have to jump through to get what they want.

That's what I did and it did fit my character, but I - as a player - didn't like it one bit.

i hear you and rosveen and i roleplay characters, as well. but, it's stuff like this thread topic and not being able to drop quest items into a container or being able to decline all quests or at least move them to a deeper menu page or having a hud options system that is complete,etc. that becomes ridiculously annoying.

all of these simple, yet, meaningful problems that can be easily fixed and shouldn't be issues, at all.

Roleplaying seems a lot harder in Skyrim than previous games (despite some features that are only useful for roleplayers; mining, woodcutting, and hunting). It's as if Bethesda created most of the game for players who would play it once, mostly just the main quest, and no matter what they did wanted them to know about the Guilds.

I totally agree with all of those points. These things bug me to no end, because there's really no reason that I can't reject anything besides a radiant quest, or drop something that I'm never going to hand in. Those are all incredibly frustrating points, and should be addressed.

You can't have everything... just like real life. but if you want it so desperately, go the extra mile... or don't.

I do the quest because it has a great reward and it is basically a Thieves Guild quest. I like what it entails but having to join a completely new guild to progress with the quest is ridiculous.

It really does seem like that. Not only guilds, but nearly every quest is given to you automatically.

How is it rationalizing?

I imagine that any halfway intelligent thief would find it much easier to gain entrance to the College by feigning interested in joining, followed by a total "cleaning" of everyone's rooms.

Don't like it either. I had thought there might be a way to get it without joining, but having checked the Skyrim Wiki, looks like I was wrong. There needs to be way more choices of ways to do things. It feels as if the only characters it supports are the ones who join everything and mush everything all up together no matter how contradictory it is.

Instead of those ultra-svcky radiant quests, there should have been some Grand Heist jobs that took you into those otherwise plotlocked areas where the stones can be found, eg. Archmage's Quarters, a certain embassy etc.

Am I the only one confused by the fact that you're given almost no direction about "No Stone Unturned?" I think it would have been really nice if you could show the stones to various people and they would tell you if they had ever seen/heard of anyone who had one like it before. You could also request them from people who do have them rather than just stealing (This again, might make Speech more worthwhile).

Thieves don't just wander about aimlessly into every place they come upon looking for goods. They have to have a reason to think that there's actually something worth stealing to go through the trouble of breaking in and looting the area.

How did you know there was a stone in there? Huh?

this whole issue of multiple roleplay charaters vs one playthrough is very interesting, to me.

like many, i previously thought specialized rp with multiple playthroughs was the best. i do think skyrim does a great job of providing good rp characters, but, the CONTENT of the game is so generic and repetative that those subsequent characters are all cookie-cutter games of previous ones. only my combat approach is in any way actually different. skyrim got boring after about 200 hours rather than playing all the others and the 2 fallouts for 1000's of hours.

recently, after talking with others and doing some reading, i realize that skyrim is, for me, best played with one all-powerful hybrid that can do all the quest/guilds on one playthrough and with the skills to play all 3 styles or any combo during EVERY gaming session.

i now leave my strict roleplaying to the DiD games.

That is a really good suggestion to RP. Thinking of it as a con, just to get in, make them trust you and get into the Archmage's quarters and steal the stone. Good suggestion.