I wanted to share my experience with a pacifist game. The general thought is that violence is bad and I want to show the world the consequences of using violence.

The main part of my character is Illusion spells. Spells like frenzy, calm, invisibility and the like, will be the main methods of surviving this violent and cruel world. Because if I frenzy an already violent character (based on him having weapons or aggressive spells) it is his own fault that he is killing his friends, because he could just make a vow of non violence like me and this would never happen.

So when I started my character I ran for the safety in the village, because the nature is nearly as violent as the civilized people, and found out I needed money. I need to buy illusion spells and some training before I can be successful. Because I had a vow stopping me from killing and raiding bandits there was only one way left for my peaceful little me.

So I began to steal everything there where steal-able, there is a lot of things you can take without it being stealing (need to be marked in read when you mouse-over stuff, for it to be stealing) so I could sell a lot of stuff to themselves. Of course this would course a moral dilemma if it wasn't because this whole world left me no choice. There is no peaceful way I can earn any money fast enough for my vow to make any difference in this world, mainly because there is violent creations everywhere!

So it was a great relief to find the thieves guild, that seems to have the same non violent view on this world as me, and on top of that had the money to support my view upon this violent world.

So anyone else have had experience with this vow of non violence?

I would especially value if people could find me more non-violent factions or families in this world that supports my view, because it is never nice to find out that your employer is a violent man after serving him through several missions

You could always cut wood instead of stealing things and selling it back to the person you stole it from... just sayin.

You can cut the woods?!

I have the fear spell and by that are able to defend myself against most vile creatures out there. But does that give good money? What is the average salary of a woodcutter?

Because there is no time to waste, I need to be high level Illusionist before this world tear itself apart because of the infection of violence!

I think you get 30 gold for every 6 pieces of wood you cut. It usually takes about 20 seconds to cut 6 pieces. So its really not bad money when you're just starting out in the game and I think you can sit there and cut wood all day long.

Hmmm... I have minecraft to do stuff like that in... hmmm

Trees are living things too, as long as they still are in the ground, so it is against my vow to kill them! So the world leave me no other choice than to steal everthing until I can be a high level Illustionist

So how do you eat, if not even plants? Sad truth about life is that to survive you must kill something. If you leech off of other people killing things (i.e. you have someone else farm crops that you eat), then are you really any better, ethically? I say go for woodcutting. I would not consider it violence.

But I do not need to eat in Skyrim. I have already walked around in Skyrim for several days and have not experienced any effects from lack of eating.

But to be more serious this is more about an approach to solve the game rather than ethical questions.

I applaud to your approach... I too wish it would be possible to approach a situation by several, unonventional angles.

But, let's be frank... Skyrim is a game about a bloody civil war, in a period of unrest and with hostile monsters... Unless the developers create a complete "game in the game" where you can earn your living by becoming an advisor or some noble and by hiring mercenaries, commanding armies to do the dirty work in your place, the chances of succeeding are close to zero

the wood is already dead. you dont chop wood, you merely split logs. every town has a stump and a pile of wood to be split. So youre not killing anything

wait, so u role play deep enough to not allow wood cutting since trees are alive but not enough to require food for ur character? thats...different


also, how do u approach dragons? do u just hope a mammoth/giant kills it for u?

You're hurting people by stealing from then, taking their money away means they have no money for food, water. All that stuff.

You should make money through Smithing, Alchemy and Enchantment.

A more realistic approach is a vow of non violence toward sentient beings - ie. humans, elves, khajiit, argonians. Even animals are violent towards animals

Of course once you get really good at illusions, bypassing wildlife non violently gets very easy too anyway. I havn't had much chance to try a pacifist approach but I invariably do at some stage, did it in Oblivion (I even did it in Deus Ex 1 - believe or not you CAn finish that game without killing anybody xD).

I havn't taken a vow of nonviolence on my current character, but I often use indirect violence strategies - skyrim is better for it than even Oblivion. I tend to approach it like this:

- Frenzy from a hidden position until there is only 1 enemy standing
- Calm the survivor and begin looting all the corpses/area
- Pickpocket the survivor clean
- Re-calm the survivor, bid him a good day and slink back into the shadows grinning like a cheshire cat


Since I havn't taken a vow of non violence. When I want to collect skins or meat from a passive animal such as elf elk or deer, I use an illusion - usually frenzy, so the animal actually comes AT me instead of runs away

I can't see the logic in forcing someone to kill his/her own friends not breaking the non violence vow. The really funny fact is that you are not the only one with this approach to a 'non-violent' playing. In my opinion your goal should be to try to end the combat with your attackers alive. What about fear instead of frenzy?

Here's our OP
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TechnicalPacifist

And yes, that is why I say I use indirect violence and not try claim I'm a pacifist... driving a guy into a fit of rage and having him brutally stab his best friend to death with a spork and then claming him so I can walk in, steal his friends clothing right off his back AND pickpocket the stabber's coinpurse.... and then let him live is so far up the evil villainous tree it's almost come full circle xD

Funny concept.

Robbin - "Hey you....kill your friend!"

Magically persuaded thug "Duh, oh"

*Slash* *thud*

Magically persuaded thug "NO...my own cousin Frank! Dead by my own hand! AAAHH!"

Robbin - "Yeah, you did it, not me. My conscious is clear....please step aside so I can strip Frank naked and sell his boots."

Creating misery and sleeping well every night!

Frenzy a guy is only necessary if he did not have a vow of non violence. Then he would have had no weapons to kill his friends with. Of course he could just be melee, but then there is a great chance that I would have no reason to frenzy him in the first place

But no one have experience with a pacifist game yet?

Up to now I found out you can do nearly all missions but some selected few, where the killing of a certain unit triggers the mission

But you are able to make good money and have tons of fun looting guards and jarls

Here's how I see it:

The plot of this game requires that things and people die. If you choose to ignore the plot and refuse to ever play your part, you're condemning the world to destruction by dragons. If you do decide to follow the plot, you have to take responsibility for your kills. Using frenzy to justify homocide is like using roofies to justify [censored].

A necromancer could easily follow your RP guidelines, "I didn't kill him, that zombie did!"

I can stand any reasonable RP in this game, from perfectly knightly to perfectly evil and all the more realistic approaches in between, but what you're doing strikes me as just stupid, hypocritical, and [censored].

If you want a nonviolent game, play something else. Just because you're not constantly killing things ALL the time in this game doesn't mean it's not a game built around killing. Your strategy is just as sensible in this game as it would be in Call of Duty.

Non-violence in Skyrim is akin to going to the Playboy mansion under a vow on celibacy.

i like the OP's post. i find it funny and interesting view on things. I prefer to kill or burn anyone I come into contact with. If he wants to be non violent let him lol. for whatever reason.

Eh, I think you could do a non-violent game pretty reasonably. You can cut logs forever. There are tons of cabbages and potatoes in the world that need harvesting and selling to the people around them. Almost all wild animals give you fair warning before attacking you- even wolves usually back up and howl first, so you can avoid them while carefully walking around picking up other alchemy ingredients. After that, buy ore from smiths, smelt it, enchant it (using the enchantment you got off of the items you bought from various mages and smiths), and sell it back for plenty of money. Use that money to buy the best armor and spell protection you can get.

Then use calm and fear. (I don't think frenzy is a fair game for a character who is a true pacifist: it's a cop-out. One who urges violence in others for their own monetary benefit isn't a pacifist (joke "they're a politician" goes here, but it's not very funny) You don't get much loot that way, but you can wander around the world and explore. Most miscellaneous quests can be done.

The longer questlines, excluding the thieves guild, can't. (Though you can do some of the Mage's guild, too.) The main quest is problematic, too: dragon's will come, and there's no nice or easy 'non-violent' way to deal with dragons.

This vow is a tad difficult when facing the final boss...