At least the kids in the orphanage have a place to stay even if the old bat is evil.I went for the homeless kids.

If he did, then people would say "I thought you were too busy with the war to worry about domestic problems. Racism! You help out a nord but not a dunmer? Wah!" BTW, he's too busy with the war.

QUOTE: At least the kids in the orphanage have a place to stay even if the old bat is evil.I went for the homeless kids.

Agreed. BUT, I'll still introduce said old bat to my axe.
And also, I can adopt up to six kids, since I have three different characters. Four with my Khajiit, but what kid would want to be adopted by a carpet?

I adopted Francois (and Sofie) because I think he has it worst.

He doesn't "care" about being adopted because his parents aren't dead. He waits for them to come back.
IMHO this is worse than being separated from your parents by death.

His parents put him in the orphanage because they did not want him. Ouch. Poor boy

Easy choice for me. Sophie & Lucia 'cos both are effectively "unemployed" and have no where to go. At least the kids at the orphanage have a roof over their head and presumably food to eat.

Yeah, I do wish we could adopt more kids. I also feel worse for the city orphans than the children in the orphanage. At least at the orphanage, the kids have warm beds and friends and food. City kids are in an incredibly tough spot to be homeless orphans in Skyrim.

It would be nice if they had a sidequest where you can bring the city orphans to the orphanage, even if you can't adopt more than 2. At least that way, you can give them a better home than what they currently have.

...and about 15 square feet of outdoor space in that sad excuse for a "yard." It's not an orphanage, it's a dog kennel. Even with Grelod no longer running it, I still think Lucia, Blaise, Sofie, and Alesan are better off where they are.

Tougher life perhaps, but good or evil, the kids should grow up to be quite bad ass.

QUOTE: Tougher life perhaps, but good or evil, the kids should grow up to be quite bad a**.

Alesan might. Sofie, Blaise, and Lucia probably won't grow up at all. The only question is whether pneumonia or hypothermia will be the cause of death.

Objectively speaking, hypothermia is probably the easier way to go... you just get tired and fall asleep. And once your body temperature hits 79 degrees, your heart stops. Pneumonia, your lungs fill up with fluid and you drown.

Honorhall might be a cramped hen coop, but at least it's heated.

LOL awwwwwww and that's the reason why I will adopt Sophie tonight! I already adopted the boy who runs food to the miners in Dawnstar! At least the Honorhall kids have a roof over their head and a nice woman (now, after I took care of Grelod haha) who looks after them. So, I'm going for the street urchins.

I'm going for five or six of 'em! Two for Tiberius, my stout Imperial Dragonborn. Two for Nyx, my prosperous Dunmer Archmage. And one or two for my unassuming Nord alchemist.

Assuming I get the darn DLC. And if I don't, well, I sell the game to GameStop and purge the HD of Skyrim data, and they all cease to exist anyway.

oh god I just discovered the other night. That is about the most pathetic, guilt and cringe-inducing things I've seen in this game!

Well Blaise, the stable boy at the Solitude stables, sleeps with the horses outside and not in the farmhouse! Beth really gave those four street urchins the shaft when they created them LOL

I think Alesan sleeps in the inn, by the fire. He says he does, anyway.
No way anyone could survive sleeping outdoors in Dawnstar.

Yea, Alesan sleeps in the Inn, BUT still on the hard, cold floor and in a corner... AWAY from the fire.

I don't know where Lucia sleeps, the little beggar girl in Whiterun.

When I finally get Hearthfire, she'll sleep in a cozy bed in Proudspire Manor. And so will Blaise. My Dunmer Archmage/Bard/Thane of Solitude will see to that.

I would suggest avoiding Windhelm at night then.

I would suggest avoiding Windhelm day or night. The frickin' place is a toilet.


Sounds about right. But at least he's in a heated room, as opposed to a drafty stable or the street. In any case, I think my Imperial will be moving to the Pale, so he'll be in Dawnstar to buy the land. It's far from unreasonable that he might be willing to give the lad a better home. And I think Runa might like to have another kid to knock around Heljarchen Hall with.

(Yes, I know Sofie needs a home worse than either Alesan or Runa does. But Tiberius led the Empire to victory in the civil war. For all we know, Sofie's father died at his hands. And one of my RPing rules is that I can't adopt the children of people I killed.)

I've seen that, too. It's nothing compared to how pathetic and hopeless Lucia looks huddled up on the...what? The concrete? Just underneath a teeny tiny bit of roof for cover, and it's not even by a nice or important building!

Actually, it's so pathetic that I almost find it impossible to feel guilty or sad about...it's just comical. Sally Struthers may as well be browbeating you as you stand there.

An alternative RP solution for players in similar situations might be that you are making restitution for the unavoidable, but still tragic, losses of war. Sofie's parents died on the opposite side of the war, but a Legion player adopting her would be reaching across sectarian lines and improving everyone's lives after the conflict.

Just a thought.

And a lovely thought at that, Teka. There is something hopeful and redemptive about such an action.

there is a mod that lets you adopt more than two kids ? link please!

also - how do you adopt kids from honourhall , do i have to kill grelod ?

I am on the 360, so no mods or real knowledge of them. As for the Honorhall, yes, you have to kill Grelod. I haven't done that because I (so far) won't be forced into something like that!

While I take a certain pleasure in killing Grelod (she is pretty much the only character, human or non, who I will normally murder), I agree that the adoption system in Hearthfire is flawed. There are two reasons, in my opinion.

1. It not only forces you to murder Grelod, but it forces you to initiate the DB questline. And if your character can't handle Astrid in battle, it essentially forces you to commit another murder after that.
2. It doesn't address the sticky issue that Constance probably knows that you murdered Grelod.

I actually created an alternate system awhile back, before Hearthfire was formally announced; it went something like this:

Dragonborn enters orphanage, asks to adopt a child.

If Grelod is alive:
If you talk to Constance, she explains that you have to talk to Grelod.
If you talk to Grelod, she refuses outright.
Dragonborn:
[Persuade, easy] "Come on. You obviously can't stand the kids. I'll be taking one away from here."
[Bribe] "How about an 'adoption fee'?" (Leveled number of septims)
[Intimidate, difficult] "I'll bet Constance would let me adopt if... something happened to you."
[Friendly with Jarl] "I'm in tight with the jarl. Maybe I should tell her how you're treating these kids."

Grelod caves, tells you to work it out with Constance. Constance asks you some questions, your name, what you do, if you have a house, etc. My version presumed that you had to be married to adopt, and I didn't think to ask about houses, but that's minutae. The point is, if you have appropriate accomodations, you can "go meet the children" and choose the one you want to adopt.

If you have killed Grelod, Constance reminds you that she saw Grelod's murder and is aware that you did it, and expresses her deep concern about entrusting one of her angels to you.

Dragonborn:
[Persuade, easy] "Grelod was a horrible, evil woman who abused these children. I did what I did to protect them."
[Friendly with Jarl] "If you like, we can talk to the jarl. I'm sure that she'll vouch for me."
(Bribery and intimidation will not work, since Constance is a good soul who will always act in her children's best interest)

Again, Constance asks you the same set of questions, with the same ultimate result.

Same end result, but no murders required. And given that I am an everyman with no video game design training/experience whatsoever, I would think that the professionals at Bethesda could have come up with something like this as well.

You sure? She is quite the, ahem, "see you next Tuesday," after all.

I did like her taste in books though (what is that one called? ah yes...The Pig Children. Classy dame, that one was...).