So, 3rd playthrough, tired of getting shoehorned by game, purposely failed a quest -Brynolf-. It worked..and theres dialoge...and...I didn't have to send someone to jail ...What Witchery is this


I tried to keep this as discreet as possible but its inevitable that spoilers are abound, so can this be moved as soon as convienent, thank you.


Alrighty, first induction into a particular guild associate with said name above, you can fail it, and not have to epeat the entire thing, I half expected to get rehashed dialog to do the quest over again, when infact I didn't have to and it coincided with the situation of the guild, totally caught by surprised and am grateful

You did what?

Explain yourself NAO.

Yeah. Go figure. Apparently there are multiple ways to start quests, get through quests, and finish quests. Though everyone seems to have just played through once and then reported to the forums right away to say it's the most linear TES yet.

Well you can imagine my surprise. So yeah..gonna do a full play to see how often I can fail and still continue. yes I know their are multiple ways to start quests but never did I think that you could fail them. my foot is about 12 inchs away from my mouth on the statements of no choice no consequence in Skyrim.

So what..three, maybe four quests with different ways of completing them? That's pathetic.

I think you're lying failing in Skyrim is impossible.

You can use alternate routes on most quests, and even fail some to open up other quests, but that needs a bit of creativity.

I noticed this as well when I played a Nord warrior who had no interest in the thieves guild or framing Brand-Shei, but needed to speak to Brynolf for the main quest.

I would have liked to see a few more dialogue options that allow someone to sidestep the question of joining the TG altogether, as well as for when the main quest requires you to visit the College of Winterhold. I'm sure there are many players who don't wish to join every guild with every playthrough.

Alrights its in the appropriate section.

Listen to Brynolfs scheme- is the "quest" that starts the quest in riften, I'm pretty much Humbled since they actually took the time to say "hey a budding theif might not be all to good of a theif, lets put in params if they fail"

now I can see the "you fail but your pardoned anyway so you never really failed" yes I agree...kinda, but my point is that its possible, I'm going to see if burning more than what was stated of the beehives will acuse reprocussions.

The game hand holds you so rather than waiting for you to have sufficient skills to start the quest the game simply says whatever regardless of outcome. I failed it by stealing from the wrong strong box, much worse than just lacking the skills.

I think you can also steal the item straight back after planting it, complete the quest and the person doesn't go to jail.

I don't think you can truly fail a quest, get asked to kill someone stealthily, screw that run at the person in the middle of a crowd naked axes swinging. Quest complete.

Thieves Guild says don't kill on a quest, knees hurt calmly walk around in broad daylight and wipe out all the Mercs. Quest complete.

Get caught on a sweep job no problem there's unlimited more and no matter how much you fail and how bad you make the guild look. Become leader. Quest Line Complete.

Wait three and a half months to walk across town and deliver that "urgent" message/item because, butterflies. Quest Complete.

You don't really fail because they accept you all the same. If you had failed it, they should've told you to GTFO (and leave you to improve your skills and find another way in). Successfully do task -> get accepted, unsuccessfully do task -> get accepted. Failure means nothing if there's no consequence to it.

It does, but not really.

This...
Dear developers, it would mean a great deal if most quests were like that!

agreed and as stated prior I already recognized the don't really fail, and I can see how it still applies to -Hand holding- believe me I do, i was just taken aback that there isn't -one way- atleast in this case. remember 3rd playthrough, quest wise I haven't deviated from my actions to much so when I finally did I was surprised. anyone else have examples? what about the Companions quest that has you ruffing up a farm hand and being told not to kill her?

Well, since the only reason you need to speak to Brynyolf is to learn more about a certain location you can skip him all together and instead just chat to a certain innkeeper in Riften who will happily answer any question you might have.

You don't have to join, or even visit, the college, too. You can go directly to septimus, get his quest for the lexicon and get the scroll. I have done this on 2 chars, even before infiltrating the Thalmor Embassy. Like I said, there are a lot of options, only most of them aren't handed to you on a platter.

I remember where one could even fail the Main Quest in Morrowind. What happened to that?

Perhaps I didn't explain clearly.

You said the main quest requires you to visit the college. It doesn't, it suggests you could look there for information about the scroll, but you don't have to if you explore more of the map. Both my warrior and my thief have never set foot into the college (the marker isn't even on the map) or spoken to any of the members but completed the main quest.

I suppose it depends on your choices along the way.

I spoke with Pathurnaax, he told me to talk to either the Greybeards or the Blades. Arngeir told me to go to the College of Winterhold to inquire about the Elder Scroll.

On the other hand, I have a friend who randomly encountered Septimus Signus' cave by exploring and picked up the quest from him without ever visiting Winterhold or Pathurnaax.

In any case, I'm not really referring to the question of whether the Main Quest requires you to talk to certain NPCs or visit the Guilds. I enjoyed the way that various quests can intersect and I think this is a good thing.

In the way that the OP mentions you can "fail" Brynolf's quest, I was commenting that it would be nice if there were a few more dialog options when speaking with NPCs related to the guilds which are more appropriate for player characters who have no intention of joining a particular guild. I imagine there will be some mods that address this.

Oh, there are consequences, all right, if's just they weren't implemented so well for 2 major questlines: DB and Civil War

DB - final quest can be downright nonsensical depending on how you handled the Civil War

Civil War - faction handling is somewhat borked - when the civil war heats up, attacking the opposing side is at times considered a criminal offense by your side, enemy camps don't consider you KOS, and most NPC's continue talking as the war is still on when it's over

Hmmm thats disappointing, my initial hype in thinking I'd miss something glorious has faded :/ svcks.

What still bothers me is that I can't apprehend the Thieves Guild.

I failed not on purpose during my first playthrough. I was shocked to find out it was possible to succeed if you steal the ring at night. Apparently it can be done during the day, but there was a guard standing right there the first time I did that quest.