I find that an interesting idea. I actually started a character that looks like me and has an abbreviated version of my name and the first problem I found was that I pretty much never took on any quests due to my battle-fright (...ok, I admit I meant cowardace) and aversion of confrontation as well as a dislike of war and of getting involved in other people's affairs. I think most people are naturally avoidant of confrontations if they know that confrontations could have a high chance of getting you killed, unless they're already trained in mind and body for combat. In the world of Skyrim that probably wouldn't get you very far.

I think the guide would still be good to follow in this kind of situation because it helps to tweak your character without merely making it a super awesome (yet boring) version of yourself. You still need to think about personality traits, strengths and weaknesses from an objective standpoint and in a way make it someone who isn't quite you but maybe who you might have been had you been raised in the land of Skyrim (or whatever land you're playing in). Even if not every part of the guide can help you, there are still hints and tips here and there that might. Of course I understand your point and I'm not disagreeing, I was just adding a little bit on.

Actually, trying to act like your real self probably would make for an interesting playthrough, come to think of it. You could let Ralof/Hadvar deal with most of the enemies in Helgen Keep, then you could use hirelings to handle the enemies while running or sneaking past them to complete objectives. This makes me want to make up a couple of custom companions and do a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_%28TV_series%29 run of Skyrim.

Edit: Does anyone else notice a suspicious resemblance between Harry Potter and Presto?

@The Magician. I was less worried about broken quests and more worried by all of the checks that would be necessary in a dynamic faction setting. An extreme version of an NPC greeting you with concerns about Alduin's return after your main quest has long been finished, if you will. With so many possible places for the player to be along each faction 'scale' then it will be interesting to work out how to get all of the NPCs to always react to you accurately.

I'd like to suggest enemy kills should be added to the sliders for faction. A blatant one would be if you kill daedra your Vigilants of Stendarr faction would go up. Although this can also be used to manipulate your positive faction - piss a faction off? just go out and kill some of whatever mob is their enemy.

I always play as myself, and generally think of it as a type of role playing, although not to the extent that there would ever be any limitations like a class (I created custom classes in Morrowind and Oblivion). Technically it's probably not role playing though, and as for an awesome version of myself, I'll just say that the guys who work for me refer to me as 'OP in RL'. At least that's my excuse.

Enemy kills would be one way of increasing/decreasing faction reputation. NPCs could read that data from your statistics and every kill on an enemy faction could raise their disposition a little and every kill on a friendly faction could lower it a lot. Kills on their faction would probably earn you instant retaliation. Kill enough of a faction's enemies and they might ask you to join.

NPC greetings shouldn't be too hard to manage. Reputation, rank, gold contributed, enemy kills, recruits, faction offenses, etc., can all be easily quantified. You could record highest reputation and rank vs current rep and rank to handle a loss of status as well. It would actually be pretty interesting to work out those responses and it would add tremendously to the game. The difference between these kinds of greetings and quest-related greetings is that they would have to be more or less generic. As long as the conditions are set up properly, though, there shouldn't be any reason for the greetings to be inaccurate.

But to make the player feel the right 'weight' that the significance of their faction manipulations should have, means that a lot of differing NPC reactions are required. Not that I think this is a detractor at all, just that it would be a lot of hours workwise. I'm not a big fan of too many generic greetings. They are already so obvious in Skyrim, where what would be normal phrasing is not used in favor of something less definite.
You could also tie factions in to permanent effects rewards, like some of the Divine quests have. That might be another way to create diverse characters at end game without tying the diversity to race, since you can only have the permanent effect of the factions you max, and not all of them as you currently have with the Divine ones. And they would also remain dynamic. Have the player end game build tied to what they have done and achieved, instead of what they were born as. (I'm still perplexed by the argument that your race should dictate how well you can play at end game, but I guess I should shut up about that ) What about racial factions? The player can choose who they sympathize with, and it doesn't have to always be whatever they were born as. I'm thinking of Brand Shei the Dunmer Telvanni Argonian.

One thing that I do appreciate in Skyrim is what I'd best describe as repeatable quests. The hold bounties, the ongoing little fetch quests from the College, or the jobs from the Thieves' Guild. I usually play the same character for a long time (my Morrowind character has 991 in game days) so this really appeals to me. With dynamic factions, would your intention be to allow a player like me to max one faction and then reconsider my loyalties and reduce it again while maxing the rival faction? For me this kind of system would provide what 'replayability' provides for players who roll multiple characters. My character develops and explores many of the alternatives of the world, gaining knowledge and satisfying my curiosity. It's not how most would role play since it would appear to be too contradictory, but I justify my playstyle with the knowledge that one doesn't often see the full picture until one has worked their way to the top. It's often not until you are at the top of an organization that you really understand how it works, so you can only make an accurate judgement from the top - and sometimes have a change of heart. Speaking of being 'at the top' how would you handle the player's expectation of becoming the faction leader? Since you have the faction leader handing out rewards or discipline in your scenario, which means it cannot be the player.

awsome article, i could see this being very usefull for new player. big fan of you work.

http://www.truancyfactory.com/mods/skyrim/warBaby.html as well as the other links have been very helpfull to me as a console player to make character faces and fine tune them, and i apreciate all the effort you put into it it

Well, there's not a lot you can do to eliminate generic responses entirely, the same way you can't eliminate using the same creatures or finding the same loot. The trick is to create enough variety that it doesn't become boring. The best way to solve that would be to have more voice actors and not tie them too tightly to races: three or four gruff male voices, three or four 'average' male voices, etc. Then give each actor different versions of each greeting. If your guild is made up of a dozen different voices and they have two or three greetings for each of ten faction ranks you're looking at a decent amount of variation. (Though a lot more dialogue to pay for and download.)

[Aside: About race: Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn all had very different capabilities but it didn't make them any less well-equipped for the 'end game'. ] Racial factions wouldn't be any different from regular factions. You can't join the Altmer faction, but you ought to be able to join the Thalmor faction, which would definitely carry consequences. I would handle them exactly the same way I handle other factions.

Faction objectives would serve a similar function to the Radiant quests you're describing, but they wouldn't be explicit (which I'd actually prefer). I'd much rather hear about a powerful artifact that my guild is trying to get their hands on and use my own initiative and ingenuity to find it and retrieve it than be given a literal quest. In the situation you're describing about becoming the guild leader, there really wouldn't need to be a lot of difference (though extra objectives are always nice): you'd still want to destroy your rivals, increase your wealth and power, recruit new members, and (occasionally) put down an insubordinate. Rival factions would still retaliate and frequently initiate attacks against you. You would just decide for yourself how you want to improve your faction's standing. If you did things that didn't support your faction, you'd run the risk of lowering your faction reputation and find yourself in a power struggle. The biggest difference might be that other factions that are not direct rivals might create problems for you. It's one thing for two magic guilds to be in competition but what happens if a political/military group demands that you support them? Then, as the guild leader, you could decide which additional factions to take on as rivals and allies. The important thing to keep in mind is that this would all just be the world reacting to your actions. It's meant to supplement more literary and dramatic quests, not replace them. But having these things going on in the background while you're completing literal quests would add a lot of texture to the experience, the same way that crafting and reading books does.

I'm glad you're getting some benefit from them. That's why I do it.