No. They didn't market Skyrim like it was Second Life. They marketed it like it is supposed to be an epic adventure playing the game and following the plot. You can choose your playstyle and there is a lot of leeway in what you can do questwise, but there has to be some structure.

To OP, it's one of those things where you'll just want to avoid following the order to go to the Western Watchtower to fight the dragon. Good luck.

If it's just the random dragons spawning that could damage the OP's rp, then there is a way of stopping that. You can do the MQ up until Delphine asks you to kill a dragon. Then you don't talk to her and scurry off to the world. No random dragons will spawn, except a few dragons at wordwalls. Maybe a solution?

My character have yet to see Balgruuf.

Come on, people. This game has a story. If you want to NOT be a dragonborn, then you're asking for a game which does not have a story at all. Even Grand Theft Auto forces you to follow the storyline to access new cars and land (and more variety of people to drive over), and it claims to be a sandbox game.

It's already awesome that you can ignore the main quest. Also, you have to report to the steward, not the Jarl, to obtain bounties

LOL DID YOU READ AT THE BACK OF THE GAME THAT TELL'S YOU YOUR THE DRAGONBORN?

Funny, I found that the fact the Main Quest and the Civil War quests interacted was refreshing. I was sick of the completely compartimentised major quest lines in Oblivion. It is minor but it's nice when it happens now. When you are sent to the mage's guild to look for information on the Elder Scrolls. When you go look for someone hiding from the "law" thanks to the thief's guild. And the major ones, when you do the civil war quest lines which relieves the pressure on Whiterun allowing you to go to the plan to capture the dragon quicker, or on the other side, when you go for the main quest first and organize a moot and then you do the civil quest line and you then have to deal with the changes you got passed during the peace conference.


Bethesda is kinda screwed here. Some people cry that the quest lines interact, others like that they do.

wow so much hate and i dont think much of the haters are even aware of the reason why they are hating. Basically the Op is wondering WHY u can do every single guild quest and sooo many misc quests and what not, that why u had to prove urself to be the dragonborn in the civil war quest? ur not fighting any dragons OR are they even calling u dragonborn because u have earned different names during it. It was pointless and there was no REAL reason for it in the first place. U can do all these other quests lines...pretty much EVERY single one in the game except the Civil war forces u to start the MQ for no raisen whatsoever....none. Theres alot fo people who are put off by the MQ because maybe they play an evil toon and would rather watch the world burn before thye help a hand, or what ever raisen, they let u get bypass the MQ in EVERY other questline EXCEPT the civil war QL and there wasnt any raisen to whatsoever. That u were able to bypass it with every other QL but it forces u to witht civil war QL or NO raisen whatsoever..



AGAIN Op is complaining that EVERY questline besides the civil war does NOT force u to be the dragonborn. The Civil War has ONE quest that forces u to be the dragonborn for NO raisen to the whole civil war quest line whatsoever. So autheor is basically asking WHY u can do EVERY SINGLE other quest line MISC GUILD and ETC and NOT be forced inot the Dragonborn BUT u are forced into the Civil War really for NO raisen, they coulda easiely bypassed the Main Quest like EVERY OTHER quest line did. Its only the MQ and the one quest in the civil war that FORCES u to be the dragonborn, they are the ONLY ones, and the civil war didnt have ANY raisen whatsoever to not follow suit like EVERY other questline in game and allow u the freedom u wanted.

Isn't that spelled "Reason", not "Raisen?" I mean, I like dried graqes as much as the next person, but...

So don't go to the jarl and kill the dragon. Go around looking for storm cloak camps. I was level 40 before I even killed my 1st dragon, until you kill him there are no random dragon quests. Yea you can't do the main quest line but go storm Liam hunting and make up your own.

Bethesda staff, if you can see this, it would be nice if a future Elder Scolls game allows the player to adopt the role of a mentor.

Instead of starting off as a prisoner who turns out to be history's quickest rising hero who becomes just as quickly forgotten...
Make the main role that of one who frees the prisoner/hero and guides/accompanies them to their destiny. Then you can kill off the hero as you wish. Also, it allows the player to fart around all they want, as the hero is busy doing their own thing.

You do, just don't get started on the main quest. I didn't go see the Jarl of whiterun till level 50, my char had no idea he was dragonborn, had no shouts, and saw no dragons other than alduin at the beginning anywhere during that time.

This is such a bunch of BS.

When he said "play how you want", did you think really think: "great! I'll develop aerospace engineering and make a moon rocket, and then I'll develop brain surgery techniques. Then I will introduce Buddhism to Skyrim, and lastly, I'll develop space/time magicks that let me kill Adolf Hitler before WWII on earth started! That's a heck of a gameplay angle for Skyrim!!!" or something like that?

or did you already know that what he meant in the context of his comments was "play the game the way you like to play". The premise of the game is that you're dragonborn. Next somebody will complain that they can't play Skyrim as a paraplegic knight, so somebody lied when they said "play how you want". Well maybe I want to play as a conjoined twin, right?

You internet lawyers are a fascinating lot

spelling nazi fail

Why are you trying to exaggerate things?

If he says you can play how you want and makes a huge deal about it, then you should be able to at least keep your character from knowing if he was the Dragonborn or not without doing the Main quest. This isn't something that is hard to do.

All they would have to do is when you get to the part where you have to give the letter to the Jarl.

He accepts the letter and you continue on with the rest of the civil war quest.

Whats with all these trolls making it sound like this is something too hard for bethesda to do?

There is no way to cater to everyone's play-style. It would be infinitely complex. Also all RPG games require some use of imagination. For this case just pretend you did not become the dragonborn and ignore all comments made by NPC's about it. These games are getting more complex all the time and some people's imaginations are starting to atrophy. Use it and you will have more fun. Don't rely on the game mechanics alone because you will just be disappointed at some point.

Your not forced to do anything, if you don't want dragons showing up in your game do not go to bleak falls barrow right off the bat. So this way when you tell the jarl of Whiterun about Helgen, He will introduce you to his mage and his mage will ask you to go there.

So if you do not have the dragon stone at all then the dragon will not show up in your game until you turn the dragon stone into the Jarl of Whiterun's mage. I got to level 35 without turning the stone into the mage and I haven't seen a single dragon.

The difference is that you play the game without dragon shouts

Irony Spot Check Fail.

I just think its stupid that beast races and elves can be dragonborn...dragonborn are nords...imperials are descendents of nords...bretons are a mix of elf and nord....so the 3 human races should be the only ones that can be dragonborn, seeing as how they are the only ones with any kind of possibility to have dragon blood.

Oh phooey. Racist much? After all, you have NO CLUE what a dragon may have found attractive.

sry spent to much time in old world blues, it rubbed off. bad habits hard to break.

Lawl! i havnt tried doing the civil war quests before hte main quests but this is dumb cuz it should be indifferent

definitely not racist, ive played characters of every race, and i love aspects of every race...But the dragonblood is something of the nords/imperials, plain and simple.

Not according to Beth, in this instance. Which I guess would make it definitive. Now, once the CK is out, the modders will probably provide you with a way to implement that particular schism.

I wouldn't it racist to say only Nords or humans can be the Dragonborn, but I do find it baseless. Akatosh didn't pass on the Dragon-blood through mating anyway, and could pass on the characteristic to anybody he chose.

And there are four human races in Tamriel, anyway: Nord, Imperial, Breton and Redguard.

Because of the main quest perhaps?