Many believe that in the harsh and grey world of skyrim is imposible to be a good character. And yes, is difficult, because most of the quests seem to cater to a more neutral evil approach than the knight in the shining armor one, and because of that, you lose a lot of content, but if you are willing to dont worry about those things that doesnt concern to you, then you can be a true hero of the people.

So here is my advice to play a good character and feel good about it.

1) Help as many people as possible: in Skyrim there is a lot of people that need help, from deliveries, to slaying monsters, recovering lost items, or even giving some advice. This isnt only an act of goodness, but also is rewarding, if only with the smiles of the people you helped and the words: "friend".

2) Be charitable: play with some kids, something that is often overlooked, but really can give some respite and a warm feeling, a knight playing with the kids gifting them some of his time is a vision to behold. Also give some coin to beggars, maybe isnt much and even i would like to give more, but at least, for some mere coins, they can have a nice meal.

3) Become a Thane in each hold: Being a Thane is the maximum expression of being of great service to a community, carry your tittle with honor after you have helped the Jarl and the people with their problems.

4) You have to save the world: Dragons are a pest, i know, a big scaly annoying pest, but you are the only one that can get rid of it, so get to it and stop the end of the world as you know it.

5) Avoid guilds: Most of the guilds are neutral or evil, you have no business there so feel free to avoid them. you dont need them telling you what to do when you have a higher mission to acomplish.

Some other considerations:

- Stop the civil war: The more it drags, the more blood is spilled. Even if being neutral would be a nice option, the truth is, you have to take a side for the better good. Pick a side, battle with honor and help stabilize skyrim.

- Stick it to the daedra: you dont have to be a vigilant of stendar, looking to destroy Daedras, but if a Daedric prince tryes to manipulate you into doing something for them, simply dont listen and ignore them.

If you have any other tips or advice, feel free to post it.

Very well said but:

Companions is a guild helping people all over Skyrim. People like the Companions. To rescue somenone, they don't go to you but to them. So it's important to be part of them if you really want to help Skyrim's people.

To stop the Civil War is none of your business. You are here to save Skyrim from the threat of Alduin and his dragons. Fulfill your destiny and after you concluded a Peace Treaty leave the people of Skyrim decide which part should win. As a good character are you willing to kill Stormcloaks? What about their wives, children? And the same from the other side. They have their family. More orpheans? More widowers? Just stabilized for a while with the Truce and later, maybe, they will come with an arrangement... Who knows?

Near Whiterun I saw 3 soldiers escorting a Stormcloak prisonner. So I decided to free him and after I saw the prisonner running away I looked at the dead soldiers and thought: Well they just followed an order, doing their job. Why should I kill them? Even thinking about the tortures expecting the poor man (Stormcloak also torture Imperial soldiers) I reloaded my game and let them go toward their own destiny.

I always give the Charity gold to beggars. I wish it would be included in the Stats.

Some Daedric Princes are not too bad and if it's important for your mission to get the artifact, then do it but in an honorable way. Boethiah's shrine is still in black on my map and he won't see me. In that sense you are quite right.

It's true that even in Morrowind or Oblivion I have never been affiliated with Thieves or Assassins Guilds. I'm not loosing anything as I wouldn't enjoy at all doing quests related to them. I prefer to explore the world.

About Giants and Mammoths! Don't kill them. Giants protect their mammoths and only if you'll be attacked for no reason, yes, defend yourself. But keep your distance, that's all. When being sent to them to retrieve a book, I use invisibility, open the chest and take the book only, leaving the other items.

Don't kill Bunnies, Deers and all kind of animals that do not attack you. I don't like too much that in that game we have to catch Butterflies, Bees, etc...

When you fight and an opponent scream "enough, I surrender", leave him. If later he returns to attack you again, then kill him. But in that way you really RP a good character.

When a Dragon is attacking near a city or town, run away quickly and get it outside, in a large area, after using your Dragonrend. In that way you'll save lots of citizens. Riverwood is still the same with my high levelled character.

And don't kill Paarthurnak. In doing that you would loose your honor in betraying a friend that helped you so much...

I know that many play a REAL good character better than mine.

Let's hear about them....

Many of the dungeons also have their own quests which start when you approach them and usually involve helping someone out. Like the lighthouse one on the coast between Winterhold and Dawnstar, and many of the ancient tombs.


Some of the daedric ones could actually be construed as good actions depending on how you finish them. Like rescuing the child from the evil corruption of Mephala by removing the cursed sword, freeing the town of Dawnstar from Vaermina's influence, purifying Azura's star of the corruption of the necromancers, destroying the green-vomit spewing infected ones for Peryite, and so on.
Even an evil quest like Namira's can be resolved by killing the quest-giver when she shows her truly evil side after clearing her dungeon.

eliminate all thalmor
eliminate all vampires
eliminate all werewolves and the circle
eliminate Maven and her sons
eliminate Rolff stonefist
eliminate astrid and the DB
eliminate the thieves guild
eliminate alcano
eliminate onldemar
eliminate the silver-bloods
eliminate priests of boethiah
eliminate amaund montierre
eliminate eola
eliminate captain valmar
give money to the poor people in the warrens
give money to the beggars
do not lick jarl balgruff's boots
buy all houses in the game and offer to the homeless
teach lydia how to move out of the way when you want to get out of the room
help harvest crops
kill dragons
kill chickens
kill mudcrabs
kill draugrs
burn cicero and the night mother

god the list can go on and on and on anon anon anononononon

Except that you can't kill Maven, unfortunately.

set essential solves the problem. it breaks the thieves guild quest and her jarl position.

Why kill chickens? They give you eggs.

I don't think the Companions are all "good" exactly.

If you don't recall, make a new character and talk to all of them before joining. There's only like three good people around (Kodlak, Ria, maybe Vignar or Aela). The rest are an irritable bunch.

The way I see it, people who just want to be a goody goody or boy & girl scouts are stuck just doing the MQ and the bounties. I also do think Blades Quests are good too, although it is extreme justice.

I pretty much agree, although not about the Blades part. I think it can be interpreted as good (rather than how some think it's only vicious), but the Greybeards can equally been seen that way too. I think Beth has something in store for the storyline to muddy either choice even further.

No it's just like playing Morrowind. Remember... But it started to be a bit evil in Oblivion. Now with DB and Cannibalism, etc. It shows a different world. (I love Morrowind! Sooon....)

My character is pretty much like that. Though she has joined the Stormcloaks and the companions.

To be different for me I need to be a mean character. I think that will be the hardest for me as I like to help other characters. So for that I need to ease myself in by starting out with the theives guild (once I have built up my speechcraft so that my words carry weight with them)

I played as a good hearted Bosmer Hunter a while back, who worshipped Hircine and everything. He made it his business to become Thane of every hold and help out everyone when he was asked. Being the Harbinger of the Companions, he felt it was his duty to assist the people's of Skyrim and ease the suffering that was brought upon by the dragons and everything.

I did the companions quest, destroyed the DB, avoided the college and thieve's guild, and didn't touch the civil war. The only thing you could say was "questionable" about my character was that he was a werewolf and that I was playing as a jekyll and hide kind of thing, but even so, he didn't remember anything upon waking up from being a werewolf (I would only transform into a werewolf while playing drunk IRL, so I really wouldn't remember what I did in the game while in werewolf form. It worked magnificently)

Anyway, it's incredibly easy to play as a good guy. What makes it more fun? If you screw up and accidentally do something wrong, go with it. Feel guilty. I was married to Aela on that character, and we were exploring Blackreach one night. Few too many drinks, and I went werewolf. Woke up the next morning, booted up Skyrim, and I couldn't find Aela. Go back down to Blackreach, and lo and behold, there's the corpse of my wife, slain by my own hand. I rolled with it, and figured that my Bosmer would become a bit more bitter towards the world and more extreme about not causing pain and ending suffering...so he joined the Legion and made it his business to end the civil war.

Easy to play good. More fun to roll with it if/when you screw up.

@PoeticMadness: Nice but sad story. Sorry for Aela.

I'm pretty much with PoeticMadness, only as an Argonian mercinary with a strong loyalty to the Empire, and without the drunken killing. When I go werewolf, its because Hircene wants somebody dead who I was reluctant to kill. (So far that's just the old hag in the orphanage...)

I killed Ulfric without a second thought because it was my job, and because the Empire has made things better for Argonians, if only by subjugating Morrowind. Now I'm working on becoming a Thane in every hold, so that Shavee (my wife) can set her friends up with places to stay while they re-settle away from the limited opportunities of Windhelm. Stopping the dragons is happening along the way, but really doesn't seem that urgent yet.

Some of the daedra I've helped, some I've hindered, some I've played against each other or ignored outright.