Since the new DLC was announced, I decided I was gonna start playing Skyrim again, and I've done every quest in every city, completed the main questline and completed the civil war questline. However, I wiped out the Dark Brotherhood rather than actually help them out, which is where my dilemma comes in.

My first action after getting out of Helgen and warning the Jarl of Whiterun about the dragons was to go and complete the entire Thieves Guild questline as it's probably my favourite one, and I am wondering whether to go back to the save I made just after completing it so i can go straight to the Dark Brotherhood and do their entire questline instead.

I can think of pros and cons, and I was wondering if you guys can help me decide whether to go back or not.

Pros:

I would lose the fine on my record that appeared after a bard I tried to help stood right in front of me while I was attacking the enemy that was killing him.

I would lose the murder on my record that I gained because the same thing happened with an Imperial during the civil war.

I could do the Forsworn Conspiracy questline properly without bugging it by accidentally going into Nepos's house before I was supposed to.

I would get to do the DB questline which i enjoyed as much as the Thieves Guild questline.

Cons:

Every quest in every major city would no longer be completed.

The civil war will no longer be completed.

The main quest will no longer be completed.

I would no longer be more than half way towards getting the Oblivion Walker achievement.

IIRC, this achievement can be completed with multiple characters splitting up the locations found.

Reloading to a previous save is not a crime, nor is it copping out. If the game is not working out for you, then this is an alternative to starting a new character.

Also, nothing says that one character has to do all the quests, if your current character has misbehaved so that it's infamous, then retire them or make them a real bad boy and join the DB. Then, role a nice guy character for the other quests.

Problem is that i already wiped out the DB, and I did that straight after doing the TG questline and before all the other stuff I've done.

Like I said, if you don't like the direction the character went, start a new one, or load a save form before he went down the path you don't want.

I've decided to go for it and have deleted the saves I made after finishing the Thieves Guild quest, but I still have the fine for attacking Talsgar the Wanderer. I was wondering, is there a console command to completely remove the record of a fine at all? I know you can use console commands to pay a fine, but I want it gone completely, and then I'm gonna bring the NPC back to life with console commands (tested it, he won't attack me if I do, just asks if I'm gonna fight him again). Just wondering cos, while I am not gonna delete any more saves just to get rid of the fine, I don't really want it on my record as it's not my fault all the NPCs in this game seem to think it's a good idea to run and stand in front of you as you attack?

Or better yet, is there a mod to stop NPCs ever doing that? There's "Non-Hostile Friendly Fire", but that only works for NPCs who are my friends/allies.

You could, you know...always keep your save where you have all those things and return to it after completing the Dark Brotherhood questline....
Who says you have to give up on all the progress you've made already?

Cos I already wiped the DB out really early on, so I need to go back

Are you on PC or console? If your on PC the console commands can really save you a lot of headach, just respawn all the members you killed and presto. :3

I plan to, was just hoping I could remove the record of the 40 gold fine I got for "attacking" Talsgar the Moron Wanderer

Those all sound like pros to me. Those are all quest you get to do all over again and this time you know where most things are so your not going blindly into a situation.