One thing that drove me nuts about Oblivion was the complete lack of significance when it came to time. If an NPC asks you to meet them somewhere in the wilderness you could go immediately or wait six months. It didn't matter because the game, in essence, suspended the quest until you were "on location". Playing through Skyrim, I'm wondering if the same is true. For instance, if you choose not to go straight to Whiterun and warn the jarl about the attack on Helgen, does any of the dialogue change? If I waited a couple of months to visit him, would he still remark "So, it's true!", and will Irileth still suggest they send troops to Riverwood? I like the freedom to pick and choose which quests I want to take on, but some events should create a sense of urgency that can't just be foregone until convenient. So, to those of you who have played significantly more than my 20 hours, does putting off completing any quests have any impact on the game?

I've heard two people mention that they received Companion quests to rescue a hostage, they didn't do it for a while, and by the time they got their the hostage was dead. It could be that the hostage hadn't timed out as it were, but got killed during the scuffle and the person never realized.

As a general rule, however, quests are not timed. During my second run-through I didn't go to Whiterun to start the main quest until I was level 17 it went forward as normal.

Nope, it's exactly the same as in Oblivion. You can wait YEARS to tell the jarl and he'll still act like the attack on Helgen just happened

That's very disappointing, but thanks for responding.


I read else where that this can be the result of radiant quests picking NPCs that have been killed earlier. http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1357112-sometimes-the-radiant-system-just-doesnt-cut-it/