I rode into Windhelm at 3am on a snowy early morning to find 3 fellow Nords harassing a dark elf woman and accusing her of being an Imperial spy. She proceeded to ask me if I was an elf hater as well, and I assured her that I had no such prejudices. After we parted ways, I headed to the Candlehearth Hall for a warm bed for the night but ran into the ringleader of the ruffians that had been accosting the dark elf maiden. He accused me of being an elf lover and challenged me to a fight for 100 gold. I accepted and proceeded to deliver a sound and decisive beating to this scum. It felt great, and I made 100 gold profit.

I love this game, and so far this has been my favorite encounter. Even if it was scripted and not random (this is my first playthrough so I wouldn't know), it was such a nice little touch to establish mood. What's your favorite encounter so far?

I started a thread like this a few days ago . here's a cut and paste of my fav...

So I'm off at the behest of Jorleif at Windhelm to dispatch this giant that has encroached upon the civilized citizens of his domain. I did do the giant in, who, by the way, appeared to minding his own business with his buddy at the Broken Limb camp.

I decided to explore the hot springs area a bit when I was done and spotted tents and a fire in the distance. When I got there, there was a small island in the middle of these hot springs with 2 tents and a fire. Three hunters were there (two females and a male). To my surprise they were stripped naked, and lounging about in the hot springs around the island. Their clothes/armor were piles neatly, and a keg and bottles of wine were abundant on a table and spread about the island. One girl was laying prone with her hand behind her head in the edge of the shallow water while the guy and the other girl were sitting in deeper water on stone ledges.

Of course, when I tried to talk to them I just got the usual "Do you want something?" Or "Good morning". I have the nvde mod loaded and it was kind of trippy to see these people just laying around partying nvde in the hot springs at 3:00 in the morning without a care in the world. Truthfully, it brought back memories from many moons ago of some time I spent in the mountains of Idaho, but that's another story. I just wanted to stop what I was doing and join them.

it never happened to me, and i have 3 chars, so I guess its really random.

once I've spotted a killer sent by Maven Black-Briar killing some random guy saying "with best regards from maven black-briar", I lol'd

I also met some random ghosts in the open world, they led me to the spot where they've been killed, one of them them also thanked me after I've avenged him.

I ran into a Dunmer farmer near Morthal who said he was on his way to join the Imperials and fight in the rebellion.

Well, not 10 feet from where I talked to him, he ran into a mudcrab in the steam and pulled his dagger. The mudcrab killed him in one shot....

I don't think he would have been very helpful to the Imperials anyhow.

I haven't run into any especially interesting random encounters even though I mostly run and ride and seldomly fast travel. Maybe they are all just that average. At the moment the most memorable ones that I can think of have been the "Old orc," the mead drinkers and the greatest one, M'aiq the Liar.

I was fighting an ancient dragon when a woman came running up to me in the middle of combat & engaged dialog (freezing me ofcourse) to ask for a cure disease potion due to a vampire attack and we both ended up dying.

I've fought a dragon around the hot springs area (near the Atronach stone) and some random woman came up to me. She sounded delirious and was like "OMG I have no idea how long I've been wandering around, help me please." I wanted to, I really did, but I had my hands full. LOL I saw her running from the dragon, screaming and cowering.

I thought she got away unhurt and I could talk to her after I finish the dragon, but there was no sign of her afterwards and I want to know what she wanted. Maybe it's the same woman "AkavirBlade" met!

This mystery has haunted my waking days! I've often been back to the Hot Springs area, in the hopes of meeting that poor woman again! LOL Why do these crazy people come up to us the moment we engage with a dragon? Same with the mad woman who wants me to use Wabbajack on her... LOLOLOL

Some distance from Ivarstead I encountered 'imperial soldiers' that wanted some free from me - they didn't get it and we fought.After I defeated them, I proceed onwards only to find real soldiers dead and stripped of their clothes, so they were obviously vicitms of before mentioned bandits.

I was accosted by an elderly woman who say it would be an honor if I Wabbajacked her.

I hope she's enjoying her new life as a rabbit.

Better than a sweet roll I suppose...

2 named dragons, naked courier. Haha a bug

Cheers

I had to wonder at the naked courier, too. I've gotten naked ones and clothed ones.

I got the woman wandering around lost and pointed her towards the nearest town. She thanked me and ran away.

It's supposedly common, but I love the guy who stole a hunter's weapon and asks me to hide it for him. One time, I gave the hunter his weapon back and he killed the thief. Another time, the thief got killed by an animal and I kept the weapon. The hunter killed the animal and stood around the bodies for a while.

When I find out that The Thalmor considers me Extremely Dangerous and must be taken out with the utmost hatred. Poor Thalmor Justicars didn't stand a chance.

Was headed to Hag's End one particularly gloomy night when I stumbled across a destroyed carriage surrounded by scorched earth, a couple dead horses, and a burned corpse on it's knees. There was no loot anywhere.

I liked to...allow a werewolf to kill them...damn Thalmor.

But then I went a while without doing it as I leveled up and tried again much later....they zapped me to Oblivion and back.

i was in iverstad working on the main quest started mt climbing and jumped then shot up to the top of the mt

I like that giant that stands by the lake by the mammoth skeleton looking all sad. And hes not hostile at all. Just sad.

The naked hot spring hunters were a highlight. Just came out of no where, it was brilliant. The Argonian you met during 'A Night to Remember' who cleared out a cave ave you made a bet with him was hilarious too.

Oh, and the random headless horseman.

This guy found me ... twice.

The first time, I gave him the 10k gold. He was all happy and was like 'I'm gonna buy me a nice place back at the marsh!" while he was running off. The second time, I just gave him the 750 gold, and immediately upon exiting dialogue, DRAGON BREATH and he died. Stupid dragons. At least I got my 750 gold back and won't be dealing with him anymore.