Roleplaying as a weak, helpless girl.

[Lupine00]

5 hours ago, sapho888 said:

Also, there seems to be a new Defeat/ Prison/ Addiction mod that just got released called Dragonborn in Distress... I haven't tried it out yet but it looks interesting.

Lots of stuff that in principle I like, but in detail have doubts about.

Alas, I'm not really in a position to install and try this mod just now. Too deep down another rabbit hole.

 

 

So, after defeat, it's almost impossible for you to run away or win a subsequent fight, and if you stay you get it worse, and if you run you get it worse. Not sure what you're supposed to do there... If you get devices on you, you won't be able to run or fight. So how does it end? Presumably this has been tested and balanced to some extent? I'm just not seeing how it will work from the description.

 

 

Then there are the high trauma levels, that are only addressed by EC+ and MME milkers? Some very narrow requirements there. MME is a bad enough one-way trip as it is.

 

And some of the forced stealing and drinking stuff... It wasn't that great in SW Addicted.

We already debated that issue where having decisions taken away from you has to have a good payoff and feel immersive, but I'm not sure it would. In SW A, it often happened without you even really noticing that much.

 

There are so many of these compulsive effects. It's sort of awesome, and I think it might be fun initially, but it will start to get old fast too.

 

If the mod provides ways to cure yourself that are interesting, then it could be a lot of fun, but if you just get like that, and then it gets worse, it's going to be another one way railroad.

 

However, from the description, there's no such mechanism (yet) and you have to wait it out.

 

 

If this was joined up nicely with DF, there might be some great synergy, but again, no sign of that, as is.

 

 

The basic mechanics are a lot like stuff I have, or was planning, for my Skooma Whore replacement, but the details of it are quite different. I was blocked on creating quests to end addictions, or that allows you to swap one addiction for another that would in some ways be worse, and others a lot more manageable. That was taking a long time to even plan, let alone execute.

 

 

What I'm reading from the description (and yes, it's just speculation) is that it quickly leads to a "bad end" but not one that is clearly defined. At some point DBiD wrecks your character so bad you can't really recover, but it's not game over, it's a sort of zombie game with no way forward. The lack of a clearly defined bad end might be a weakness here.

 

 

Of course, I'm thinking of a game with DF, where you also run into debt fast, and then you're enslaved, and addicted to devices, and have zero willpower, and you're often unable to loot, so you can't even make money in DF.

 

Seems that for this to work, you have to throw away a lot of the other mods you're used to using, because otherwise it will be inescapable double-binds all the way. I'd prefer it if it could interoperate well and have synergy with other mods (besides MME and EC+) rather than making them too risky to use.

 

Or it maybe that the "relief" is so bad, you always choose to wait it out. I had a lot of this sort of problem with FMEA and Wounds.

 

 

I'm hopeful, perhaps the author @Code Serpent will eventually expand on the cure mechanisms, and also provide more ways for dealing with the "broken" state than MME and EC+. It seems that at the very least, SD+ or DF slavery should fit in here somewhere, somehow.

 

I'm also not sure how swapping in PoP will work, and whether PoP will be able to generate trauma by some selective animation detection by DBiD or something.

 

One of the things I felt I did wrong with my SW replacer was that it was trying to do too much, and having to reimplement every mechanic so that things could work well, and I think there's a bit of it here.  Like, you want being a whore to result in addiction to it, but that ends up making you want to replace the prostitution mod, and it all snowballs.

 

I want to try it, but it seems like it has its work cut out.

[Lupine00]

New version of SLD is up. So if you want to make Apropos 2 do horrible things to you, that's now possible.

[Code Serpent]

6 hours ago, Lupine00 said:

Then there are the high trauma levels, that are only addressed by EC+ and MME milkers? Some very narrow requirements there. MME is a bad enough one-way trip as it is.

 

And some of the forced stealing and drinking stuff... It wasn't that great in SW Addicted.

We already debated that issue where having decisions taken away from you has to have a good payoff and feel immersive, but I'm not sure it would. In SW A, it often happened without you even really noticing that much.

 

There are so many of these compulsive effects. It's sort of awesome, and I think it might be fun initially, but it will start to get old fast too.

 

What I'm reading from the description (and yes, it's just speculation) is that it quickly leads to a "bad end" but not one that is clearly defined. At some point DBiD wrecks your character so bad you can't really recover, but it's not game over, it's a sort of zombie game with no way forward. The lack of a clearly defined bad end might be a weakness here.@Code Serpent

 

I think you are overestimating how cruel my mod is. Trauma increases the cost of power attacks and spell casting, the worst it can get is tripling the cost. That will affect gameplay, but won't outright stop it, and it is incredibly hard to become that traumatized. So, it is very possible to play while traumatized without seeking relief.

 

Also, my mod will never force you to use addictive things if you aren't already addicted, you have to choose to look for relief before becoming addicted. The mod won't force you to drink some ale or skooma, or force you to steal, or force you into devices and milk pumps. (Apart from devices added when defeated, but I'll patch it so that you won't become addicted to devices when defeated) So, you have to choose to start your downward spiral.

 

Once you've started down that path, you can still escape easily enough. Simply understanding how the addictions trigger, and playing so that you prevent that for a few days, should be enough to sober your character. For example, to combat alcoholism, you need to remove any alcohol you have in your inventory, avoid looking at any alcohol you come across in dungeons, and avoid talking to innkeepers. For the latter, every forced dialogue set has an option to avoid the addiction dialogue: "I wanted to speak with you" if you withdrawal is low enough, you should be able to talk to the innkeeper or other people normally by using that. Otherwise, you can just walk away.

 

If you feel you can't avoid those things, you can always use chastity and bondage devices to control your urges. If you become addicted to those, its just as straightforward to come clean: remove bondage devices, and avoid talking to guards and blacksmiths.

 

If any of this fails, you can always use shrines to decrease your addiction and withdrawal. Simply staying near a shrine for 4 in-game days will cure all addictions.

[xboronx]

The dragonborn in distress mod sounds extremly interesting, trying it this evening :).

 

 

 

[Lupine00]

5 hours ago, Code Serpent said:

I think you are overestimating how cruel my mod is. Trauma increases the cost of power attacks and spell casting, the worst it can get is tripling the cost. That will affect gameplay, but won't outright stop it, and it is incredibly hard to become that traumatized. So, it is very possible to play while traumatized without seeking relief.

Quite possibly. I haven't played it yet, so I'm trying to figure it out from the write-up.

 

From the one post on the DBiD forum about their defeat experience, it sounds a little strange that you can walk off and they follow you, and then after a while aggro. Maybe that was just a quirk with that user and that bear, but...

 

 

It seems like the experience you get post-defeat, post-first-rape/trauma experience, is critical to the balance of it all, and details of design there have far reaching consequences. I don't know if it's good or bad as it is, but if you can get that spot just right, the mod will rock, and if you can't, people will keep on asking for options on top of options so they can try and fix it themselves.

 

You mention the minor issue of devices added by attackers possibly causing unintended relief, and how you intend to change to block that.

This is just one example of a detail in that defeat experience that has to be polished just right for the whole thing to shine.

 

In contrast, the "long tail" of the trauma, is going to be much easier to balance and work with; the player can make choices, seek trauma relief, continue despite the trauma, or simply wait it out. I can't speak to how it works yet, but it's clearly less brittle in terms of consequences.

 

 

So, I'm anticipating that you will continue to refine the initial defeat experience, and may also add more options for the player to customise it. People are already asking on the forum.

 

 

Just from a design perspective, I seems you need to add something to break the defeat-trauma-defeat-trauma looping for cases where escape is impossible. See anecdote that follows my thoughts on the MCM.

 

 

From the MCM screenshots, it seemed a lot of MCM to configure who rapes you, and how many rapists. For me, that stuff is in the "don't care, just do whatever" basket. I'd be happy with a single tickbox to enable/disable creatures and that's it. The mod can see what animations I have and choose based on that if it likes, it just doesn't matter to me. From a game perspective, it's just fluff.

 

It's the total number of sex scenes that I care about - how long am I sat watching SexLab animations before we move onto the next stage of the defeat?

 

 

This brings me to a little anecdote about DCL combat defeat.

 

Back around when DCL 7.0 came out, I was playing a game where I'd added a lot of tough draugr. I think they were coming from SIC or something.

While exploring Folgunthur, or somewhere like that, I got stuck in a narrow corridor between draugr in front and behind.

Due to being stuck, I got defeated.

And then there were some rapes.

 

DCL decided not to port me out.

So, the rapes ended, and I was stuck, jammed in a very narrow corridor between gangs of draugr.

 

After about twenty rape scenes, I finally gave up, quit and reloaded. There was simply no way out of that corridor. Once I regained control, there was no way to move, because the stupid Skyrim collision wouldn't let me past the draugr. I would get past one, and there were still another five or six backed up.

 

 

The old DCL combat defeat wouldn't have done that. It would have ported me to the dungeon start after the first rape.

While that had its issues, it ensured you wouldn't get stuck.

 

 

Defeat and DA both have a wide range of "port out" scenarios. These can (in cases) leave you with a broken dungeon. Shroudhearth Barrow is a case in point. You can set the levers so the entry gate it locked. If you are ported out while it's like that, you can't get back in (without cheating) until the cell resets, which will be quite a while. But though there are problems, the "port out" scenarios are critical to the practical function of those mods.

 

In another case, using only Defeat, I was in Solstheim due to a LAL start, with a level 1 character. That character was chain raped by Ash dudes about four-billion times, but still, if I got defeated twice in a row, I got a death and reload, I didn't get stuck watching the same three Ash guys playing SexLab animations, then trying to crawl away, getting raped again, and so on.

 

 

As a finisher, have you looked at Sexlab Kidnapped and how that resolves its sex chains?

 

I like the idea of being stuck there, while they gradually break your will, but in practice it doesn't work. The way it's implemented seems to bear no relation to the avowed intent. In practice, mostly you kill them all or die trying the moment you get your controls back, then find out the mod lost all your gear due to a bug, and then discover that it also broke several vanilla NPCs, and a vanilla quest, because it's so badly designed and written. But that's kidnapped.

 

It's an example of a great idea, executed just badly enough to be completely useless. A primer on what not to do, basically. Sometimes it can work great. Other times it can fail catastrophically.

[Code Serpent]

6 minutes ago, Lupine00 said:

Just from a design perspective, I seems you need to add something to break the defeat-trauma-defeat-trauma looping for cases where escape is impossible. See anecdote that follows my thoughts on the MCM.

I don't think there should be any cases where escape is impossible. If there are guards outside, or if you're captured in an outside area, you wait to recover from your shock so that you have the stamina to run away. If you are equipped with restraints that prevent you from running, you have to struggle with those first before you try to escape. Or you can try to escape stealthily, at the risk of being caught and abused again. It's designed to be a no-win scenario between a risky escape, and more trauma, but you should still be able to escape any scenario if you wait for the right moment.

[Lupine00]

1 minute ago, Code Serpent said:

I don't think there should be any cases where escape is impossible. If there are guards outside, or if you're captured in an outside area, you wait to recover from your shock so that you have the stamina to run away. If you are equipped with restraints that prevent you from running, you have to struggle with those first before you try to escape. Or you can try to escape stealthily, at the risk of being caught and abused again. It's designed to be a no-win scenario between a risky escape, and more trauma, but you should still be able to escape any scenario if you wait for the right moment.

I guess I'll have to wait until I try it to comment on that.

 

The bit I can't follow here is "If you are equipped with restraints that prevent you from running, you have to struggle with those first before you try to escape."

 

If you need to escape a regular DD device at default DD difficulties, that would imply you spend several game days before you can escape - if at all.

 

Is that what you mean?

[Code Serpent]

26 minutes ago, Lupine00 said:

I guess I'll have to wait until I try it to comment on that.

 

The bit I can't follow here is "If you are equipped with restraints that prevent you from running, you have to struggle with those first before you try to escape."

 

If you need to escape a regular DD device at default DD difficulties, that would imply you spend several game days before you can escape - if at all.

 

Is that what you mean?

I usually run DD so that escape attempts can be done right after eachother. But if you do spend several days struggling out of devices, your trauma should still only go to about 15-20. Still, you make a good point. I'll see about adding device keys to captors to give another way out.

[NNS10]

On 1/17/2019 at 2:45 AM, Lupine00 said:

Already exists: PC starts with 1 in all skills except speech at 15. Skills only raise through buying training. Training uncapped. New trainers added around world.

For the text in red, what mod are you referring to?

[Lupine00]

1 minute ago, nanashi50 said:

For the text in red, what mod are you referring to?

"All Trainers" - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/43017/

Using the "alternative" mod, which scatters trainers across the different cities so you can't get everything in one place.

It does add a lot of trainer NPCs though.

[sweforce]

A dragonborn by nature are supposed to be the very opposite of this. That is a limitation that is hard to handle. Ideally, someone else could be the dragonborn and you are some sidekick OR the whole main quest are scrapped. Sadly, a good portion of the rest of the quests would need to be scrapped as well of the same reason. Either that or you start out helpless and then instantly overcome that making the whole point moot. I noticed that in the game Icewind Dale 2 it was possible to create a Drow character, step of the boat you arrived with and the first npc you meet are afraid of you. Reassure that npc and there went to downside of being a drow. Roleplaying can easily be sabotaged sometimes.

[SkyAddiction]

4 minutes ago, sweforce said:

A dragonborn by nature are supposed to be the very opposite of this. That is a limitation that is hard to handle. Ideally, someone else could be the dragonborn and you are some sidekick OR the whole main quest are scrapped. Sadly, a good portion of the rest of the quests would need to be scrapped as well of the same reason. Either that or you start out helpless and then instantly overcome that making the whole point moot. I noticed that in the game Icewind Dale 2 it was possible to create a Drow character, step of the boat you arrived with and the first npc you meet are afraid of you. Reassure that npc and there went to downside of being a drow. Roleplaying can easily be sabotaged sometimes.

 

Yes, the base game is a power fantasy. So is almost every single other major title of every genre released in the last ten years. Save the world and fix everybody's problems. That's TES, Mass Effect, the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy, etc., etc., etc... It's extraordinarily lazy plot writing which has gotten boring to the point of hair-tearing ridiculousness. Fortunately, Skyrim is pretty unique in that it has enough things to do that abandoning the main quest before High Hrothgar and never participating in the civil war doesn't cripple the ability to play it.

 

If you play your character with the idea that the dragonborn is a fantasy and taking sides in the war isn't of interest to them (Nord problems), it works pretty well. Hell, there's no reason you can't play those too, I just choose not to. No one who isn't some kind of natural prodigy can competently swing a sword or shoot an arrow without guaranteeing their own death in a fight, so it's not at all far-fetched to play as a weak character who needs a lot of help and training to become competent, then formidable over time. You might be the dragonborn, but the ability to leverage that fact isn't necessarily yours by default.

 

Interestingly, it's only because Skyrim has such a wide base of mods that this discussion even exists. I've certainly never seen it as anything other than a wish or a speculative conversation for any other game.

[Darkpig]

28 minutes ago, sweforce said:

A dragonborn by nature are supposed to be the very opposite of this. That is a limitation that is hard to handle. Ideally, someone else could be the dragonborn and you are some sidekick OR the whole main quest are scrapped. Sadly, a good portion of the rest of the quests would need to be scrapped as well of the same reason. Either that or you start out helpless and then instantly overcome that making the whole point moot. I noticed that in the game Icewind Dale 2 it was possible to create a Drow character, step of the boat you arrived with and the first npc you meet are afraid of you. Reassure that npc and there went to downside of being a drow. Roleplaying can easily be sabotaged sometimes.

should be simple a simple fix. Skyrim is a realm of swords and sorcery. Making enemies that are stronger than you is easy. Making restraints that will hold down a half dragon badass are super easy. They just need to be resistant to magic to an extent. That is why you can't really cast spells when your hands are tied when it comes to the Devious Devices framework or Zaz furniture. Even the most powerful beings can be brought to their knees including dragons.

 

Main quest spoilers:

Spoiler

Those who captured the dragon Odahviing should know what I'm talking about but that trap was made of wood so make of it what you will.

 

[SkyAddiction]

2 minutes ago, Darkpig said:

Main quest spoilers:

  Reveal hidden contents

Those who captured the dragon Odahviing should know what I'm talking about but that trap was made of wood so make of it what you will.

 

 

It's TES, so I'm just glad they chose not to stop time, pop some deus ex machina device (like an elder scroll), or resort to some other god-like device to resolve it. 

[Darkpig]

17 minutes ago, SkyAddiction said:

 

It's TES, so I'm just glad they chose not to stop time, pop some deus ex machina device (like an elder scroll), or resort to some other god-like device to resolve it. 

So it is overpowered vs underpowered huh? I might have preferred overpowered.

[SkyAddiction]

10 minutes ago, Darkpig said:

So it is overpowered vs underpowered huh? I might have preferred overpowered.

 

Not necessarily that binary, but more like, "I'm just glad they didn't turn it up to 11 yet again."

[karlpaws]

41 minutes ago, sweforce said:

A dragonborn by nature are supposed to be the very opposite of this. That is a limitation that is hard to handle. Ideally, someone else could be the dragonborn and you are some sidekick OR the whole main quest are scrapped.

 

19 minutes ago, SkyAddiction said:

If you play your character with the idea that the dragonborn is a fantasy and taking sides in the war isn't of interest to them (Nord problems), it works pretty well.

The civil war is rather easily ignored, and there are mods to help with that or help make it better.  Most of the CW stuff that is in game has you act more as a courier, agent and leader (sorta) than much of any combat.  Hide during the fort fights or plink from the shadows and you'll win them all.  If you have enough speech to bluff the people you need and as long as you can kill a single courier (or lead him into a an ambush of frost trolls, or frenzy him with town guards around) you can handle that. Might have a little trouble when fetching the crown but you've got two essential bodyguards with you.  Clearing the first fort / killing the ice wraiths is probably the hardest part of the whole thing, combat wise, and that's right at the beginning when you'd be the lowest level.

 

Skyrim Unbound even has options for disabling dragons, shouts (or giving them to you when you find the word wall, no dragon death=unlock required) and you never have to set foot in High Hrothgar.

 

Some of the slavery mods do use the idea that the PC is the sidekick and the Master/Mistress is the real hero (or look up markydaysaid (one example) for a different take on that idea). The other that Sky pointed out... you're possibly no more a hero than Lokir, a horse thief who dies with one arrow in his back when events turn on your fate.

 

5 hours ago, Lupine00 said:

"All Trainers" - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/43017/

Using the "alternative" mod, which scatters trainers across the different cities so you can't get everything in one place.

It does add a lot of trainer NPCs though.

That looks interesting. not sure why I haven't really gone looking for something like that before since I'd found one that lets any npc train you for gold, but it has its own dialog, so SLEN doesn't work with it.

[Darkpig]

13 minutes ago, SkyAddiction said:

 

Not necessarily that binary, but more like, "I'm just glad they didn't turn it up to 11 yet again."

Tamriel is a land of magic and talking cats so going over the OP threshold is not as crazy as you might think.

[Seijin8]

10 minutes ago, karlpaws said:

Some of the slavery mods do use the idea that the PC is the sidekick and the Master/Mistress is the real hero

Could you share which mods you are thinking of that do that?

 

Thanks muchly.

[karlpaws]

12 minutes ago, Seijin8 said:

Could you share which mods you are thinking of that do that?

Not very well since I never used the ones that do for that purpose and don't use them all that often in general.

 

the Devious Follower mod that's been mentioned in this thread I think might, or others that have a dedicated follower NPC included in the mod handle some of the mod's mechanics would be most suited to something like that though.  I mostly mention it because others have in the past, either as a story/role play idea or for situations just like this.

[SkyAddiction]

16 minutes ago, karlpaws said:

 

The civil war is rather easily ignored, and there are mods to help with that or help make it better.  Most of the CW stuff that is in game has you act more as a courier, agent and leader (sorta) than much of any combat.  Hide during the fort fights or plink from the shadows and you'll win them all.  If you have enough speech to bluff the people you need and as long as you can kill a single courier (or lead him into a an ambush of frost trolls, or frenzy him with town guards around) you can handle that. Might have a little trouble when fetching the crown but you've got two essential bodyguards with you.  Clearing the first fort / killing the ice wraiths is probably the hardest part of the whole thing, combat wise, and that's right at the beginning when you'd be the lowest level.

 

Skyrim Unbound even has options for disabling dragons, shouts (or giving them to you when you find the word wall, no dragon death=unlock required) and you never have to set foot in High Hrothgar.

 

Yup, I just find the civil war ridiculous because they're in a standoff for how long? And it immediately breaks when you show up? Meh. My PC is too busy learning how not to become a bandit chief's plaything to worry about politics.

 

Timing is Everything also lets you disable the random dragon attacks, which is more efficient because it allows so many other adjustments, like disabling those irritating vampire city attacks, or adjusting the hired thug threshold. That last one is kind of important in my setup given how poor my PC is, so I can steal a bit more than a bottle of mead, a cheese wheel, a commoner's outfit, and a questionably sharp knife from someone's house without being confronted two days later by three assholes who can near-instantly smear my no-skill PC across the cobblestones.

 

I normally just abandon the main quest after the Western Watchtower.

 

Balgruf: "You killed the dragon!"

PC: "Yeah, we kind of did."

Balgruf: "You're the dragonborn!"

PC: "Ooookaaaay?"

Balgruf: "You should go to High Hrothgar!"

PC: "Yeah... how about not? I need to get some lessons from Amren just now. Toodles."

 

That's been my head-cannon for about six months or so. 

 

16 minutes ago, karlpaws said:

Some of the slavery mods do use the idea that the PC is the sidekick and the Master/Mistress is the real hero (or look up markydaysaid (one example) for a different take on that idea). The other that Sky pointed out... you're possibly no more a hero than Lokir, a horse thief who dies with one arrow in his back when events turn on your fate.

 

That genuinely made me laugh out loud, so thanks for that. 

 

15 minutes ago, Darkpig said:

Tamriel is a land of magic and talking cats so going over the OP threshold is not as crazy as you might think.

 

I know, but Beth does it with every single major plot line, so I'll take the more muted writing when I can get it.

[Lupine00]

2 hours ago, sweforce said:

A dragonborn by nature are supposed to be the very opposite of this. That is a limitation that is hard to handle. Ideally, someone else could be the dragonborn and you are some sidekick OR the whole main quest are scrapped. Sadly, a good portion of the rest of the quests would need to be scrapped as well of the same reason. Either that or you start out helpless and then instantly overcome that making the whole point moot. I noticed that in the game Icewind Dale 2 it was possible to create a Drow character, step of the boat you arrived with and the first npc you meet are afraid of you. Reassure that npc and there went to downside of being a drow. Roleplaying can easily be sabotaged sometimes.

My first thought in response to this is "So?"

 

Having played many games as "Not the Dragonborn" I've found very few quests are blocked by not being that mythic creature. Some quests have mismatched dialog, some mods fix some of it. Some guards sometimes say wrong things, again some mods fix some of that. Most of it is avoided simply by not doing Dragonborn things.

 

Skyrim Unbound will happily remove most dragons from the game. Maybe all. I leave them in because I don't care.

 

 

But then, I looked again ... most of this post is really about poor use of narrative devices in games.

Yes. Indeed. But oddly enough, the "weak character" game, with the right setup fixes a lot of this.

You don't get to be a super-duper hero. You get to struggle, and bad things happen.

It doesn't get forgotten. In my game at least, peril is always close by.

 

sweforce might have seen that already discussed, looking back through the posts.

[Lupine00]

35 minutes ago, karlpaws said:

Not very well since I never used the ones that do for that purpose and don't use them all that often in general.

 

the Devious Follower mod that's been mentioned in this thread I think might, or others that have a dedicated follower NPC included in the mod handle some of the mod's mechanics would be most suited to something like that though.  I mostly mention it because others have in the past, either as a story/role play idea or for situations just like this.

Devious Followers makes no attempt to do this really.

 

DF is kind of agnostic about the Dragonborn generally. The follower is intent on enslaving you, but whether you're the Dragonborn or not ...

 

I think it plays better when you're not, but it's not that big a deal really. You can play the Dragonborn if you want, and you can overcome the follower's trickery, if you want.

Depends how you set things up.

[afa]

Oblivion's PC is actually sort of a sidekick...which actually makes the whole thing work a little better, and it is something I have sort of been chasing in Skyrim.

[karlpaws]

1 hour ago, SkyAddiction said:

 

Yup, I just find the civil war ridiculous because they're in a standoff for how long? And it immediately breaks when you show up? Meh. My PC is too busy learning how not to become a bandit chief's plaything to worry about politics.

There have been many pixels lit (since we don't spill ink any more) on this, the "why doesn't the Dragonborn go all Ulfric-at-Markarth on the city walls or do anything else that makes logical, tactical and strategic sense? (CC's Do You Know Who I Am? mod helps in some places but he can't do it all).

1 hour ago, SkyAddiction said:

 

Timing is Everything also lets you disable the random dragon attacks, which is more efficient because it allows so many other adjustments, like disabling those irritating vampire city attacks,

I use TiE as well, for all it can do, but Unbound being able to toggle dragons on word walls, randomly spawning or not at all helps in the "I'm not Dragonborn, why do you people keep saying things about the dragons returning, Helgen was wiped out by a meteor." sense. It also lets you get the Golden Claw for Lucan, or not, and ignore the dragonstone entirely.

1 hour ago, SkyAddiction said:

That genuinely made me laugh out loud, so thanks for that.

Marky's got a 30 or so page comic of his Dragonborn running about Skyrim doing all sorts of silly things. Worth a read if you can find it in order.  I thought I had one bookmarked but I guess not. To Lokir though, LAL lets you pick the various storylines and go from there, with the eventual requirement of going past Helgen at some point.  To the topic at hand though, Unbound or LAL or stock game start, you can create the backstory you want (FudgeMuppet's Youtube channel has a bunch builds with backstory but they always wind up at Helgen on the cart, caught crossing the border... boring) but if you want to be the rogue Thalmor agent highly skilled in magic or the Redguard veteran heading home from eastern Cyrodil you can be that powerful hero.  On the other hand you could be a refugee of several kinds, a desperate criminal on the run or an aspiring mage/thief/warrior/priest heading into Skyrim on pilgrimage/quest/whatever.  J'zargo could have been on the cart instead of you, (or one of a couple other low level guild members I can't think of right now... he mentions traveling though.)