An old trick that every D&D dungeon master knows well has crept into Skyrim thanks to modders Frib on Nexus Mods.
Picture this: It's TTRPG night with your friends. On the street you will meet some bandits. They hurl a variety of spells, weapons and arrows at the poor fellows – one of whom watches as his friend is turned into a cow before the barbarian comes in and chops his head off. The DM then unfolds a crumpled, tea-stained piece of paper that they had painstakingly prepared: This bandit was Jeff. He had a wife, a family and a colorful spotted dog. Shame on you. Shame!
Now you can have a very similar experience in Skyrim. Too bad about Skyrim adds over 200 personalized notes to enemies in the game – although not all of them paint them in a sympathetic light: “If you read some of these notes, you will feel ashamed for killing the owner. Other notes may make you feel ashamed that these people even existed. Or maybe you're just dead inside and this doesn't affect you at all. A pity!”
If you're worried about your Dragonborn being overloaded with tear-soaked letters, Frib assures players that there's only about a 10% chance of having your heart ripped out of your chest. “But if you want more or less, you can just edit the distribution INI file.” Looking through the .esp file itself, here are a few doozies:
“Your brother died in a battle with the Stormcloaks. I know you two have grown apart over the last few years, but I thought you should know. I hope you're doing well wherever you are. Please know that we will always love you.”
“My darling, I will endure it. Just a few more days and I'll finally be done with these pigs. Then you too will be released and we can finally put this terrible mess behind us. Until then, you're always in.” my thoughts, and I love you.
“Hello, I'm a bit confused. Would you assist me? I was thrown into a group of bandits and I don't like it. They seem to think I'm one of their own kind. Probably a mix.” – with someone else. Could you please inform the Jarl? It would be great if this place was cleared, but please tell the Jarl to spare me!”
… Oh no. Maybe we'll just burn this.
Of course, as Frib promises, not every letter will touch your heart – some of them might make you feel justified in retrospect. Here is a cultist with orders to capture a Dibella worshiper: “Her beauty will fade, her skin will be scarred by repeated burns, her screams will trigger a reaction from Dibella.” Yes.
All of these notes are really fun and add a dash of character and humanity to places you'd least expect – vampires, for example, talk a lot about how evil they are and how much they'd like to suck livestock dry. But there are some who want to escape their “skeever-infested shithole.”[s]”. Until you came along and staked them out, I guess. Too bad!
