Locked in prison!

[The Dog Whisperer]

I believe that they should give you options.

How about this: ask you a number of questions, and your answers determine how you start the game. Have about 5 different possible starting locations, add a little lore to each starting sequence to fit that particular beginning, and bingo.

How Daggerfall-esque.

Sounds good, though.

[Elegost]

I think it would be cool to start off outside waking up in the snow or somthing lost ect.

[Shadow]

They could possibly make it like FONV but I don't see how they could fit that into Elder Scrolls style.

[KalleFlaxx]

Would you please enlighten those of us who haven's played FONV?
I have no idea how that begins.

[ZombiezuRFER]

I think a good start is your'e onboard a ship locked up in the brig, Ship's coming from who knows where, when it starts sinking (attacked by dragon or pirates, storm, a mutiny starts and you get let out, etc.) and then you are just left in the freezing water near the coast of Skyrim, maybe near a house or something on the shore, and you swim there and recover from the chill. Of course, if this Idea isn't implemented, some modder likely will.

[Shadow]

Would you please enlighten those of us who haven's played FONV?
I have no idea how that begins.

Here
Basically, you've been shot in the head while delivering a package and you need to heal. In other words learn the controls and tutorial.

[richso]

It would be pretty awesome if they put a kind of like training(sword fighting, casting magic,...) not in tutorial way but in the trainer way like... it will increase the stat u trained depending on how good u did the training ... etc.

[kjdanext]

This probably isn't the best one, but maybe starting in a grave(no, not in New Vegas).

Maybe something where your character is underneath a pile of dirt at the side of a graveyard(your character could have been an unknown guy, so people wouldn't give him a coffin or a real ceremony, just bury his body, pray for one minute then leave.

This leaves the time leading up to the game open for anything you would want your character to have been, that's what role playing games are about in my opinion, you're a nobody and only you can say what type of nobody your PC was.

[Belthazor]

I haven't read all the replies here yet, so it might have been said before.

I'm fine with the prison setting. I just don't want to have to go through a tutorial again. It's a good idea for a first time player. But at least when you have to go through it again with your second character it's rather annoying. Bethesda should take the Morrowind approach in regard to the start of the game. Just go through a quick character creation process (it already takes ages just to create your character's appearance) and then be free to do whatever you want.

[Goblin voice]

I'd like to start in some kind of military (or similar) encampment, with loads of tents and campfires... and a fuzzy orc!

[edgukator]

but its a perfect excuse for a "fresh start" without actually popping out of your mothers womb.

There's an idea. You start as a newborn, and gain experience by spending your time crawling, learning to talk, crying and pooping...

OK, different idea. I'm cool with the prison as well, but notice that each incarnation of this game has a different take on it. This was the first game since Arena that you actually had to escape a prison at the start. Daggerfall had you shipwrecked in a privateers hold, Morrowind has you technically a prisoner, but on your way to Morrowind, the Australia of Tamriel...

I think it's fine, so long as they come up with an original take on it. I wrote a starter for TES V when we all thought it would be Summerset Isle where you start in a wooden cage, awaiting judgment by a psychotic elf queen for some supposed crime. What say you are in are in a hanging cage, left to die, when a stranger inadvertently frees you while fighting some enemy yet to be determined (giant rats).

Why were you in the cage? You can tell him in the lines of dialogue that follow, or simply refuse to tell him because its embarrassing / a secret / none of his damn business...

This may allow for the interplay of people who want to roleplay their own creations and those who want more direction in their stories...

[ZombiezuRFER]

but its a perfect excuse for a "fresh start" without actually popping out of your mothers womb.

There's an idea. You start as a newborn, and gain experience by spending your time crawling, learning to talk, crying and pooping...

OK, different idea. I'm cool with the prison as well, but notice that each incarnation of this game has a different take on it. This was the first game since Arena that you actually had to escape a prison at the start. Daggerfall had you shipwrecked in a privateers hold, Morrowind has you technically a prisoner, but on your way to Morrowind, the Australia of Tamriel...

I think it's fine, so long as they come up with an original take on it. I wrote a starter for TES V when we all thought it would be Summerset Isle where you start in a wooden cage, awaiting judgment by a psychotic elf queen for some supposed crime. What say you are in are in a hanging cage, left to die, when a stranger inadvertently frees you while fighting some enemy yet to be determined (giant rats).

Why were you in the cage? You can tell him in the lines of dialogue that follow, or simply refuse to tell him because its embarrassing / a secret / none of his damn business...

This may allow for the interplay of people who want to roleplay their own creations and those who want more direction in their stories...

I notice a pattern there. Perhaps this one will have you being released from prison?
Pattern being Prisoner getting to Land, Prisoner on way to jail on land, In Prison, and so perhaps you will have the next incarnation of that here? A bit of an off the wall theory but it makes sense, no?

[JamaicanmeNordic]

This probably isn't the best one, but maybe starting in a grave(no, not in New Vegas).

Maybe something where your character is underneath a pile of dirt at the side of a graveyard(your character could have been an unknown guy, so people wouldn't give him a coffin or a real ceremony, just bury his body, pray for one minute then leave.

This leaves the time leading up to the game open for anything you would want your character to have been, that's what role playing games are about in my opinion, you're a nobody and only you can say what type of nobody your PC was.

Sounds too much like Im a zombie haha. I like the idea of being a nobody and everything, but crawling out of a grave might be a little too weird, at least for me.

Im thinking you get start off in a wagon or boat on its way to a city, and other travelers your with ask you questions about who you are. Then once you answer all of them, you get out of the wagon or boat and walk out into the city. Very simple, but could work for almost any back story.

[Doctor Meaticus]

Im thinking you get start off in a wagon or boat on its way to a city, and other travelers your with ask you questions about who you are. Then once you answer all of them, you get out of the wagon or boat and walk out into the city. Very simple, but could work for almost any back story.

I like that. Maybe Bethesda can please the hardcores of roleplaying by giving them the option to type their own backstory as a response to a question from the other travelers. The travelers would respond in indifferent ways regardless of the story, but hey, who cares. Then later, your backstory could be reviewed in your inventory, on that character summary page which also shows your stats, race etc...

[Dovakiin]

[/color Well starting out in a cell is a classical story. It shows the progression from the lowest of the low to a champion worthy of the admiration of the masses. I think it is a wonderful beginning that makes for a great story.

For differnet scenerios, I think (as cliche as it may be) that being a farmhand, stableboy, pigfarmer ect. . . would be another great starting point - that's another classic. For something more orginal (but at the same time not really) maybe you're poor hopelessly lost traveler who happens to get sucked into the problems of this strange land and saving the world. But from the looks of the Skyrim Trailer - it looks as if the world already has a hero. Who knows we may get to the dragonborn for once!

[WartBoy95]

I really hope Skyrim will feature a new starting location that is unique, and NOT a jail cell.

[Sir Tavic]

Since I'm a fan of Skyrim being at war with itself, i.e. Winterhold vs. Solitude, along with raiding other provinces, like with The War of the Bend'r-mahk where they raided border towns of High Rock and Hammerfell, the PC could start out as a prisoner of war of some sort, in the town of Jehanna, on the border of Skyrim and High Rock. It is now under the control of the Skyrim army that raided the town, maybe Solitude's army, and is in an ad-hoc prison of some sort...

Then, a dragon flies over causing mass chaos as the Ka Po' Tun (the tiger Akavir) raid the town. You are freed by a guard (who is either leading a convoy or is protecting an important person, etm.) and given a weapon (of your limited choice) as well as brief instructions on how the controls. It then functions similarly to the Oblivion intro, where you move escape the invaders (through secret tunnels anybody?). You get back to a command post in Skyrim (it would be just on the border) where the guard who freed you guesses your class/ birth sign (feel free to correct him). By this time you are the only non-guard left and he instructs you to go to Solitude, and inform the ruler of Solitude, that the Akavir invaded. It now functions similar to going to Kvatch in that you can ignore it (although you won't be allowed to return to the invaded town until you start the main quest).

This way you can be any race, and any background, since you were just someone in Jehenna, and it wasn't specified whether you were captured for fighting back, or consorting with the rebels, or just being in the wrong place wrong time. It gets the Akavir's invasion going quickly, and ties it directly to the main quest line. It could also be completely flipped where you start out in Blacklight on the Morrowind-Skyrim border, and that you go to Winterhold instead of Solitude. It just needs to be a city near the coast so it's justified that the Akaviri land there, and it is preferable to be a somewhat meaningless town that can be destroyed. Thoughts?

[lostlast]

Prison cell. Come on you guys. Seriously, Come on.

[Red Guardian]

I added a poll to make things flow better. Cast your votes, if you want

[Cactus]

Where's the "I do not care" option?

[Goblin voice]

Where's the "I do not care" option?

agreed... if the story is good, it doesn't really matter

[the Savage Hippie]

It would be nice just to wake up in some dungeon/cave with a memory loss and then create a new identity through escaping the dungeon/cave and then and at the same time go through the tutorial

[ROFLcopter]

I was thinking you were a slave, but something happens and you can escape. Or maybe you're recruited into something and you find this mysterious poo. Or something. :3

[Rariow un Irskand]

How 'bout this: You start the game as a pre-determined character, of whom you can choose one of three (A thief, mage or warrior respectively). You are directing/participating in an attack on a Nord/Akaviri/Whatever Fort to rescue a bunch of important prisoners of war. You are, however, given the chance to not participate and direct the attack from a distance (The Skip-the-Tutorial option). If you attack, once you rescue the prisoners, you find one whom you don't recognize. Here, you get to create that prisoner, who will become your actual character, including the chance to (as some of you suggested) type in your background. It makes sense: if you're a Noble, you where captured because of your importance in giving funds to the enemy, if you're a no-one, you where just there at the wrong time. If you're a thief, you where imprisoned for thievery. And as you can type your own background, that's all your decision.

[Arch-Mage Matt]

Heres one: You start off in a village where everyone knows you, therefore they can slowly build up your background, then a dragon attacks the village. Some 'redshirts' fight it, and you know how that'll turn out, then it attacks you. Being the dragonborn, you manage to defeat it and gain fame throughout Skyrim. Then you're contacted by the Blades... etc. etc.