Escaping prison - any point?

[Outlander]

I got sent to prison in Solitude and with the help if the skeleton key made a nifty escape, along with all my belongings, feeling quite pleased with myself. However, as soon as I left the jail area, a message came up on my screen saying "100 bounty added to Haafingar". I got arrested, again and broke out again, making sure I was definitely undetected etc, had another 100 bounty added - on top of the 1000 bounty which I'd got from my initial crime.

Made me wonder why I'd bothered - is there a way to escape without just incurring greater penalty?

[kgnmike88]

i have only done it three times and each time i get a bigger bounty as you say kinda pointless except for RP purpases

[MichaelTh1rte3n]

Was this not the case in Oblivion as well? I recall a loading screen giving a very good cause to.

"although your bounty will increase and you will still be wanted any self respecting thief will break himself out of prison" or something along those lines.

Good enough for me!

[Musicman247]

If you break out your skill progression will not decrease, or at least it shouldn't. Plus, bragging rights at the guild!

[Dan-Ru]

To be honest, Bethesda shouldn't have taken out the skill drop the jail gave you in past games.

Sure I break out all the time anyway, but that was the main incentive for doing so, outside of RPing of course.

[MichaelTh1rte3n]

If I recall though that was an exploit for infinite leveling, no?

Off topic... is that L in your signature? amaaaazing character!

[Dan-Ru]

If I recall though that was an exploit for infinite leveling, no?

Off topic... is that L in your signature? amaaaazing character!

Perhaps, but it made sense. if you get jailed for several game weeks (or worse in my case). You would expect your skills to take quite the hit from the lack of training.

EDIT: and yes, L is my favourite anime character, Vash and Alucard draw second. =P

[Musicman247]

If I recall though that was an exploit for infinite leveling, no?

Off topic... is that L in your signature? amaaaazing character!

In Oblivion you could lose a whole skill level if you spent time in prison (not breaking out) which meant if you had level 100 in everything you could go to prison and when you got out you had a skill you could level up in again, giving you infinite leveling. In Skyrim you just lose progress to your next level, meaning of would take longer to level up.

[Da_BossMaN69]

Does it even matter? You have nine different holds, simply bust out and book it to the nearest hold/wilderness, then if you ever do go back don't talk to the guards or if you do, simply leave the conversation.

[The Silent Striker]

Yes, if you have a huge bounty, you don't want your levels to be going down.

[Sonixboom]

you get an achievement... and that is all the point I need

-Sonix

[LunaXJJ]

Can't you still get your bounty erased by the Thieves Guild? I heard an NPC say you can, so that'd be a reason.

[Wolfie]

Does it even matter? You have nine different holds, simply bust out and book it to the nearest hold/wilderness, then if you ever do go back don't talk to the guards or if you do, simply leave the conversation.

if you get enouh then you cat do this, and for me its always giginv me to much bouty to do this

[Pandamatak]

Yeah, I actually prefer paying off my bounty since money is so easy to come by in this game. The only bottleneck is the amount of gold said merchant has. I have a lot of items stashed in my house which are worth 50k+ gold combined. I only have 5k cash though.

[Talamare]

Can't you still get your bounty erased by the Thieves Guild? I heard an NPC say you can, so that'd be a reason.

^ Winner ^
This has pretty much always been the reason

[AKB]

The only reason to go to, and then break out, of prison (besides some weird roleplaying reason) is if you're backed into a corner by guards, and have to surrender to escape. Since you've been captured, they'd of course notice if you disappear, so the added bounty is only logical.

[Pandamatak]

Was this not the case in Oblivion as well? I recall a loading screen giving a very good cause to.

"although your bounty will increase and you will still be wanted any self respecting thief will break himself out of prison" or something along those lines.

Good enough for me!

No in Oblivion the bounty is cleared as soon as you enter the prison itself. In Skyrim, it's cleared once you finish your sentence. The only way you could increase your bounty in Oblivion was if you were caught escaping from prison (which had a pretty high fine if I remember correctly).

[Dohva.]

The only time I ever escaped jail.....sigh. It did not go so good. It was in Winterhold after I killed one of my fellow mages. I was killed by

Spoiler:

several Frost Atronachs and saber kitties

all at once. I forgot to grab my stuff too. All I know is that I never tried escaping jail again. It seems like I land in jail everytime I go into a city with both of my characters. I have had a 1000 plus bounty on my head in Solitude and I just payed it when I got into the city next.

[DarkEastwood]

I donit for roleplay reasons mainly. You feel pretty badass when you do though. Also if it's a less-visited hold like Falkreath, then the 1-2 times you'll return to Falkreath, you just have to sneak by the guards. But if you escape the larger city jails, and get your stuff back in the process, you have my respect. It's pretty hard, as I've been attempting a little "self-achievement" where Inhave to escape from every jail in the world. And the ones with alternate exits (ex. grate in Whiterun), I have to do twice. I've done Riften, Whiterun (both), Dawnstar, Winterhold (The Chill...), and Markarth (just did the quest). It certainly is a challenge, but it's quite fun and satisfying.

[OblivionDuruza]

I can see at least one clear reason to break out of jail in Skyrim, to unlock the Achievement "Wanted."

[Archea47]

Can't you still get your bounty erased by the Thieves Guild? I heard an NPC say you can, so that'd be a reason.

^ Winner ^
This has pretty much always been the reason

When where and how? I'm guildmaster of he TG and have 16,000 bounty in Markarth. I have over 100,000 gold - the gold isnt the issue - but I dont want to turn over all my stolen items. The bounty, by the way, came from breaking out of prison with the Forsworn and the wanton guard killing that ensued. I've gone back to Markarth since to complete jobs for the TG, and my bounty rises a few thousand each time - what with the additional dead guards. Most of the town I can travel through in peace now though The inhabitants might ask if I'm with the forsworn but guards are foolish enough only to hang out near the palace

[Evil-i]

Of course there's a point to escaping prison.

Without escapes, Hollywood would be deprived of an entire sub-genre, and we wouldn't have stellar movies such as The Shawshank Redemption, Runaway Train, The Great Escape, Escape From New York, Cool Hand Luke, Midnight Express, or Papillon, just to name a few.

[Mefris Elmek]

you get an achievement... and that is all the point I need

-Sonix

I can see at least one clear reason to break out of jail in Skyrim, to unlock the Achievement "Wanted."

The OP has "PC" in the platform segment so I doubt it would be of any use to him.

Can't you still get your bounty erased by the Thieves Guild? I heard an NPC say you can, so that'd be a reason.

Well,the Thieves Guild doesn't handle your bounty like in Oblivion.Instead of paying your handler you have to pay it yourself to the guards(which is strange because NPCs state that they will handle it for you).
Also,if someone RP a "lawful good" person then this option is irrelevant.

[Frogmander]

I actually found it dumb that your skills went down...IRL in prison people constantly train when there, its all they have to do. Pushups, sit ups, other various exercises, illegal things they shouldnt be doing in prison...It honestly doesn't make sense that they would get worse at it, if anything they would get better.

[urthdigger]

I like using the shadowmarked escape routes. Kinda sucks that you can only use them once though...