The Elder Scrolls 6 has a big legacy to live up to if it’s going to meet fan expectations after the huge success of Skyrim. As such, there are a few ways Bethesda could expand on The Elder Scrolls formula to add more options and roleplaying opportunities in the game without compromising the freedom of the player by pigeonholing them into certain narratives.
The Dark Brotherhood questline in The Elder Scrolls 6 could provide a great opportunity to experiment with creating a more dynamic world and more immersive questlines for a few key reasons that Bethesda should explore in the upcoming game.
A Dynamic Dark Brotherhood
In Skyrim, there is only one way to activate the Dark Brotherhood questline, which is by visiting Aventus Aretino in Windhelm and taking up his contract for him. Oblivion went a more dynamic but less narratively interesting route, where the player would be visited by Lucien Lachance in their sleep if they ever murdered an innocent and got away with it.
The Elder Scrolls 6 should explore some alternate possibilities for triggering main questlines like the Dark Brotherhood's. There should be different narrative-driven options in the game for finding out about the Brotherhood. For example, not only could there be someone who was trying to summon the assassins personally like Aventus Arentino in the Innocence Lost quest, but the game could include texts that players can find that might lead them through performing the Black Sacrament themselves. Perhaps they could also find a half-completed sacrament like the one in Maven Blackbriar’s house in Riften and use that instead.
It also seems odd in Skyrim that the player can have Dark Brotherhood assassins sent after them, yet no mention of this or the Skyrim Dark Brotherhood member they killed is ever made during the main questline if this event took place. If players can have hits taken out on them like in Skyrim, they should be able to trace the mystery back to its origins via the contract looted from the assassin. Perhaps they could interrogate the person who took out the hit, and perhaps join the Brotherhood that way if their tenacity impresses the other members.
Dynamic Factions
This doesn’t only apply to the Dark Brotherhood either, though it provides a good example. Players should be able to hire and fight alongside members of The Elder Scrolls 6’s other mercenary guilds, like the Thieves Guild, the Fighters Guild, and Skyrim's Companions (though it's doubtful the Companions would appear in TES6). This could allow them to meet some main characters more naturally in the game, without it feeling like they’re being railroaded onto a specific questline which will likely end in the death of the guild master and the players instatement as their replacement.
Overall, The Elder Scrolls 6 faces a lot of challenges among its next-gen RPG competition. The game will need to balance implementing the freedom of the Elder Scrolls formula that fans have come to expect while also improving on the series’ writing. Making the world more dynamic could be a great way to do that, with players having more ways to make their own stories and forge their own paths through the game rather than having a specific story imposed on them.
If The Elder Scrolls 6 can do that then it might have the same replayability, and possibly the same longevity as Skyrim. The Dark Brotherhood, among other factions, should feel like an actual presence in the world, not just a series of quests to be completed. They should be able to be discovered, hired, and even destroyed through more than just one entryway, improving the game design in a way that helps players make their own stories rather than improving the writing by railroading players onto more linear narratives.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is currently in development.