The Elder Scrolls 6 has an enormous legacy to live up to. The series was popular before Skyrim, but the last game’s sales and critical success eclipsed even Oblivion and Morrowind.
All fantasy video game RPGs inherit a huge legacy from TTRPG’s like Dungeons and Dragons. It’s been nearly thirty years since first Elder Scrolls game, and first edition Dungeons and Dragons launched nearly half a century ago. However, there are some recent changes made to the famous tabletop fantasy game that The Elder Scrolls 6 could learn from.
Race In Dungeons And Dragons
Back in 2020 Wizards of the Coast announced that D&D would be removing race-based stats from the game. It also announced that certain races – particularly the Drow and Orcs – would no longer be described as if they were inherently evil, or at least prone to villainy.
The decision was largely motivated by the Black Lives Matter protests that summer. There is certainly an argument to be made that The Elder Scrolls’ race-based buffs and debuffs don’t stand the test of time, but there’s also a positive argument to be made for their removal from The Elder Scrolls 6.
When The Elder Scrolls launched, race wasn’t the only factor that modified some of the player character’s stats. As well as the now dropped class system, gender factored in as well all the way up until Oblivion. When The Elder Scrolls 5 released, gender-based stats were removed. Negative race-based stats were also removed. Instead, each race had a +10 boost to skill, and a +5 boost to five other skills.
The High Elves, for example, had +10 in illusion magic, and a +5 to conjuration, destruction, restoration, alteration, and enchanting. The Orcs has a +10 to heavy armor, and a +5 to block, two-handed weapons, one-handed weapons, smithing, and enchanting. In general, the removal of stat debuffs diffused any criticism aimed at the race-based stat system of earlier Elder Scrolls games. However, there is a gameplay and roleplaying argument to be made for removing race-based stats from The Elder Scrolls 6 entirely.
Removing And Replacing Race Stats
From a gameplay perspective, having some races be significantly better at certain skills removes a degree player choice – the focus of open-world Bethesda RPGs. If players want to be the best possible mage at the start of the game, they’re incentivized to be an Altmer. If they want to be the best possible archer, a Bosmer, and so on. This removes a degree of player freedom, but ultimately it’s one that most fans aren’t likely to be too worried about. It's not too hard for other races to catch up, and if The Elder Scrolls games were multiplayer like D&D it could be a different story, but they aren’t.
From a roleplaying perspective, however, there’s a stronger case to be made for the removal of race-based stats, even positive ones, from The Elder Scrolls 6. Bethesda’s other flagship franchise, Fallout, doesn’t factor in race at all. Instead, it Fallout uses a trait and perk system, which adds a lot of individual character flare. The Four Eyes trait, for example, gives the player a +1 to their perception when they are wearing glasses, and a -1 to the same stat when they aren’t. The Black Widow perk allows female characters to do more damage against male opponents, but also unlocks unique dialogue options.
Allowing players to choose from a series of traits during character creation is far more compelling from a roleplaying perspective. Not only does allowing players to pick their own minor stat buffs and debuffs add an additional degree of character customization, but it also helps find a compromise between the completely classless system in Skyrim and the more restrictive class-based system found in earlier Elder Scrolls games.
Traits, Perks, And Roleplay
The kind of system found in games like Fallout: New Vegas can make so many roleplaying opportunities more tangible in a way that Skyrim’s race-based system does not. If a Skyrim player decides to be a Wood Elf archer, their skill in archery says nothing about their character specifically, only their race. It's a missed roleplaying opportunity.
If the Fallout: New Vegas player finds themselves able to appeal to the cannibals at the White Glove Society because they took the Cannibal perk several levels earlier, it’s far, far more satisfying from a roleplaying perspective. The player accepts a limitation to their character – if they’re caught eating a dead body, non-hostile NPCs will go hostile. The fact that accepting that limitation also rewards them with unique roleplaying opportunities makes it far more satisfying than the race-based stat buffs Skyrim’s races have.
Skyrim’s race-based system can’t even allow for the player to accept disadvantages anymore – the idea of taking a debuff based on a character’s race has become more controversial than it once was, and rightly so. A system that, like Fallout’s, allows players to pick their own traits and perks that include disadvantages avoids this problem, while adding a level of sacrifice that makes the perks or traits satisfying.
An Elder Scrolls 6 player could add a debuff to their sneak, for example, for a buff to their unarmed attacks. They could take a debuff to their destruction magic at the cost of their restoration magic, and more. There could even be fun ones like many Fallout perks, like one that gives characters an increase to their speech and unarmed attacks when drinking alcohol at the cost of their block and archery skills.
This kind of system has so much more replay value and adds so much more individual personality to the player character. Like the system found in New Vegas, it could even occasionally add unique dialogue options for players who took certain perks, allowing players to craft a unique roleplaying persona that isn’t just entirely in their head, but is reflected in some of the game’s mechanics. Dungeons and Dragons may be pushing fifty, but the removal of race-based stats is something that would make The Elder Scrolls 6 a better roleplaying game, not just one that kept up with the times.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development.