MOD SPOTLIGHT
Killing random bandits and warlocks? Feels bad, man.
MAJOR MODS, ANALYSED
Bandits Vampires. Necromancers. Warlocks. Soldiers. In a game like Skyrim, the one thing they all have in common is that… they’re common. They’re so common they don’t even have names, unless a very cruel parent once looked down at the swaddled baby in their arms and named him Bandit Plunderer.
In Skyrim, these random no-name entities are there to give the world a little filler, attack you on secluded paths, lie in wait inside crumbling towers and dank caverns, or make snide remarks as you stroll around a city. If you kill one, or a hundred, it’s not something you feel bad about. It’s not like these jerks have families, friends and elaborate stories. Right?
Except now they do with a mod called Shame of Skyrim. Thanks to a modder named Frib (inspired by a mod request from Reddit user Formerly_Blue), the next nameless bandit you kill might have a personal note among the gold coins, gems, random potions, and lockpicks in their inventory. And that note might make you feel bad about killing them. Like, really bad.
I installed the mod (it requires another mod, Spell Perk Item Distributor, or SPID, to work, and both mods can be found at Nexus Mods) and went out into the world to murder people and see what kind of notes they’re carrying. It’s far from the worst thing I’ve ever done in Skyrim, but I’d say murdering people just to see if someone wrote them a letter is right up there.
The mod gives groups like bandits, forsworn, Imperial and Stormcloak soldiers, vampires, thalmor – pretty much any faction that has random, unnamed members in it – about a 10 to 15% chance to be carrying a note, though you can increase or decrease that chance by editing the mod’s .ini file. It didn’t take me too long to find one: I headed to Swindler’s Den, a cave that the swindlers probably should have named something less obvious, and killed the bandit standing guard outside. Then I killed all his buddies inside, eventually finding one with a note.
“Your brother has fallen in a battle with the Stormcloaks,” it read. “I know you two have grown apart over the last few years, but I figured you sh
