What if, instead of using magic and primitive weapons like axes and swords, we fought dragons using our words and intellect? Such a proposition roughs out a new mod for Skyrim from streamer and YouTuber Blurbs.
Essentially, the modification makes it so that your battles against the winged menaces of Tamriel are actually in-depth discussions about the geopolitical issues of the day. That's right, no shields or bows and arrows, just pure discourse to decide who wins and who loses. The marketplace of ideas in full flow.
As you can see in his footage playing through his own bizarre creation, fights are now debates, with you and your adversary both expected to stand at the podium and deliver your stance on a particular topic. It could be whether public shouting counts as free speech, or if medication is causing a rise in vampirism across the land, or the morality of Daedra worship.
It's all on the table, with actual voice lines from your winged-and-scaled opponent. It's goofy and haphazard, but fairly convincing, and you can watch Blurbs put the whole thing together in the above video, starting at 6:30.
Blurbs is an active modder and software developer who occasionally takes ideas on Twitch for ways to modify and break Skyrim. Someone had the bright idea for this, leading us here, and to be real, I don't hate it. I've got a soft spot for just the right amount of text-driven choices in RPGs, and this hits that in its own absurd way.
Or maybe I've just always wanted to challenge a dragon on the legitimacy of the sitting monarch. Who knows. Either way, this is probably a win for intellectualism, right?
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