Found the time to write a little story today:
I used to be an avid gamer and one of the last games I really played was Bethesda Softworks' "Morrowind" (sequel to Daggerfall and followed by Oblivion and Skyrim (all critically acclaimed), of which I only played Daggerfall, however).
I loved the game! The freelance concept was much to my tastes and the graphics were terrific at the time, though a little heavy on my processors. It added everything to Daggerfall that Daggerfall didn't have to make a game like that cool (I mean the individually designed dungeons and the less-to-non-repetitive missions, for instance).
Anyway, I spent about the first 3rd of the game following the storyline and going on a few quests and generally exploring the world when I heard about the abandoned Dwarven Mines somewhere I think in the north-east of the (rather huge) map. You weren't actually supposed to go there yet and my character was much too weak to beat it (or so I thought, I think it was the biggest and hardest dungeon in the game, I could be wrong, and one of the last parts of the game's regular storyline, or so I estimated). That's when I discovered how to become immensely rich in the game.
I somehow got my shit together and ventured there regardless. Had to traverse some lava-ridden mountains and dodge some dragons and stuff to get there if I remember correctly. Well, there I was with my character not fully ready and just a little more than basic weaponry and skills (far from end boss capacity, anyway). Don't ask me how but I somehow figured out a combined spellcasting/sword fighting technique to get past all those Dwarven ghosts and golden robots on a medicine ball or whatever the hell they were, avoiding fights I knew I couldn't win and pretty much cleared the place just enough to get to all the valuable artifacts: cogs, machinery discs, valves and such or similar. Those things were some of the most valuable treasure in the game selling at high prices in the towns (ignoring obscenely expensive and hard to get special items that you couldn't sell at their value's worth), but the problem was they were heavy! I could only carry some of it before being rendered unable to move and helplessly stuck to the ground. Carrying all the loot to the nearest town in a multitude of runs would've taken a crapload of real life time apart from slowing me down during fights in the open.
That's when I had the idea for a simple solution: I used to always have a teleport spell active that allowed me to teleport to any single destination on the map you "spawned" it from (usually a town with one of those insect blimp ports in the center of the world that would allow me to travel long distances fast, I think it was that forsaken desert town by the name of whatever..) Those blimp rides were expensive though and I hardly used them. The real reason for the teleport spell was to escape whenever I got stuck in the bushes somewhere not having saved the game in a while which occasionally happened (and occasionally happens now, if you know what I mean; took a lot of frustration off me.)
So instead of just taking a handful of the heavy stuff and a bunch of inventory fillers or leaving the tempting loot where it was which I seriously thought of doing after discovering there was a SHITLOAD of these babies, too much to carry, scattered all around the mines, I gave the teleport a try. And sure enough, that paid. I'd wander the mines and carry the precious metals piece by piece to a cosy spot in the hallway, neatly piling them up to a pyramid of "holy fucking shit that's alot of cogs!" then position myself calmly in the middle of that pile and filling my inventory up with it. Couldn't move an inch but surely my teleport spell could. After testing the teleport I had travelled back once more to spawn its destination to be the front door of a merchant that bought at the highest prices, or perhaps I picked the one that was most conveniently located, I don't remember.
Had to teleport back and forth between the mines and the merchant a couple of times due to inventory slot limitations. But what would otherwise have taken me a couple of hours only ended up taking a couple of minutes. I don't remember what the exact amount of gold was that I held in my pockets after wishing the merchant farewell (it may have been tens of thousands) but it was so much I never needed to worry about money anymore.
Following that I could afford to equip myself with all I wanted and even a robe whose colors complemented the rest and bought myself all the skill training lessons that were available. I went on to explore more of the world and had it my way with the dragons and the rest of the critters.
I had a tendency to play games that way: leave the scripted story and check out the harder, remote dungeons first, grind myself through them for the overkill EXP then return to the easier parts and just scoop up what had been left behind and have a vengeance (same with Baldur's Gate).
I played a dark elf. And I remember I was barred from entering the Dark Elves' hideout although my race matched and my skills were sufficient to either subdue or beat the crap out of them. Alas, it was scripted that way. (On second thought, I did manage to sneak in regardless and beat the crap out of them, but they wouldn't die.. I guess they were needed for a later part of the main story.)
I never finished the game and moved on to something else. But always told myself I might return eventually and finish it if it pisses me off enough.
Well that's the story of how I found a loophole to get rich quick in a single player RPG anyway
What I particularly liked was that the Dwarven ghosts (the Dwarf culture having gone extinct according to the game's story, their spirits living in the robots they had left behind, or something crazy like that) weren't made to look like overweight gnomes, but slim and well-dressed gentlemen that almost reached my height. At least I think those were the dwarf guys, were they not? Hats off to the designers! It was one of the most beautiful games ever made.
Hope you liked my story.
