Dawnguard's vampire politics are way more interesting than the main questline

[EbonyWarrior]

I've been replaying Dawnguard and I just realized how much the actual vampire side quest stuff (like the politics with the Court of the Vampire, the different bloodline quests, all that) is genuinely more compelling than just going "okay Harkon wants to block the sun, stop him." The main plot is so straightforward it's almost boring, but the side stuff with the different vampire factions and their actual conflicts? That's where it gets good.

Like you get these little windows into how vampires actually live and scheme against each other, and it feels way more textured than "destroy this thing" or "protect this thing." Compare that to the Dark Brotherhood where every single quest is a little story, and Dawnguard's main path feels weirdly thin.

Does anyone else feel like Dawnguard would've been better if the main quest was less "defeat evil vampire lord" and more about navigating vampire court politics? The framework is literally there. You could've picked a side in actual vampire conflicts instead of just choosing between two factions that both feel kind of hollow.

 

[RiftenWanderer]

Yeah I see what you mean, but I'd push back a little. The vampire court stuff is cool worldbuilding, don't get me wrong, but it's mostly just flavor text and a few radiant jobs. You're not really navigating politics so much as listening to NPCs talk about it while you grab loot.

The Dark Brotherhood comparison is interesting though because those quests work because they're self-contained - you get a target, a method, a payoff, done. The Dawnguard main quest is trying to do something bigger (stop an apocalypse) so it needs that escalation. The problem isn't that it's straightforward, it's that the middle section drags. Harkon's plan is actually kind of cool if you think about it - he wants to blot out the sun because vampires are literally slaves to the night cycle. That's a solid motivation. But the game doesn't really sell it. You're just told "go get these items" and then it's over.

If they'd leaned into the politics angle, you'd need way more dialogue and actual faction mechanics, which... honestly I'm not sure Skyrim's quest system could've handled cleanly. The Thieves Guild got closer to that with the city takeovers, but even that felt thin sometimes.

That said, I do wish there was a middle path where you could actually work with Harkon's court instead of just picking Dawnguard or Volkihar. That would've been genuinely interesting.