When I saw the Dark Urge, I really was interested in playing the character because;

  • Non-origin characters usually feel disconnected and lackluster storywise compared to the Origin ones
  • It does not become an actual companion if not chosen, so it misrepresents itself as an "Origin Tav" due to it being a fully customizable character with an actual backstory
  • It had the backstory I was going to roleplay anyway; a soul with corruption within them which they are doing their best to resist while always trying to do the right thing


Haven't had any issues at all roleplaying my character the way I wanted to despite the ability checks and the urge constantly mentally nagging the character, in fact it was quite interesting... but what ruined the character for me was a particularly unavoidable shoehorned scripted Long Rest where;
the character decides to brutalize a well-loved side-NPC which has nothing to do with Dark Urge and permanently delete them from the game without any of my choices mattering.

I will admit; what the scene did phenomenally was shockingly bring to realization just how dangerous the Dark Urge is and raised the stakes up tremendously, hell it felt even more dangerous than the tadpoles. But unfortunately it did so at the expense of a prominent side-NPC with a whole story ahead of them. A story I was very much interested in seeing further develop. The issue is that Dark Urge has a unique NPC made exclusively for this scene, yet for some odd reason that unique NPC is locked away behind metagaming techniques, while Dark Urge is designed to kill off a prominent side-NPC which has nothing to do with him and prematurely ending their whole side-story, just for pointless shock value.

My question is why? Why is this unique lady NPC specifically made for the scene locked away behind meta-gaming procedures and not used as the actual primary element of the story that introduces the Dark Urge's curse? Why is the player punished for playing Dark Urge when the shock value can be achieved even better with the unique NPC specifically made for the scene. Makes no sense to sacrifice a prominent side-NPC and her entire storyline, when there is this unique lady Dragonborn NPC made specifically for Dark Urge's introductory scene with so much more compelling reasons to stay at the camp. She's brilliantly written, yet locked away behind metagaming.
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Unfortunately in the end what I got from this whole scene was not the shock value, but rather the realization that Dark Urge will be abruptly ending prominent side-NPCs and their stories which I am very interested in seeing fully unfold, and for that reason ruined my interest in using it further to roleplay for a first playthrough.