Oblivion:Rumors
Rumors are a game mechanic in which the player can unlock new topics by asking random NPCs the "Rumors" dialog option. While the vast majority of Rumors are useless, a handful of them will unlock new topics that trigger the start of a miscellaneous city quest when they selected. In the 100% Speedrun, this can get very tedious and time consuming due to how infrequent these special topic Rumors are. The punishing randomness of this aspect of the route has been dubbed RumoRNG.
Mechanics
It is unknown exactly what the odds are of topic Rumors appearing, or if they are limited to specific NPCs. What is known is that you can quicksave just before asking about Rumors to an NPC and then reload to re-roll what Rumor you get. Even with this strategy, topic Rumors are still very time consuming and inconsistent, making it ideal to utilize sequence breaks and other means to start quests that are normally locked behind Rumor topics.
The following quests can be started by asking about Rumors in their associated cities, but have known workarounds:
- Where the Spirits Have Lease
- The Siren's Deception
- Caught in the Hunt
- The Forlorn Watchman
- Two Sides of the Coin
- A Brotherhood Betrayed
- Lifting the Vale
- A Brush with Death
- Corruption and Conscience
- Separated at Birth
- A Shadow Over Hackdirt
- Whom Gods Annoy
- Mazoga the Orc
The following quests currently have no known way to start them outside of finding the right Rumor topic: