One thing I didn't realize when starting an NPC-driven long fic that follows the flow of the questline was how much time passes while you're out doing cool stuff and they're just doing their normal, boring things. Vilkas is all "We don't all lead your life of grand adventure, Harbinger." No, Vilkas, you don't, and it's been an interesting challenge to write about it.
The other aspect is how one has to piece together the exciting stuff that happens when you're not there. It has occured to me that I will have to write the attack of the Silver Hand on Jorrvaskr. I imagine this facit is even more of a challenge for authors centering on College of Winterhold and Dark Brotherhood NPCs. You have to look at the evidence like a detective and come up with a plausible explanation of how it all ended up like that.
I guess what I'm saying is, writing fic for video games is facinating!
