Gameplay And Story Segregation / The Elder Scrolls

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• The Umbra Sword is described as an evil Empathic Weapon that slowly corrupts and drives mad the person who wields it. The player can use it without issue in any game it's available in after earning it and suffer no ill effects.
• Moon Sugar and Skooma are highly addictive Fantastic Drugs, but the player can consume them with no negative long term consequences.
• "Proper Lock Design", an In-Game Novel appearing in Oblivion and Skyrim, points out that higher-quality locks aren't any good if the chest or door itself is easily broken. Putting this to the test yourself isn't an option; while there are chests and doors placed pre-broken as part of the landscape, you can't ever break one no matter how hard you hit it.
• In an example of gameplay-and-story segregation caused by later changes in game mechanics, the plot of "A Hypothetical Treachery" no longer makes sense in Oblivion and Skyrim because magicka now regenerates quickly, unlike in Morrowind where the book first appeared.

An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire

• Even though your character is supposed to be training in order to become a battlemage, which is a Magic Knight class, you can make a character who sucks with either magic or weapons, and has low levels of intelligence or physical attributes.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

• One mission during the main quest requires the player to rescue an Argonian being bullied and threatened by racist Dunmer. The Argonian says they refuse to listen to anything he says because of his race. Despite this, the player character can talk to the Dunmer and convince them to leave the Argonian alone, even if the player character is an Argonian him/herself. The racists don't even mention this.
• It is possible to become the leader of two Guilds or Factions which hate each other. For example, take the Mages Guild and House Telvanni. One quest for the Mages Guild requires you to root out a Telvanni spy within Guild leadership. You can be the Archmagister of House Telvanni, root out the spy who now technically works for you, and be rewarded by the Mages Guild for your good work. Another example, you may be the Mages Guild Archmage, but a House Telvanni quest will have you get the Mages Guild's monopoly on magical training dropped.
• Several characters will comment that outlanders are not well liked by the native Dunmer. This supposedly includes foreign-born Dunmer. However, a Dunmer Player Character will still get the standard +10 "same race" disposition boost when interacting with native Dunmer NPCs.
• Mistress Dratha, the Telvanni lord of Tel Mora, really Does Not Like Men. All of the retainers, merchants, and citizens in her city are female, with one exception: a single generic Telvanni Guard. Justified, as there are no female generic Telvanni Guards, and only generic guards can arrest the player if a crime is committed.
• An early Mages' Guild questline involves a bet between the alchemist Ajira and the enchanter Galbedir on which apprentice will become journeyman first, with the player helping Ajira gain an edge... but Galbedir is already set as being a journeyman when the game starts, despite the plot treating her as still an apprentice. Oddly enough the game does have the mechanics to avoid this — there are scripting commands to raise or lower an NPC's rank in a faction — it just never uses them.
• At one point in the main quest line, the chief of the Urshilaku Ashlander tribe advises you that the Great Houses and Tribunal Temple would not take kindly to you being named Nerevarine, and makes it sound like the Ordinators would actually hunt you down. In reality, all this amounts to is a decrease in disposition if you just happen to brag to people about being the subject of a heresy.
• After completing the "Cure for Vampirism" quest, Molag Bal will brag about how he has an eternity to punish his wayward daughter... even if you trapped her soul in a gem rather than send it to Oblivion.
• Keening and Sunder are stated to damage the health of anyone who uses them if they aren't wearing Wraithguard. Not a problem if you are wearing the version of Wraithguard you obtain from Vivec, but due to a bug in the vanilla game, the jury-rigged version is worn on the left hand^note it also has the apperance of a left-hand Daedric Gauntlet, and because the game only allows your right hand to use weapons^note the PC version does have mods that allow dual-wielding, but the second weapon counts as a shield, you'll technically be using Sunder/Keening unprotected and suffer no consequences from holding it without wearing Wraithguard^note although you will suffer a massive debuff to your total health if you use the jury-rigged version.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

• In the quest "Unfriendly Competition", a store's suspiciously cheap wares are revealed to have been stolen from tombs. People are horrified, calling it blasphemy and a capital crime, and the thief fights to the death rather than face arrest. Meanwhile, the player character is almost certain to clear out dozens of tombs and leave their enemies' corpses stripped naked on the roadside, with nary a disposition penalty or stolen-item flag to show for it. They can even pick up a unique mace from the same tomb where they confront the thief!

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

• A big deal is made about how Khajiit are strictly forbidden from so much as setting foot in a Hold's capitol city. However, if the player is a Khajiit, they can freely enter and exit even Windhelm (where even Argonians aren't allowed) without any trouble aside from the occasional rude comment. While this can be handwaved after the player goes to see the Greybeards and it's revealed that they are The Chosen One, the player can go straight from the tutorial in Helgen to Windhelm with no trouble at all.
• The Skeleton Key can unlock much more than just locks, including the mind and Nord puzzle doors. Mercer even collapsed a tower with it. In the battle against him, he also used two of the Nocturnal abilities, one of them constantly, while normally a person can only possess one and it can't be used constantly. In the player's hands, it can only be used as an unbreakable lockpick and can't pick unpickable locks. The player character doesn't see the Skeleton Key the way Mercer does, though.
• In the Dawnguard DLC, one quest of the vampire questline involves turning the moth priest into your thrall. The player uses vampire's seduction and then feeds on him to make him a thrall. The player can feed on almost any NPC like this, but it never makes a thrall.
• The College of Winterhold questline involves you enrolling at the local Wizarding School and eventually becoming its Arch-Mage (basically the headmaster). However, you aren't actually required to cast very many spells over the course of the questline and can spend about 99% of it just caving in skulls with a warhammer. What few spells you are required to cast are Novice-level spells anyone can use. Hell, the penultimate boss of the questline uses a staff that drains your magicka, so you'll probably have an easier time caving in his skull than actually having a magic duel with him, even if you're a mage. Regardless, all of the students and faculty will praise your incredible magical prowess by the end of it and declare you the only one fit to be Arch-Mage. Also, despite being Arch-Mage, you still have to pay to get back in if you murder one of your students. Evidently, the position doesn't come with tenure.
• The Companions questline is basically a reverse of the College. They're a mercenary company of warriors who value physical prowess and frown upon magic. To join them you have to spar with one of their members and will be yelled at if you cast a spell during this sparring match (including summoning a bound weapon). However, once that's over, you can spend the rest of the questline chucking lightning bolts at everything or having your atronachs do all the fighting for you and they will no longer care. And yes, at the end, you are made the new leader of the Companions, because you're such a strong and honorable warrior and not one of those sissy magic-users whatsoever, no sir.
• The quest Forbidden Legend has you reforge an amulet that was reputed to be so powerful and dangerous that, even after being split into three fragments, it had people at each other's throats over the mere fraction of the complete amulet's power that the fragments bestowed. The so-called "dangerous power" in question? +30 to health, magicka and stamina. Useful, but not that powerful.
• Hired Thugs have a contract that states that they don't need to kill the Dragonborn, but can do so if they deem it necessary. Hired Thugs will always attempt to kill you regardless of whether or not you fight back, because the engine has no way to allow players to be captured except by scripted events when the story demands it.