The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was the darling of last year’s E3, wowing the crowds with its dragon shouts and epic battles. At this year’s E3, Bethesda is previewing the first major Skyrim downloadable content (DLC), Dawnguard. Though a trailer for the content has already been released, new gameplay footage of the DLC was shown today, and Todd Howard, the game director and executive producer at Bethesda Softworks, stopped by the GameTrailers studios at E3 to answer questions about the content.

A tired-looking Howard stated that Skyrim‘s popularity “took [Bethesda] by surprise.” He cited this as the reason it has taken so long to see a DLC pack released. He pointed out, though, that plenty of free Skyrim content has been provided by Bethesda.

During the Dawnguard missions, players will be able to join one of either two factions: the vampire lords or the Dawnguard. This choice affects many things, including which of two fortresses a player will be able to “trick out” as Howard said it. Players who chose to side with the Dawnguard will gain access to the new crossbow weapon. Crossbows fire fast, but take a while to reload, and they will utilize players’ archery skill. Turning into a vampire lord, on the other hand, enables an extra skill perk tree, in which players can choose new vampiric powers to level into. Some of the powers include summoning gargoyle, turning into bats, and a “vampiric grip” that can telekinetically levitate objects and people.

The DLC, according to Howard, will provide players with 10 to 20 more hours of Skyrim gameplay. “The content is designed to kind of be level 10 or higher” said Howard. He also stated that Dawnguard is not the only DLC that Bethesda is working on, and that not all future content will be priced at $20. Oh, and he also mentioned that new dragon shouts will be a part of the expansion, including the “soul tear” shout that sucks the souls out of people and turns them into undead minions.