Which game to you feel it is easiest to Roleplay in?

[LugkAgumbuk]

Roleplay is something that is in the core of RPG's - hence the name - and although I usually RP my namesake, I have decided to take a break, and stroll down a different path into the wilderness of TES, and so I loaded up Morrowind, and I will RP as an asipiring Imperial Alchemist, a 21 year old lad from the port city of Anvil, in Cyrodiil.

If - When - you roleplay - which do you choice? Why do you choice it? Which TES game do you find that it is the easiest to roleplay in? Why do you think that is?

[Rezalon]

Probably Skyrim. It's incredibly casual compared to Oblivion and Morrowind, so you don't have to worry about things like weapons breaking or levelling in a certain way, plus it's a hell of a lot easier to install mods which can enhance gameplay, and add more roleplaying stuff, like hunger, body temperature, etc.

[LugkAgumbuk]

Probably Skyrim. It's incredibly casual compared to Oblivion and Morrowind, so you don't have to worry about things like weapons breaking or levelling in a certain way, plus it's a hell of a lot easier to install mods which can enhance gameplay, and add more roleplaying stuff, like hunger, body temperature, etc.

Thanks for your answer, but I respectful must disagree on the durability as I find that a good aspect for realism, however, I do indeed agree with you about the increased ability to install RP mods

-Lugk

[Damon]

If - When - you roleplay - which do you choice? Why do you choice it? Which TES game do you find that it is the easiest to roleplay in? Why do you think that is?

I think that's a hard question to answer. None of the games are unfit to roleplay if you do it right, and I find just as much enjoyment in roleplaying Morrowind as I do Oblivion or Skyrim. That said, although I haven't played the PC version of Skyrim, there are some mods that look incredibly intriguing to me like those exposure mods for instance, and that game seems to have the mods needed to get closest to true "survival" and immersion into the world, compared to the other games that have mods that add to roleplaying. From what I can gather, along with the exposure mods, the food/thirst mods appear functionally better than older titles, and so on. But, that doesn't necessarily make Skyrim the end-all for the discussion on what is good for roleplaying.

Personally, though as cool as some of those mods are, I'd happily do without all of those mods and the wandering NPCs, etc to have my simple home, a simple camping pack for the frontier, and I'd rather immerse myself into Morrowind. There's more to the world, as far as factions, people, culture, etc in Morrowind than there is in Skyrim (and certainly in Oblivion, although SR beats it out as well).

Oblivion has its charm as well, though. My favorite roleplaying experience in that one includes a roleplay as a Dunmer mage who went into ruins to study the Ayleids, worked in the Mages Guild, and lived and worked part-time out of the Wizard's Tower. I didn't bother with the hunger, thirst, and sleep mods as functionally I didn't like them and it was easier to mentally remember to eat and drink and sleep daily, but I did have mods like Mart's Monsters, Oscuro's Overhaul, Better Cities and Landscapes, I had mods that added generic NPCs to these rebuilt lands, and the place was populated (easier to cross bands of travellers, merchants, traveling nobles and guards, etc out on the roads than in Skyrim and the rebuilt towns had populations now fitting of the Imperial capital), varied in dangers and experiences, and it was certainly more alive than Skyrim runs I've seen... Unstable as hell, but you take the good with the bad.

So, my point to the rambling is that I don't think any game is necessarily easier to roleplay than any others. It all comes down to your own imagination and how you want to configure the game mod-wise (or without them at all, since there's no invalid way to roleplay in my opinion), and what you're looking for as far as the story and experiences you want to enjoy.

[LugkAgumbuk]

So, my point to the rambling is that I don't think any game is necessarily easier to roleplay than any others. It all comes down to your own imagination and how you want to configure the game mod-wise (or without them at all, since there's no invalid way to roleplay in my opinion), and what you're looking for as far as the story and experiences you want to enjoy.

A good answer, and one that I feel is true. I admit I find it more difficult to roleplay on the console versions of games (due to the fact that I like the reminders to eat/drink/sleep, and I'm mostly to busy amassing a large book collection to remember it mentally

[The SheoDovah]

Skyrim. Mainly because the only other game i can compare it with is Oblivion and [&@%!] Oblivion. I loved it but i can't stand the combat or leveling system and that ruins it for me. Naturally, when i get a system that can run it, i'm modding the hell out of Oblivion. Yeah, i'll get the TES collection.

Skyrim has the tools there. Plenty of food, beds to rest in and i find it to be easier to RP in. Granted, Skyrim was the first game that i started roleplaying in but still. When I get the PC version(And assuming we aren't wiped out by Terminators), i will get RP mods. Probably dial it down at first. E.g. Frostfall mod to make it managable at first then cranking it back up. Armour mods for variety etc..

[LugkAgumbuk]

Skyrim. Mainly because the only other game i can compare it with is Oblivion and [&@%!] Oblivion. I loved it but i can't stand the combat or leveling system and that ruins it for me. Naturally, when i get a system that can run it, i'm modding the hell out of Oblivion. Yeah, i'll get the TES collection.

Skyrim has the tools there. Plenty of food, beds to rest in and i find it to be easier to RP in. Granted, Skyrim was the first game that i started roleplaying in but still. When I get the PC version(And assuming we aren't wiped out by Terminators), i will get RP mods. Probably dial it down at first. E.g. Frostfall mod to make it managable at first then cranking it back up. Armour mods for variety etc..

Cool (pun not intended. Be sure to keep me updated!)

[The SheoDovah]

You may be waiting a long time. Or a few years. But seriously, if Terminators terminater us just as i get it, I will punch Terminators in their soul!

[LugkAgumbuk]

You may be waiting a long time. Or a few years. But seriously, if Terminators terminater us just as i get it, I will punch Terminators in their soul!

Ah well, thats' life (that what all the Dunmer say)

[Pilaf The Defiler]

Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind are more strongly based on traditional old school roleplaying mechanics. Daggerfall is probably the strongest of the three from a pure RP perspective. You can live in Wayrest and do nothing but jobs for the Fighters Guild if you so choose. You even have a semi-randomized backstory and customization options that haven't been matched in the series since. It's very much function over form. If only it were less buggy and the dungeon design was better.

[AKB]

Daggerfall suffers for being a game in an entirely different genre from the rest of the series, and also hands down one of the best games in that genre, but it will almost surely not be revisited.

A modern, semi-roguelike ES game with more simplistic graphics, but tons of customization and randomization ala Daggerfall, would probably be one of the most popular games ever versus the cost of development.

[Crawldragon]

It depends on what you want to roleplay, really. A lot of people act shocked when I tell them my two favorite TES games are Skyrim and Daggerfall because they're diametrically opposed in just about every way, but the reason is that they're both really good at a particular type of roleplaying.

See, I like to roleplay my character (singular) in two different ways. Skyrim is a fantastic game if you want to roleplay a hunter or a ranger. You can just point yourself in a direction, go hunting, skin some animals, make armor out of the skins, and sell it for profit. The game has awesome dungeons with dynamically generated bandits to fight, necromancers to slay, undead to cleanse, etcetera. I also really like its radiant encounters system, because you can find really cool stuff just on the road between locations. It's a fantastic foundation for roleplaying. My main problem is that it's unbalanced in that training up an archer character as a deadly sniper is ridiculously, ludicrously easy, and your character is basically swimming in alchemical reagents and enchantments. Plus I just knee-jerk hate all roleplaying games that give you starting spells regardless as to whether or not you want to play a spellcaster. I still occasionally roleplay in Skyrim if I'm looking for something a little more laid-back and open-ended, though.

I can actually talk about Daggerfall for hours so to play it safe I'm going to go ahead and "hide" my reasons that Daggerfall is a good game to roleplay in, but my point is basically that the game has so much depth that I can go on for paragraphs and paragraphs about its depth. If that interests you, go ahead and read.

Hidden:

Daggerfall, on the other hand, stands on two core strengths: Its classes, and its factions. The reason why the class system counts as a strength is that if you so choose you can enforce hard weaknesses on your character. Assassins can not wear plate armor. Can't be done. You have to fight hordes of zombies and demons alone without the benefit of plate armor, and that's a pretty big weakness given how sprawling and complex the dungeon crawling already is in Daggerfall. Don't even get me started on how weak the Healer is. That feeling of triumph you get when you emerge from a brutal quest, knowing that you overcame odds tremendously stacked against you because of your character's upbringing or code of honor, are only amplified by the fact that Daggerfall is much harder than most other games in the series.

Daggerfall's class maker is also tremendously deep, to the point that you can essentially fine-tune your character for any strengths and weaknesses the designers thought of. If you really want to, you can have a character who can't go near holy places. This depth also goes towards the magic system, which is so deep it actually scared me away from becoming a spellcaster, something that the other games basically just give to you.

The reason I like Daggerfall's factions is that depending on which ones you choose it can actually take some serious roleplaying to remain a member. Take the Thieves Guild, for example. In Morrowind you can just stroll up to the head of the Thieves Guild, who doesn't even bother to hide that she's a recruiter, and ask to join. In Daggerfall you earn your invitation, mother [&@%!]. You need to prove you are a bad enough thief for the Guild to even worry about. It's actually quite tricky given that picking locks in Daggerfall without using magic is actually a skill you need to finely hone. That's why Arena and Daggerfall had a Burglar class specifically dedicated to picking locks. Basically what I'm saying is that you need to really care about your guild memberships if you're going to take them very far.

Now Daggerfall's main weakness is that it has a limited pool of quests to give you, so the beginning of the game when you effectively have no reputation to stand on can be very samey if you play it a lot, but Daggerfall is as close I've ever seen a video game get to a real tabletop roleplaying game. It also suffers from the exact opposite of Skyrim's balance issues. You can basically get tasked to kill a demon at level one if you randomly get assigned a quest and choose to accept. But to quote the Spoony One, Daggerfall's balance is the best kind of mess. It's the kind of mess that you can get out of if you're clever, a little lucky, and vigilant about keeping your equipment. If you really want to, go spit in a Daedra Lord's face. See what happens.

If you want real old-school roleplaying, you go tabletop. If you want a close second and you don't mind having to wade through configuration settings and bugfixes, Daggerfall is my RPG of choice and my personal recommendation.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

Daggerfall suffers for being a game in an entirely different genre from the rest of the series, and also hands down one of the best games in that genre, but it will almost surely not be revisited.

A modern, semi-roguelike ES game with more simplistic graphics, but tons of customization and randomization ala Daggerfall, would probably be one of the most popular games ever versus the cost of development.

You never know, with the 16 bit revival going on in indie game studios now. I've played some solid titles like Shovel Knight and Stardew Valley lately that take me right back to the nineties, the way Daggerfall does. I could see the specific type of RPG that Daggerfall represents also making a comeback, although not with official support from Bethsoft or set in the TES universe.

Although, there was a nice little nod to games like Arena and Wizardry with the Grognak minigame in Fallout 4, so who knows? Todd has said they're interested in making "all sorts of games".

[Nord85]

Daggerfall makes a very good case, but I'd still say Skyrim. That's because of the moddability. For instance, one of my characters was a travelling minstrel, who made money by actually playing his lute in inns (a bard mod the name of which I forget). Another one was a woodsman who had a drivable wagon as a home. Of course, very many interesting playstyles are available in Daggerfall, and the customizing options are the best in the series, but I'd still prefer the more responsive world of Skyrim, in which you also can fine-tune your experience with mods. Also, Skyrim's perk and leveling system are kind of soft restrictions similar to Daggerfall. Yeah, you can make your spellcaster swing a battleaxe, but it isn't going to really work at, say, lvl 20.

That said, Morrowind could be the best game for some serious spellcaster roleplaying. The amount of magical options makes for an amazing variety of possible magician or half-magician types, all the way from magic-using burglar to a full-out nuke user. For instance, I had a lot of fun with one character who was an Alteration-, Alchemy- and magic item- using roguess of sorts. That combination made for some great tricks. Sadly, the other games don't offer such a variety in spells.

[Crawldragon]

Daggerfall makes a very good case, but I'd still say Skyrim. That's because of the moddability.

The modding is always the sticking point for Elder Scrolls roleplaying, isn't it? I've always found it odd that people accuse Bethesda of being lazy and requiring the fans to finish the game for them when Skyrim basically sold solely because of it. I've always thought of it like Dungeons & Dragons (to beat a dead horse) selling itself as a modular RPG with a really solid base, and Skyrim probably has the most solid base for modders outside of the first-person shooter genre.

It just so happens that I'm too lazy to find mods because finding one with really good sword combat mechanics would require research and time that I could be spending playing pinball

[Damon]

Daggerfall makes a very good case, but I'd still say Skyrim. That's because of the moddability.

The modding is always the sticking point for Elder Scrolls roleplaying, isn't it? I've always found it odd that people accuse Bethesda of being lazy and requiring the fans to finish the game for them when Skyrim basically sold solely because of it. I've always thought of it like Dungeons & Dragons (to beat a dead horse) selling itself as a modular RPG with a really solid base, and Skyrim probably has the most solid base for modders outside of the first-person shooter genre.

It just so happens that I'm too lazy to find mods because finding one with really good sword combat mechanics would require research and time that I could be spending playing pinball

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/76529/? Wildcat is my favorite combat overhaul, because it's got injuries to limbs and so on figured into it that I haven't seen in the handful of other combat overhauls I've tried, and the changes to AI responses to combat because of injuries that can be inflicted makes it certainly a hell of a lot better than the hack-n-slash of default Skyrim combat. It's certainly made me a lot more cautious as a player as well because how you respond to combat matters a bit more.

I add it into the roleplay immersion in that if I'm injured in some bad way, I'll heal up with potions or whatever and then try to stop for R&R because even though fully healing fixes your busted up body parts, you're still gonna be sore for a it. Although with my mage character I'm slightly less relaxed with that because I've kinda got it figured that using arcane abilities instead of conventional medicine is probably pretty rejuvenating in its own right.

[Nord85]

The modding is always the sticking point for Elder Scrolls roleplaying, isn't it? I've always found it odd that people accuse Bethesda of being lazy and requiring the fans to finish the game for them when Skyrim basically sold solely because of it. I've always thought of it like Dungeons & Dragons (to beat a dead horse) selling itself as a modular RPG with a really solid base, and Skyrim probably has the most solid base for modders outside of the first-person shooter genre.

I agree with you on that one. The base games are mechanics- and especially worldbuilding-wise very solid, but on average somewhat tepid on the NPC and quest departments (especially Oblivion was guilty of this). So, they make for very good foundations on which to build exactly the game you want with mods. For instance, for Skyrim roleplaying Interesting NPCs is IMHO absolutely necessary. The quests and dialogue choices just offer a depth that lacks in most vanilla counterparts.

And that is a good thing, really. There's quite enough to do in the base game as it is, but you can add just about anything without disrupting ready-made things too much. And that's exactly the allure of the three latest TES games for me. It's the only real RPG series I play precisely for the reason it allows for very extensive and relatively easy tailoring in practically all aspects. I like to create my own stories for my characters, so TES is just the thing in comparison to most other RPG series.

[Crawldragon]

This is a good time to mention that one of the Skyrim mods I do use is Live Another Life, which I haven't messed around with too much but it's actually a great alternate start mod which I've found pretty good for aiding role-playing. If the vanilla Skyrim intro is too out-of-character for you or you really want to not play as the Dovahkiin for once, I'd give it a shot. Note that some of the available options are race-specific.

[Damon]

This is a good time to mention that one of the Skyrim mods I do use is Live Another Life, which I haven't messed around with too much but it's actually a great alternate start mod which I've found pretty good for aiding role-playing. If the vanilla Skyrim intro is too out-of-character for you or you really want to not play as the Dovahkiin for once, I'd give it a shot. Note that some of the available options are race-specific.

I used LAL for the save I'm running right now because I wanted to change it up a bit, but I prefer Skyrim Unbound. Using MCM, you can access a load of options and menu buttons, rather than a handful of pre-defined starts that LAL offers.

I like this one, because I can chose my starting gear, choose how much gold I have, I can toggle at what level or time delay dragons at word walls and in random attacks show up, toggle whether or not I can even absorb souls from dragons and be Dragonborn, you can choose starting spells or none at all, whether you're a vampire or werewolf, and so on.

When I couple that mod with Skills Config, which lets me in a MCM menu (which can be changed at will, though I obviously don't "cheat" and make changes after I decided at the first minutes of the save what my skills are) adjust my skill values and optionally check off whether those changes level me up or not, it enables me to start out with some amount of equipment and money in a location of my choosing, with skills I want, and I can enter the roleplay with a backstory that's levelled appropriately.

For instance, I made a standard Legionnaire, gave him Legionnaire-type equipment, and started him at an inn in Falkreath. He was traveling to Skyrim to sign up for and join the Legion in the Civil War with some basic militia style experience, so I boosted his combat skills by a bit as I felt appropriate and started the roleplay decently equipped and at level 7 or 8 with things set up in a way that reflected better what I had in mind for the character and his or her story.