How many characters do you play?

[BabyKiller209]

I'm interested in hearing how many characters you play in each game, especially those of you who played Morrowind and the Oblivion. Although I started quite a few characters and gave up on them relatively quickly, I only played 2 characters deep into the game. On some of the other threads about planned characters, people have posted about how they plan on playing 5 or more characters (sometimes one of each race or something similar).

Do you only finish one or two questlines per character? Or do you play the whole game with a bunch of characters, instead of continuing to play as a single character for hundreds of hours?

[Frost Mage]

I mostly spread my time about evenly between my characters, unless I have one that is really in a cool place stats/quests-wise.

[Bonfy]

I start with a lot of theorycrafting (once I know the mechanics of the game of course). Then I build up my ideal character and hope my decisions were right. If by the top level (i.e. 50 in Skyrim) everything works as I thought during the theorycrafting phase, I stick to the choice.
I usually become fond of my character so I tend to play just with him and do EVERYTHING (yeah, everything) the game has to offer with him. You know, that sort of 100% completition that is almost impossible in TES... I try to achieve it.

[OblivionDuruza]

I play countless characters and restarts in good RPGs, so I expect many, different ones for Skyrim. I do however intend on at least one or more Dunmer, an Altmer and a Nord. Not too concerned about the other races though, I'm pretty set in my ways. Perhaps a Bosmer too, I like Mer it would seem .

[Nocturnal]

I usually do about three or four characters that are polar opposites (one a warrior, one a thief etc) which are then constantly tweaked and restarted until they are what I want them to be. I tend to stick to my favourite races: Nord, Breton and Wood elf.

[The Number None]

I finish the game (not just MQ but most quests available) with at least three characters to cover every major playstyle. I usually make traditional characters, a nord/orc/redguard for the warrior, a dunmer/bosmer/khajiit/argonian for the rogue and a breton/altmer for the mage. I've never played an imperial.

[Fajita!]

I really didn't like the stealth in oblivion, so I never really played a sneaky charector. I usually play some sort of fighting character, and then a battlemage, and then whatever I feel like. When playing through with my first character I'll judge what I do like and what I don't like, and respond appropriately.

[SilentPsycho]

I've lost track of the amount of characters I've played in Oblivion. Every time I think up a new character that I can roleplay, I create them. I've played thieves, psychopathic murderers, pacifistic devout herbalists, drunken warriors, cowardly skooma dealers, ambitious vampiric mages, happy-go-lucky bards, hard-working farmers, you name it! It all depends on what I feel like and how well I can play them ingame. I'm still coming up with characters for Oblivion now!

With all the actions like cooking or woodcutting or blacksmithing, my options and characters in Skyrim are just going to increase!

[Conzeq]

I play around 3 different races with different playstyles:

1st playthrough: Thief / assassin - playing thieves' guild and brotherhood while doing MQ and various sidequests. If i grow particularly fond of my character, I might end up doing everything with him.

2nd playthrough: mage - doing mage's guild and all that jazz.

3rd playthrough: warriortype / battlemage - fighters' guild and so on.

[Twilight]

I usually have a "Main" or "Jack of all trades" I use to beat the game, learn the mechanics and such. Then I just theorycraft and experiment with different styles of roleplay till I find what I enjoy the most. The most characters I had in Morrowind at one point was 4. In Oblivion I had 10 at one point. It depends on the game and how in depth I decide to go with things. I have also started writing down my very large list of "original characters" that way I can just import them so to speak in each new game I play, rebuilding their character to fit that games style.

[Frost Mage]

I usually have a "Main" or "Jack of all trades" I use to beat the game, learn the mechanics and such. Then I just theorycraft and experiment with different styles of roleplay till I find what I enjoy the most. The most characters I had in Morrowind at one point was 4. In Oblivion I had 10 at one point. It depends on the game and how in depth I decide to go with things. I have also started writing down my very large list of "original characters" that way I can just import them so to speak in each new game I play, rebuilding their character to fit that games style.

I don't think that'll work for Skyrim .

[Unionhack]

I have about 25 Oblivion Characters. Most are retired (When I find that I'm done with a certain character, I save right before a certain-death situation so that every time I load up the character, I relive their awesome and honorable death), and some I continually play.

One of the ways I 'retired' my characters is like what I did to my Khajiit Conjurer/Archer, Ask'riit. I decided that at level 12, I had enough with his playstyle, and went off to the battle for Kvatch. There he fell against the might of the daedra in the city. I saved with minimal health and with tons of enemies around. I can survive if I try, but usually, Ask'riit takes an arrow and falls, having done his service to Tamriel.

I'm not sure what I'll do for Skyrim, but I plan to play at least one of every race.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

I usually play lots for each character, for Morrowind I've had countless characters, mostly Dunmer. I've had a Nord/Argonian/several Dunmer/Khajiit/Breton/and Imperial.

[Twilight]

I usually have a "Main" or "Jack of all trades" I use to beat the game, learn the mechanics and such. Then I just theorycraft and experiment with different styles of roleplay till I find what I enjoy the most. The most characters I had in Morrowind at one point was 4. In Oblivion I had 10 at one point. It depends on the game and how in depth I decide to go with things. I have also started writing down my very large list of "original characters" that way I can just import them so to speak in each new game I play, rebuilding their character to fit that games style.

I don't think that'll work for Skyrim .

How will it not work? o.O If I limit myself to only using certain skills and such I don't see how it wouldn't...

[Overwatch]

I just play one character at a time and go as far as I feel like going with that one character. If I feel like playing a different way I usually delete the previous save and just start a new character.

[Leilah]

I play loads of different characters, but they all sort of end up the same. I like just messing around, stealing stuff, helping people at random, and then suddenly turning vicious for no good reason. However, I do also attempt the occasional RP. But I suck at those. I want to do everything, all the time. So I do an evil character who sees the error of her ways, or a good character who loses hers. By no means great back stories, but I guess it's better than my first playthrough (I was sort of doing all the different quest lines at once). Some characters (especially those built for a more detailed RP or efficient leveling) don't really last, but I must have done at least a dozen characters past level 10, and made game-completing characters at least five times. Um. That's for Oblivion. Morrowind I've only finished once or twice, with about a dozen characters. I love the game, but I struggle to really get into it, and being at a low level really, really sucks.

I hope to have at least 10 game-finishing characters in Skyrim.

[ajrman]

I have one overrall character who does everything and is my canon character and then I have a character for each faction (Fighter's Guild/Companions, Mages Guild/College of Winterhold, Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild).

[Witchery]

I currently have 5 characters in Skyrim, two in Oblivion. I do roleplay over gameplay, so each character is different somehow. Each character is designed very specifically and it sometimes takes hours for me to write their backstories, personalities, goals, class, powers, gear, weapons, etc. I NEVER play the gary stu/mary sue people tend to love that is a magewarriorassassinthief that masters all of the skills, is the Dragonborn, Listener, civil war hero, Daedric champion that can do everything. . . I put thought into my characters and try to have fun with them.

EDIT: I currently have 2 characters on Skyrim, and 2 on Oblivion.

[Mod-Loving Wood Elf]

I have to say that I usually only play one character at a time, or two if the characters are widely different. I just can't concentrate if there are too many, and I don't have much time to play anyway.

By the way, you should make this into a poll. I kind of want to see the statistics on how many people play one character at a time, two characters at a time, etc.

[i-m-so-ghett0]

I only play one character for every game. I do everything and discover everything with that one character, and starting over with a new character just doesn't feel the same.

[SuperNull]

I play one character at a time and I try to keep things unconventional.
After a couple of restarts I managed to make the "perfect" no-open-combat character. with heavy emphasis on Sneak and Illusion.
My next one will be a Atronach vampire who fights with shield bash primarily (yes it will work due to some key Restoration perks).

[whoman69]

I've had quite a few that I've tried out to get a feel for the different races in Oblivion, and some of those experiments went wrong. I wanted an Orc in heavy armor but didn't like the fact they moved so slowly. I had an Argonian that was cool to play but made a mistake in choosing their major skills. I had a Khajjit that just couldn't put it together. My first character was a Breton that I played until a high level until a mod that I added glitched that character up to the point I couldn't play him anymore. I redid the character and played him out. Then I played the character with slightly different major skills and to level more efficiently and that is probably my strongest character. I came up with an amnesia backstory for him. Somehow people whom he had never met were familiar too them, and he knew they were destined to die.

I am now playing an Altmer to try to get to a higher magic level. I didn't like the atronoch. I felt like I was limiting the amount of magic I could use to build it back up. I didn't like the apprentice for his weakness to magic. After playing a Breton who laughs at magic attacks, the changeover was too difficult.

[Sopherius]

My first character is usually not heavy on role-play, and more concerned with simply exploring and discovering all the new things to do in the game. So, I would usually complete all guild quest lines (even if it makes absolutely no sense, realistically). My other characters, I usually role-play pretty heavily with. For Oblivion, I've had about four characters, each at least 50+ hours. Morrowind only two, but still a respectable gameplay time. Skyrim is atm at four, and I'm not stopping anytime soon. I've also been tinkering with Daggerfall. If I keep loving it as I currently am now, I imagine I'll have just as many characters as Skyrim.

[dzio]

I started Morrowind completely blind and played until I got bored with being able to kill absolutely anything and tired with following six or seven separate questlines for different factions at the same time. But by the time I stopped I had a pretty good idea what this game was all about, so with the next character I started roleplaying. With every game I go back to start pretty often, until I find a build, strategy or playstyle that's really fun for me, and then I focus on one character for a full playthrough. I sometimes start a second one when I'm near the end with the first one, but I never have two characters at the similar stage of the game (repetition quickly gets boring), and I never have more than two characters at the same time.

[Dohva.]

I play two characters pretty evenly. Sometimes though, I get wrapped up in the life of one and play her for a while...then the other. They are similar but different. I love RP my assassin more than my mage because she is a rather susie homemaker with a schedule. The Altmer...well, she doesn't really care much about anyone but herself. So she wakes up when she wants and her family eats at her whim. Ha.