UESP Forums

Hi, I was curious, since I see so many of you talking about running RP characters, how exactly do you do it in a game like Oblivion or Skyrim? I found it rather easy in Fallout3 due to the wide range of dialogue choices, and was a little disappointed that that didn't transfer over to Skyrim. Sometimes you have some options, but it's not much. So what do you do exactly? Is it just determined by the kinds of quests you take?

Maybe you all have different methods, I thought it would be interesting to hear.

For me it's usually what kind of quests I take or if my character would actually stop to pick every flower he passes on his way, somehow passing by all the flowers increased my RP experience a lot. I also have the odd habit of basically doing a Let's Play for myself, talking to myself like my character would, thinking how they would, etc. There is also the "choose style over utility" idea that comes up in Skyrim a lot. (Between the Fur and Scaled armor it just doesn't look that good to me in the Light Armor tree.) Also, actually running away from fights, which is something I'm not quite used to doing yet.

Backstories and habits of the character help.

Well, gameplay wise-- picking the quests as the characters would :3 A scholarly character would leap at the chance to join the College of Winterhold, whereas an honor-bound warrior would beam at the chance for joining the Companions. It's also a matter of playstyle as well: A character who enjoys the thrill of killing would probably try to snuff out every bandit, Forsworn and enemy that crosses their paths-- they might even slaughter some bunnies while they were at it ;> But a sneakier, more careful character would probably use sneaking and lockpicking skills more.

Small things factor into it as well :3 Will they marry? Raise a child? Do they like big cosmopolitan cities like Solitude or do they like the rustic charm of Falkreath or Rorikstead? Do they prefer to rough it out under the stars, or would they struggle to make it to the nearest inn? Can they hunt for their own food or do they have enough coin to spend to just hire their own personal chef ;>

It comes down to limiting yourself game-wise. I find that, across my three characters, I get three very different gameplay experiences. My mage can wreck destruction as he so pleases and enjoy some quiet time with his spouse in their big manor. My warrior may have more humbler ambitions, but he's quicker in a fight and has access to some of the best followers and weapons/armor the game could provide. My thief maybe wanted in every hold and every item in her (and on her) maybe stolen, but she's got access to fences and the names of every shady character in Skyrim written in her good books ;>

As far as dialogue goes I tend to like to pretend my own. It makes for a lot more flexibility than what the game offers.

DikaSmausha wrote:Backstories and habits of the character help.

Oh, definitely. Giving your character a personality and a past that influences how he will handle things in the game really makes it seem more lively. Plus, like it's mentioned above, it always allows for a really unique playing experience each time you play the game - so that there's always something new! (Which is great, because these games are so big they have amazing replay value.)

Such as, a small thing my one Dunmer character did: he would not loot from skeletons or burial sites, because the Dunmer culture has a very big and deep respect for the dead. You realize that those little gold coins sort of add up quickly.

I think p-sto has a great idea as well.

You can always search the forums for the various roleplay threads we have; they will give you endless and other great ideas! There are so many ways to roleplay, some very strict and some more flexible, that the possibilities are truly endless.

I definitely understand looting one. I remember on one of my characters didn't take armor from the dead because it is disrespectful, kind of gross, and how was the armor of a big Orc going to fit her?

Sometimes imagination helps. Pretend an NPC family is your family, or that you make friends with different NPCs. If you're travelling with a companion, what do you imagine the Dovahkiin and them talking about?

Interesting. That's for the input everyone. With my main character I found it too hard to resist the temptation to do almost every quest I came across. Though I have drawn the line at times (not murdering at the behest of Daedric princes, not giving my allegiance to Ulfric OR the Empire until one of them gives me a reason to), experiencing as much as possible was too great a call on my first character.

Now that I have done that though, I should have fun doing this with subsequent characters (just made a Breton Conjurer). I DO still wish Skyrim got the plethora of dialogue options that Fallout had (where you could just lie to someone about completing their quest if you had the skill, etc.), but your suggestions do sound fun all the same.

Dalamar Dunmer wrote:Interesting. That's for the input everyone. With my main character I found it too hard to resist the temptation to do almost every quest I came across. Though I have drawn the line at times (not murdering at the behest of Daedric princes, not giving my allegiance to Ulfric OR the Empire until one of them gives me a reason to), experiencing as much as possible was too great a call on my first character.

Now that I have done that though, I should have fun doing this with subsequent characters (just made a Breton Conjurer). I DO still wish Skyrim got the plethora of dialogue options that Fallout had (where you could just lie to someone about completing their quest if you had the skill, etc.), but your suggestions do sound fun all the same.

Oh yeah, almost everybody's first character is a beat everything, get everything, max out and exploit level 81 super god bad mofo who is the head of every guild. Then you move on to more unique, interesting characters.

When it comes to roleplaying tips I just look up writing tips on character development and improv, etc.

Arch-Mage Matt wrote:Sometimes imagination helps. Pretend an NPC family is your family, or that you make friends with different NPCs. If you're travelling with a companion, what do you imagine the Dovahkiin and them talking about?

I remember fiddling around with the Creation Kit in Oblivion (something I haven't really gotten to in Skyrim), and creating a family for my Argonian mage out on the Imperial City waterfront. I didn't add dialogue, but it was immersive all the same.

This also reminds me of when I was showing one of my friends my Oblivion mods and talking about the powers of the Construction Set. I showed him a character named Harold that I had placed standing around in Chorrol. The first thing Harold said, when prompted by dialogue, was "[Friend's name] is a [insert bad word here]" (I'd inserted the dialogue before he arrived - boy, was I immature back then). My buddy nearly fell off of his seat. I never really played around with the Construction Set / Creation Kit after that, though...

Imagination is the greatest tool you have! Pretending isn't just for kids, man. It really helps immerse yourself.

I love to roleplay, probably stems from growing up playing d&d. In Skyrim, I like to limit my fast travel, using carriages and walking to explore. As said in the previous posts, its all about giving your character a background and personality you can connect to: making choices they would make, a fighting style that fits their personalities, and a personal life that also mirrors who they are.

Defining who your character "is" really helps. For example -- your sword+board heavily armored warrior isn't going to be Archmage or even join the College anytime soon. Their morality (do they help people? Kill anyone who makes them upset? etc.), likes, dislikes, personality, etc. are all likely to develop, but having a general idea of what your character's goals are is important if you're looking to roleplay. You don't have to go hardcore (turning off music, hud, playing on Master, etc.) to roleplay.

No matter how into role-playing I ever get, I won't be able to see it as anything other than a crime to turn off Soule's soundtrack.

Everyone has their own personal soundtrack in their head... Your character just happens to have some Soule.

Yeah... All great suggestions! All the stuff I gonna add has already been said.

Ooh, in regard to what Avron said: Choosing a religious belief can be a really gold way to get in character. It helps you craft their belief system, and it changes the way you pay the game, what quests you take, etc.

Elder Scroll series base more on powerplay than role playing. Think of it as GTA in some different universal setting. There is no IMMERSION OR WHATSOEVER in this bulk of codes and there is just NO WAY Bethesda will let you decide the endings of their contents, just like in Dragon Age series. They gotta develop some sort of system where you keep your previous saves from previous TES games where you actually LIVE with the choices you make. The setting is just NOT about CHOICES. The only way to roleplay properly is to stay within your own makebelieve. There are no more dialoge options than "yes" "yes-ish" and "maybe later". Oh and don't forget all those couriers running all across skyrim to rub quests in your bloody face.

It's just like some forum member who's name i cannot recall mentioned here ages ago. "Keep pretenting to your hearts content, and to your pitiful roleplays, you'll be doing what Bethesda wanted in the end." It was a painful confrontation, for a hardcore roleplayer oldfart such as myself, but well...I'm begining to get used to the idea. The game has it's plus points and putting it on burning stake for the lack of promised content is just about POINTLESS at this hour.

Speaking of roleplaying, you know what i came up with as a solution? I friggin BREAK my own FRIGGIN games. I use the console more frequent than the game gives me credit for, remove essential mark from NPCs, "markfordelete" the goddarn couriers, kick Brynjolf dude in the family jewels, murder the heck out of Cicero then head for the so called hidden DB base for an epicly wipeout, disable meaningless blokades from random "guild" dungeons, completely "skip" Falkreath area after lvl 10, fus ro dah the blades, yol thur shul that silverblood scum in Markarth, edit, disable or completely change some of the open world areas for the sake of "rebuilding" and so on.

You know what my main problem is? I can effing BREATHE in this game, the setting itself is just as that beautiful. I'd pick my sack and settle some decent skeewerhole without any second doubts cause it's just some content i definetly want to get involved in. It's for that reason i cannot head to some other setting where i can roleplay properly. Instead, i bear my arse-hurt, shut my mouth and play, which i've been doing for an entire year.

But it'll be always more than you have ignored you know? I mean you ALREADY know where this is about to go. It's just gonna be like the time developers came up with TES:IV. Help us out in building one of the most epic entities Tamriel ever saw, and when you were just begining to feel that you actually accaomplished something, make them get their arse handed to them by some daedric bull-****, so you don't have to deal with their presence in the upcoming "Thalmor ruins the heck out of the world as we knowing it in effing 200 years, in which, sadly, you weren't available."

Bethesda showing me the middle finger? I'm game.

Beth-bashing aside, I have to echo swordsister: If you play on PC, the console can be a powerful roleplaying tool. E.g. since I'm playing my Argonian Comes-Up-Last as a semi-reformed highwayman, I've player.addfac'd him to the bandit faction so he can hang out with his former buddies at their various forts and caves and discuss the golden-haired beauties of Stros M'Kai over a few pints. (Won't keep him from slitting their throats though if that earns him a nice reward from some jarl - he's a married man lizard and will soon have a family to feed.) Another character I have on the back-burner is an Altmer whom I plan to play as a Thalmor undercover agent with orders to ferret out and kill the last two Blades; we'll see how far I can get the game to cooperate with this.