In the thread entitled, "Do you play the Elder Scrolls Series like this?" started by Riveon, I posted a description of how I play the games in the TES series. Below is a quotation of that post.



I felt that this style of play warrants it's own discussion as I know that this is how many RPG gamers played RPGs back in the 90's. During the high point of the genre itself. But how many people still do it? And is this something that newer gamers would be interested in trying? In short what are your opinions of this style of play and if you've ever done it, what are some of your experiences with it?

As most of my characters are mages, I'll just describe those:

I level them through study, in a sort of way. Some of his skills are leveled by casting them in the safety of his own room (like alteration and locking a chest constantly), but he is also curious about artifacts and ancient places of the world, delving deep into crypts and ruins that the locals or other rumors claim are full or terrible things or glorious artifacts. Despite delving many ancient places, he does not act like the crude freelancers who seek only profit. Of course he must sell some items to pay the rent, but many of them are kept on shelves and tables to be studied, or perhaps just to act as interesting curios.

He enjoys knowledge, of course. Many maps and books are bought from the area and read at home or abroad. Despite his tendency to travel, he enjoys decorating his household. Although most people would think it far from organized, he sees order in the chaos of his home. But he certainly wouldn't contest that his daedric shrines look a bit scary (what with their menacing rubies and dark herbs and otherworldly reagents).

Its pretty hard to avoid, as you allmost always need magic for something, all oblivion characters end of beign battle mages. I would like to role play as a certain type of chracter, but seeing as how you need most skills to increase stats its hard to avoid. And being given spells at the begining doesnt help either.

Oblivion sort of forces you to play the Battlemage if you're inexperienced due it's it's leveling system. But a Warrior class with a high Alchemy skill can bypass a the healing issue. That and changing the difficulty. Oddly enough though I've only had one strictly mage class in Oblivion. I don't like the way the magic works in Oblivion when compared to the Lore that's been established in past games.

yeah that reminds me, there should be a recipie list. In oblivion I had no idea what ingredients did what, i just used to pick everything in sight and go home and mix it all together hoping I'd get some usefull potions, of which the only usefull potions are Restore Health and Remove Disease. There should be a recipie list or something in your journal.

Well back before things were given to the player, the player was expected to keep a notebook handy to write down their findings. Particularly games like Myst and the old Sierra games needed diligent note taking.

But let's keep it on topic please. ^_^

I've played various types of characters, but they always resort to stealing (it's in my blood). They usually take what they can when the opportunity arises, even clutter in low levels. That's all sold and the money goes to training and whatever equipment I haven't stolen or am incapable of stealing yet. Later, they limit themselves to only shiny things of higher value, like enchanted gear and expensive, useless potions. After the point at which training and buying equipment isn't necessary anymore, they still hoard gold for the sake of hoarding gold.. it's fun ^_^

My current character has no healing skills and relies on enchanted items and potions he comes across. He's also ignoring skills he doesn't use, like those which increase Endurance and Willpower, so his health isn't very high. This has encouraged me to fight stealthily and quickly; either attack the target without its knowing I'm there, or kill whatever's already attacking me before it does any serious damage.

My noble Knight of the Imperial Legion would never steal, nor desecrate (loot the clothes off) a corpse. Somehow, she still wound up with millions of septims/drakes anyway.

I don't roleplay extensively. One thing I always do, however, is pretend my character has human limitations. If it starts raining hard on the way to a town, they'll seek shelter in the nearest interior, a cave or dungeon if they have to. It's a good way to both break up the monotony of travel and give me an excuse to go dungeon delving! :toughninja:

I also enjoy playing "gimped" characters, kind of like you would with the disadvantages system in Daggerfall. A highly devout worshipper of the Divines who has sworn an oath to never wield Daedric weapons. A character who only steals through direct combat, not cowardly stealth. Et cetera.


I actually do still have an old composition notebook I kept for Myst and Riven. God, it was tedious at first, but you felt so awesome drawing all these intricate diagrams and whatnot. Your parents would approach you and think you'd gone mad!

I find it silly to put vices on myself that aren't naturally put into the game itself. If the devs want to put RP restrictions like in DF where some classes couldn't wear leather or plate, etc I'm okay with that. However, as I've already stated, IMO, I just find it silly putting artificial barriers on oneself.

...Then again this is an interesting debate. If I'm playing a racing game online and my opponent has a poorer performing car than mine, I try to even it up and match their car in performance. One could say that's a form of RPing. So I don't know. :shrug:

If I wanted to "actually" role play I would gather a few friends and have a session of a pen&paper RPG that gives you real freedom of choice and level of interaction limited only by your imagination. If I don't have time to do that, then I play computer games. And making journals for a computer game character is really a waste of time, what do you gain from that?

You can keep track of treasure you've stored, Potion Recipies, Monster locations, Best hunting Grounds, and alot of people like to keep track of what their character has done, and write a story. Theres alot you can do with a journal that adds alot to role playing. In Neverwinter Nights there was a journal you could write in and keep notes in and I found it very usefull.

Fair question. It depends on the person. I personally enjoy writing and I write often. Something such as RP characters gives me something to write about and helps me exercise my ability to elaborate on details or in some of the older games, fabricate details. An example of this in Oblivion is writing the story of a hapless failure who manages to climb the ranks of the Mage's guild who passes up the opportunity to become Arch-Mage in order to rescue a childhood friend from the Kvatch. On top of being fun for me it's something that was common practice during the heyday of CRPGs.

In short it's just a fun way to write. Technically you get more out of writing a story then you do by playing a video game. At least for me anyway.

I roleplay as a more heroic type character. He tries to help out as much as he can for a simple node of appreciation, and he'll stop at nothing to save someone, even running into gates to Oblivion. He commits many a great deed, and for it he was appointed the title of a lord. At age 24 he was sent to prison for murder. He was attacked by a Dark Brotherhood aspirant who, to become a member, had to slay the honorable lord. He snuck into his house (Rosethorn Hall) and attacked. The lord managed to fight him off, eventually knocking him outside, where they continued to battle. The lord got a hit to connect to the side of the assailant, but the guards never saw him defending himself. They had seen the lord murder an "innocent" Dark Elf. Once breaking out of prison, he sensed how great a deed the Emporer had tasked him: . He set out on his quest for two reasons:

To re-earn his respect; and to save humanity.

During his quest, he had gathered many items of sentimental value. Of course, the legion had already sold his house to some other free-loader. Once he finally regained his house, he placed all his items in it. He kept the house very well organized, even without the help of the maid.

Years later he had to move on (to TES:V), for there were dangers elsewhere, much more serious than the trolls and bandits of Cyrodiil. He left his house and gave it to the legion to keep as a museum. Once he crossed the border into [Place TES:V's setting here], he was arrested for being an illegal alien.

To be continued...

...That's pretty much the story of my hero. I seem to incorporate RP'ing in every game I play.

I just do my damnest to save the world before bedtime - with any means necessary.

Hmm, still it doesn't feel right. You diminish the fun from writing since you're limited by the game, it's quests and characters and at the same time you don't get from the game what the developers intended to give you. I just prefer to experience as much as I can and that means separating gaming from everything else (well besides moding:P). I also like to write, but I try to detach myself from as many influence as possible when I do, gives you freedom and at least an ilusion of your work being original.

i tried to role play...but when my neighbors heard me cussing, i decided i would take out my anger the old fashioned way...with a daedric claymore and the adoring fan...hope he has insurance...

but i do try and keep my people organised, i steal from the people in general, ambush the strong or weak, and i try to keep out of towns. if it werent for mods, i couldnt do half of the stuff i do.

1 philosophy - whatever works

Traditional Nordic warriors may have shunned medicinal and agility based skills in favor of tearing into the battlefield and cleaving everyone in their path

By taking my characters natural prowess in doing just that and enhancing my magicka and manouverability superficially (+50 magicka bonuses with Sigil Stones, using feather, boosting speed with rings and amulets) made my character an immortal rampaging siphon

May not be pretty or lore friendly but he gets [censored] done

My first character to finish the MW MQ was a devoted Imperial supporter who had no innate ability to cast magic. He became a skilled archer, an adequate enchanter and swordsman, and master generally likeable "schmooze" character who could talk (or sneak, if necessary) his way past most problems (except for all of those MANY opponents who just attack on sight in the game). He joined and advanced part-way up the chain in virtually every Imperial guild, while ignoring all of the native Dunmer ones. I once summed up his "goal" as working to deliver the following line: "Mr. Ur, I represent the Imperial Census and Excise Commission. We have received a number of distressing complaints that you've been dumping ash without the proper Imperial permits.....".

Another character, an outland Dunmer, gradually rediscovered his "ancestral roots" over the course of events, eventually joining the Tribunal Temple and proceeding with the various duties in support of his re-found people. The revelation of the underhanded events at Red Mountain shook his new faith to the core, causing a reversal and a return to Imperial values at the end.

An Argonian "hunter" character ignored the MQ completely, spending most of his time exploring the island from one end to the other, while collecting meat, hides, and whatever other "trinkets" he found during his outings. Quests? Why bother?

In Oblivion, the repeated attempts I made at RP-ing a character were frustrated by the levelling "rat race", where you had to keep your fighting skills ahead of the harsh levelling and scaling curve. I completed the MQ, but felt that the character was "compromised" in the process. I tried running another character while ignoring the MQ altogether, but couldn't seem to "get into" the game anymore after the first let-down.

I stay relatively in-character with all my characters. A righteous knight will always do what he perceives as right, evil dude will do evil things. But that's the bare minimum, of course, but I stick to that no matter how far off-character I'm going.

In the end, it depends on the characters. Some characters I make for the sole purpose of role-playing. Had a lot of fun with purely pacifist characters in Morrowind and Oblivion. I find that I never really hesitate or whatever, as you described, exiting dungeons quickly and such, but maybe that's just because I almost always play a pretty headstrong character. Pretty much all my characters stick it out until their job is done - whatever that may be - it's the methods that differ, generally.

My characters generally stay in character in that they do quests that make sense that they would do, fraternize with people they'd fraternize with, wear what they'd wear, say what they'd say, etc.

Although, a lot of the time my first character in any game may be a bit looser. For instance, my main first main character in Oblivion, a righteous warrior type (this is the type of character I play first in essentially every game, without fail) didn't hesitate from Thieves guild or dark brotherhood quests, though they surely didn't suit his character. But I make those exceptions with first characters, using them as scouts to understand the game as fully as possible, by doing everything possible. Paves the way for role-playing in the future, I think.

I tend to have rules for my characters, differing between thieves, mages, knights, etc.

I have an idea for my Daggerfall thief that I might implement. Before breaking into a shop at night (usually with the lock picking skill trained to a very high level), I might actually pick open one of my portable key locks in real life, to add 'more immersion,' probably sounds quite bizarre.

I'm a big fan of Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age, while I don't like Thief: Deadly Shadows as much, I did like the lock picking function on some of the doors.

Usually during customization, I make up there personality as well, and then I adhere to that when making decisions in the game. It happens that my characters grow though, so that they aren't who they were when they started out.

I just do my best to stay in character for my toons. My morals seem to always become their choice.

I do try to stay in character, my main character hasn't done anything in the Dark Brotherhood or Thieves Guild. Or even joined them. Heck, he's only committed two murders, and one of them was Lucien.

I was a member of the last generation who didn't spend childhood parked in front of a tv or monitor. Our play consisted of a lot of make believe. Roleplaying comes natural to me because of this, and I think it's a dead art now. There are exceptions of course, but it seems to me that the majority of younger players don't see roleplay in the same way. Modern roleplayers don't feel that their player characters are alive and complex, but rather see them as a mouse pointer to be moved around...an actuator.