At this point, we have seen screens depicting several of the races, and we have some small idea of how combat, stealth and magic are going to work in Skyrim.

How many times do you estimate you will play the game, and what sorts of characters will you play? What gender, race, skills, perks and weapons will you choose? Which type of "job" animations will you perform (such as chopping wood, mining, farming, tanning hides, catching fish with your hands, playing a musical instrument, etc.)

Do you have some ideas in mind for why they were caught crossing the border and sentenced to execution?

How many hours do you think each playthrough will last?

I'll prbably play through the game through quite a few times considering how much i might screw up.

Orsimer or Bosmer for 1st & 2nd playthroughs. Defnitely 30+ characters if only due to restartitis.

First race is always a well rounded Breton. But after that its :banghead: ing hard decision on what to make.

i am for sure starting the game as Thor, and then i'm gonna be a Kajit assassin, hopefully we can change ourselves at the end of the intro sequence like in oblivion, so i only have to go through the intro once or twice

First character- Warrior
Second character- Rogue

Eventually probably max both.

I think I'm in the dark here. What did you mean by this?

Do you have an idea in mind for why your character was caught at the border and sentenced to execution?


"The game starts with you being led to your execution. You're caught coming over the border into Skyrim, and we don't really say why."

-Todd Howard
Source: http://youtu.be/WcLh_cJuRxo?hd=1&t=27s

"We've just barely escaped execution, and now we're wandering toward a small mountain village called Riverwood."
- From the July 2011 Playstation magazine:


"Once you've finished the opening sequence (an escape from your own execution...) you're free to explore the world as you wish." .
- September 2011 PSM3 Magazine
(The converse of that indicates you are not free to explore the world until you have finished the opening sequence)

I plan on three characters at the least, probably more. I fully expect each character to last me about 50 hours. I have backstories for them, but I am having trouble thinking of why the they are being excuted after crossing the border. Perhaps my Imperial Ranger was looking for ingredients in Skyrim, and my Khajiit Thief was trying to smuggle in some skooma or something, but my second character had no reason to cross the border. A femal breton spellsword, she tries to do whats right, so maybe there was a problem in Skyrim she couldn't help but aid in? I wish they had let that part up to us.

As I have played 7 characters in Oblivion over the last 3 years, I can guarantee that I will at least play 10 different characters in Skyrim over the next 5 or so years.
I am going to want to make better characters when I have experienced the game, and of course there's all the different playstyles that I want to try out with different characters.

My first character will be an Imperial that focuses on stealth. As to why he went over the border, I don't know. I tend to not think about the reason to why my character starts in prison.

I have not yet decided what my second character will be. I'll make that choice when I'm bored of my first one. But I guess an Altmer mage wouldn't be too farfetched, so I picked those poll options.

Now I'm in the light, thanks.

When I first played Morrowind I liked to think that I was innocent and just got blamed for something I didn't do. And in the end I would have revenge and restore my name (like in Gladiator), but the games plot never revealed my pasted. Which really annoyed me at first, but now I like it better.

I am going to do 10 playthroughs one with each race in this order:
1. Khajiit female Warrior - one handed, heavy armour, smithing and archery
2. Wood Elf female Mage - destruction, restoration, illusion and conjuration
3. High Elf female Battle Mage
4. Orc female Warrior
5. Redguard female Thief
6. Imperial male Archer
7. Dark Elf male Battle Mage
8. Nord male Warrior
9. Breton male Mage
10 Argonian male Thief

I am going to do all the faction lines( except first character) and main quest as well as collecting all the shouts available.

My first character...

Name: Kvothe
Race: Probably Breton, possibly Nord
Style: Balance between stealth, magic, and combat
Primary skills: One-handed, Light Armor, Destruction, Sneak, Pickpocketing, Enchanting, and not quite sure about my seventh primary (I know there aren't major/minor skills but I'm still trying to pick seven "primary" skills because it seems like as good a number as any). It'll could be either Illusion, Lockpicking, Smithing, or Restoration. If Speech is more useful than in past games, it will be my de facto 7th primary.
Other info: Based on the main character of Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle. I chose my primary skills based on Kvothe's personality, talents, and life experience. For those who haven't read the series -- AND I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT -- he's a young man studying science and magic at "the University." He studies artifacing, runes, simple magic binding, and the powerful magic of "true names." I figure Enchanting mostly covers the first two subjects, and Destruction mostly covers the other two. Kvothe also goes off and trains to become a master swordfighter with the Adem mercenaries, and eventually earns the title "King Killer" (presumably for killing a king, though thus far in the series no such thing has happened). So I'll use One-handed and Light Armor because those mostly reflect the fighting style of the Ademre. As a child, Kvothe's family were leaders of a travelling group of elite performers (I'd give my character musical skills if that were possible). But Kvothe's troupe was attacked and slaughtered, leaving Kvothe the only survivor. He went to live on the streets of Tarbean, a major city, where he learned that stealth and pickpocketing are useful tools for survival, thus my focus on these skills. Overall, he's a really well-rounded figure, and very appealing as a playable character. He'll use a longsword almost throughout the game, with either a shield, a dagger, or a spell in his other hand. I may do some duel daggers or duel spells in certain circumstances though.


And my second character...

Name: Taeron
Race: Altmer
Style: Mostly combat-oriented, but supplemented by a strong arsenal of spells
Primary Skills: One-handed, Heavy Armor, Illusion, Destruction, Alchemy, Smithing, and Alteration
Other info: This was my favorite character in Oblivion. He naturally has a great amount of magical potential, but by giving him combat-intense primary skills and playing style, he becomes a strong warrior in his own right. I'll probably do a lot of spell/sword duel wielding with this guy.


Haven't done any detailed planning for my other characters, but I'll probably do 8-10 total at least. My third character will most likely be a Dunmer, and my fourth an Argonian. After that, maybe a Redguard.

Depends.

In Morrowind, I predicted a role for my character, and tested the game-play with a few different characters and corrected my mistakes in the next ones, until I settled for one of them and played more than a hundred of hours with that characters.

After that, started afresh with new target roles for my next characters, and then settled with another, and played the game in the new roles for another hundreds of hours, and so on...

Sometime trying new mods for the spice.

In Oblivion, I tried several characters, by varying durations, from an hour to tens of hours, but could settle with none, and always searching for mods, (or modding), to correct the problems in the game-play.

It must have been lots and lots of different characters.

In Skyrim, I predict even fewer trial and errors than Morrowind, because of the evolution of game-play, and minimizing the initial choices to almost cosmetic level.

First character - Nord Warrior, focusing on 2 handed weapons, Heavy Armor, Blocking, Smithing, Archery, and 1 handed weapons.
Second character - Dunmer Assassin, focusing on Archery, 1 handed weapons, Sneak, Security, Pickpocketing, and Illusion.
Third character - Breton or Altmer (haven't decided yet) Mage, focusing on Conjuration, Destruction, Enchanting, Alchemy, Restoration, and Illusion.

My first character will probably be an Imperial Agent, so he'll focus mostly on stealth skills, complimented with a bit of illusion magic and one-handed weapon skills.

My second character will probably focus heavily on magic, I don't know what race he/she will be, probably a Dunmer.

I'm also planning on making a Redguard Warrior and an Orc Berserker.

I'll definitely end up playing more than 30 characters. I tend to retire my characters after they finish a significant story, such as finishing the main quest, becoming the head of a guild, or some other objective that I've set for them. Some of them don't really have any specific end goals, but they might be a Vampire Hunter or something similar, and I stop playing the character once I get bored of them.

It's hard to say how long a character will last, I've never kept track of the amount of hours I spend on an individual character before.

Probably not too many different characters, since in Oblivion I stuck to one character and just remade them with every play through. Then again, I don't know for sure. My eventual character will be tailored somewhat to the atmosphere of Skyrim and since we haven't played it yet, I don't know what that will be for sure.

I fell in love with that Khajiit screenshot so my first will be a stealth based khajiit who dabbles in alchemy and smithing. Maybe a little magic but I'm saving up for my battlemage orc.

I'm honestly torn between having a Dunmer or a Bosmer as my first character, as for why they came across the border....the bosmer was caught with merchandise that belonged once to...someone important. The Dunmer...hmm, not sure yet. Still thinking.

im going bosmer just to see if any improvement was made on them il possibly will still restart game and go breton for full playthrough

5 jillion.

And 2.

Having in mind I've played at least 5 chars in Oblivion, and that I plan to play even more in Skyrim...10 or so. Including an Orc, which I've never played before and that looks badass now.

I'm kind of waiting to see the Argonian, Breton, Altmer, Bosmer and Imperial character design screens, but I'm thinking I'll go with one of the following builds - also the reason why they were arrested crossing the border. Haven't thought of any names yet.



1. Dunmer or Khajiit Dual Wield Assassin (can't decide they both look so badass!)
Reason for Arrest: framed by the Dark Brotherhood for the murder of the High King of Skyrim
Skills: one-handed weapons (dual wield daggers), pickpocket, poisons (alchemy), sneak, security, speechcraft (no enchanting, no smithing, no spells)
Perks:
- Assassinate (daggers do 10x damage with stealth attack)
- Savage Blows
- Charge!
- Bone Breaker (3 ranks)
- Bladesman (3 ranks)

2. Orc Bandit Marauder
Reason for Arrest: Caught attempting to smuggle a mammoth carrying a large quantity of Skooma
Skills: two-handed battle axes, smithing, heavy armor, (nothing else, no alchemy, no spells, no enchanting, no block)
Perks:
- Limbsplitter (3 ranks)
- Deep Wounds (3 ranks): Attacks with greatswords have a 10% change of doing critical damage.
- Skullcrusher (3 ranks) Attacks with warhammers ignore 25% of armor (Requires Two-handed 30)
- Devastating Blow
- Great Charge!

3. Bosmer Archer/Ranger
Reason for Arrest: caught attempting to smuggle human flesh
Skills: archery, alchemy, speechcraft, sneak, security, pickpocket, light armor (no enchanting, no smithing, no spells)
Perks:
- Bullet Time Archery Perk
- Zoom Archery Perk

4. Argonian Tribal Shaman
Reason for Arrest: suspected of Necromancy
Skills: Illusion, Alchemy, Enchanting, One-handed axes, staves, Smithing (nothing else)
Perks TBC

5. Dunmer or Breton Necromancer
Reason for Arrest: suspected of being a Skooma addict
Skills: Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Illusion, Enchanting, Alchemy, (will use one-handed dagger occasionally, but not much)
Perks TBC

I don't know - seeing as you can keep on getting perks until the mathematical cap - and who knows if there isn't a way around that with the jail system - you might see a lot of people just doing one playthrough with all 280 perks.

I'll probably be working with my first character - stealth based archer with alchemy - for a long time - so I really don't know if I'll make it to a second character. Not for sake of getting every perk, just - I always enjoy the first character the most - feel the most connection.

Sounds like an interesting read, I'll have to check this one out.

Perhaps your character was blamed for the murder of the High King of Skyrim?