So There are lots of posts on what you role play, where, what you do. Some ask how but they tend to steer off the road. So when you role play in oblivion what is your definition of role play. how in depth are you? are you a "I will complete the story line and watch my character grow" or do you have a whole series of stories, back stories and more? Do you stay on the main quest line? do you join guilds? what do you do in terms of role play? how hard core are you? why do you role play.

Oblivion is a unique game in which you can slaughter half a town and spend years on the run from the guards or you can join specific guilds, make money as a mage, alchemy or what ever you wish to do.

Tell us how you define your style of role play.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/412/94432454.jpg - Cayo lives in a Legion fort, commands troops (at least sometimes), maintains the order wherever he goes, and occasionally saves the world with happily no one noticing it (which is the way I like...he's some sort of "non-noticeable hero").

He's also a Master spellcaster, swordsman and marksman, the latter having magically learned it from the knowledge that the spirit of an Ayleid hero transferred to him.

One of the first things I do with a game is spend some time playing it without excess regard to roleplay. If the game pleases me, then I get very deeply into it with a character or two that serves to really learn the nuts and bolts of how the game works. For Oblivion, this meant playing all the various quests and questlines with a small number of character to discover the game, and digesting huge amounts of UESP wiki. Rather than wander around a game blind, I prefer to 'know the system and it will set you free'. This approach of mastering the game before actually settling down to roleplay is certainly subject to debate, but works superbly with my nature.

Then I am ready to seriously roleplay.

First, I decide the nature of the relationship with my character. Sometimes I 'become' my character and assume their identity. Other times, as with my current character, I simply travel along with them perhaps offering some advice here or there. Since Oblivion is somewhat of a 'lonely' game, I sort of prefer this latter method of two spirits that keep each other company sharing one body - it never gets lonely.

Then I think about the character's race and six, and a little bit about their background and likely aptitudes.

Then I play. I do not follow a script and have no idea how the character will develop or what quests they may do. They go about living their lives, completely unscripted by me once the game begins. Like life, we have no idea what their future will hold.

As far as depth of play, I would say very deep indeed. Sure, my characters tend to do the everyday things that are necessary to survive like eating and sleeping and bathing etc, but the real 'role play' for me is seeing what choices they make about bigger questions like where they might live, what affiliations (if any) they might make, what type of means they use to defend themselves, etc. How they view themselves, their world, religion, what is the nature of their character and such things develop over time.

I took well over a year with the game to get to the point I was comfortable creating my current character. She has been with me now for well over two years and 600+ hours of play. She maintains a detailed journal that now approaches a quarter million words. We see no end in sight, so I am quite satisfied with my approach.
:dance:

For me, the character is the starting point. I see myself as a guide or mentor. Although I have some idea of the character's personality, I have no clue about what they will do in the game.

Severus Snape went from a poor mage, to a scholar, to an epic hero. Sarrah, with her fantasies, went crazy, and Angel, who started as a child mage prodigy has grown up and is now interested in being an entrepreneur. She is expanding her alchemy trade and seeking new ventures that will benefit the public while rewarding her efforts. On her recent circuit of Niben Bay, she was able to supply several towns with much needed medicines and 23 wolf pelts.

EDIT: Something I should have said and didn't. I play dead-is-dead and default difficulty. If my character dies, I will never load or play them again. I rerolled Angel as a somewhat older character because her original character seemed to have run her course. She never died but after putting the game away for a while I couldn't seem to reconnect with her. She has definitely changed (more grown up.) I am giving her all the mods that previous characters had to do without.

I find people have such hard core rules such as "no fast traveling, only carry what you could carry in real life, eat three meals a day" some people even go so far as to say "if you cant do that in real life dont do it at all" do you guys find that, those types of styles fit in any where? Me I just play, wonder around and do what ever - its fantasy. How ever some people are so caught up on realism they forget its a game. Tell me how you get around these issues or deal with them.

That is exactly what I do to start with.

After that, TES lore is really important to me, and I always strive to make the most lore-friendly characters as possible. I usually also create characters with specific goals in mind, but then take my time accomplishing them.

Once I finish my quest mod, I'm planning on making a character designed to kind of live his/her life without any specific goals in mind. Hopefully it works out for me.


I usually don't fast travel while roleplaying. Part of the point is to stick with my character and be inside his/her mind, and one of the best times to really think about things is while walking from point-A to point-B. I don't concern myself with carrying what could realistically be carried, the in-game encumbrance takes care of that for me and I have no problems suspending my disbelief with that. I also haven't altered in-game time at all, so eating three meals a day would mean spending most of the in-game day eating. I usually try to make my characters eat once a day or once every-other day, and the same goes for sleeping, but I always keep in mind that it's Nirn, not Earth, and the needs of survival are slightly different, so it's easier to go an entire day without eating and/or sleeping.

My character lives on Nirn, not earth and she accepts the rules and laws of physics she finds there. To her it is perfectly natural to 'zoom in' on her target, hunt for targets by seeking pink glows, turn her foes green with poison. It seems perfectly natural as well to her that she can unleash fire or lightning from her fingertips. She has never been to medieval europe or ancient Rome and her world does not resemble these places.

Fast travel has several possibilities, all of which are completely up to the player/character. Some may view it is as simply an administrative game function to simulate a travel experience that is presumed to have occured without incident. In that view, it is not much different from other adminsitrative tasks like saving the game in between play sessions. Others may choose to incorporate fast travel into their roleplay, possibly with such limitations as only from stable to stable simulating carriage travel. Or port to port simulating ship travel. Or among Mages Guild facilities simulating magical transport, either as a priviledge enjoyed by mages, or a service purchased from them. Use of fast travel (or not) can vary from character to character as well. My current character uses it two ways. First, we treat is as the adminsitrative function I described when she uses it for herself. I must confess however, that she loves traveling by horse so much, that fast travel is almost never used. The other way she uses it is to simulate a special power that she learned called "Call of Corsair'. This power enables her to call her horse magically to her from any distance. The way it works mechananically is that she simply fast travels to her current location, which brings her horse right to her.

I do role play but its very loose. I tried for a long time to develop a deep and iconic character like Arcadia has with Buffy, but I just do not have whatever it is that allows a person to roleplay that deeply. My characters have their own personalities and motivations, but they aren't rigid. Zakarius for example is a good guy for the most part. Doing the main quest first, saving the world and what have you. He has certain people he cares about. Yet sometimes he will murder people out of the blue for no reason at all. He doesnt think about it much. Just kills someone occasionally when he feels like it. I never really try to justify or make since of him. Id say his biggest character trait is impulsitivity. He will do what he wants as soon as he wants to do it. Living by his own code or morality which I dont understand, I dont think that he does either. I would liken him to Jax from the TV series Sons of Anarchy. He takes care of buissness, loves certain people passionately. If your not in his circle he may or may not kill you depending on how he feels at the moment. He is at heart a good guy, but also capable of spontaneous diabolical acts without remorse.

By the Nine...

I think I just nailed down my character, and he is a lot deeper than I really thought about.

Zak brings up another really good point, and that is how your character chooses to deal with the violence that is inevitable in Oblivion. Embrace it? Contribute to it? Try to avoid it? How does your character deal with it?

In Buffy's case, it took her quite a long time much rumination, trial and error before she settled into what she calls the Buffy Doctrine. She crafted it to help her deal with and make decisions regarding life and death, for she is too fragile to take on her foes toe-to-toe and lives by the pre-emptive strike. Therefore the choices she makes are difficult ones. Her doctrine has been written in blood, some of it hers, and here it is:

'If you are kind to me, I will love you dearly; if you are mean to me or my friends, I will likely kill you.'

It is very simple, but she lives by it.

On a basic level, my roleplaying comes to this:

Fashion--

My character does not usually wear armor unless she is inside a dungeon she knows is dangerous. Wellspring Cave is an exception to this, for example. Her venture through here was without armor because you are led to believe during the course of the game that it is actually a safe place... until the first person you meet in there tries to kill you. Armor takes time to don (and in a realistic world, you would need a companion to help you into your armor if it is Platemail), even for light armor. This is why the armor change occurs only when my character believes she is entering someplace dangerous, like she is approaching an Oblivion Gate with intent to enter, or she has entered an unfamiliar ruin. Once she is done and she leaves, her armor comes off, and she puts on regular clothing.

Skills--

Unlike Acadian and Buffy, I am not limiting my character's level by selecting which skills she cannot practice (except for combat skills), I limit my character's abilities by hard-capping how far she is capable of progressing with her skills. This is the basic idea:

Major + Specialized skill == Max Master
Major + Unspecialized skill == Max Expert
Minor + Specialized skill == Max Expert
Minor + Unspecialized skill == Max Journeyman
Minor + Unspecialized weapon skill == Cannot advance at all

The weapon skills in question are blade, blunt, hand-to-hand, and marksman. She can still use a mace or her fists, but I have installed a mod that allows me to prevent those skills from ever advancing (the same mod allows me to stop skill advancement from occurring once the specified mastery rank is achieved). As you can see, this philosophy on abilities and skills ensures that I pay careful attention to my character's specialization, because only specialized major skills are allowed to achieve master rank. In her case, the specialization is Stealth, and these are her majors:

Alchemy
Armorer
Blade
Illusion
Light Armor
Marksman
Sneak

This means she will only ever be able to fully master three skills (Light Armor, Marksman, and Sneak). She will never be able to brew single-ingredient potions, for instance, and she will always need to buy hammers to keep her gear repaired. However, as you can see, her specialization is simply to strike unseen from the shadows with a lethally poisoned arrow and to disappear again once she is done, but at the same time, she has given consideration to what might happen if she loses her cover and provided herself with the needed skills to retrieve and mount a frenzied defense up close it if things go wrong. Her weapon choice in blade is limited, though. She will never touch a longsword or claymore. By capping her skills in such a way, I can ensure that she does not get overly powerful, but at the same time, give her a particular, unique combat style.

Morality--

A tough question to answer, but I'll give it my best. My character revolves around stealth and cover, and when asked this question recently in-game:

"Do I kill the helpless Argonian, or let him live and blow my cover?"

The Argonian unfortunately died. Her personality as I imagine it is one of cool logic which is diluted by a hint of compassion. Her thoughts were as follows:

"Okay, if I refuse this task, I am certainly going to be attacked by this witch, and the rest of her companions. She has the advantage here, and if I'm to escape this place alive, I will need to reclaim it. I'm so sorry, Jeelius, but there is no other way. Rest assured I will make these fetchers pay for your blood being spilled."

Gray morals. Despite the fact she killed all responsible for the above, an innocent still died so that she might achieve her goal. However, because he died, the threatening group dispersed and she was able to deal with every last one of them on her own terms, ensuring her own survival, as well as claiming vengeance for the life she was forced to take. She does not think in black and white, because she knows that to do so would mean her death somewhere down the road.

These are really good replies every one. Thanks for sharing and continue to share your ideas on roleplaying and why you do things or why your character does things. what makes your character feel like its alive as opposed to "this is buffy,I am buffy I fight monsters, she is a character, I am not a character" I have heard people state that "My character does" or "My character has a mind of its own" when I sit here and think...How? How does your character, pixels and code -moved my buttons and mice, animated and used by a game engine have a life of its own? I understand that some people are just damn creative like my self.

Adam - Me - My character is a mage. He uses Alchemy to make his money, wields a dagger and wares the robes of the red mages guild from distant lands. he was born in skyrim and came to the current land in search of Aylied ruins and the treasure they hold. He is also fascinated by the mages guild and hopes to plunder mahrunes razor in search of the dagger that can kill a foe in one hit - so the lore speaks. Mostly so he can kill the leader of the arcane university and take over (in his own mind - in the game that may not work out too well).

To me all that above is a story, its a world inside of a fantasy relm where Adam the mage is not a real person. He is pixels, code, animatation and game engine.

So the core question is what makes you say Buffy or what ever your characters name is as opposed to "today in oblivion I"

I think that this is the question that defines a roleplayed character.

What I think Zak does, is just simply accept that he is a violent person whether he wants to be or not. Violence is a part of his world and the people around him. This is why killing a random NPC does not phase him in the way that a real life murder would phase a real person. To Zak violence is a part of life, he is either reacting to it, or creating it. Except when with a woman or when picking herbs and food for his alchemy.

... Im delevoping my character through this thread, and finding he did develope himself, I just didnt think about it deeply enough. I need prompts to define him.

I don't take roleplaying seriously in this game, I do it just a little bit. It's hard to roleplay without getting bored because I feel lonely.
I enjoy roleplaying a lot in mmo's,

I'm delighted to hear that the ideas here are helping, Zak. I know you have wrestled with settling into a character that really speaks to you and can go the distance. Best wishes!


When I was six years old, I had an invisible friend. School, career and life all got in the way and I lost her. I am old and retired now. It took me over half a century to find her again, but I have done so. I am old enough now that I am not concerned about perceptions regarding flesh and pixels, or imagination. Such boundaries simply no longer exist for us.

My character and I have traveled together for a very, very long time. We have written, as I said above, almost a quarter million words in her journal together. Any fiction writer who spends that much time with a primary character will see that character come to life and develop their own full personality - as real as any person. I know her hopes, dreams, fears, likes and dislikes as fully as I know my own. Indeed, such a character is a constant presence, whether we are on earth or Nirn. Turning off a computer does not bring her life to a stop, or even a pause. Creating story and fiction is a nonstop full time endeavor.

We are a co-dependent team. On earth, I could not write a single word of her story without her astute guidance and insight. On Nirn, she depends on me to help her world run and to help translate her thoughts and desires into action. She does not fully understand things like saving her game and such; she simply accepts that I do such things for her to help preserve her world.

I have laughed at people who say she, we, character name...but after reading that I am moved.

Can I ask, have you finished the game in its entirety? maxed out buffy and done almost everything there is to do?

Also:

buffy because she hunts vampires? (I have a serious obsession)
or Buffy for a different reason?

Zakarius Svedlin is that character. I have others, but his file will never be killed. He is my playing style, and my development it just took time. I do think that I hit it on the head. My character is very similar to Jax from Sons of Anarchy. A tough guy bad boy, but a good guy at heart. A likable bad guy, likable because though he may not live by a morality that is your own, he does have a code of conduct and a strict adherence to it.

Thank you for your kind words.

I have completed everything in the game with various characters in the past while learning how everything worked. Buffy, on the other hand, has done a modest number of side quests and completed no major quest lines because she is so easily distracted by interesting places or plants or people that she meets. Her only guild is that of the mages, and she has only recently risen to the rank of Journeyman. I expect that she has uncovered every point there is on her map, as she is a voracious explorer. Given the length of her play, we tend to favor activities that do not end such as exploring, clearing dungeons, hunting for flowers, visiting friends, playing in waterfalls, riding her horse, etc. It is rather rare for her to actually advance a quest or quest line since she has her entire long elven life to do so.

She has been at her top level of 20 for a couple hundred hours now (she simply has four major skills she never touches). Her bow and supporting skills are maxed. The attributes she considers important are also maxed, while several have been intentionally ignored.

Buffy's name is. . . complicated. There are several influences and forces at work:

1. Alliteration. Buffy the blond Bravilian Bosmeri bowgirl. We much preferred the sound of Buffy to, say, Bambi or Barbie. :tongue:

2. As a child, her parents had difficulty keeping clothes on her. She was always running around 'in the buff', as it were. Water seemed to make matters worse. In fact she was nearly thirteen before the red-face protests of her archery master, Daenlin, finally convinced her to be more discrete and not drop her clothes to go swimming in every stream they encountered while hunting. To this day, she pleads guilty to the refrain, 'Water makes her clothes fall off' - particularly near any waterfall. :twirl:

3. At the precise moment of sunrise that marked her birth, Buffy was touched by Azura's hand of fate as a Child of Dawn. Although she does not embrace the role, she is indeed one of few women with special abilities to help kill vampires. She is a Slayer, and her bow is so named. The influence of another Buffy with a vampire problem is inescapable.

4. In naming Buffy, I felt the name would be rather tongue-in-cheek and prevent me from taking her too seriously. In that regard. . . I fear I have failed miserably. :blush: