I get in a mood to play a mage, so I delete my warrior. I feel like playing a paladin, so I delete my mage. Now I want an arcane archer, so I delete my paladin, and I get NOWHERE in the game anymore.

How do you guys manage to keep multiple characters? I feel like after I have played a second character for a bit, going back to the first one feels out of place, like I don't remember what is going on. I can't 'get into the role' anymore.

How do you guys do it?

A program called profile manager.

I only play one character at a time. During that time, I'm normally thinking about ideas for the next.

Depending on the character, I just have to svck it up. My current character for example is a Nord pure warrior. He was boring from around levels 20-30 but he's now at level 41. Very fun character.

Do not delete a character that You became bored with, just start another character. I have a Pure Mage that someday will eventually fight the Ebony Warrior, but I do not want to "cheat" to have the character get to level eighty. I play the Mage at least once a week, but it gets boring and I reload another character.

Restartitis is the scourge of being a TES Player

I have a hard time playing more than one character at a time too. For me, playing a character's story is like reading a novel. I can't read two novels at the same time without losing track of what is happening in one or both novels.

This is particularly true if I read novel (or, in this case, play a game) in which the stories being told are similar in some way. That just confuses me. I have to finish one story first and then start the second story, finish that, and then start a third story.

I also lose track of a character's personality and story if I have not played the character for awhile. I have the same problem when reading novels too. If I take too long a break - usually two or more months - the narrative "thread" of the story has been broken in my imagination. I have to start again with a brand new character.

Sometimes I wish I did have a program to keep track of them. I've considerd writing down their stories and maybe even adding to them as they go along, but I'm not sure.

When I played on PS3 I had 2-3 characters at a time, and I didn't find it too difficult. Maybe Pseron Wyrd is right, it's like reading a novel. I don't have any trouble reading 2-3 novels at a time, but that's the limit (I admit, I haven't tried pushing it).

Now, on my PC, I have just one character but that's because I have spent most of the time I've had it for PC to make my game as bug-free as possible while still having mods. You can imagine how hard that is. I've started over maybe 20 times in less than two months, and re-installed 3-4 times. But I think it's finally working.

What I do is I don't start a new character before I'm well acquainted with the first one. It's like getting to know new people.

On my PC, I just copy the save game files to a new folder and label it with my character's name.

I currently have 20 character's with their games saved while playing yet another one

I find it hard to fully focus on more than two characters, simply because I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere in either game if I split up my available time for gaming too much. Only one character tends to get me a little bored, otoh, and makes me start to fool around with ideas in character creation.

I keep notes - that's how I keep them apart. I actually like to do this even if I only play one character. Then, since I write down their stories, I bond with them so much that it doesn't really matter if I put one of hold for a little while.

And to keep the different saves apart, I use TESV Savegame Manager on PC. On PS3, I used to have different users for different characters.

For myself I only play one PC at a time.
Once I feel exhausted of him I will delete all but the most current save which I stand I from of a major landmark so I know what save file is what.
This way I can always go back if I feel like it.

I name my character like-
, Kath
, Therris
, Anya

I always put , then a space and then the name and the save file is labeled with the name.
I play on xbox. one of the moderators posted how to do it... ages ago.

I think a few of us have misunderstood the question. The OP isn't asking about methods to keep track of saves. His question is about imagination and roleplaying. He's saying that when he starts a new character he sometimes doesn't remember what he did with his old character. And when that happens it's hard for him to go back and roleplay the older character. He's asking: how do roleplayers keep track of the stories behind several characters at once without getting them confused?

Frankly, I don't have an answer. I can only play one character at a time.

Only 1 char at a time for me.