Simple question with possibly not so simple answers.

What goes through your head when your creating a new character?

Do you follow certain processes like deciding on the role you will play, How you look, What armour you wear.

Or are you like me an just choose a role like Archer, Mage, Warrior an then let the game decide if your an archer who uses heavy armour or a mage that uses a crossbow or a warrior that uses staves.

An as always I do apologize if a post like this already exists.

LET ME STATE IN CAPS THIS IS NOT FOR CHARACTER BACKSTORIES ITS ABOUT WHAT YOU THE GAMER GO THROUGH NOT YOUR CHARACTER.

I plan everything about the character ahead of time, especially backstory and personality.

I already know what I'm going to do with my character, its just a matter of making them look the part.

It depends, I guess. I choose a race, mess with "looks" until I find one I like, and kind of let it go from there.

Same here, and "making them look the part" always boils down to making them resemble me as closely as I can. There were times where I didn't even use my customary warpaint since I don't wear any in real life, but I relaxed a little and kept the stuff

In Skyrim or any other game, when I get the option to create a character, I always make him resemble me as much as I can. It's part of my way of immersing myself in the game, with the rare exception of when I make a female character. Even if I do give into temptation and make an Altmer character, chances are high that he'll have a shaved head and goatee.

This.

Though I end up becoming OCD about it, and sometimes my plan and vision start conflicting with each other... Though I manage.

Nothing goes through my head, literally. I start at character creation screen and let it flow from there. Where it ends up is anybody's guess. I tend toward archers or mages because I like that play style so all my characters come out that way as I play in the game world. Sometimes there's a backstory that pops up during character creation, sometimes I don't find that out until playing the character.

Well honestly so far from what I've read I'm not surprised at all that you plan it all out.

As for me when it comes to male characters I spend more time choosing a beard an right hair for the race except orcs who are always bald my birds tend to have white hair with medium beards the imperials clean shaved or stubble with short hair ect.

As for my women it's eye colour, dirt an face paint beyond that I don't change anything beyond the presets.

An I'm sure I can't be the only one who does this.

When I first made my character, I wanted to make him look like how I thought I'd actually look once I was about ten years older. So naturally, as I'm preparing for Basic Training and eventual active duty, I made him as muscular as I planned to be with a full beard and mustache and semi-long, shaggy hair (though that's not what the Army allows, but I don't care since it's my character ). At first I planned on being a strict hero type, but once I got into it...well, you could say I was "seduced by the Dark side," for everyone here who knows that reference. While I'm not completely evil in the game, I'm not all the good either. I certainly don't go around killing and stealing like some psycho though .

I plan out the backstory and the play style way before I ever start customizing looks. Recently I have been playing 5 characters at once, so I've had to go to writing down their backgrounds so I don't forget parts. I'm also very meticulous about the customization and it isn't uncommon for me to take over half an hour designing my character's face.

I plan Race, Back Story, Armor, Skills and Weapons. Personality evolves during the storyline.

I usually get an image in my head. A face, maybe a name, the outlines of a backstory. Then I spend several sessions in CC to get things right (I use Live Another Life, so I start directly in CC and don't leave the prison cell until I at least think I'm done - when I played on console I didn't do this, naturally!)

Before I actually start to play, I always get the backstory in order, decide what skills I should focus on (though that sometimes change) and what questlines I will do, and roughly in what order.

Sometimes I start with a clean slate, only an idea like "make a good-looking Altmer". I still won't play that character until he/she has a backstory and purpose.

Anything that goes in.

And it pops out on the other end and into the screen...

I just create a character based on one thought: "I should play as a Dragon Priest who wast cast into the present day during Dragon War" or "I think I should play as a Nord who is disillusioned with his contemporaries and hopes a return to the old times". Then I just let things fly and I may change the whole RP halfway through.

I usually know what "class" my character will play, Assassin, Mage etc.

I have a rough idea which, if any, guilds they'll join.

With regards to backstory and plotline, I try not to get too "anol". I plan one out but it is never set in stone.

Consequently, the storyoften takes a different course from the one I'd planned, which is cool!

First I get the idea for a character... Sometimes s/he has a more detailed backstory, personality and purpose and sometimes it's more vague and gets fleshed out while I play.

As for the face, I also have an idea of what I want them to look like, but not always very clear. Hair color and such I can change a couple of times before I'm happy with it. My previous character was based on my Morrowind character, so it was just making a Skyrim version that looked as much like him as possible. With my current character I had a very vague idea and just tried out a few eyes etc to see what looked good. It can take some time before I'm happy with a character's looks. Often I bring up showracemenu afterwards and adjust them again a couple of times!

This ^ exactly. The look is REALLY important to me, but it is planned around WHO I want the character to be.