Title tells everything.

My roleplaying rules for my current character (Imperial Thief) are:

-Hide or escape if you can; killing is the last option

-If you're caught you're caught

-No fast travel, but carriages are allowed

-Always persuade people if you can, intimidation doesn't lead you anywhere

-Steal at least 100 gold per day

-Don't buy anything you can steal

-Plan your own heists

-Don't use magic (occasional restoration is allowed)

Now share your rules!

My (now suspended) Argonian.

No armor...ever. Use only what you wear on your back in Helgen. (unless required for quest progression, but only for as long as is required).

No enchanting...ever, under any circumstances.

No smithing...ever, under any circumstances.

Never loot any corpses of any item you will not personally use, not even if you plan on selling it later. (this means losing out on a ton of cool items, but it is an RP)

Only carry what you can realistically carry with you. (this means no carrying around of 300 healing potions, and 1000 Daedric arrows because they weigh nothing).

Aside from that, it's pretty much play as you like.

What is your roleplay reason to not wear any armor or anything aside from the rags from Helgen?

My roleplaying rules are quite simple: I have installed a mod that forces my character to eat, drink and sleep regularly, also my thief use only daggers and steals only at night. When visiting forts I try to avoid fighting with bandits, I try to pickpocket them and clear the chests without being noticed.

I had a Nord who stuck with the tunic from Helgen for the look and have many characters who wear clothes instead of armor for both look and challenge.

Because he's a simple thief and pickpocket. He doesn't even own a home. If I can ever restart him he might make the transition from thief, to assassin. Again, no armor whatsoever.

Kind of adds a little extra challenge when your well past being bored and frustrated with the game.

EDIT: to get a little background on him, he used to be a simple farmer. He earned his (nick)name at an early age when it was discovered what his chosen method of slaughtering his chickens was. http://www.daveschultz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/homer_choking_bart.jpg

I don't pick up or use Black Soul Gems, with the exception of the one you need to get to regain your strength in the Soul Cairn but then after getting my strength back I drop it.

Uhm hmmm ... I don't think I have "rules". I just follow a basic general "would this character do this" mindset. They pretty much make their own rules and I just follow along. I guess you'd say across the board for both of them is they eat and sleep when they want as much or little as they want. Rarely fast travel but that's just because I like walking and seeing the sights rather than any rule that's made. Enchanting is "mage" only. That one IS my rule. If they don't use magic, they have no idea how to enchant anything. Even with the nifty table telling them everything they need to know, I have a problem believing they'd understand how to apply it without being versed in magic itself. Oh, almost forgot one .. they are not allowed to sample giants toes. Because that makes ME want to hurl

I don't think one-size-fits-all "rules" is roleplaying. Roleplaying should be about the character, not the player. The character should decide the rules, not the player. Any rule I adopt applies to the character I am playing at that moment. If I make a new character a new set of rules is adopted, applicable to that character only. This is what roleplaying means to me.

This is why I have rarely ever used realism mods that force my characters to eat and drink and sleep. Most of them do not take roleplaying into account. My characters are individuals. Like individuals in real life, my characters have different needs.

Most of my characters eat, drink and sleep. How much they eat and drink, what they eat and drink, and when they eat and drink is entirely based on the character. The same goes for sleeping. Some of my characters only sleep in Inns, other characters never do. Some sleep a lot everyday, others sleep very little. Some sleep naked, others put on a sleeping outfit. It all depends on the character.

Most of them bathe as well. Again, how often they bathe, and where they choose to bathe and under what conditions, is entirely dependent on the, Some bathe only when they cannot be seen, others do not care who sees them naked.

Some characters unequip weapons and change into 'town clothes' before they enter a town, others wear their weapons and armor everywhere.

Some characters ride horses, others do not; some hire carriages, others do not; some travel by foot everywhere, others never do. I see map-based fast travel as a form of advanced magic so my mage characters fast travel later in their games (when they are powerful enough to wield such magic); non-mage characters do not fast travel.

Some characters talk to everybody they meet, others characters rarely talk to anybody. Some characters own houses, other characters never do. Some characters sleep only on unowned bedrolls out in the wilderness and in dungeons, other characters would die before they laid down on a ratty bedroll.

And this goes for all the game mechanics available in the game as well, such as Smithing, Enchanting, Alchemy, ect, ect. If it is appropriate for that specific character at that specific time in that specific game, they do it. Otherwise, they do not.