Hey, guys. I was reading up on a lot of Oblivion and Skyrim forums and a lot of them seem to have people who enjoy roleplaying. I for one believe that 'roleplaying' is a very broad term that is subject to an infinite number of deep meanings. So, I was just wondering, for all of you hardcoe RPers, what, to you, is roleplaying?

For me, roleplaying is: Playing a game, knowing my limitations and having fun compensating for those weaknesses and limitations through lots of trial and error.

I loved it when I got Skyrim for the PC. Compared to Skyrim for the 360, it was like a whole new world of opprotunities! I remember the day I thought Adept was too easy. I grabbed ASIS, Deadly Dragons, Deadly Combat and a boat-load of other difficulty and Realism mods. I fired up the game with the mods installed, on Master difficulty and instantly felt like I needed to actually play a certain type of character. I couldn't rush into fights like a Warrior, as a mage. At the same time, I couldn't sit back and pick off my enemies silently or quickly if I was a tank. It was awesome! So, now I extend the question to you!

It's quite simple. If it's not fitting for my character's personality to do it, say it or go to it... we don't.

I know people will list a ton of limitations, eating, drinking, sleeping, no fast travel... well, the list goes on. Those things are arbitrary as far as I'm concerned. It's more of a mind set.

Well, I don't know if playing vanilla on ps3 makes me any less hardcoe or not, but I pretty much build a character that is interesting and relatable, give him a set of skills, and throw him into the world of Skyrim/Oblivion/Fallout to grow, change, and experience the world in a unique way. If this is done right I can get svcked into the game for months seeing we're the story will go next. It gets to a point were you aren't making the decisions anymore, you're character is and you're just watching him go.

Same here. I'm not as hardcoe, but I try to eat and sleep everyday.

Just thinking as if I was the character really. Doing what they would do.

I'm not *usually* a mega-hardcoe roleplaying (like the awesome folks over in the Oblivion forum) but I always stick to my characters "role". Always have, even when I first started RPGs - not through any conscious just. It just seemed natural. So, if I'm playing a Mage, I won't join the Fighters' Guild/Companions. Or if I'm a Thief, I probably won't join the Mages' Guild/College (unless, perhaps, I'm playing a thief who uses magic to enhance his thieving abilities - which I recommend, great fun ). Other than that, I sometimes turn on mods like Frostfall and Imp's Needs, but I don't really play them all the time. And, once in a blue moon, I'll make a character with a fully fleshed out personality and such.

Now to answer the question. Roleplaying is what you make it. If you wanna only roleplay insofar as you don't join certain guilds, or stop at an inn overnight - that's roleplaying. Likewise, if you wanna eat, drink, sleep and have conversations with NPCs as your character, that's also roleplaying and no better nor worse than the previous example. Just different.

It's developing a connection with your character, and then ceasing to exist while you're playing the game.

When I play, I'm nothing more than the muscles of my character. I make the movements, but it's my character who decides what those movements should be. After an hour or so, I can usually tell whether a playthrough is going to be a fantastic roleplay or if it's time to go back to character creation. I need to be able to hear my character, and understand what they want to do.

So that's what it is to me. To others, it's probably weird

To me, roleplaying is simply taking actions that are appropriate to a particular character. It is a method of playing that uses character knowledge, not player knowledge.

Roleplaying is: Telling a story with a character. That character drives the play session by making choices that are their own and not influenced by myself.

Best I could do for my own definition as it is such a broad term.

^

I'm not a heavy roleplayer...but one place in Skyrim that i will do it is during character creation. We all start out on the cart...usually when i roll characters i pick specific classes. So i ask myself: how did an assassin end up at that ambush? how about a mage? what about a archer?

For my assassin i say that he was there to try and kill Ulfric, but that didnt work out so well. Despite ending up on the chopping block, i still side with the imperials and eventually i join them in their fight against the stormcloaks where i would become a spy/assassin for the imperials. My mage? wrong place at the wrong time, while trying to escape Helgen she got inspiration from the mages pew pewing Alduin. So she joins the imperials once she has gotten her mage training at the college. My archer? he was tracking the party that was after Ulfric, but ended up getting caught. Eventually she ends up joining the Stormcloak rebellion.

In all cases my roleplaying stops once i decide on whether i follow Hagvarr or Ralof. Once i pick i will play the class how i think it should be played. I dont make pretend conversation with NPCs and i dont speak in olde english or in pirate speak or anything like that. That thread where the person needed an RP reason for a Khajitt to enter a city? if that were me playing the Khajitt i would have said 1. i'm bringing a message to the Jarl of Whiterun and 2. i'm a Thane. A Jarl somewhere thought that my actions made me worthy enough of a title, so that would kinda tell the people in the other holds that i'm an OK person. I dont think one hold would hand out the title of Thane for picking up trash on the street, while another hold hands out the title of Thane after slaying a dragon.

Getting more in character to get more out of them.

act according to how my character would act to enhance the experience, not compensate for the lack of.

I thought it sounded weird until I did it. I approached it like acting, staying "in character" and all that. I was surprised when I started having in-character emotional reactions to things in the game. I did things with the controller sometimes without much conscious thought.

I've only been able to make that kind of deep connection once, and it didn't last very long (starting a faction questline broke me out of the zone). I prefer to create 3rd-person characters and stay more detached from them. I can kind of hear their thoughts and know what they're feeling. Or sometimes they just tell me; they can become self-aware. The interesting thing is that I can only do this with female characters. When I play males, it's just me playing the game. This is only true in Skyrim. In Oblivion and Morrowind, I can create male characters that I keep separate from myself.

For me, a good RP starts in Helgen. My characters will reveal a lot about themselves as soon as their hands are free. Mainly fighting style and what kind of things they will and won't loot. I had one recently who decided she was hard-core. Insisted on eating three times a day, sleeping every night and wouldn't loot more than she thought she could physically carry (based on bulk, not weight, which in practice meant iron daggers and little else). About drove me nuts until she got tired of it. Anyway, if I'm not hearing their voice by the time I exit the keep, it's probably time to restart.

To answer the thread title question more directly, it's somewhere between acting and creative writing. It's trying to create a character and then a story that fits the character and fits within the framework of the game (which often isn't easy, especially when a character wants to do something that I know will cause a glitch).

Ditto

Pretty much all of this.

I think of a backround story for my character and he determines who he will follow out of Helgen by it.

I decide what skills he will be limited to.

I let the character decide what he is going to do.

I decide what guild(s) he will not be in and he decides whether he goes to the available one or not.

I started off with a Nord pure warrior who was going to follow the Stormcloaks, he followed Ralof through Helgen and went as far as Windhelm and talked to Ulfric and Galmar.

He however has decided there are more important things than take sides in the Civil War, there are dragons to be put down and lives to be saved. He will however free prisoners from the Thalmor and has put down an Imperial patrol escorting a Stormcloak prisoner.

This means Season Unending for him it appears.

He doesn't use magic or enchant as I planned but is considering taking up Alchemy.

He eats, drinks and sleeps regularly.

I have set the platform from which he sprang now he decides where the road takes him.

Being a three decades roleplayer it's easy for me to give a character the reins and follow along for the ride as he carves his own way through Skyrim.

Can't say I care a whole lot about it.

I decide what his/her morality and personality should be like, and that's it.

Roleplaying to me is making a story that interests me with the wide pallet at my disposal. It's about making a real character with real morals, interests, likes and dislikes. It's about making that insignificant character on the screen human.

Roleplaying is about the story your character creates as they move through a world. The more unique it is, the better the role-playing game is. That's why I don't get that much from highly scripted games. They only tell one story, one way. I prefer the freedom to have a different story for each character I create. That's why none of my characters join all of the guilds and do all of the quests. Each character is unique in some way, and no two games play out the same way.

For me roleplaying is learning to exist in another world within its rules and mastering my character by doing things according to what they are which is usually a reflection of myself or what I consider the ultimate woman when playing a female character.

Roleplaying for me is also using my imagination to enhance or add on to what isn't in the base game. So if there is no hunger or thirst I pretend there is by having my character eat and drink every three to five hours. I make sure they are always well stocked on food. Most times after a battle they will drink some wine to pretend they are thirsty and tired needing some refreshment. I also have my characters sleep at least once a day.

Doing only what the character would do.

Also while playing I want to feel that my character is really adventuring with all the hardships involved. The journey is more important than the destination. I use a lot of mods that force me to eat, drink, sleep, keep warm & dry, make firewood, bandage & stitch wounds, "support" broken limbs, rest to cure severe diseases etc.

It's a real adventure when you're limping with a broken leg during a dark night in a snow storm and trying to find shelter before you freeze to death. And then you get sick and almost run out of food.

Edit:

I also roleplay my characters' mental state. For example my main character Fish-Breath eats and drinks a lot when depressed. Mods add slower movement speed when stuffed and drunk effects.

Rolling around on the floor while playing on the xbox....

Give the character it's own personality
Only do what the character would do
Things like eat, sleep and limited carryweight (Not all characters)
Yolo... Dead is Dead (I cant stop playing like this now)

more stuff but people have already listed it.

yes I made the list say GOTY