Okay you good people, Skyrim is my first The Elder Scroll game, first RPG game ever. I come from mostly playing first person and third person shooters, but from the minute i started playing Skyrim i was hooked on this game. Well, Skyrim and Fallout to be exact.

But i never completely understood what the essence of role playing is. I know what role playing means, but how do you so called hardcoe role players play this game? How far do you take your role playing and what is possible and what is not possible within the world of role playing?

Enlighten me please.

Thank you in advance.

Ronny Henri.

It's actually pretty simple, for me. I take actions that are appropriate to the character I am playing. That is roleplaying in a nutshell.

I strive to make my characters as unique and idiosyncratic as people in real life. Each of my characters is an individual, a person with a name. They are not merely a race or a class to me. My characters are not me. I do not "play myself." I do not think "playing as oneself" is roleplaying. My characters are their own persons, with their own hopes and desires.

Some of my characters eat a lot and eat regularly, some of my character eat little and infrequently. Some of my characters sleep a lot, some sleep very little. Some bathe often, some bathe rarely. Some ride horses or hire carriages, some prefer to travel by foot. Some loot everything they find, some never loot a thing or loot only certain items. Some are helpful to the people they meet, some are rude. Some do Bethesda's quests, others never do Bethesda's quests.

A single set of iron-clad rules, applied to every character, in every game, is not roleplaying, in my opinion. I believe that our roleplaying rules should adapt to the eccentricities of each character we play.

THIS x1,000,000

Some roleplayers play as themselves and react to situations how they would. Some play as a spectator and react to situations how their character would.

Depends on what you mean by "roleplaying". If you mean pretending to be something that is not there or asuming the role of what's presented by the role playing scenario.

For me, Roleplaying is simply justified by my devotion to making my own stories and to escape from the problems we got in this world. Reality is sometimes stranger than fiction. That doesn't mean that I avoid it, ofcourse.

The same thing I do when writing songs or drawings. I reflect my imagination and thoughts on paper, and in this case, a video game character.

And this too.

roleplaying involves living through the character you develop. decisions and actions are based on that particular pc,

however, i DESPISE all the rping being a simple mind game. an imaginary brain tease.

it must have rules and consequences. it must impact the gameplay.

why sleep and eat when the gameplay is unaltered if i do or not.

freedom is one thing.

roleplaying that impacts the way a game is played is another.

I care not so much for roleplaying. I play as I feel like at any one time.

I am a writer, and as a writer, I love stories. I love making up characters and thinking about their backstories, how they ended up in Skyrim, what they would do, how they would react to certain things. Are they hunters, fighters, mages, good guys, bad guys? Could a Khajiit caravan guard turn out to be the Dragonborn? Would a scholar who prefers not to kill, end up being the Archmage of Winterhold?

Role playing is, as says the name, playing a role, a part. What part? You decide. That's it.