» Fri Jan 24, 2014 11:41 am This is an idea I've had for a long time. Alot of people complain that there isn't much to spend their money on. I've also had a problem where I have trouble furnishing my home, and trying to not have a bunch of Daedric equipment laying around the place. So I present to you my new build.
The Manic Depressive
---------------------------------
Manic Depression, or bi-polar disorder is a form of depression where a sufferer experiences manic episodes aswell as those of major depression. This character will suffer from this disorder. Seems as mental illness and therefore 'madness' is commonly associated with Sheogorath, this character will orginally be a worshiper of Sheogorath, before receiving his 'blessing.'
The very first thing we'll do is aquire the Wabbajack. After meeting Sheogorath and receiving his artifact, our character will slowly become mentally ill. Eventually ending up with Manic Depression. I've yet to actually get into gameplay, so without further ado, here is how this roleplay idea will translate into gameplay.
The Manic Phase
--------------------------
- Impulsive spending. Buying things we don't need, but want at the time. Think gems, iron swords, useless junk to decorate the house with. only to later find out that we didn't have the money to waste in the first place.
- Helping people. Doing favours for people around town. Accepting more jobs than you can handle, to point where your quest journal is full of fetch quests.
- More impulsivity. Like running from Whiterun to Solitude, because you want to visit the clothes shop and buy everything there, and run back afterwards.
So.. in this phase we are manic, we will be doing alot of everything. Everything appears to be going well, we're doing quests to earn money, buying nice things, getting some excersise. Things are good, except for perhaps the impulsivity of these actions, and the fact that we don't have the money to buy useless junk with. However, there is another side to this disorder.
The Depressive Phase
---------------------------------
- Staying indoors. Not leaving your home because you are too lethargic. You need at least 12 hours of sleep a day.
- Not completing tasks. Remember all of those people you promised to help? You're ashamed to show your face in town because you literally cannot help them anymore.
- Psychosis. When depression gets really bad for bi-polar sufferers, they sometimes experience psychosis. To translate this into gameplay terms, our character will be very paranoid to the point where he feels the need to kill his friends. The Ebony Blade is fantastic for this.
- Self harm. All of this time spent in the house might be invested into making poisons to try and kill yourself with.
The depressive phase is awful, your character is incapable of doing anything except worrying about his problems. He may even experience psychosis, which will make him turn on those he loves and believing in things that aren't there. Remember, our character has been 'touched' by Sheogorath.
Other Phases
----------------------
- The mixed phase. Your character shows symptoms of both mania and depression. So let's say he feels impulsive one day, he manically runs to Solitude. But he falls into a deep depression once he's there. He rents a room at the inn and refuses to leave.
- The 'everythings fine' phase. There is a phase where everything appears normal. This is usually quite brief. You show no symptoms.
I'm intersted to see what everyone thinks of this new build. I'll be starting a character very shortly, and will let you know of my results. Remember, our character is sane to begin with. He only starts to experience symptoms after he meets Sheogorath.
You'll need a home for this build, it just makes everything work a bit better. As soon as you have the gold, buy a house in your favourite hold. Maybe your character gets so depressed, he seeks isolation in the forest? That's where Hearthfire can come in handy.
I've covered almost everything here. This is going to be my next character, and I'm probably going to write a backstory for him once I have the time, and I get a feel for the character.
Warrior, mage, thief. Anything is fine. Just remember that your character has a terrible illness that will impact his life greatly.
One more thing. Real life phases are usually longer than a month. However I reccomend that the phases be around seven to ten in-game days.
