I just made a new character today. He is an Altmer mage which I have never played before. I had an idea in my head when I started that he would be Imperial-ized and do good work for the Empire (the Main Quest and the Knight of the Nine). Yet the second he steps out of the sewers, I can feel that the Ayelid ruins are calling to him. And he revels in the power of his magic and wants more. I also didn't want him to be snobby like a typical Altmer, but I can sense him feeling superior every time he looks down on someone.

Have you ever had a character totally not be what you wanted them to be?

I'm delighted that it seems you are willing to listen to your character! I find that so much more fun than trying to march them through some silly predetermined script. I have no idea what my characters will be or do as they grow and experience Cyrodiil.

I never tried to decide what my character would be. She did however begin surpirsing me even before completing the tutorial. Almost 600 hours later, she still surprises me routinely. ^_^

A while back there was a thread about rolling a totally random character using a random number technique. Just for fun I tried it and ended up with what looked like a very interesting Altmer. I decided to just try her out briefly and maybe come back to her someday if my current character died. She had hardly gotten started when she got caught by the glitch at the Skingrad gate that falsely causes you to be charged with theft. To my amazement, she killed the guard that tried to arrest her. I haven't had a character do that since Daggerfall when it was a fairly common practice among players. i basically consider it to be abhorrent behaviour in Oblivion. She went into a towering rage over the false accusations. After doing several more guards I decided to put her away for now.

Well I had a character who I thought was good, but oh my, Spellsword Steve just had to steal that bread. She even resisted arrest. Died with a stomach full of bread. I wonder if she thought it was worth it.

My dremora looking guy became a gorilla of some kind. I decided to test him, and he was not like a real gorilla, far away from it. What gorilla would be: Prince of Madness, Listener, Master, Grand Champion, and Arch-Mage? Surplisingly, he used his fists for combat, unlike other characters I got, and he was unarmored.

Yes, I have had my characters surprise me.

Helena Aurelie does it on a daily basis. Be it her hatred of Necromancers and the Undead, or her breaking her vow of no Destruction magic, but only using Frost damage spells.

I'd be here for days if I started listing how Helena and Laronwen have surprised me.

I've had this happen on my latest character, who is an Orc Warrior. I sort of wanted him to be to be a good character, but he's already murdered 3 people just to get further his own interests, and murdered another person in cold blood simply because she angered him (No one saw it, though :happy:). Yeah, everyone idolizes him for saving Kvatch, but he couldn't really care less about the people there; the only reason he even cares about the Oblivion crisis is because it affects him too.

I really like how my characters tend to take on their own personalities.

My characters are very boring and preordained. I like sound of the random character, must remember to try that some day.

The only thing that surprises me is my horse. He wanders off by himself- into water, up hills, walks through bandits camps.
You name it, he does it. And then when a black bear turns up- he doesnt flinch. Weird, I tell you. :ermm:

Calacirya and I have been together for so long now, that she doesn't surprise me anymore - I know her so well by now.

Ezra, on the other hand, surprises me daily. I created her to be a ruthless assassin, and instead she found a fondness for the study Alchemy and flora and fauna and is currently trying to break free of the Dark Brotherhood. And turning pacifist. She sorta sprung all this on me, and literally refuses to kill anymore...

Rarely. I control my character, not the other way around :thumbsup:
I do however let him decide what′s appropriate and what is not. Like certain deadra quests, some he will not do simply because they are too evil

Only once, it was my last mage character that got to the last mission of the Mage's Guild. I intended for him to be a good character, but he accidentally killed someone in the midst of all the fighting and was recruited into the Brotherhood. He was reluctant at first but after happening upon the Inn of Ill Omen he decided to kill Rufio and proceeded down the quest line from there.

With my latest character I'm trying something new; it's a Dunmer (first time I've ever played this race) called Nora and I had no idea what she was going to be like. I gave her general adventuring skills and sent her on her way, with the idea of leaning towards the evil side and joining the TG. However, I got distracted and sent her to Fatback Cave (I think that's what it's called) and she killed everything there (with the help of Vilja) and ended up a templar/Order of the Dragonborne.

On another note, has anyone noticed how the OotD's insignia is the same as the ESV one (Septim/Akaviri with the diamond missing)?

I love all these so much. As I play Abelas (my Altmer mage), he tells me more and more. I thought maybe he was born in Cyrodil and never seen Summerset Isle or his parents, but apparently that isn't true. He is the only child of very powerful and wealthy mage parents that indulged his every whim. So when he expressed a desire to leave Summerset Isle to explore the Ayelid ruins of Cyrodil (and also collect new species of plants for his alchemy experiments), his parents spared no expense to send him. I still don't know how he ended up in jail though. Maybe he'll tell me one day.

Actually, the most surprising thing one of my characters ever did was reach down and pat their horse while we were stopped on a trail admiring the scenery.

It was a simple yet amazing moment.

As mirocu said, I usually control my character merely because, in my opinion, if I let my character control him/herself, he/she would probably have major ADD and just wander around staring at things (which is what happens when I don't have plans in mind).

However, there was one case in which I had a reluctant Altmer who liked wearing heavy armor and smashing things as opposed to being the powerful magician I had intended him to be. He eventually fell into a comfortable medium as a battlemage but it took a lot of coaxing.

This is so very true! In vanilla, it is rare indeed - much too rare. I use a tiny mod called Lady Deadlocks Love Your Horse. It dramatically increases the instances of many fairly rare horse behaviors.

If Buffy sits idly on Superian for more than a few minutes, this will happen: http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv43/Acadian6/Cho%20Bk%201/ScreenShot679.jpg

That is, of course when they're not busy doing something like this: http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv43/Acadian6/Cho%20Bk%201/ScreenShot696.jpg :tongue:

my charcter suprised me not in-game but in the charcter creartion.I was messing around with the colurs(I like weird looking guys I have a blueish whitish argonian!)he became blue(DAB D DAB A DIE!)

Those are some wonderful shots Acadian!

I had a paladin/crusader planned out with Donnie Catcher, my favorite character. Then he ended up becoming an assassin, forasking the dreams of salvation. His amnesia really put him on the wrong track.

My character does what I demand nice and easy...

I thought I had a set path for Haruka when I made my Amaterasu/Miko birthsign/class mod, she'll be a holy priestess healing everyone and doing all-around good things. But with all kinds of awesome weapons and armor I just couldn't resist. Now Haruka is an all-around good-looking badass, physically invincible, defeatable only by her (her powers are her only doom, proved thrice) equipped with all kinds of swords and plate armors

And here I thought she's supposed to be wearing robes, shoot arrows with her bow and rely heavily on magic :/ she doesn't even use magic anymore! (except for convalescence and custom friend-healing enemy-killing area spell for those weak "allies")

:shrug: and just now she became the Holy Crusader