Imperials and Bretons look alike and there are no distinct facial features to differentiate between them. How do you tell them apart? I know that Bretons have French names but you can't tell for generic nameless bandits/conjurers.

If memory serves, I recall Bretons tend to have dark hair while Imperials tend to have dirty blond/light brown hair.

I thought it was the other way round
I think Bretons are slightly shorter and have wider faces.

I always find Bretons really annoying for some reason, so that's mostly how I tell them apart. But I think Bretons are generally smaller in their features than Imperials, such as their eyes, while Imperials seem to appear more ragged. Or I could be completely wrong.

Its dificult to see the diferences between them, i think imperials are taller than bretons.

Imperial men and women, and Breton men are all 1.0 in height.

Breton women are 0.95 in height.

I find the facial and coloring distinctions too insignificant to use to diiferentiate. The voice differences are distinctive, but that doesn't help if they're dead.

So. . . I can usually figure it out if I hear their voice or know their name. Looking a named NPC up on UESP wiki can confirm. But a dead bandit? Too hard for me. :shrug:

Bethesda made no attempt to differentiate Imperials, Bretons, and Nords with distinctive facial traits for each. You will see Imperials with blond hair and blue eyes and Nords with black hair and brown eyes, etc... So how someone looks is no indication at all. You can spot the Nords by their height. But as Acadian pointed out, there is no way to tell male Imps and Brets from even their height. I have a hard time telling the difference in height between females, unless they are standing beside one another. Really their voices are the only difference.

Bretons can have with Blond or Light hair. For example, Lazare Milvan and Norbert Lelles, Biene Amelion, Antoinetta Marie, etc.

I don't think there is any way to tell from the faces. They are shorter than Imperials, particularly the women.

The male voices are certainly different, though the female voices use the same voice actor.

The best way to tell for named NPCs is the name. Bretons tend to have french-ish sounding names, imperials more ancient roman-ish sounding names.

Nords tend to have longer faces I think.

I can tell them apart, usually. At least Oblivion's generic NPC's. Not user-generated content, but the vanilla stuff that comes with the game.

It's hard to describe. It's just something you pick up after a while. Like someone said, Nords tend to have longer faces as a rule of thumb, Bretons more broad faced and shorter. Imperials look the most "white bread" of all the races.

This. I can usually tell the races apart, not sure how. It must be a gift. ^_^

[edit]: Imperials tend to have darker skin, Bretons are usually paler.

I can't really see a difference between the two except I think Bretons tend to put up a bigger fight and have to change my tactics against them on the fly cause of their magic resist.

i just made an imperial forester, RP.

i find it easy,

Imperials: darker skin, darker hair, heroic guard voice, italian names.

Bretons: paler skin, lighter hair, posh soft voices, french names.

:) hope this helps.

Honestly, I really can't tell Imperials and Bretons apart just by looking at them. I can identify them by their voices, but by appearance alone, they just look the same to me. I can identify Nords by their height, and Redguards are pretty obvious due to their skin color, but Bretons and Imperials just look the same to me.

Now that I'm playing with TNR installed, though, the different human races tend to look more distinct, so now I find it easier to tell them apart.

Like someone aptly said earlier, it's just something you pick up. :happy:

One almost foolproof way is to check their name. Bretons usually have French names, Imperials tend to have heroic ancient Roman style names. There are exceptions to this, but usually that'll be the most noticeable difference.

And are overall bigger.

Really, half the time I forget there even is a race called Bretons :shrug: