I have noticed alot of people on these forums completely lay out what skills and perks they will use prior to beginning their RP...

However,

I have tried doing that, but for me it somehow breaks the Immersion for me..



I instead do not plan out what skills and perks I will use ahead of time, and instead just go with what my character seems to aquire themselves throughout their journey and their story...


anybody else play their characters in this manner?

I don't understand the question. My character builds one handed skill and I add perks for one handed, but the reason he builds up one handed skill rather than two handed is because I chose to use one handed weapons. That skill doesn't 'just happen' to go up. Same with archery. If I was using some sort of targeted spell destruction would go up instead of archery and I'd be putting perks there, but archery isn't going up just in the nature of things, it's going up because I started out choosing a bow over ranged spells. So what do you mean by 'going with what your character seems to acquire'?

alot of people plan before they start their character exactly what skills they are going to get to what level, and what perks they will take..

I don't do that..
I play just my character, and whatever levels up during their story levels up, but I have no goal at what skills I will master, and what perks I will take..

I am simply asking if others play the same way

Most of the times I do this, but every so often a few of my characters that I roleplay have a base "class" so I sort of know what skills I will be using and adding perks in that way

My original character just evolved and I had a lot of fun with him. My current character however is pretty much one class at least to begin with however he has a destiny to fulfill which will most likely cause him to branch out later. So at least initially he will follow some restrictive guidelines.

Yeah, I don't plan out the skill levels and perks a character I'm roleplaying will have. For one, I don't know what the situations the character gets into will call for. If my warrior tends to find that he runs into a lot of problems a shield is good for solving, he's gonna get a lot of block and a lot of one-handed. If, instead, he runs into a bunch of, say, nails, that he very wisely decides might be solved with a hammer, than two-handed will get some use.

Ah...

I picked out what skills I would target and apply perks to, so I guess my answer would be no.

I didn't work out the kind of detail you are talking about, though. I started with "I will complete the main quest as a Nord barbarian who fights with sword and shield or bow, wears light armor, and knows his way around a forge" and just went from there, putting perks into those five trees pretty much wherever they fit (though I intentionally haven't taken the axe, mace, or duel wield perks in the one handed tree, leaving it trimmed into a one handed sword tree).

I do use other skills...restoration, obviously speech and lockpicking, alchemy...I read spell books but usually find I don't have the magica to cast them...but so far my concentrated use of the five main skills has allowed me to use my perks just in those skills. I haven't really seen any need for planning, unlike in previous ES games.

I don't necessarily plan out perks. I do usually choose at least one offensive skill to focus on and one defensive skill to focus on before starting. Fortunately not too much planning is required in this game. Depending on which skill levels faster I just decide my perks then, accordingly

I never plan in details, however I tend to plan a bit underway, say train and use one hand more so it don't get to far behind archery.

Brake alchemy production to don't level to high on it alone even if the farm is producing well.

This might effect gameplay in other ways, hit an dwemer ruin to get metal for smithing so you do some related quests.

I usually have a general idea but I don't sit and plan it out or use perk calculators and such. The character drives the way they are being played and I let it develop naturally from there.

I do plan my perks and all that, but if the roleplay ends up taking a different path, I'm more than happy to change it.

For example, I assume Leysa will be a heavy armoured dual wielder with illusion to cause fear and Necromancy to dominate over the soul cairn. (Hence one of her nicknames, Queen of the Dead.)

But who knows, perhaps at a late level like 50, I would add two-handed in there for the bound battleaxe or something completely different.

I plan general playstyles. This includes skills, but not necessarily perks. But I give my characters some degree of freedom, so to speak, so if their story takes an unexpected turn and they acquire a new skill or decide to stop using another for whatever reason, I go with it. One of my characters became a vampire this way, I definitely didn't plan it, but it tied nicely with the overall state she was in at the time. Another was planned to be Dragonborn, but as I played I realized I lost interest in that questline, so I let her ignore the Greybeards and become a thu'um-less dragon hunter instead. This time it was my choice, not my character's, though.

I know there's a type of hardcoe roleplayers who always choose a role beforehand and then stick to it no matter what. I can't play like this. I'd feel like I created a bunch of numbers on a spreadsheet, not a person - and people change over time. It's more interesting to let a warrior develop naturally and see him learn restraint, perhaps even pacifism, as a result of his experience, than keep smashing heads just because I decided to do so 80 hours earlier.

Yes. I start with a general idea and the character takes it from there. I do RP a good bit, but the character is telling me, not me telling them. I've created a few characters with a set plan prior to creation. Those didn't last very long. The characters I have that are given the freedom to develop as they will are the ones that have reached higher levels.

I do a little bit of both. Traditionally my first character/play through is less roleplaying and more an effort to do everything and max skills/perks just to see what can be done without egregious exploiting and doing all the faction quest lines available to see content. After that I'll go back and replay with serious RP in mind while taking a more organic approach starting with a general character concept and letting the skills I actually use and quests/exploration done dictate character development.

That being said, TES games are a min-maxer's wet dream. My brother has extensive spreadsheets mapping out the most efficient way of leveling skills and utilizing crafting exploits to create insane characters capable of tearing through anything without breaking a sweat. There's something to be said for an occasional session of ridiculous dungeon cleansing and genocide on the Thalmor.

This is exactly how I play it also.

I usually start out with 3 definite skills I'm going to use for any given character and then add 3 or 4 as they progress through their adventure. It kind of lets them naturally develop rather than having their skill set written in stone before they start and is I think a way of getting the most out of them.

Before they start out they have 4 skills that define them as a certain class role. What they decide to learn alongside those 4, happens in the field.

I usually just create a rough idea on what the character will be but I do not plan on the perks. I only decide those when I level up or just keep the perks for a later time.

I don't plan out everything yet I do tend to have an idea of what the characters choice of weapon will be (battleaxe, magic, bow, etc.) but not a specific weapon or spell they will use nor any supporting skills. I also have some characters who evolve on their journey, for example my archer is starting to evolve into a magic user and will eventually put down her physical bow to use a conjured one with frost destruction for support.

I usually have a type idea (sneaky, melee, spells) and then i go with the race and what that would entail and finally what ever works.

I used to spend about two months putting a character together. I'd spend weeks assembling a mod list, creating a look for the character, making custom weapons, armor, jewelry, clothes, ect and, finally, making a custom house for the character to live in. All the while, the personality and history of the character would be forming in my mind. By the time I was ready to start a game, I would know almost everything about the character: how they spoke, how they moved, childhood memories, their hopes and fears, what side of the bed they slept on and what their favorite color was. I knew exactly which quests the characters would be doing and how the character would do those quests.

That changed with Skyrim. I think Skyrim encourages a more non-traditional approach to roleplaying. The fact that characters begin a game more or less on an equal footing encourages a discover-as-you-play approach to developing a character. So these days I'm more likely to start with a rough idea of who my character is what is is likely to do in the game, and improvise. I am actually finding this to be a great deal of fun. My roleplaying these days feels more exploratory, surprising. My characters are more likely to change in response to events they experience. I never quite know where a game is going to end now, no matter where a game begins.

Once again I feel old. What you described as 'non-traditional' is how my early RPG experience says it 'ought to be'.

First cool weapon I find determines whether I'm a bladesman, an axeman or a thumper...first creature that comes really close to killing me, that's my personal nemesis for this character and he will hate them until the end of his days...first NPC that says something nice (or not) will likely determine which side I take in any conflict I bump into...

AD&D added all this 'character background' and my generation was saying 'WTF, let's get going here!'...been a long time but with Skyrim computer RPG has come full circle back to just plain not advanced D&D...where it all started.

Rp can always be fun no matter how you make them turn out. My Anti Hero/plain bad guy Alter mage had a perfect childhood, as actually young by Altmer standards and had a good life, yet is evil at the cray levels. (thank you serana dialog)

He aslo started out with a regular sword and sheild in Helgen

I don't plan where the perks go as I "plan" the character.... take http://i1254.photobucket.com/albums/hh611/Trace9569/20131024_134909.jpg I know she will be one hand ( dual wield scimiters), Haven't decided cloth or light. I know I plan on doing the DB with her, but not right away. I am gathering the gear she will use, not playing her per-se, no lvl'ing, no choosing perk's. I'll probably start her RP in a few week's, by then I will know her personality and I will know what her other skills are.

She is.