I'd like to take a stab at the roleplaying aspects of the game.

I got the basics down:
No fast travel.
No spamming potions.
Eat regularly.
Sleep regularly
Dont run around in armor constantly.....

But I want to fine tune the experience, any suggestions?

No sprinting whenever possible.
Limiting yourself on how much weight you carry and what. Very few people can wear full heavy and carry another complete set and their essential crap on a 2 day walk.
Cooked food doesn't last forever, or fresh. I only cook it to eat it of to take it with me on my travels, and I never carry soups/stews.

Mammoth cheese, don't eat that.. I think of it now, and just the way it looks.. it makes me sick to harvest it.. that gloop sound it makes.. *shivers* eehhh

Also, use duck and cover methods when fighting a dragon, we can't stand out in their fire blast forever.

That's how you do it, right there. Everything else depends on your character and his background.

Well, running realistically. You won't be sprinting everywhere in heavy armor obviously..but I've tried it and it's really hard as you walk really slow and walking to every place will take forever so I keep the run on a lot. No fast travel is also hard, I try to use the carriage whenever possible but when I have 350/340 weight..and I'm a good 2-3 hours (in game time) away from town I don't want to walk all the way back. I might be able to make it if I pop a potion but I see it was a waste of time. Maybe not for you though. Other than that, I follow everything else you listed and it works out okay. Gotta blend the right amount of realism and fantasy to RP in these games.

Oh and making the timescale slow down also helps quite a bit.

I've limited myself to no more than 100 weight. If I go above that when carrying loot for some reason I'll leave it behind and perhaps come back for it later. Also I deposit my alchemy ingredients in my home when I return there, carrying around 20 nirnroots is unrealistic.

I only fast travel to and from major cities, never from the wilderness.

I also try to use only skills my character would have. So no magic for my nord warrior. Likewise, no battleaxes or heavy armour for my fragile thief.

You can however carry some other clothing around if you feel it would make sense wearing it underneath the armour (if this were possible obviously)... genrally not applicable to more armour.

Also, try your best not to exploit the AI.

The best experience of immersion that can be achieved without doing a hardcoe dead is dead playthrough is one where a great deal of progress is lost in death. For this you'll want to revert back to the last save in your home upon dieing etc. (do save regularly while travelling though as you'll want to reload if you any bugs!)

And make sure to stick to a strong character concept from the start... This is not about completion - it's about experience!!!

I'm currently running a Breton Necromancer named Graevus, pale skinny fellow, lots of "Gothic" Make up, Mohawk...he sticks out like a sore thumb, so he tends to wear robes, and though he doesnt prefer melee he loves bashing someone's head in with a mace. He fled High Rock when he was accused of Necromancy, and thats how he ended up in this fiasco. Graevus is timid, prefers to be a loner, and I'm thinking about making him gay (Bwahahaha) He also has an EXTREME distaste for the Vigilants of Stendarr, and his favorite food is Rabbit. =3

Use the console to marry Jarl Laila Law-Giver in Riften. Rule Riften as a corrupt kleptocrat, robbing the citizens blind. Kill her sons so she has no heir but you.

If that's too realistic for you, then play as a hunter. Use only the longbow and iron/steel arrows. Hunt animals for skins to sell or craft into leather/hide armor. Never fight NPCs unless you have to defend your life.

My tips
* Don't get too bogged down by rules. Remember, this is supposed to be fun!
* Don't undo mistakes. If a companion dies, think about what that would do to your character.
* And don't be too rigid with your character. He/she/it should evolve.


I'll quickly share what happened with my character... who, frankly, I started to explore the world, not roleplay:

Talen is a wood-elf ranger. Pretty early on he stumbled on a tough battle that left him with a very unique, very powerful mask.
Something happened in the way I played the game - the mask let me do things differently. I got more aggressive. More likely to turn to violence rather than just sneak. But I never wore the mask in town... or when on simple jobs.
Over time this the mask has kinda evolved it's own personality. Talen would never do some of the things that he did when wearing the mask.

So, now I have two sets of clothes on me at all time....
The first, a simple set of leather worn by Talen, the ranger. Kind hearted, favors the bow.
The second, the fully enchanted set of glass armour worn by Krosis - A unforgiving wrath, who leaves a bloody trail of corpses behind him. More likely to use a dagger a cut throats.
I like to think that the mask is like The Mask - amplifying but twisting the personality of the person who wears it. And that the glass armour is like the witchblade... an extension of the mask.

It's at the point now that, despite me never talking about it, my wife has caught on. During one quest the baddie was doing something that made Talen quite angry, and so out came the mask... my wife actually said, "Awww, s*** - he's in for it now!"

My number one piece of advice (in addition to the solid set of points you came up with) would be to write a short character biography.

Don't think too much about it, no one has to see it, it's just for you! Pick something you could relate to (or precisely not that, if want to RP as something unlike yourself). You don't necessarily have to write it up, but it's fun to have a backstory in mind for your character because it gives your character a personal history on which to base his choices (making them all cohere and seem more realistic).

In addition:

• Limit yourself to gear that fits your character bio (in my case, he will most often be seen sporting elven equipment)
  
• Invest in perk trees that suit your characters back story (in my case: archery, alchemy, sneak, but also for his Nord roots - smithing and swordsmanship)
  
• Make quest decisions in line with your story (my case, sympathetic towards wood elves, joining Stormcloaks out of desire to be the hero of his true people, a la return of prodigal son)

For instance, my bio idea:

I plan to play a Nord Ranger build. Tall, lean, dark haired and well-travelled, he'll have a windworn but handsome countenance (think Aragorn) and a wariness concealing a warm disposition... His name will be Varik Ulfr, a twist on Old Norse for "Wandering Wolf" (don't correct my etymology, I know it's not exact). His backstory (the reason for his crossing the border into Skyrim at the start of the story) will be:

Born in Cyrodiil to Nord refugees (whose home was ransacked), he was separated as a youth from his parents when they succumbed to a (insert dangerous feline/bear) attack whilst travelling. When his parents didn't return, he left the city walls to look for them, losing his way in the wilderness. Through a natural keen eye, sharp wits and knowledge of wild flora and fauna (passed down from his refugee father, an experienced traveller), he finds himself stumbling through Cyrodiil and finally collapsing some ways into Valenwood. On account of his frail condition and youthful innocence, he is taken under the wing of a mourning Bosmer mother, who shields him from the disapproval of the other Bosmer and raises him in the ways of the Wood elves. On account of his violent reaction upon awakening (at the sight of the alien Bosmer) she names him 'Draugr Rana' - lost wolf (in LOTR elvish). He trains in the bow and learns much of herbal lore, and (being ostracised from the community) spends much of his time wandering the forests, even crossing into other provinces.

Ultimately, as he grows up, becoming taller and more muscular than the Bosmer as well as growing a beard, the community starts to distrust him further and urge his foster mother to make him leave. Understanding the situation and out of sympathy for his saviour, he leaves of his own accord. It is not a very hard decision, he was always ostracised by peers, lacked any chance for love and moreover, having accepted his parents are dead, the Nord seeks to return to his people and reintegrate into his culture; to find his identity.

He treks through the empire and gets caught at the border to Skyrim... and the adventure begins.

Lore-wise this might fall flat with Bosmers taking him in (perhaps they would more plausibly kill him at sight or something, I don't know the relation Nord-Bosmer) but what's important is that its my story and I like it. I can deal with the incongruency, this is my first TES game anyway.)

Now, I just need to get my hands on the game...

:rofl:
I cracked up when I read that last line!

Hahaha, same, great dedication Phylosopher!

I think Peregrine hits the nail right on the head with this comment.

When in battle, I find myself exploiting limited AI scripts on instinct. Fight that urge whenever possible. Here are some examples of situations I found and how to work around them (or, at least, how I did it):

- Stuck NPCs. This usually happens because the basic programming line for NPC behavior in combat is "b-line between them and you with some kiting along the way". If they get stuck, I move around so as to "release" them. On that note, I only explore the enviroment to fire volleys of arrows at the enemy if the situation is believable, I never allow the mob to get stuck and just fire at them.

- It may seem weird for some, but the thing with Followers is that they are "immortal". When they "die", they fall to their knees and, to make it worse in terms of RP, if you take the mob away from them they get back up. When that happens with me, I literally "finish them off" to represent they died in battle (only way a Follower perma-dies in Skyrim is when we deal the killing blow, so I use that to enhance RP immersion for my playthroughs).

- This one is pretty obvious and you're prolly doing it already, but I never transition when in a battle, since mobs don't follow you on transition. At least, so far as I've tested, they didn't.

Very glad to have left some laughs in my wake

And what's a guy to do! I'm a broke college student! Even if I could afford it, better judgment tells me not to risk it till the semester's over!

Life is hard.
I want Skyrim.

Meanwhile, I will continue playing with perk calculators and making builds... that's right, this game is cutting into my studying time and I don't even have it yet

Why not just think of a character type you'd like to create and go with that.

See where the game takes you.

Roleplaying isn't about marshalling your character to have 3 square meals a day.

It's about enjoying the adventure of the character you're playing. Let their motivations be yours and enjoy yoruself.

Azrael
The Nord with the Sword

I consider the #1 thing to be:
Stay true to your character - figure out what you want to be (best not done on first playthrough) and stick to it. A warrior ? well you certainly shouldn't know anything about magic, while a paladin can know healing spells. Since when does a mage loot every single item they can find? etc. etc.

I'm so used to hardcoe mode in Fallout New Vegas that I make my character eat, drink, and sleep regularly. I don't really need some kind of punishment to make my character take care of himself, I do it out of habit and immersion. .

I'm starting a new character with more stricter rules....like absolutely no fast traveling, carriages are ok....and turning on the hardest difficulty level (expert?) from the very beginning of the game and not touching it.

Gonna play a "Spell-Sword" Breton, siding with the Imperials (last playthrough was Stormcloaks). Primary Focus: Heavy Armor, One-Handed, Destruction / Secondary skills: Smithing, Sneak, Archery.

What I have learned from my first playthrough (level 50): Speech perks aren't as necessary as I thought. Two-Handed is fun but way too slow and there is no way perk to speed up the attacks. I don't need shields or blocking perks if I really beef up my armor by taking all the heavy armor perks.

Write up an interesting back story and possible plot for you character.

I've done over half a dozen D.I.D.'s on New Vegas. Senior Cinco would disagree with me, but I wouldn't recommend doing a D.I.D. until you have mastered the game on the highest difficulty level to the point that it gets boring. Because when your character ends up dead at level 30+, it really svcks and you have to bite the bullet, otherwise you'll be telling yourself later that you're a wimp.

I find it better to make a challenging but fun roleplay with a combination of some basic rules can do the trick, like no fast travel and eating/drinking/sleeping regularly.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Roleplaying

This actually makes me want to try a RP char. Well played RP Skyrimmers.

I think the game gets better like this, really...

The carriage makes not fast traveling a little easier.

Dunno how "hardcoe" you are, but I like to try and sleep 4-8 hours a day. I'll often buy a room in a tavern to do this. I also try to at least eat once a day, and my character does enjoy Wine after a hard fought battle. I find buying food and drink also helps me not amass huge amounts of wealth.

One point I always make though: Don't carry 700 arrows!! I see videos on YouTube with guys carrying that many arrows, but c'mon! I carry no more then 45 at a time because its not some super-quiver ya know.

EDIT: I see you got the sleeping and eating down, my bad on not noticing

I fell for your signature, I admit it. :flamethrower:

In Oblivion, my noble Breton female Shadow Assassin had a backstory of suffering and abuse brought by the impreial legions that colonised parts of High Rock (she was taken as a 'souvenir prisoner' to the Dungeon, thus explaining how she started the adventure there).

Because of this, she had 'missions' of her own: she'd target (with subtlety) anyone related to the Tyranny ( = Empire), nobles, guard commanders, governors... She'd be affiliated with as many guilds as possible, not just to do the quests, but keeping in mind that access to higher ranks in many guilds would grant more options to access her potential targets.

An although she'd prize stealth and shun from public fame, whenever she eliminated a target she placed a flower (bouquet) in the persons inventory, as some sort of signature. I was figuring placing parts of a poem "Mare of Night" in each target, so as to inflict fear and doubt on those sharing the characteristics of the targets, when my Oblivion CTD and that was the end of Haydée "Hand of Night".

But she would not do the Arena fightings, because that would expose her 'facet'; her hq was that first Priory where she presented herself as a pilgrim on a religious errand; she'd dress differently for her chamring encounters (elgant clothing) and such....