I see. Boo girls haha. Males are better than females stat wise most of the time unless you care about personality or want to be a mage for some of the races. I'm a very narrow minded person when it comes to character creation so I'm not the best advice giver.

No, you're not....

Sorry. If you post what your class build is, I can give you good advice. I got that down pretty good.

Class build is not really the point, is it? If the objective is role playing, then the build should fit the role, not attempt to be a "game-beater." I'm betting that the reason you play as a male Breton is that it's one of the easiest to play, given the built-in magic immunity. I bet you'd have a hard time surviving as an Altmer, Apprentice Sign, playing the default Barbarian class. You'd probably have to turn the difficulty down! That's because you -- the player -- have learned to build "win" characters rather than "role" characters.

A "role" character is different. I have a female Altmer Apprentice Barbarian character. She was raised by her Nord father in a village in Skyrim, after her Altmer mother died in childbirth. She's quite weak, but she has undeveloped talents (minor skills) that are part of her Altmer heritage, and she is learning to support her Barbarian combat skills with magic.

She might eventually be a more powerful "build" than your male Breton, actually. ...If she survives; she's a "dead is dead" character.

According to my parents, me and my brother had invisible friends when we were under 6. We called them "Hansey" and "Poco". At some point (and I have no memory of this, just going by what my parents say) me and my bro got mad at our invisible friends, stuck them both in a mailbox, and sent them away forever. Perhaps this was my first action of "dead is dead". Lol.



Similar to me, although my character can't truely hear me, though.

I start my character with sort of a bare-bones backstory (rather than something pages long full of extreme detail) and then I get to know my characters over time. He or she reveals their past thru inspirational moments and insights. In my opinion, my characters are not just in my mind; they actually exist. Not as pixels on a TV screen, but as essences of energy. :chaos:

Well, she enjoys archery, and she's a Bosmer, so Marksmanship has got to be one of the skills. Bosmer are good at sneaking, so sneak has got to be one. She's good at frost spells, so Destruction has too be one. Light Armour is her preference, but she has no skill in wearing it, so it will be a minor. Kinda stuck after that.

Heh, I play a Bosmer she-elf. They are indeed the same height as an Imperial. Mine is modified down to exactly the same height as her short Bosmeri brothers though. Stalking in tall grass is great fun! She can't see troll dung without hopping up onto rocks. Thank Mara for lots of detect life. Seriously, I wouldn't change her diminutive size for anything. It is not hard at all to deal with; more importantly, it is just part of who she is - flaws and all.

At any rate, I will ALWAYS chose race based only on the image and look that I want. Attributes and skills are easy to gain. Pointed ears or green skin or fur or a tail are not if you are not born with them, lol.

If you want the look and image of a wood elf, go for it!

Hehe, thanks Acadian. I'm glad to see such a....senior gamer with us. I thought all people above forty thought all games where killing and violence....then again, most are.


EDIT: I've thought of a short history for Belwen.

She was born in Vvardanfell. Her mother was a Bosmer, and her father was a Dunmer, hench her skill in Destruction. Her parent's had, for some reason, been assassinated by the Morag Tong. Belwen was taken in by a Nord family, who she hated. She ran away from Vvardanfell when she was 19.

This is a very good start. The fear of heights is going to present some interesting challenges.

Obviously, with your character's magic preferences, you''ll want to make Destruction a major, and buy some frost spells early on. Then avoid using Fire and Shock (or always use only weaker spells, to simulate weaker casting ability.) You'll also have to decide if Blade is a major skill, since your character carries a dagger. Obviously Marksman and Speechcraft, and possibly Sneak (this levels fast even as a minor, but if you're role-playing a sneaky character, you should consider it as a major.)

"Why are you in jail?"

For me, the most important thing in roleplaying is that my character is distinctive in some way. Most often, that has come out as being based on someone IRL.

I had a character named Severus Snape that was based on the Harry Potter movie character. I made my character even look like Allen Rickman (the actor that played Severus.) Before long, I could picture his cultured and clipped manner of speaking as he commented under his breath about the merchants who were ripping him of with their pricing policies.

I saw him as a social misfit who secretly yearned for acceptance and respect. He went through horrendous mood swings, sometimes spending long periods of time in isolation in the wilderness, and at other times furiously wading through quests seeking the respect he so much wanted.

The main thing I am trying to get at is that without some personality traits of their own, your character is just a crash dummy being pushed around by you. Don't think in terms of attributes, skills, goals, quests, etc. Think in terms of motivation. What does your character want out of life. Sarrah was a typical girl next door with dreams of being a Mage teacher and settling down. Her biological clock was ticking and she wanted love and marriage more than anything. Her frustration eventually lead to a total emotional breakdown and what Acadian once described as her "transformation to steel,"

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/862718-angel-the-fan-fiction/page__view__findpost__p__15532730

Well, I was planning on using a mod that makes you start where ever you want (I was thinking near Cheydinhal, because she ran from Morrowind)

OK, so you have a bit of back-story, anyway. I don't think it takes much, but I think in order to be able to allow a character to "grow" in the game, we have to know some little thing about the character (whether it's unique personality traits, or a particular "event" in the character's past which colors their thinking.) Once you have a starting point, you can let the character take over, and there won't be a tendency to "help" by doing something the character wouldn't do.

Well, she hates Nords with a vengence, and she also hates the Dark Brotherhood, or any other organisation of the same thing. She's very inquisitive, so much so some may call her nosey. Because of this, she is fasinated with the Grey Fox.


I'm getting there.... right?

I think it's time to play.

I think so too! Thanks for all the help!

EDIT: Going well. I'm really enjoying it. I decided to roleplay as Belwen's companion. Unfortunatly, we started in the Nibeney Valley, which means alot of high places...which she hates. I've had to nurse her down a large dip, encourging her along. Plus, she's insisting we go to the Imperial City, after hearing about the Grey Fox in the newspaper.

Exercise your imagination by trying several / different approaches. How do you think someone with inclination to magic should handle contact to people, missions, cave adventures, provocations, loyalty to the Empire? Do you see him as a specific gender or racial type? Does he lie / deceive / betray, or is he s.o. who holds his word...?

Was he imprisoned for someone's foul play or caught in the act...

I see my mages always as old, male, human intelligent and physically weak. Something like Saruman

I see my sworfighters (human, male) as either some sort of paladin (in which case strength is not even the third highest attribute and he carries a silver longsword and shield) or some sort of dark samurai (dai-katana, no armour). the former is always involved in quests - given or of his own - dealing with law and good; the latter only with law / honour. Neither pf them would lie or start hacking things / ppl away, nor take a quest for $.

But my rogue / assassin is always female human or elven, intelligent, agile, extremely seductive / deceiving, but also weak (low str & end). And when there is six content available, she could make ppl think of Valeria Messalina as a faithful nun ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeria_Messalina ).

So, get expose to (i.e, try out) the various situations in games / mods, this will help u fine-tune what u want to see in ur characters behaviour.

I think as posted by others above, roleplaying is easier for some then others.
For me it's pretty easy due to my personnal traits in rl, when talking with someone I pick up their tics and mannerisms and start repeating them as if my own.
With games the strongest thing to grab me is a voice actor, my favourite is from BG2 the voice of Jahiera as soon as she spoke the phrase "you are starting to grate on my nerves" I started announceating as close as possible, especially on *grate*.

So rambling point concluded think of how your character speaks, the tone, volume, accent, dialect, speed, mannerisms and slang / abreviations, as these are both imo the strongest aspect of a role and frequently the most over looked part in rpg's.

RPing isn't as hard as it sounds. You probably do it all the time without realizing it. If you've ever decided not to kill an NPC because your playing a "good" character, then your role playing (if only a little.) Basicly all you need to do is come up with a backstory (which you seem to have done) and play the character true to the history that you've made. The little quirks appear on their own as you play. I'm sure Acadian didn't know every little thing about Buffy when their adventures started.

Well put! (And you are right! )

In fact, I recommend just giving your character a basic background. A rough history of their backround and how they came to be in the prision (if that is where you start). Perhaps where and when they were born. What their family/childhood may have been like, who thier parents were (if known). Once you meet your character though, let them call the shots. Let them live their life. Otherwise you are simply marching them along to a predetermined script. I knew absolutely nothing of Buffy's future when I met her. She showed me as we traveled together. I can tell you what she has done, but not what she will do in the future.

Oh - I just have one advice to the OP that I think is important : there is no such thing as 'wrong / right role-playing.' There is simply that personal meaning in that character's development.

It is ok to ask opinion from others - but whatever the answes, what your character does must only make sense to you and how you view things in that given universe. In this sense, you are an expert as any other expert here.

YOu're stuck because you're trying to think too much. I'm guessing you read alot of our character roleplaying stories, which seem way-fantastic, and so you're pressuring yourself (perhaps) to create something of that caliber. I'm telling you it doesn't have to be that way.

Start with just the information you've got above, start the game, and see the game thru your character's view. It may be that you're starting a sneaky wood elf, for instance, but once you're actually playing, making decisions, and trying to figure out who your character is, you may find that she's NOT a sneaky character all the time! Maybe she has habits that blow her cover.

Like I said earlier, I prefer starting with a general idea whenever I've got a new character, and then just learning about him or her as I go throughout the game. Little quirks show up here and there that start to define who your character is, etc.

Here's how I do it.
Think of the basic idea of what you want the character to be.
Get a name you like the sound of, random name generators across the Internet are great help here.
If you are on PC, use an Alternate start mod, if on console, and you don't want to have every characters story start in prision, do the tutorial, but then afterwards, pretend that chapter never happened. You can give Jaufree the amulet before you start the characters personal story, if you want.
When it comes to backstory, simply detail why they are where they started. Not every last detail. I did that on a character, and after awhile, it wasnt that fun knowing everything about her.
And then,start playing, let the details flow out slowly. Try seeing what foods they like, what races they would rather associate with, and such.

Thats how I do it, and its great fun, IMO