Here's my current Skyrim character, from a roleplaying perspective. Obviously it needs a whole bunch of mods, such as 'Live Another Life' to play.

Maras is a Nord who lived with his family on the borders of Skyrim, never saw much adventure blah blah blah.

He learned some elementary skills with a bow, and occasionally accompanied his uncle on hunting trips, but was never a great hunter. Maras' father far preferred him to help around the forge.

Maras eventually decides it's time to make his own way in the world, and heads toward Whiterun, in the hope of learning to be a competent huntsman, with vague visions of selling his wares in the market square. Predictably Maras is assaulted by Bandits in the wilderness, robbed and left for dead.

Stumbling, half dead, and delirious, he finds his way to Riverwood, pursued all the way by wolves, travelling part of the way with a Khajiit caravan, he is nursed back to health by the townsfolk. After recovering, Maras attempts to repay the kindness by working off the debt, doing odd jobs, chopping wood etc, etc.

The local blackmith is almost out of business, due to a dire shortage of iron in the area, it is known that a gang of fierce bandits have set up in the nearby Embershard Mine. terrified, but at the same time excited at the thought of adventure, Maras agrees to accompany the band of townsfolk who lead an assault on the bandits. The group is victorious, and though an indifferent bowman, Maras finds the adrenaline and excitement, mixed with pure terror to be quite intoxicating, and dreams of becoming a real fighter. He continues his solo hunting trips, with mixed results, and after trudging to Whiterun with his few fish and pelts he soon finds himself in trouble with the trade guilds, due to his attempts to undercut their prices. To make things worse, his attempts to approach The Companions are met with derision: "come back youngling when you have learned which end of that bow to hold" mocks a scornful Aela.

Shamed, and dispirited, Maras returns to Riverwood, and decides that some brave, foolhardy gesture is needed. This is partly an attempt to impress the daughter of the local merchant, but Maras agrees to brave Bleakfalls Barrow in an effort to recover the merchant's stolen property. Townsfolk shake their head and mutter. Maras is headling for his own doom, and it's all to likely he'll run screaming back to town at the first sight of a draugr - either that or end up dead. All attempts to talk him out of it fail.

So, clutching a sword, recovered from the bandits in his unsteady, inexperienced hand, Maras heads into the barrow, away from light and safety. Something seems to sing to him, like a pulse in his mind. The first draugr he stumbles upon freezes his blood... but somehow he is able to best it, more by luck than judgement, with an inept swing of his sword. The second falls to a clumsy stab in the chest. All the while that strange pulsing song fills his mind with triumphant music.

By the time Maras reaches the source of the song, the sword is more steady in his hand, blood drips from his crude hide briastplate, at least a dozen draugr lay still behind him, Maras approaches the strange wall, and the song reaches a crescendo. Something burns, and changes within him, and suddenly the sword is steady in his hand, feeling comfortable, and somehow right.....

And so it goes on in the usual, predictable manner. Maras joins The Companions, rises through the ranks, discovers a deadly truth in a visit to Helgen, and slays his first dragon, where the truth is revealed etc. etc

Basically, a hackneyed, cliched fantasy story, no different from a million others in a similar mould.

The question I ask myself, is, am I constantly playing things too safe? Because the truth is, I actually enjoy this playing out kind of story. Reading it is probably boring, but playing it and controlling the action is a different matter.

I've tried creating different archetypes, including a completely inept thief who was constantly being caught, escaping prison, caught again and an Argonian dock worker who became reluctantly embroiled in the civil war.. but I always seem to keep going back to standard 'lantern-jawed hero' characters.

I make over-powered characters from time to time. I find it can be great fun to play a "special" character, marked by the gods, or set apart from ordinary people in some other way. In my case, I am mainly interested in their stories. How and why did they get this way? What would being so strong or so intelligent (or so anything) do to a person? What effect would it have on other people? I enjoy exploring these ideas.

I read comics because they're about exceptional individuals doing exceptional things. I've never read a comic about Stan who works at the hardware store because he's a real, boring, ordinary, everyday person and he's just not that interesting. I sit down at my computer or xbox and immerse myself in the fantastic instead of playing "real life simulator 2k16". Whatever works for you, keep doing it. It's nice to step out of your routine from time to time but you like what you like, just be you.

"Real" adventurers take arrows to the knee.

IMHO the part of your quote I put in bold is the answer to your own question. You LIKE doing those types of stories. So why change it? I can see experimenting around and seeing if something different is enjoyable but you like what you like. Unless it's illegal (and far as I can tell this isnt ) then continue to enjoy it.

For instance I am horrible at melee. I play mages or archers ... now I'm forcing myself to learn how to play melee but really, why should I? If I don't like it, why am I forcing myself? Just so happens the character I'm doing with this has turned VERY interesting. So SHE is keeping me engaged and we are learning together.

Hope that all made sense. Been a long day at work.

I get what you mean about 'Stan at the hardware store' and their ilk being dull to read about. Heck that would be dull to live, let alone read about. RP characters feel more exciting when they are heroes, or at the very least capable of heroic things, even if reluctantly, or accidentally.

The thing is, I always wanted to create a 'normal civilian' character in a game, or just play as a peasant. Someone who really is just like Stan. The Skyrim equiv would be something like my guy who goes hunting and fishing, and then takes his wares to market to sell. No special skills, no real use in a fight, unknown by any but his immediate friends and family.

I can play like this for maybe a couple of days, but then something inside me seems to snap and I just have to fall into some kind of adventure, or go out seeking combat.

At the same time, I absolutely love the idea that we can play Skyrim as a 'normal person', if we so choose (with the right mods, you really can create a 'real life simulator', or 'virtual job simulator' I find games that instantly throw me into a hero-combat situation far duller by comparison. I love to start out as a complete nobody, and then foliow a 'rags to riches - zero to hero' kind of scenario.

I dunno. I think maybe, the fact that for me a game like Skyrim that really does offer so much choice and versatility, makes me feel that somehow I am 'not using it to it's full potential', and 'playing it too safe', and I feel bizarrely and illogically guilty for some reason. I get the same weird 'guilt' with Dragon Age Origins, because I keep on playing the same Rogue character, with only brief experiments in other classes. It makes no sense, but there you go.

Like you, I seem to like what I like, and enjoy a certain style of play. I'm the reverse. I keep making melee or archery characters, and can't seem to get into making a spellcaster, it just doesn't appeal to me.

I played a normal hunter once. He was a Khajiit archer who never entered walled cities, was not particularly concerned with wealth, did very few quests and spent most of his time hunting game on the plains of whiterun. This was back before got a PC and he was one of the most enjoyable Xbox characters I can remember playing. After a while, he got pretty darned good at hunting and he poked his nose into a few underground locations, but remained just a hunter, who occasionally had the guts to explore an underground cave.

I must have played him for several months and he made it up to level 26. I was playing him DiD with no HUD and no music, and the only reason I stopped playing him was I got so attached that I could not bear the thought of him dying and me having to delete the save, so I one night when I wanted to play even though I was pretty tired, I thought I would play it safe and roll a new character just to mess around with, so I could save this character for when I was alert and able to take on a DiD character. Well of course, that led to abandoning the character entirely . . . but it was great fun while it lasted.

For me, it's stealthy spell casters that I keep playing. I think part of it is because i9n a difficult game, magic is underpowered and stealth is almost essential to survival. Currently, I've been having a lot of fun with a battlemage though...

I'm exactly the same way.

Yeah I have a pretty unusual "char" to cope with too.


Imagine you have a difficult and obtuse wife ( SoB or other partner) who loves Skyrim, but you have to get your Skyrim fix by persauding her how to play the game for you. She spends more time "flying off the handle" at me than killing stuff FOR me.

Still love her all the same (Right Adella honey )

In Skyrim, though, this could quite the challenge trying to take "things" off of shelves and then putting them back and making them STAY there.

Like others said, you find these characters fun and that is all that matters. "We" (other players) are not playing your game. You are

I mean, that's the direction the game constantly pushes you in so it probably isn't really your fault. On its own the game doesn't really provide much gameplay possibilities outside of "murder-hobo" and normally needs mods to make it fun to not be an adventurer. Like maybe odd city jobs (I would love getting crafting comissions, tbh).

Still, there's really no shame in indulging in it. It is a game, after all.

First of all, my head didn't start to hurt while reading that, so I don't think it's a Mary Sue -character.


Secondly, that's much more thought than most people put into their characters.