A stroll through the Oblivion forums here often has me rolling up a new character for that game. I play Skyrim and Morrowind more than Oblivion these days, as I find the former 2 games' atmosphere, aesthetic, or general feeling often matches, whereas Oblivion stands apart. In tone and in atmosphere, Oblivion is a completely different experience, and it often takes me a while to get into the swing of that.

My previous Oblivion playthroughs were often about how "cool" my character was. But Oblivion, much more than the other games, supports characters that could be thought of as friendly, happy-go-lucky, or everyday sorts.

This time, I think I made a character instead of a class. I'm pretty happy about it.

Hafjor is, to most observers in Cyrodiil, a typical Nord: a strong barbarian type. But this time, instead of fighting against the game's atmosphere, I went with it and decided he should be a cheerful barbarian - more Fafhrd than Conan, if you follow me. He's wary of the big cities and what he sees as the decadence of 'civilized' life, but he's also a careful speaker who enjoys striking up long conversations with interesting-looking folk. That penchant for discussion got him into trouble in Skyrim (where he was considered lazy, and was the runt of his family), and he ended up in the Imperial City prison after a long string of accusations that he had seduced the daughters of important folk.

We'll see if he learned his lesson.

At any rate, that's how I'm explaining his 'build', which is as follows:

Specialization: Combat

Favored Attributes: Agility, Personality

Skills: Blunt, Block, Light Armor, Heavy Armor, Athletics, Marksman, Speechcraft

I called his custom class "Clan Exile". I'm still trying to figure out what exactly that means and how it happened.

It's not terribly original, but what's important is the approach, I think. When I was casting about for a seventh skill, the typical options - Blade, or Armorer - just left me cold. I thought about why, and then determined that this character needed an excuse to talk to people - especially since I'm playing with mods like Better Cities which add some interesting NPCs to the mix. And talking to people is a good deal of the fun in Oblivion, IMO - talking to people, hanging out in those cozy inns, enjoying the atmosphere at the docks in Anvil. If I play a character who is *so cool*, sometimes I find I'm robbing myself of that experience.

So I'm not sure what Hafjor is going to do with himself. Right now he's hanging around Chorrol, where he has just been accused of causing the pregnancy of a young woman he's never met before. (Better Cities-related, probably.) Perfect! Once that's sorted, he'll see about the price on those fine-looking pack mules at the stables. And then he'll see what he can see out in the wide world.

I know there are others of you out there who don't opt for the "traditional fantasy cool" character. Just thought I'd share my own thoughts on the subject, however scattered.

This is similar to my progression too over the years. I started out playing strict classes in Morrowind. Later I began experimenting with odd custom classes in Oblivion. Nowadays I focus on characters rather than class.

I'm not a social person in real life so it's difficult for me to roleplay social characters. I really have to stay alert, or else I force my character to behave the way I do in real-life: by mumbling and staring at my shoes or avoiding discourse with other human beings altogether.

I really like the choice of Specializations, Favored skills and Major Skills you've picked for your character. I think they might inspire a lot of interesting roleplaying. I like the name Hafjor, too.

One of my favorite things to do with eccentric characters, sometimes, is to skip main quests and guild quests and confine myself to side quests for an entire game. I think of this as cobbling together my own home-made "main quest." It's like choosing foods from a sm?rg?sbord at a restaurant. Some of my eccentric characters just do not fit well into the long quest lines. The "Sm?rg?sbord Method" lets me craft a game to suit a character.

Well anyway, I think you have a great start for a game here. Let us know how it works out!

EDIT: added an impressive-looking ring and umlaut to smorgasbord.

Thanks for your thoughts, Pseron. I sometimes have a hard time with questlines - they can 'take over' my character, as I feel the need to rush through them after a certain point. There's a great urgency in the Main Quest, for example, so it becomes my character's full-time job - and then, when I'm done, I feel like I've got nothing left to do.

All Hafjor did was drop off the Amulet, because that's all Baurus tasked him with doing - and he's a man of his word. (In my mind, I also smoothed out some of Jauffre's very urgent suggestions.) Maybe he will take up the main quest later, but I like your concept of sticking to small quests. Even with just vanilla content, a personable character can justify talking to people and thus getting wind of a good amount of side quests, I think. With mods, that number is even greater, obviously.