This thread is for people who don't know how to roleplay, are looking for some new ideas, or want to add some of their own.

I always struggled with the questions, "What is roleplaying?" And "How can I do it?" Well, I have my answer now and I want to share it with all of you fine people.

Remember, this is not set in stone. This is not a definitive list of religious roleplaying habits. If you like these ideas, feel free to use them, tweak them, cut out ones you don't want to use, or just plain flat not use any of them. It's up to you. Here goes.

GENERAL

- Turn off your HUD.
- Play on Novice if you're afraid of running out of a health bar.

- Turn off the music.

TRAVELING

- Walk everywhere. Console user? You'll get used to using the stick. When running, take an occasional rest.

- Don't go out in poor weather. If you are traveling during poor weather, wear appropriate clothing or find a cave or a camp.

- When passing through a town or village, stop and see how everyone is doing.

- Go to and sleep in inns and taverns at night. If there are none nearby, look for a camp. If there is no camp, camp out by the side of the road.

- Stop in chapels to pray.

- Eliminate fast traveling.

- Only use the map when sheltered or in good weather conditions.

HORSES

- Take good care of your horses.

- Always leave them at the Stable when in town.
- Chat with the proprietor and tell them to take extra good care of your horse.
- Always leave an apple or a carrot next to your horse.

- When riding, take your horse's health and stamina into account.
- No excess running, jumping and swimming. Stick to the roads.
- Only run full speed when attacked or urgently need to get somewhere.
- Slow down when your horse gets injured.

EATING

- Eat three meals a day.
- Once in the morning. (6AM-8AM)
- Once in the afternoon. (12PM-1PM)
- Once in the evening or at night. (5PM-10PM)

- Wait for an hour after eating to show that you have eaten your meal.

- If you're out of food and you're nowhere near a town or an inn, forage food nearby in the forest.

- Sit down in a chair to eat, or crouch down if there are no chairs nearby.

- When eating out at the inns and taverns, socialize with people.

- If you had a particularly good meal at an inn, tip the barman by bribing them.

- If you have a campfire nearby, cook your food. There's no sense in eating it raw.

SLEEPING

- Sleep in an appropriate place for your role. Houses, inns, bedrolls, campfires, etc.

- Put away your armor in wardrobes/mannequins in your room/house. Put away your weapons, and put on simple clothing as 'pajamas' when you sleep.

- Do a nighttime ritual appropriate to your character before bed. Read a book, drink some alcohol, have a snack, etc.

- If you have no place to sleep and need to wait, find a place to sleep under something.

HOUSES

- Take off your shoes when you enter your house.

- When decorating your house:
- Place appropriate items in your house where they belong and make sure they're relevant to your character. For example, a mage may have potions and scrolls piled everywhere.
- Make memorable areas of foes you have defeated and rare items that you have found.

- Flag your containers to tell which items go in it. Sword on top of a weapons chest, pickaxe on top of ore/ingot storage, etc.

- Get butlers. Hire stewards to watch over your houses.

EQUIPMENT

- Try to carry a reasonable amount of equipment at once.
- If you have a horse nearby when traveling, you can carry double what you could carry on your own.
- These limits only apply while you're out traveling.
- When in towns you can carry extra things around if you want to.
- It would be best to travel light when you go out so you can gather items to put in your house.
- Keep extra items at home and save them until you need them.

Until you go out of town again is when these rules apply.
- Reasonable Limits:
- Weapons:
- One dagger.
- Two weapons. This includes woodcutting axes, pickaxes and staves.
- Up to 50 arrows.
- Armor:
- One set of armor. This includes fur armor and magical robes.
- One shield.
- Clothing:
- Everyday clothing and pajamas (neither can be enchanted).
- Potions:
- Up to ten restorative potions. (Health, Magicka, Stamina)
- Up to five miscellaneous potions/poisons.
- Ingredients:
- Up to 50 ingredients.
- Food:
- Up to five pounds of food and drinks.
- Drinking out of a river or lake is fine.
- Misc.:
- Two torches.
- Ten soul gems.
- Up to five Ingots.
- Up to three leather pieces.
- Only one fur of any animal.
- Up to twenty five lockpicks.

- Wear appropriate clothing for the activity. For example, a hood when it's raining or fur armor when traveling up north.

- When in towns:
- Take off your armor in exchange for casual clothing.
- If you use a shield, un-equip it or equip a bow or two-handed sword instead to have both hands free.

- Wear clothing and use weapons appropriate to your character.

- When doing faction quests, wear armor that the faction gives you. You can buy wolf armor from Eorlund Graymane.

- If you're roleplaying for a specific faction as a factor for your character, such as the Imperial Legion, wear the armor even when you're out adventuring on your own.

COMBAT

- Rest for a bit after you battle. You can just stay in one spot for a while or use the wait feature.

- After a major battle that you come close to death or after catching a disease, handicap yourself for a 1-3 days as you gradually recover. Stop using power attacks and block bashing. If you're a Mage, you can go down one level in spells until you're fully recovered.

- When you come close to death, flee from battle. Seek help from the guards if there any nearby.

MEMORIALS

- When you get attached to an NPC and they die:
- Place the NPC's clothes/weapons in a place of significance and honor.
- Use enchanting to rename the item after the person who used the item.
- Conduct a memorial ceremony.
- Shoot an arrow or a spell into the sky.
- Place something over their body.
- Scatter flowers near their body.
- Use the weapon of the fallen NPC to avenge their death.
- Straighten out their body and fold their arms if possible.
- If they died in water, drag them to shore and put them in a peaceful location.
- If they died near a fire, drag them into the fire as a cremation.

- You can honor or sympathize for your friends/foes if they fought honorably.
- Leave their weapon next to their body to symbolize that they died honorably.
- If say a Dark Brotherhood Follower has fallen, you can hide their corpse and clothes so no one can learn of the Dark Brotherhood's armor.

RELIGION

- Dedicate your life to God(s) appropriate to your character.
- Not sure about who to worship? Find and read the book "Aedra and Daedra."

- Worship your God(s) through activities that would please them.
- Visit them every morning and pray.
- Place fresh flowers next to their shrine(s).

- Worship a God based on your race. Malakath as an Orc, for example.

- Read through and study holy texts of your chosen religion.

FAMILY

- If you have a family, keep in touch with them, or create a scenario that discourages contact.

- If they died, it may change your opinion about the races, factions, or people involved.

MISCELLANEOUS

- Give your player preferences in foods and likes/dislikes of races.

- When you make a mistake, don't reload. Live with the consequences.

- Adjust the difficulty based on your gameplay preferences. Remember, the more powerful your character is, the lower the difficulty should be.

- Bathe periodically by taking off your clothing and swimming. Also wash your clothes by taking them off and putting them in the water.
- Never bathe in freezing cold water unless there is shelter nearby.

- Choose a date to be your birthday and celebrate it.
- Read "The Firmament" and find the appropriate standing stone to match your birthday.

- Use followers as bodyguards, friends or colleges.

- Put a realistic limit on how much you can put in storage containers. Shields cannot fit in lockboxes.

- If you are cursed with Lycanthropy (Werewolves Disease), you must be indoors by 8PM or you will unwillingly transform into a werewolf no matter where you are at. When it starts getting dark, constantly check your clock and decide whether you can make it inside or should run into the wilderness away from people. During this time, you must run around looking to attack anyone or anything in sight indiscriminately. You don't have to eat unless you want to. This will really add some excitement to your game.

Sources: UESP, Reddit, myself.

Edited for typos and spelling errors.

I have one roleplaying rule: take only those actions that are appropriate to the character.

Following up on what Pseron said, I think many of the rules listed above may be appropriate for some characters but not others. My barbarian character, for instance might be less likely to take off shoes when entering a house than my Imperial scholar. The barbarian might also be apt to skip meals or sleep, depending on what he was doing at the time.

Some of the above rules I would categorize more as "immersion" than "roleplaying." Whether you choose to have your characters worry about eating at all, HUD settings and even whether to fast travel, I would argue fall more in the category of immersion than roleplay.

These are just some ideas that may or may not fit to your character's play style. Tailor them if you don't wish to use them.

Yep, it is a nice long list. Many of my characters have done quite a few of these things.