I do this with my human characters, after awhile I'll alter their appearance slightly and switch up their equipment to suit their current RP or character....sometimes I even switch up their main skills if say they become interested in magic or a mage fancies a sword they find and starts swinging it instead of spells.

For example, my Nord huntress Kyla looked like http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx34/lordtru/20130619_001525_zps0946837d.jpg early on and after a year roughing it in Skyrim, she now looks like http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx34/lordtru/unnamed_zpsc052f46a.jpg (TV phone pics but you get the idea).

She was predominantly an archer before but now she prefers the sword and board with her trusty bow on backup....the Targe of the Blooded and Nordic Sword fit her like a glove.

I haven't fleshed out a proper RP for her, basically she's been through some stuff and now leads a wolf pack of warriors.

So do your characters change over time in either appearance or RP?

On a related side note, do you feel that level 30 is too late to turn a bow wielding warrior with no points in magic into a bound weapon wielding conjurer/ice mage? I'm guessing I will have to start enchanting to create gear with enough magic to go around. I want to have a separate evolution where instead of becoming a wolf queen warrior she links up with a secret sect of witches that teach her the ways of ice and snow, putting down her physical bow for a magical one.

EDIT: This has helped me with my restartitis...now I have re-rollitis from remodeling characters into something new

It depends on what they have done and how much time has passed.

A character with no warpaint or scars does the companions or war and will get a scar during one of them or straight after. They might lose an eye during or straight after and they might put on some warpaint just before starting one and removing it after.

Hair type might change but that is rare.

Complexion never changes as they don't last long enough.

weight might change but this is also rare.

Yeah, after some time has passed since my start, I'll lengthen their hair, beards, ect. Even started giving my current guy a slightly more grey hair color after originally having straight black. I think evolving your character's appearance helps keep that character fresh.

I hear you on the complexion thing as I tried that with her and it was a night and day difference which didn't fit as she hasn't be adventuring that long...the dirt did a good job of making her look more seasoned along with the cheek scar.

I also bumped up her weight 1 notch as she has grown stronger, especially since she now carries a sword and shield into the fray.

Do you ever alter their RP based off of equipment? Say you try on something that looks good on your character, do you switch up skills or RP to match it?

That's exactly why I do it, it breathes life into stale characters...the beauty of my woman is that she's barely done any main quests, sticking to the side quests and doing her own thing in the land so the world is still full of possibility. I've finally decided to make her Dovahkiin as she now looks the part.

Funny you should ask that, 'cause that's one thing I'm planning on doing today. I've always planned to evolve him, but it's only been today that I've been able to get around to it using the showracemenu console command. I'm hoping to simply give him some facial scars and give him a slightly bigger build for now.

Being on the xbox, I cannot physically age my gal, but I also like to think that because of her dragon blood that once she reaches a certain age, she no longer ages, and become immortal.

That bloody High Elf down in the Ratway charges me a fortune to simply wash my war paint off... elves....

Guard: By the order of the Jarl, stop right there!

Me: Huh?

Guard: What are you doing in the river?

Me: ... Washing my war paint off.

Guard: You'll need to see the Elf in the Ratway about that. I hear she charges 1000 gold a time.

Me: ............

The thing is though, as you age your character nobody ages around you. Personally that kills the Roleplay aspect of it for me, i do add scars and maybe lose an eye after a messy battle though.

lol

My characters age (The elves don't)

Usually I let my nords get old then catch a disease and die with their family.

My characters don't last long enough to age, per se. But I have used showracemenu to alter their appearance according to their experiences. One character cut off her beautiful long blonde hair as a gesture of mourning when her fiancee, Vilkas, was slain by Falmer. She also added war paint after becoming the Hand of Merida (I RP'd basically a paladin). Another character gained weight after getting married. I haven't yet added scars or changed complexion, but it's definitely in the cards for my current playthrough.

Hoo boy, do I?

One character in particular changes more as time goes on, usually it's the facial hair that changes. He goes from that little http://i.imgur.com/qZHFfoH.png to a http://i.imgur.com/CwZ0Azw.png then the fuzzy cheeks/goatee combo(no pic :/) with no changes to hair ever. He also gets bulkier over time, the slider going from 70 to 100 by the time the RP 'ends.'

He began as a swordsman in enchanted hide armor(and mage hood), then decided to start using magic more often and exchanged the armor for better-enchanted mage's robes. Then after learning more about enchanting (and his difficulty in learning and casting Alteration spells) he went back to wearing light armor, this time donning light stalhrim. By the time Dawnguard came 'round he focused more on "offensive" restoration magic instead of his frost spells and wore the red Dawnguard light armor.

Haven't really changed the complexion all that much, since his game only takes around 2 years. Since one his main skills is Restoration, it would also be weird to have him scarred or weathered at all. I just wish dirt were something you could naturally get on your character and wash off instead of it being permanently there/not there.

You can pay a visit to the face sculptor, I'm on Xbox as well.

ha well maybe you're using something that permanently stains your skin and requires a magical plastic surgeon to remove it

True, that's why I never age them beyond a year or 2 but with what our characters go through it's not surprising to start out with dark hair then have salt and pepper in no time...stress and hard living will age one faster then time.

My......I never got as deep into my characters as many of you.But I have found a great combination of mods(SKYRE and some character creation and visual enhancements) and am just stunned..just stunned at how large and diverse the SKYRIM world is.If the ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE world is all I hope it will be....I can easily stay in SKYRIM till April 14th.

Most of my characters are retired when they are still in the year 201, so aging would be sort of pointless, but they do tend to evolve a little as they perform quests and such in the game and tell their tale. Longest character I've had retired in 202, so... yeah.

Depends, I recently restarted with my character, Hrafna.

Thing is, one unique RP trait I gave her is that she's so naturally talented with dark magic (Illusion and conjuration), that she eventually becomes immortal in terms of aging. Thought that if you are going to RP the soon-to-be Queen of the Unliving, that you may want to develop the "eternal youth" thing. It fits this Goth girl quite well.

However, with other characters, especially male warriors. I sometimes make them more muscular and rougher over time, untill they look like badass warlords who'se stare can frighten even a Lich.

But most of the time I don't do any major changes and have a character like that from the start.

My main character used to be a "kill all, take no names guy" but a few scars later and a family he has to take care of, he's become a "don't kill unless you have to" kind of guy. Now my Viking warrior Celow doesn't plan on slowing his slaughtering at any time. One wrong word and your head is gone.

Realistic RP x1000

I also alter appearance and such based of off RP as you do.

I do that with almost every one of my human men, they'll start out with some light whiskers and end up with a full on treebeard. Interesting thought about restoration with scars and such as her separate evolution will have her appear flawless as pure snow so I will add restoration to the mix.

Ha, just the opposite: I do all my tweaking in the beginning! I'll take forever with character creation, and then constantly use the showracemenu console command to tweak little details when I first start playing the character to get them just right. Then I don't change them after that. I don't play any character long enough for them to visibly age, and once I get their face just right to my mind, I'm loath to change it. It helps that I mostly play mages and archers, who are unlikely to take potentially-scarring blows to the face!

I know, but it is more fun to roleplay the immortal side of things. lol

I take far too long during character creation and the lighting is so bad in the Flagon that I don't tend to bother altering my character's appearances: Except when I do certain quests like the one where you go to the Thalmor Embassy. I figure it pays to have a disguise there.

Occasionally I add war paint too.

Yes I will occasionally use showracemenu to grow hair and beards, shave, use warpaint before battles and add dirt to a character who has been traveling long. I haven't aged any characters, but their intrerests have most definitely changed over time.

Seems like a neat idea and really cool but sounds like the face sculptor will be able to retire soon.

Ha I think my Orc Grogg has got that badass frightening gaze thing going on, he saw his reflection once and got startled

So did you ever name Hrafna? I remember you had a thread about it not long ago.

I hear you, don't you hate how you create a character and then once you get unbound they look different in the game? Thank god for the face sculptor as being on Xbox that's the only way to save characters...before her I've had several characters who looked good in creation then I saw flaws after the fact and deleted them.

If you stand in front of the brazier closest to the walkway and have your character face the chandelier then their face lights up nicely and not too bright like it does by the face sculptor. http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx34/lordtru/20130723_233617_zps61d11f92.jpg a pic of my old Odinn character standing in the spot I speak of.

It might be because I'm losing eye sight in both my eyes (I'm not), but I don't really see the difference between the two pictures? Also how long did it take for a year to pass and how did your character spend it?

ha well aside from the obvious equipment choice, she's dirty with battle scars and different hair to give her a more seasoned look about her. I tried changing complexion but it was too much of a difference for a years worth of Skyrim life. It's not only a difference of image though, she has switched up from the bow to sword and shield as well as doing things different then the girl she once was.

As for what she did, I played her in a more realistic way (avoiding being the hero and such) so it would take too long to properly tell but she basically lived off the land and honed her skills with the bow while earning some coin and helping people along the way. One day she happened upon a group of warriors fighting a giant so she took it down from a distance with a well placed arrow and impressed another huntress among them who told her about their group...she took up her offer to join and that's what led her to become the woman she is today.