Unique Playstyles

[LibidoKnievel]

We all know that Skyrim is meant to be played as any rpg, collecting the best weapons and armor and most powerful spells, delving into the hardest dungeons and using whatever skills you can to get through it all. However, I've been following the PC Gamer blog, "The Elder Strolls" where the gamer attempts to play through Skyrim as an npc would. I have a character I am playing as an Imperial Legionnaire, modelled after the character Titus Pullo, from HBO's Rome series. I wear only Legion armor and carry an Imperial sword and shield. The only magic he knows is a simple healing spell (since the game doesn't have a bandage ability) Decisions are made with the mind-set of an Imperial soldier sent up to quell a rebellion.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has or is playing Skyrim in a different or unique way.

[Riceball]

I try to role play as much as I can but sometimes it just wont work because there are so many things that bothers me.

 

I often play as a wanderer who doesn't care much about doing good or bad unless it is something really bad in oblivion. That is why I never even tried the dark brotherhood and never finished the thieves guild.

 

In Skyrim, to be honest I never played it past the first village because without proper mods I cant bring myself to do any role play or even play it normally.

[Irishredneck]

I played it as an Orc mercenary that was accidentally captured in a "wrong place, wrong time" scenario.

 

Ogart (My orc's name) is driven by his relentless quest to fill his pockets, one day become a land owner, and reign over a harem of concubines. He is true neutral, and only kills if he is attacked first, or really pissed off.

 

He doesn't give two coins about a rebellion, unless helping one side or the other puts some heavy coin in his stash. He discovered that whacking a dragon yields a good amount of power, making him (guess what!) able to get more gold!

 

Owning the Thieve's Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, and the Companions, as he sees it, was a way to get richer.

 

After finding all the Dragon Priests masks and doing the final quest, he was highly irate at the puny reward. A nearby camp of giants and mammoths paid for that one.

 

He doesn't use magic (Other than shouts) because magic is for pussies. A sword and board has served him well, and switches to a two handed weapon when he is enraged. The werewolf form (After going berserk) has gotten him out of a few tough scrapes, but has also landed him in hot water, so he is reluctant to use that.

[Shantotto]

I tried to set up a character with a simple backstory, moral values and so forth for my game but just found it a bit pointless. Roleplaying is all well and good but I don't think it's particularly satisfying when you have to apply all the limits to your character yourself. There is too little in the way of consequence and meaningful choices for it to be satisfying in Skyrim in my opinion.

 

For example. I enjoy playing Thief like characters gameplay wise. But the actual Thieves Guild feel completely meaningless since *any* player will get sucked into it as soon as they enter Riften, and *any* character will be able to complete the questline whether you sneak or murder everything. Same with the Mages Guild, the Companions (which is kinda like the Fighters Guild) and the others.

 

I like Skyrim was a dungeon delving, explorative type of gameplay. But if I try to roleplay, it's like playing a PnP game with a GM who doesn't give a damn about my character.

[Jerlis]

I finished main plot with Alduin and the civil war before discovered this site and now I regret it soooo much... Will wait till some cute adult mods apear and only then enter Skyrim once again.

 

I suggestion to all and everyone - main plot is pretty short so better don't rush with it. There ae so many interesting things to do in every town, if you rush through main quest it will be pretty dull to go on with other quests (my personal opinion only ofc)

[Loveryus]

When ever I want to play a unique style, I cheat myself a character and than play the way, I want to play. I don't want to waste too much time in Skyrim. And I already did that on my first char without cheating.

[Kraxon]

Did you hear about that guy who plays Skyrim without killing anything?

 

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/12/06/how-to-win-at-skyrim-without-ever-killing-anything.aspx

 

Obviously you can't win the game that way. Even if you can avoid killing the first dragon via letting the guards do it for you, you wont be able to finish the main quest without killing.

 

Some other guy did this with Morrowind and Oblivion too, and it worked too.

Sure, the game is not really meant to be played that way, but you CAN play that way, and get pretty far.

In Bioware games f.e. - I really like those too - you just have to kill NPCs at some point.

 

I for my part just try to play as I go. I attempted to play peacefull one or two times, but I catch myself everytime slashing at those stormcloaks in helgen keep.

[Irishredneck]

I tried to do that, but I took an arrow to the knee.

[ReMeDy]

Did you hear about that guy who plays Skyrim without killing anything?

 

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/12/06/how-to-win-at-skyrim-without-ever-killing-anything.aspx

 

[Silk]

The playstyle that I have for my dark elf is to not bother with all of this armour and health stuff. Her health has remained at a paltry 100 points since. So has her magic. Her Stamina, however, is through the roof.

 

I like to play it like Metal gear in extreme difficulty - when I'm spotted it is pretty much game over.

 

Choices wise I do like to think that she is still the same dark elf that I played in Morrowind and Oblivion and she is making a new morrowind in place of Skyrim. After all, Dark elves can't live off of Lava can they?

[DocClox]

Off topic, but is Morrowind still lava? In our world lava fields tend to break down to fertile soil in less than a hundred years, or so I believe.

 

I'd expect Morrowind to be back more or less as it was in the time of the Nevarine. Some interesting new ruins, some new settlements. The Ashlanders probably foresaw the eruption and haven't changed a bit.

 

There'll be a hell of a mess on the sites of Vivec and Ebonheart of course, and much dungeon delving to be done there. But by and large, I'd expect things to be more or less as they were.

 

On Topic:

 

I keep trying to play characters like pure alchemists, or merchants. People who don't and can't fight. The trouble is that they end up trying to sneak to stay alive, and bit by bit they end up morphing into the character I always play - a sort of general assassin mage. I do have a pure fighter nordgirl ... but she's not very interesting to play and I'm leaving her on ice until I can get her raped and abused a bit. It's not exactly a unique playstyle, either.

 

This is where I think the drastic simplification of Oblivion's stats and classes bites. It was a lot easier to play a particular style in Oblivion, and the game had a lot more replay value because of it. In Skyrim, all my characters wind up the same.

 

[Kraxon]

Hm. It was a lot easier to hopelessly mess up your leveling in oblivion too. ... and in morrowind for that matter. I remember all this fiddeling with the ability multipliers and skills like jump or alchemy skyrocketing.

I think the new skill system is a clear improvement, and you can steer your style via the perks you choose and the skills you use.

 

I think - maybe you can agree - skyrim lacks a bit replay value in comparison to morrowind f. e. because it has much less factions. In Morrowind you could join not only the imperial legion but also the imperial cult, the east empire company, all the different morrowind houses and whatnot.

With more of those factions in skyrim you could play very destinctive games every time. Where is the imperial cult gone? And the empire company questline is rudimentary to say the least.

With the few joinable factions we got, a higher lever character wont have much choice but to join the companions, the mages college, the thieves guild and the dark brotherhood sooner or later. Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot to do here, but once you reach a certain level, all your characters grow more and more similar.

By the way: Great idea to make a new faction.

[Kashked]

I'm a hopeless roleplayer,I can't resist, I even roleplay MMORPG:s, I always make up a backstory and keep to my characters moral compass, although I allow for it to change over the course of the game...

 

My main Skyrim char i Sigvard Ulfthane, the son of a powerful nord warlord from the Jerall Mountains, being a patriot and a worshipper of Talos he travels to Skyrim to join the rebellion, and then you can guess what happens...

I don't steal (from nords), don't kill anyone who don't need killin' (which in the moral compass of Sigvard is most non-nords, but still...), and I don't help the enemies of my people. Basically I play a basically honest nazi character. HOWEVER, since that could get kind of boring I allowed Sigvard to slip deeper and deeper into the darkness with the deadra lord quests, and last I played him he had saved the world from Alduin and all, but at the same time he turned into a power-hungry madman who would trade his firstborn for magical artifacts or new magical powers... the only thing of his old sense of honour that remains is his dedication to the nord people.

[Silk]

Off topic' date=' but is Morrowind [b']still[/b] lava? In our world lava fields tend to break down to fertile soil in less than a hundred years, or so I believe.

 

I'd expect Morrowind to be back more or less as it was in the time of the Nevarine. Some interesting new ruins, some new settlements. The Ashlanders probably foresaw the eruption and haven't changed a bit.

 

There'll be a hell of a mess on the sites of Vivec and Ebonheart of course, and much dungeon delving to be done there. But by and large, I'd expect things to be more or less as they were.

 

 

 

From what I've heard ot os pretty much the entire Island getting swamped in lava. Then the lava cools and you're in a heap of trouble. Yes, it does become fertile soil, eventually. But not just yet.

 

 

[Kraxon]

Yet another unique playstile: Avoiding adventure at any cost.

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/10/the-elder-strolls-part-1-fresh-off-the-boat/

[DocClox]

I think the new skill system is a clear improvement' date=' and you can steer your style via the perks you choose and the skills you use.

[/quote']

 

Well, out-of-the-box Oblivion levelling was broken certainly. I used the Always +5 mod to fix that, but yeah. It was broken. But I think Beth went way, way too far in the other direction. To me, it's as if they saw a man with an ingrowing toenail and they fixed it by cutting off his feet.

 

Incidentally, there's an interesting analysis of the skill/perk setup on Bethseda Forums and why it contributes to all high level characters ending up the same. It makes some interesting points, I thought.

 

I think - maybe you can agree - skyrim lacks a bit replay value in comparison to morrowind f. e. because it has much less factions. In Morrowind you could join not only the imperial legion but also the imperial cult' date=' the east empire company, all the different morrowind houses and whatnot.

[/quote']

 

Well, I don't think they were the only factor, but it certainly helped.

 

Don't get me wrong' date=' there is still a lot to do here, but once you reach a certain level, all your characters grow more and more similar.

[/quote']

 

Yeah, exactly. You have to work quite hard to stop all your characters merging into the same thing at high levels.

 

By the way: Great idea to make a new faction.

 

Thanks I can't wait to get started.

 

[Kraxon]

Incidentally' date=' there's an interesting analysis of the skill/perk setup on Bethseda Forums and why it contributes to all high level characters ending up the same. It makes some interesting points, I thought.

 

Hm. I see the point there and I partly agree with the criticism on that side.

That non-combat-skills you level make the monsters in the game grow stronger kinda blows, and that you have to take perks you don't want, to finally take the perk you want in various perk trees is a bit tedious too.

Still, of all leveling systems in the elder scrolls saga, Skyrims is the least broken in my oppinion.

 

Maybe there could be some sort of "milestone perks" similar to the perks in onlivion: You not only gain a perk when you level, but when you raise a skill to 25, 50, 75 and 100. Or you don't get perks per level but each time you raise a skill 10 points? Something like that.

Hm...