Skyrim character roleplay

[xGHoSTx]

hi guys just thought ide set up this thread to share ideas about roleplaying characters in skyrim

 

i created a new character whos a breton mage what im thinking of for her is she was falsely accused of being a traitor by the thalmor in highrock and was imprisoned at the abandoned prison in skyrim (this is why i use the alternate start mod to give the char more depth)

 

so her main motives are to hunt down the thalmor in skyrim by any means necessary

play style is like the arcane archer build but much darker and more evil (so definately going for vampire with dawnguard)

 

any suggestions would be welcome

[4onen]

Personally, I play with Requiem, so the game is frequently ludicrously difficult. To solve that issue, I use console commands.

 

To justify my use of console commands, I claim that one of the many, many, many lowest daedra was captured by the dwemer in Kagrenzel, and that my character accidentally releases it and it inhabits my character.

 

The lore claims that a bunch of daedra worked together to make the planet nirn, but the daedra leading them all messed up somehow and most of them either punched a hole in the sky to atherius (stars), got trapped on the planet in soul gems (which happened to the head daedra, whose soul gem then got used to control some giant robot that caused the disappearance of the dwemer, somehow) or retained enough strength to build their own planets further away in oblivion from nirn. Assume my lowest daedra thing is one that the dwemer tore out of one of the soul gems. Or something.

[Ashra XIII]

I don't really understand wanting to make the game so difficult that you have to cheat in order to survive. Why not just mod up your game a bit more reasonably so you can have fun in a more organic way? As in, by simply playing it. I guess coming up with RP reasons for them is definitely a way to spice it up, but I watch a guy who LPs Skyrim, and all he does is complain about how boring Skyrim is when it levels with you, and Requiem is so much fun. Yet he can't succeed in Skyrim without cheating his Enchanting to 100 and using companion mods that let him bring a small army along. I'd never tell anyone how to have fun of course! I'm just saying I don't understand.

 

So, erm... not to derail the thread entirely, I love using Skyrim Unbound's ability to completely randomize everything, so that it drops me somewhere random in the world and I have to come up with a backstory for my character, why she is where she is, and what her goals are for the immediate (and perhaps long-term) future. I think the problem I tend to have is keeping the story going, which is at least one reason why I end up restarting so often; I complete the goals I set out for my character at the beginning, but run out of things I believe she would do going forward.

 

My current character started in the Pale, at a campground outside Anga's Mill dressed in Stormcloak Armor with a longbow and an axe. I decided she was masquerading as a Stormcloak (how well is debatable, since she's a Breton and looks like a young girl) to evade patrols, and that she's actually a bit of a shady character who probably would be arrested if her real identity was found out. She escaped the pale and got near Whiterun, where she switched to Imperial Armor after taking it off a group of fake soldiers who had themselves killed Imperials with the intent of ambushing travelers. I've decided that she's primarily an archer who doesn't like to get into close combat if she can help it, but goes at it with gusto if she has to pull out her swords.

 

Now I just need to figure out what she wants to do with her life, so I can figure out how to make it work within the limitations of Skyrim's immersiveness.

[xGHoSTx]

to be honest my main problem in skyrim is ive gone dark brotherhood soo many times it gets boring but with the build im going for this time bark brotherhood would suit her

(basically revenge fuelled breton who wants to eradicate the thalmor)

[Ashra XIII]

Heh I know what you mean... my characters tend to be a perfect fit for the Dark Brotherhood as well, which means I've gone through those quests so many times.

 

But a revenge-fueled Breton could instead join the Stormcloaks? Problem with that is the Civil War questline isn't very interesting.

[chumon1992]

I have a few characters that are all part of the same story(which I'm writing down as I go), but I have only one actually made atm. The way the written story goes is each one of them starts off on their own story and then at certain points they meet and their stories converge and it all ends up with them becoming a group who goes to take down Alduin in the end. It started with my first character that I ever really got anywhere with. My Kahjiit thief(stereotypes yayyy!), unfortunately my game glitched and I was unable to complete the thieves guild missions so I ended up scrapping her, but I drew her before I did so I still had what she looked like in mind because I couldn't bare to lose her completely. Then when I made a different character I drew her out too and I thought hey, why not make them both in the same story? Once I discovered the alternate beginning mod I was like PERFECT now my Khajiit doesn't HAVE to be the Dragonborn! Then I came up with other characters from there and I soon had a story to write.

 

As for coming up with plots and objectives...I tend to draw from what I want to do skill wise, and what my character is and how they look...something usually comes to me that way. Not very helpful I know but...eh. It's something.

 

[morriscat]

I play on legendary so load up mods that allow me to survive not being the most powerful thing in skyrim. DA and DA Captured, Wolfclub, defeat, and so on. Also some that are there for the horror effect like Estrus Chaurus. And finally I load up Amorous Adventures, Romance and Marriage. For world immersion I use RND. 

 

I do not run any of the cold/hypothermia mods. The reason is they seem to interrupt game play too much in my opinion. Also, to me, it is just as immersion breaking to be the only one the cold affects in any way.

[Guest]

I'm an advocate of the minimal biography just to nail down traits and basic motivations, then I start with Skyrim Unbound on random settings and go with the flow.  I find I've had the most fun when I've worked with what the game provides as a starting point, so alternate start mods are excellent for that approach obviously. 

 

Here's my tale, based on what Skyrim Unbound served up.My Redguard girl spawned in an abandoned camp just south of Dawnstar with a full set of Stormcloak officer gear but no weapons.

 

So I've decided her family are former refugees from Northern Hammerfell, originally part of a nomadic community of proud mercenary warriors who were unlucky enough to stumble into a turf war between the Khulari and Anthotis vampire bloodlines and were forced to flee over the border, their number decimated as they go. She is devastated by the loss of friends and family and feels guilty and helpless for having survived. 

 

Upon settling in Skyrim she sees the ensuing civil war as a sorely needed opportunity to make some fast money and test herself. She quickly finds work in the Stormcloak army, hired into a band of fellow mercenary hard cases who have dubbed themselves 'Forlorn Hope' due to the rate of attrition. An inevitable consequence of mere survival on the front lines, she rapidly rises through the ranks and assumes command. 

 

One day she hears a rumour from a travelling merchant, a fellow Redguard who tells of killings on the highway between Elinhir and Falkreath. What he describes bears all the hallmarks of Khulari activity. It's too much for her to ignore.  She has decided to desert the ranks and make her way south. She wants payback. 

 

Rather than revenge, I have a very strong feeling she's likely to have some sort of moral fall along the way end up becoming a vampire. My girls tend to

 

[NNS10]

[...]

 

Upon settling in Skyrim she sees the ensuing civil war as a sorely needed opportunity to make some fast money and test herself. She quickly finds work in the Stormcloak army, hired into a band of fellow mercenary hard cases who have dubbed themselves 'Forlorn Hope' due to the rate of attrition. An inevitable consequence of mere survival on the front lines, she rapidly rises through the ranks and assumes command. 

 

One day she hears a rumour from a travelling merchant, a fellow Redguard who tells of killings on the highway between Elinhir and Falkreath. What he describes bears all the hallmarks of Khulari activity. It's too much for her to ignore.  She has decided to desert the ranks and make her way south. She wants payback. 

 

Rather than revenge, I have a very strong feeling she's likely to have some sort of moral fall along the way end up becoming a vampire. My girls tend to

 

For the parts in bold underline, how do you handle that? Skyrim doesn't have a command system (unless you're using Civil War Recurring Sieges?) and there are no Khulari vampires in Skyrim.

 

The main problem I have with character roleplays is I feel rather limited by the game itself when trying to set goals.

[Guest]

 

[...]

 

Upon settling in Skyrim she sees the ensuing civil war as a sorely needed opportunity to make some fast money and test herself. She quickly finds work in the Stormcloak army, hired into a band of fellow mercenary hard cases who have dubbed themselves 'Forlorn Hope' due to the rate of attrition. An inevitable consequence of mere survival on the front lines, she rapidly rises through the ranks and assumes command. 

 

One day she hears a rumour from a travelling merchant, a fellow Redguard who tells of killings on the highway between Elinhir and Falkreath. What he describes bears all the hallmarks of Khulari activity. It's too much for her to ignore.  She has decided to desert the ranks and make her way south. She wants payback. 

 

Rather than revenge, I have a very strong feeling she's likely to have some sort of moral fall along the way end up becoming a vampire. My girls tend to

 

For the parts in bold underline, how do you handle that? Skyrim doesn't have a command system (unless you're using Civil War Recurring Sieges?) and there are no Khulari vampires in Skyrim.

 

The main problem I have with character roleplays is I feel rather limited by the game itself when trying to set goals.

 

Well that's roleplay really. Working with a mishmash of what you know of the lore, what the mechanics can support, some logic and a lot of imagination, and what you ultimately come up with is going to be influenced by of the sort of gameplay you're after.

 

She was an officer just because she was wearing the uniform. But she's not a native so being a merc in an expendable unit that sees a lot of frontline action seemed a plausible explanation for the Nord command giving her a promotion. I wasn't too fussed about bothering with the civil war, she wasn't carrying any weapons and she's in a  camp in the middle of nowhere, so I decided she was a deserter. And since I wanted her to be a fierce in your face melee orientated vampire rather than the usual sneaky illusion mind fuckery type, I decided that her battle hard experience would be what shaped the sort of vamp she eventually became. But I really wanted to retain a strong Redguard flavour, so I did a search for any lore related to Redguard vamps. 

 

The funny thing about doing a little background legwork  is you sometimes stumble on stuff that helps to completely tie things up. I found a scrap of lore related to Khulari vampires from Daggerfall which at least confirmed they existed and gave me a way to shoehorn that into some general Redguard lore, and then below that link was a build someone had created called 'The Khulari', and even better, it was a melee orientated build specialising in paralysis.

 

Bingo.

 

edit: Just to stress, I think a good roleplay experience rests on the background you decide on, however sketchy. Character traits will usually depend on their life experience up to the point you start doing things with them in Skyrim, and any choices you make, any actions you carry out will be influenced accordingly.  I don't think goals have to be necessarily achievable in a tangible game mechanic sense, they just have to provide your character with motives, something to propel them on. If they are something you can get done in game, all the better.

 

For me the ultimate point of the exercise is to find ways to reduce the constant reminders of how limited the game actually is. 

 

 

[Guest Vendayn]

I like my current RP I have going.

 

My character is mostly a peaceful, non-killing character. (so playing a sort of Pacifist, but not really)...but does defend herself if attacked by bandits or other people. She never actually goes out and attack them, though. She doesn't actually go out and kill animals either (even in defense, unless in a dire situation, she'd rather let them live). But, there is so much battles and killing going on (all my mods) she acts more of a scavenger than anything. And before I re-made her, she earned over 10k gold just from the battlefields lol. She takes dead animals and carries them to her camp, scavenges battlefields between stormcloaks and imperials or dead bandits.

 

That is mostly in the day. However, once night comes, she does thievery or prostitution within whichever city/town she stays in. Which I mostly stay in the Riften/Windhelm area since its perfect for her. She never robs from the homeless, or the guards (too risky for her). Once she joins the thieves guild, she won't steal from them either (honor among thieves and all that). She mostly targets the rich nobles. One night, she went and stole a valuable item from the Jarl herself (of Riften)...a key. That was before the Jarl had her way with her...heh heh.

 

So obviously my timescale is set to lower, otherwise being a scavenger in the day time is kinda lame and living in a city or staying in a village is lame at night. So I set it to 6. I had it at 5 at one point, but supposedly 5 and lower on the timescale breaks scripts and causes a lot of bugs. 6 seems a pretty good compromise with long days and long nights.

 

Also, I never fast travel, though I do use carriages for longer distances (not between windhelm/riften (I actually want to scavenge and earn skills), but if I need to go to whiterun or solitude or some far off place I use them). Sometimes I walk to them if I'm doing quests or just want to go on a journey and go "camping/hiking".

 

Later I plan to make a story out of why she is using tundra defense and RTS settler mods. However, I might end up removing RTS settler...it seems to have increased my CTDs and may be corrupting my saves when I use it. Tundra defense is probably fine enough.

 

Oh, and I use Skyrim unbound...so my character is NOT the dragonborn. There are no dragons, no word walls (that are useable) or anything like that. And you know what? I love that every NPC doesn't keep referring me to be the dragonborn. Yup, all dragonborn conversation is non-existent. The best part of the mod

[NNS10]

She was an officer just because she was wearing the uniform [...] I wasn't too fussed about bothering with the civil war, she wasn't carrying any weapons and she's in a  camp in the middle of nowhere, so I decided she was a deserter [...] But I really wanted to retain a strong Redguard flavour, so I did a search for any lore related to Redguard vamps [...]

 

Ah, so all that stuff you wrote was just background for the character. I thought you were going to actually play through to that point.

 

 

edit: Just to stress, I think a good roleplay experience rests on the background you decide on, however sketchy. Character traits will usually depend on their life experience up to the point you start doing things with them in Skyrim, and any choices you make, any actions you carry out will be influenced accordingly.  I don't think goals have to be necessarily achievable in a tangible game mechanic sense, they just have to provide your character with motives, something to propel them on. If they are something you can get done in game, all the better.

 

For me the ultimate point of the exercise is to find ways to reduce the constant reminders of how limited the game actually is. 

 

I try to think of it in terms of storycrafting theory. Characters have the following:

• Goal or Purpose: Something a character hopes to achieve. It may or may not be tangible.
  • Example: Buy a house.
• Motivation: What drives the character to pursue that goal.
  • Example: Insecurity. Character used to be a nomad (not by choice) and was constantly under threat of bandit attacks, wild animals, etc. while camping outside. Character wants a place where they can feel safe at night.
• Methodology: How the character behaves when pursuing goals.
  • Example: Risk-taker. Character goes for high-risk/high-reward methods.
• Evaluation: How the character evaluates their efforts to achieve the goal.
  • Example: Outcome-oriented. The end justifies the means. This could be used multiple ways. Maybe the character has no qualms about stealing. Or maybe the character is willing to risk camping outdoors more frequently if it means being able to buy a house more quickly.

While thinking of those examples, it gave me some ideas since the motivation can result in different goals (up to the character to determine if the goal will satisfy their motivation). But they're ideas I've already previously used.

 

I guess I have 3 challenges with setting a purpose for my characters:

1. Easily thought of purposes are too overused. E.g. Kill X (for revenge), Get rich, etc.
2. Some good purposes that are tangible leave me wondering what to do with the character once it's achieved. Generally they're achieved by level 30.
3. Intangible purposes that don't have an end tend to be too abstract to keep me interested. Admittedly, a large portion of these are because I didn't realize the purpose was actually a motivation.

And these challenges are probably compounded by me trying to give some reason for the character to be involved in combat.

 

Edit: I forgot, but having impediments also helps makes things interesting.

 

For example, the character got turned into a vampire so it becomes harder to earn money by doing bounty quests or going into town to sell loot from a dungeon. The character then has to evaluate the options for continuing to earn money (e.g. cure vampirism? continue as before but hide vampirism? go full-blown rogue and start killing and stealing as a vampire?) It also places new constraints on the goal of buying a home if the character decides to stay a vampire (e.g. buy a home outside the city or buy a home inside the city and deal with hiding the vampirism?).

 

I have trouble coming up with impediments though. The vampirism was an easy example since that's a pretty obvious situational state the game supports. Can you think of any others?

 

 

[NNS10]

I like my current RP I have going.

 

My character is mostly a peaceful, non-killing character. (so playing a sort of Pacifist, but not really)...but does defend herself if attacked by bandits or other people [...]

 

That is mostly in the day. However, once night comes, she does thievery or prostitution within whichever city/town she stays in [...] She mostly targets the rich nobles [...]

 

Why does you character do what she does? (Trying to get ideas)

 

[Guest Vendayn]

 

I like my current RP I have going.

 

My character is mostly a peaceful, non-killing character. (so playing a sort of Pacifist, but not really)...but does defend herself if attacked by bandits or other people [...]

 

That is mostly in the day. However, once night comes, she does thievery or prostitution within whichever city/town she stays in [...] She mostly targets the rich nobles [...]

 

Why does you character do what she does? (Trying to get ideas)

 

 

 

Well, the way I put it to my friend. Which partly because I personally like so many playstyles but only like playing 1 character. So I had to come up with a logical reason for her.

 

A bit of background to my character is she has "multiple personality disorder", which is quite common in people who go through traumatic events in real life (mostly childhood, from being abused, losing close loved ones etc). Its a modern term, but its happened far in the past (they tended to be called heretics/witches etc).

 

So, when growing up my character saw her father (mother died in childbirth and so she was never in the picture) get executed (he was innocent, but happened to have skooma unknowingly in his possession) by imperials and she went to the orphanage in riften where she was beat all the time.

 

So this resulted in her creating an alternate personality to defend herself. Hence, in the day she is usually her "normal" self and is friendly and does her best to avoid any killing (though even she knows she needs to defend herself). As for animals, they were her guardians when growing up so she wouldn't want to hurt them. But as she is falling asleep, memories come back to haunt her (otherwise her mind can block them in the day) and she becomes a skooma addict/into prostitution (sexlab) and thievery but still retains a bit of her normal self to not want to cause others pain. This personality she wants to find the people responsible, but she has to work "underground" to do it with the thieves guild.

 

Then in the day, again, its like nothing ever happened and she remembers nothing of her childhood.

 

Probably would work better with a more modern set game admittedly, but since I like playing all kinds of ways and this seems like a good logical reason.

 

Gives her reason for being differently played in day/night, gives a "goal" (revenge of her father (so also gives a reason to join Stormcloaks), and I didn't really say it, but get back at the orphanage and free the abused orphans) and gives a bit of backstory.

[Taskmaster]

For the RP, I usually put down some ideas on notepad before I create the character. After that I keep revising stuff as I go and "retcon" sometimes if I feel I have to, to make my playing smooth. There are just times where I go in with an idea and want to stick with it, but it doesn't make sense overall for how other things play out based on the rules I set forth.

 

To really set the tone I like to add some crucial restrictions, for example my last/latest character: She is afraid of werewolves and will not fight them, stopping what she's doing to flee the scene. She's overkill on draugr, using the strongest stuff in her inventory to deal with even the weakest ones. She is terrible at lock picking, so I don't attempt it and even go as far as to hire thieves to do it. Another big one is that for combat, she doesn't use any sort of ranged weaponry, she never learned how to use a bow, despises crossbows, and I retconned her knowing magic - she's strictly melee and traps/devices, with a lot of baiting.

 

Also, taking screenshots is a big helper for me when it comes to all of this. It could help you out, too. You know how there are mods that have journals and all sorts of stuff to keep things on track, instead I just take a few screenshots of what happened in game(many times exaggerating the situation) and log it like that. A picture is worth a thousand words... looking back on some screens before starting the game up for a session, keeps you refreshed on what the mindset was during play.

[aqqh]

hi guys just thought ide set up this thread to share ideas about roleplaying characters in skyrim

 

i created a new character whos a breton mage what im thinking of for her is she was falsely accused of being a traitor by the thalmor in highrock and was imprisoned at the abandoned prison in skyrim (this is why i use the alternate start mod to give the char more depth)

 

so her main motives are to hunt down the thalmor in skyrim by any means necessary

play style is like the arcane archer build but much darker and more evil (so definately going for vampire with dawnguard)

 

any suggestions would be welcome

I like my runaway slave (LADL start) which is so desperate to willingly become a vampire to survive and one day get revenge on former master.

 

Slavery days left quite a trauma - she hates all men, and responds with excessive violence to anyone who would dare to try to capture her again.

This girl wont kneel ever again...

[itt1968]

After my first play through of the game, all my characters I play have a set goal in mind, one of my favorites being to see how long she can keep her inner beast a secret from everyone.. mods of course make it more exciting!!! more than once, Ive had to leave an area as the moon phase went below the percentage I had set for each phase... while attacking Windhelm my old Nikki turned into a Werewolf during the final scene... In front of everybody!!! haha I had to reload... that got kind of  bloody! My current build is a Mage, Arch Mage now, who has just joined the Dark Brotherhood, she looks up to her bodyguard/follower (Mary Jane) and admires her killing efficiency with daggers... she was turned into a werewolf in her early teens after one attacked her family and left them for dead, she alone survived. She considers it her greatest weakness and yet, at the same time her greatest strength, If she could learn to control it... instead of it, controlling her. She doesn't search for a cure, she searches for answers.

Skyrims lore is rich with the folklore of werewolves and yet it is hardly even touched by Bethesda or modders so I really have to roleplay

[Guest]

 

I try to think of it in terms of storycrafting theory. Characters have the following:

• Goal or Purpose: Something a character hopes to achieve. It may or may not be tangible.
  • Example: Buy a house.
• Motivation: What drives the character to pursue that goal.
  • Example: Insecurity. Character used to be a nomad (not by choice) and was constantly under threat of bandit attacks, wild animals, etc. while camping outside. Character wants a place where they can feel safe at night.
• Methodology: How the character behaves when pursuing goals.
  • Example: Risk-taker. Character goes for high-risk/high-reward methods.
• Evaluation: How the character evaluates their efforts to achieve the goal.
  • Example: Outcome-oriented. The end justifies the means. This could be used multiple ways. Maybe the character has no qualms about stealing. Or maybe the character is willing to risk camping outdoors more frequently if it means being able to buy a house more quickly.

While thinking of those examples, it gave me some ideas since the motivation can result in different goals (up to the character to determine if the goal will satisfy their motivation). But they're ideas I've already previously used.

 

I guess I have 3 challenges with setting a purpose for my characters:

1. Easily thought of purposes are too overused. E.g. Kill X (for revenge), Get rich, etc.
2. Some good purposes that are tangible leave me wondering what to do with the character once it's achieved. Generally they're achieved by level 30.
3. Intangible purposes that don't have an end tend to be too abstract to keep me interested. Admittedly, a large portion of these are because I didn't realize the purpose was actually a motivation.

And these challenges are probably compounded by me trying to give some reason for the character to be involved in combat.

 

Edit: I forgot, but having impediments also helps makes things interesting.

 

For example, the character got turned into a vampire so it becomes harder to earn money by doing bounty quests or going into town to sell loot from a dungeon. The character then has to evaluate the options for continuing to earn money (e.g. cure vampirism? continue as before but hide vampirism? go full-blown rogue and start killing and stealing as a vampire?) It also places new constraints on the goal of buying a home if the character decides to stay a vampire (e.g. buy a home outside the city or buy a home inside the city and deal with hiding the vampirism?).

 

I have trouble coming up with impediments though. The vampirism was an easy example since that's a pretty obvious situational state the game supports. Can you think of any others?

 

Some obvious character flaws:

 

A dislike of company or a fear of being alone. A nihilistic view of the world. Prejudice against race(s) or disrespect for the opposite gender. A phobia of water,spiders, the dark. A total lack of respect for authoritah. An obsessive or overbearing sense of duty and honour.   An irresistible  urge to avoid telling the truth when a lie will suffice.  Mild or full on kleptomania. A tendency to idolatry. Alcoholism. 

 

Physical limitations can be fun, like only being able to wield a weapon in the left hand, imposing a permanently low carry weight limit, only using a single weapon type, never sleeping in the wilderness or only ever sleeping in the wilderness. 

 

Establishing a personal code of ethics, like you always avenge insults and slights, only kill as a very last resort, only ever rob rich people, only ever fight fair, give most of your money away to charitable causes , live the life of a spartan warrior or a puritan, pray at a specific deity's alter each and every day, always destroy relics you deem unholy regardless of how powerful they are.

 

In deciding these sorts of things  I've usually worked out a moral alignment beforehand.

[Gumihoyah]

My current character's biography has some holes in it but hey its just for fun xD

 

She is the mother of the dragonborn. Born from a nord mother and a deadric prince. She has the power to summon deadra (playing with perma so cant wait to see what it gives when I can open up my own portals to oblivion)

At this moment in time she is still young and very likable but a tad naive. Being raced by her very protective mother. She always had to keep hidden from the world. Now that her mother is dead she is travelling across the country to reach the college in the high north and helping everybody she crosses paths with.

 

I do wanna see her lose her innocense and go totally insane after she gives birth to my next character who will be dragonborn

[Darkwisdom]

I like roleplaying, especially since the game can get pretty stale after so many playthroughs. 

 

My current character has an oath to kill her father's murderer with his cherished sword. It limits me to using only one sword the whole game, which is interesting. Not so deep, but I like ways of 'limiting' my play styles to make it more fun to play. She herself is left-handed (I thought of it because I'm left handed) so one sword in the left hand only. She's gluttonous, so I spend a great deal of money on food (using a needs mod to make this more effective) and she's afraid of being out at night and the dark. Torches are therefore a must, and she doesn't use a shield either. 

 

Not as deep or interesting as some people on here though; I'll think of a greater, more detailed personality for my next character I think. 

[Shadow_Hazard]

I've just restarted one of my favourite characters for a more serious role-play, as long as I can force myself to stick with it. And I have always had trouble giving my characters limitations that actually felt natural to the character, though, which I am hoping to deal with this time around. I'm going to have to get the ol' notepad and pencil out, list his flaws/traits/goals/etc. and force myself to stick to them as I play.

 

I've rewritten this character's back story a dozen times since creating him, and then I lost the damn thing so I have to start from scratch... but basically: Yorric  is young and inexperienced. He's been living/working in a nice warm tavern, has only ever drawn his bow when hunting rabbits (he's a bloody good shot but never had anything fighting back) and the only time he's held a sword is when he's forging them with his blacksmith uncle (who took him in as an orphan boy long ago). At first he'll avoid any combat he can. But he'll soon learn that he can't avoid confrontation with everything out there, man or beast. He doesn't want to hurt anyone unnecessarily and will only to defend himself. I don't yet know just what end goal he will journey towards, though, or what will motivate him to leave his comfortable and simple life - maybe exactly that; too comfortable and peaceful, and he craves adventure, romance, riches...  you know, the usual cliche'. I might have him join the Dawnguard in the distant future so perhaps his village could get wiped out by vampires (or maybe they were who killed the parents he never had, too), leaving him fleeing into the wilderness with the drive to one day hunt creatures of the undead variety.

 

I've so far settled on the simplest and basic restrictions, such as not using fast travel from the map (carriages are okay). And a reasonable carry limit: Yorric doesn't wear a backpack, or really wear much at all, so he can only carry a few things (+ a few others, within reason depending on weight and personal value/importance). And just one blade, and one bow, as far as weapons go. Certainly no walking armoury. His personality or traits being the cause/reason for other game-play limitations is what will give me the most trouble. But of course half the fun is creating the character and trying to figure this stuff out...

[CheshireCat506]

Role-playing is probably the reason it took me years to get to endgame. 
I start out with one character, then get an idea for another character and start that, rinse, repeat.
Alternate Start definitely doesn't help with that since there are so many good set ups for a back-story.

My favorite one was my mage character. She was a Breton, who came to Skyrim by ship and ended up Shipwrecked near the coast of Dawnstar. Being the only survivor, she managed to make her way out of the ship, and swam ashore. She managed to struggle through the ice and snow, with only her flames spell to keep her warm and made it to Winterhold, where she collapsed in the streets. (or "street" since there only seems to be one...)
She was found by one of the mages of the College, who managed to drag her inside where she was nursed back to health. Since she had nowhere to go and the only family she had drowned in the shipwreck, she decided to become a student of the College. 
Eventually, she became Archmage. As much as she loved the college, the whole mess with the Eye of Magnus made her remember why she got on that ship in the first place. Adventure. Something had drawn her to Skyrim and she needed to find out what. While traveling back from Labirinthian, she had heard some rumors of war near Helgen...

So, yeah I tend to get distracted a lot and end up not starting the main quest until I'm hours and hours into the game already.
This game just has so much potential for role-playing and mods just add so many more.