What goals do you give your characters?

[NNS10]

I think for many of us that are still playing Skyrim, we no longer bother with the main quest lines and essentially treat it like a sandbox. I do light roleplay such as crafting a background, motive, and goals for my characters so they have something to do instead of the main quests.

 

What goals do you give your characters to keep the game interesting? And if you use mods to enable that, which?

 

I feel very limited with the type of goals I can give my characters, so I'm hoping to find new ideas.

[Mewwt]

Kill all the things except the things I shouldn't kill because other things might want to kill me if I did so.

If doing a thing implies killing things, I'm up for it. Also, try to be the "scariest" fighter in all of Tamriel. I'm the dragonborn; if you know I'm going there, you should be aware it's not for nothing.

[White Divinity]

I play as a divine high elf mage that kills all sinners, his goal is to purify skyrim from all the sinners that roam free including bandits, assassins, dangerous creatures and so on, doing all that while trying to achieve immortality through light and holy magic, he traveled from Summerset Isles to skyrim mainly because he wanted to stop any chances of the Dominion taking over skyrim, as well as pursuit his goal of immortality so that he can be a thorn in the Dominion throat forever.

[snsd4203]

My character's goal is to work hard and effort a house.

 

[fgambler]

Mine likes to clear everything except the civil war. That questline only leaves hate towards you and destruction (literally because Whiterun and Solitude/Windhelm are trashed forever).

[Kshahdoo]

Good question. 

 

Last time when i played, I complete Skyrim and all DLC on Legendary difficulty with level 1 character, without followers, perks (obviously), and mods (that gives overpowered weapons).

And damn, it was fucking awesome. That feel, when you earned your victory over an enemy, that 25-30 levels higher than you - it's just priceless.  That was my character's goal.

 

P.S. And of course, all this time, i stare at my character's pretty ass 

[Jeffrey Lane]

World Domination!!!

 

 

no seriously, once all quest are done, she is killing everything that moves in the world and making a throne out of their corpses.

[GimmeBACON]

Well, I create each character with guidelines in mind (affiliations, play style, morals) and let the character mold itself. I also only have one dragonborn so I don't feel a need to redo the main quest. I get through the civil war quest with the same outcome each time (stormcloaks, because my dragonborn joined them) regardless of my characters affiliation, so that I feel like it's not a separate world each time I load a save. I have a rule that if my character dies, or dies as a companion, I get rid of that save as dead IS dead.

 

Live another Life, Immersive Citizens, and other immersive mods make having a unique life doable at the least.

 

So yeah, survival is the universal main goal of all my characters, and stuff like wealth, glory, women; that's a case-by-case issue. 

[NickNozownik]

I'll give them some backstory, morals, views, preferences, sometimes mental issues and that's it. There is no ultimate final goal, just a bunch of minor ones. I play until I get bored. I never do any quests because there aren't enough choices and they get buggy way too often.

 

Become a druglord

 

-Most of my characters get rich by making/finding skooma and selling it to random citizens. Mod that allows it is called "become a skooma dealer". Sometimes they will refuse, so they must be either convinced to change their mind or taken out as soon as possible.

-Sometimes they are serial killers, the goal is to kill people without being cought and without blindly wiping out the entire city. Just one at a time and then return to normal everyday activities.

-Reputation. If some NPC talks crap to my character then he or she must be assassinated. Poisoned, killed while they're sleeping or frenzied in the middle of town with a frenzy potion.

-And of course sex, there's usually one guy and a woman in their house. Sexlab, devious devices, pet collar. They live in BDSM dungeons.

-Kill and rob everyone in the wilderness who sells drugs. No competition.

 

 

Become a ridiculously overpowered Dwemergod Murderboss

 

-Get unique Dwemer equipment like Dwemer goggles and exoskeleton

-Max out everything, especially enchanting and alchemy

-Enchant everything with Fortify Unarmed and start fisting everything that moves

 

[Guest]

I decide what sort of build I fancy playing first, then I'll throw together a quick bio that I feel adequately explains why they have the load out of skills they start with, then I'll quest based on what most suits the build. 

 

Right now I'm playing a fairly archetypal cleric who's chaotic good aligned.She's devoted to Mara, publicly preaches love and mercy, and lives like a typical ascetic with a fairly obsessive disregard for material wealth. The only gold she spends goes on training exclusively tailored to her goals, the rest goes to charitable causes. She never wears anything or uses any weapon she can't make with her bare hands, but actively seeks out appropriate relics to aid her on her spiritual quest. She is particularly fond of jewelry craft though, she likes that you can pull lumps out of the earth and turn them into something beautiful. Consequently she spends a lot of her time rooting around in mines. 

 

She will never pass up an opportunity to help others, except when it conflicts with her actually rather warped morality. Anybody that tries to rope her into something morally questionable is liable to be weighed, judged and summarily executed at some point down the line unless they can convince her of their worth. She's a bit of a cunt like that. 

 

She doesn't consort with daedra and destroys all artifacts connected with them...with the exception of Meridia with whom she is privately enthusiastically aligned, she feels justified in that she shares a burning hatred of all undead.  She is extremely single-minded when it comes to undead quests and will put off any and all others in her log until every last one involving undead is completed. 

 

I expect when I retire her she will either have met a very grim end (maybe even dangling from a hangman's noose for crimes she had no idea she'd committed) or will live the remainder of her life happily scratching out a living in some miserable mining strip in the back of beyond, her only fame being the cunningly wrought works of art she gives away to those she feels are worthy of her gifts. 

[bjornk]

Give birth to as many kids as possible, build a nice big home for them with nice cozy beds to sleep in...

and then use them as my cattle, cause I'm a goddam vampire!

 

[NNS10]

I decide what sort of build I fancy playing first, then I'll throw together a quick bio that I feel adequately explains why they have the load out of skills they start with, then I'll quest based on what most suits the build. 

 

Right now I'm playing a fairly archetypal cleric who's chaotic good aligned.She's devoted to Mara, publicly preaches love and mercy, and lives like a typical ascetic with a fairly obsessive disregard for material wealth. The only gold she spends goes on training exclusively tailored to her goals, the rest goes to charitable causes. She never wears anything or uses any weapon she can't make with her bare hands, but actively seeks out appropriate relics to aid her on her spiritual quest. She is particularly fond of jewelry craft though, she likes that you can pull lumps out of the earth and turn them into something beautiful. Consequently she spends a lot of her time rooting around in mines. 

 

She will never pass up an opportunity to help others, except when it conflicts with her actually rather warped morality. Anybody that tries to rope her into something morally questionable is liable to be weighed, judged and summarily executed at some point down the line unless they can convince her of their worth. She's a bit of a cunt like that. 

 

She doesn't consort with daedra and destroys all artifacts connected with them...with the exception of Meridia with whom she is privately enthusiastically aligned, she feels justified in that she shares a burning hatred of all undead.  She is extremely single-minded when it comes to undead quests and will put off any and all others in her log until every last one involving undead is completed. 

 

I expect when I retire her she will either have met a very grim end (maybe even dangling from a hangman's noose for crimes she had no idea she'd committed) or will live the remainder of her life happily scratching out a living in some miserable mining strip in the back of beyond, her only fame being the cunningly wrought works of art she gives away to those she feels are worthy of her gifts. 

 

Very interesting character. How does the charity/donation work?

 

And how does the "destroy all daedra artifacts" work? Plus getting those artifacts first requires doing work for the daedra, which your character probably wouldn't be inclined to do...

 

 

I'll give them some backstory, morals, views, preferences, sometimes mental issues and that's it. There is no ultimate final goal, just a bunch of minor ones. I play until I get bored. I never do any quests because there aren't enough choices and they get buggy way too often.

 

Become a druglord

 

-Most of my characters get rich by making/finding skooma and selling it to random citizens. Mod that allows it is called "become a skooma dealer". Sometimes they will refuse, so they must be either convinced to change their mind or taken out as soon as possible.

-Sometimes they are serial killers, the goal is to kill people without being cought and without blindly wiping out the entire city. Just one at a time and then return to normal everyday activities.

-Reputation. If some NPC talks crap to my character then he or she must be assassinated. Poisoned, killed while they're sleeping or frenzied in the middle of town with a frenzy potion.

-And of course sex, there's usually one guy and a woman in their house. Sexlab, devious devices, pet collar. They live in BDSM dungeons.

-Kill and rob everyone in the wilderness who sells drugs. No competition.

 

 

That whole kill the competition thing is interesting for a strong-eats-the-weak type character. Wonder how it could be applied to outside of skooma dealing characters...

 

Is there any mod that could be used to lure people to a dark alley and off them there? Otherwise you're limited to having a sneak character kill them outside (not viable if your character isn't sneak-based) or in their home (but that might mean more unnecessary collateral. And is there any mod that would enable disposing of bodies? (could be as simple as treating them as inventory item to dump into barrels)

[NickNozownik]

 

That whole kill the competition thing is interesting for a strong-eats-the-weak type character. Wonder how it could be applied to outside of skooma dealing characters...

 

Is there any mod that could be used to lure people to a dark alley and off them there? Otherwise you're limited to having a sneak character kill them outside (not viable if your character isn't sneak-based) or in their home (but that might mean more unnecessary collateral. And is there any mod that would enable disposing of bodies? (could be as simple as treating them as inventory item to dump into barrels)

 

 

Immersive Speechcraft can be used to lure them. You can also insult them (call someone's mother a "horker") and they'll attack you. Then it counts as self defence and you can kill them in front of the guards. It's just self defense    I'm not sure if they will follow you anywhere, like inside houses and through the city gates.

Bury The Dead or Clean up your Corpses allows to bury their corpses but I don't use it, I just leave them behind houses somewhere in the corner of a city or dump them into the sewers if I'm in Whiterun.

 

Getting rid of competition can be applied to hunters and bounty hunters. There will be less people to hunt animals and you can loot their corpses for free meat and fur, they always spawn with some extra stuff.

[NNS10]

 

 

That whole kill the competition thing is interesting for a strong-eats-the-weak type character. Wonder how it could be applied to outside of skooma dealing characters...

 

Is there any mod that could be used to lure people to a dark alley and off them there? Otherwise you're limited to having a sneak character kill them outside (not viable if your character isn't sneak-based) or in their home (but that might mean more unnecessary collateral. And is there any mod that would enable disposing of bodies? (could be as simple as treating them as inventory item to dump into barrels)

 

 

Immersive Speechcraft can be used to lure them. You can also insult them (call someone's mother a "horker") and they'll attack you. Then it counts as self defence and you can kill them in front of the guards. It's just self defense    I'm not sure if they will follow you anywhere, like inside houses and through the city gates.

Bury The Dead or Clean up your Corpses allows to bury their corpses but I don't use it, I just leave them behind houses somewhere in the corner of a city or dump them into the sewers if I'm in Whiterun.

 

Getting rid of competition can be applied to hunters and bounty hunters. There will be less people to hunt animals and you can loot their corpses for free meat and fur, they always spawn with some extra stuff.

 

 

Perfect, thanks! Will give those a try.

 

 

[Menesh]

The only goal worth it. The one goal Lorkhan tricked the aedra into creating Nirn for. Amaranth, true immortality, escaping the eternal cycle of Akatosh and Alduin, creation and destruction. 

Well, since noone really understands how to achieve that (one way seems to include fusing every single Dwemer into one huge robot, and another one to turn into a dragon, fly to Aetherius and pretend to be the sun god) to me that usually means doing what I want and not letting any mortal, divine or daedra tie my character down. Oh, and spreading love is also an important part of it, according to Vivec (who tried it as well, until he made the stupid mistake of stealing the same divine power that powers Nirn itself. Well, didn't keep him from sleeping with all of his elite Buoyant Armiger warriors.)

[Guest ...failure]

Kill - dragons, giants, bears, wolfs, saber tooth cats

Hunt and gather - meat, food, ingredients and store for future use

Loot - anything good

Clear map - again and again

Build a treasury - TOP SECRET

Collect - valuable stuff

 

...just a few here, ok

[Effie]

To do all the quests for once instead of only repeating the first couple of ones that she usually stumbles upon haha c:

[Sarathis]

I usually start out with a vague concept of what I want to do based on what I'm tired of from previous play throughs. For example, if I played a two-handed fighter for 20 levels or so who joined the Stormcloaks and bashed heads, my next play through will likely be a mage type or a sneaking assassin type. Changing up your play style every once in a while is one of the only ways to keep the game fresh in my experience. The one thing I can never seem to give up is sneaking and using a bow, though.

 

In the same vein I'll usually focus a lot of time in one area of the map or another on each play through. I'm not very fond of the area around Markarth, for example. It's way too difficult to navigate and there's literally nothing there but Forsaken. No bandits, no random encounters with trolls, nothing. Sometimes I'll start a game in that area and get it over with quickly. Other times I'll play an entire game without ever going over there. Same goes for factions and whatnot. My first play through ever I didn't side with anyone and essentially skipped the entire Civil War quest line. Second play through I went full Imperial. Sometimes I do the Thief's Guild, sometimes I ignore it. I've also yet to play any of the expansion storylines simply because I'm saving them for when I REALLY get sick of the main game. Sometimes you have to do stuff like that to keep your interest high. If you've already done everything...

 

As for the character themselves, I usually have no idea what their personality will be like at first. I'll think to myself something like, "I want to make a sneaky spell sword type of character that starts around Solitude" then just start playing with Racemenu. Usually ideas will start to click once I create a face that appeals to me and my imagination will start to run with it. How'd he / she get to Skyrim? What was their past like? Why are they whatever class I'll make them? From those basics ideas will build on ideas and I'll develop their personality and goals. That'll usually tell me how they'll react to certain quest lines like the Daedric ones or the Dark Brotherhood. It's pretty much a cascading process for me.

[Guest]

 

 

 

Very interesting character. How does the charity/donation work?

 

And how does the "destroy all daedra artifacts" work? Plus getting those artifacts first requires doing work for the daedra, which your character probably wouldn't be inclined to do...

 

 

 

 

I just go out of my way to donate whenever I can. I run a few gold sink type mods to keep me from amassing a surplus and always use a trainer at level up so I'm usually on the verge of going broke.  Daedric artifacts I either chuck into the Aetherium Forge or in a chest in a temple.  

 

It's nice to have props for rp but I don't think  they're essential if you're already going to lengths to define a character bio, the rest is good old fashioned imagination. A mod that lets you make notes in a journal is a good aid too, when you retire a character it can be fun to go through it.

 

I think it would be cool if you could take those personal journals you make and stock them in the level lists for the next play through  - "The adventures of X" kind of thing.  Maybe end up with a shelf full of them.

[Guest]

I'm trying to seduce every sexy lady in every city, village and town. Once they became my lovers I'm placing them in my big mansion near Riverwood and spend couple of Sykrim days having wild orgies. Doing game quests isn't priority.

[Vanus]

          For me it depends on several factors - what kind of character am I playing e.g. I'm playing with my Ayleid race or my character is structured as a Telvanni Dunmer then I couldn't care less about the civil war. If I'm going Hlalu Dunmer or playing with Anna's NPC's then I'm going Imperial or on the opposite hand if I'm playing a Breton then I'm a true free agent and take a merc approach, there are some Calo Nord overtones with that kind of build. I find using an alternative start mod helps give you time to think about that kind of choice along with the time to work on your MCM config. The next set of choices that irk any of my characters is Dawnguard, I wish there were a way to remain neutral there. One weight factor i've removed is Vilja as I want to play through her story in Oblivion before using her again in Skyrim.

 

                The biggest part is to reamain in character especially when dealing with morality questions in the game or any mod put into it, using your character's viewpoint which may not necissarily be your own behind the keyboard.

 

[27X]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PQ6335puOc

[NNS10]

 

 

That whole kill the competition thing is interesting for a strong-eats-the-weak type character. Wonder how it could be applied to outside of skooma dealing characters...

 

Is there any mod that could be used to lure people to a dark alley and off them there? Otherwise you're limited to having a sneak character kill them outside (not viable if your character isn't sneak-based) or in their home (but that might mean more unnecessary collateral. And is there any mod that would enable disposing of bodies? (could be as simple as treating them as inventory item to dump into barrels)

 

 

Immersive Speechcraft can be used to lure them. You can also insult them (call someone's mother a "horker") and they'll attack you. Then it counts as self defence and you can kill them in front of the guards. It's just self defense    I'm not sure if they will follow you anywhere, like inside houses and through the city gates.

Bury The Dead or Clean up your Corpses allows to bury their corpses but I don't use it, I just leave them behind houses somewhere in the corner of a city or dump them into the sewers if I'm in Whiterun.

 

Getting rid of competition can be applied to hunters and bounty hunters. There will be less people to hunt animals and you can loot their corpses for free meat and fur, they always spawn with some extra stuff.

 

 

Are there any NPCs that talk trash toward the player character? Aside from Nazeem?

 

I thought it'd be interesting for a character to pay back NPCs that wrong him/her, but it feels like there are very few NPCs that cause tension with the player character.

 

 

[NickNozownik]

Are there any NPCs that talk trash toward the player character? Aside from Nazeem?

 

I thought it'd be interesting for a character to pay back NPCs that wrong him/her, but it feels like there are very few NPCs that cause tension with the player character.

 

I mean anyone who shows any kind of disrespect, like this guy in Markarth who calls PC an idiot, Altmer guy in Windhelm who goes nuts about his White Phial, Belethor(?) who owns a general goods store in Whiterun and doesn't like when you ask him about buisness, Sapphire in Riften or other ho from the Thieves Guild. And this Dunmer whatsherface who guards the jarl and tells you that you'll die if you'll get too close to him. Well, I have some very bad news for her.

Jarl's son who says that you're just some random dude to lick his father's boots. Yup, that's a death sentence.

 

And of course random nameless Orcs, Nords and Redguards that you can find in the wilderness. Not the bandits, NPCs that are literally called "Nord" or "Redguard". Also people will get mad when you'll get rid of their family members or friends. So yeah, this can break a lot of quests but you won't run out of people to assassinate for a long time.

[Loveryus]

On my actual play I started with Live Another Life as spoiled young woman living in Riften, borrowed some money at the store (loansharks) and than went to Soltitude to go shopping. Back in Riften she got stripped in front of everyone (get stripped! again!) and not being able to pay back the money she got enslaved. long story short: she fell from her throne and had to steal to make a living. now she's gotto learn to survive. (i play on a higher difficult and she's not really into wearing armor and using swords).

 

I totally wish there were more ways to make money in Skyrim rather than just Alchemy and hunting (with the right mod).