Role Playing help for new character/playthrough

Estel · Apr 18, 2014

Hey Everyone!

So,after I've set up everything(40 mods,including immersion mods,armor,and weapon mods,some mild graphical mods aswell) and prepared myself to start a new RP playthrough in skyrim, I'm stuck.

I can't come up with any idea regarding my character.Only thing i have so far is his race: I will choose either a breton,a redguard or a nord.

My problems start here. I don't have the brightest idea about his personality,his past,motivations,story,etc...Yeah sure,I've had some,but I kinda feel,that these are all clichés,like: a redguard,who seeks knowledge,adventure in Skyrim. He was banished from his land (dont know why lol),or his master sent him to experience different things. He aslo hates Imperials.

Or I had an Imperial character,whose family consists of excellent,and renowned solicitors,but he feels,he's got other plans in life,and escapes Cyrodiil, flees to Skyrim for adventures and stuff.he is weak,and fray,but he wants to harden himself,blablabla...

Then I had something with the Breton,who is a bit cocky,and overconfident,and sees the some of the human races as inferior to his race (dont know which ones actuallyXD).

I've got a nord,who was taken as a slave after his village was pillaged (sounds kinda cool,right?

) by someone (imperials?mercenaries?thalmor?),and was taken as a slave to Morrowind.Then he was liberated by imperials.Cant think of anything more.

So guys, my only request would be to help,please! I'm thinking so hard to get some ideas,but as you can see,my creativity is a bit lackluster.Or am I just overthinking this,and I wouldn't need a really complex backstory?

Some base things to consider,if you decide to help:-my character is an adventurer/bit of a mercenary,and explorer
-Companions,thieves guild as possible guilds +werewolf power (dont know about the civil war yet)
-His morality is somewhat between good and evil,a bit pulling to good.
-I dont want to do every quest,so it wold depend on my characters personality,past,and moral.
-He hates (and me,personally not fond of) elves,so high elves,and maybe dark elves.

-From skills perspective:sneak,light armor,1 handed sword,speech(for those tight situations),lockpicking,pickpocket,smithing(some excuse to use this skill,lol?),block. Kind of a Jack of all Trades,master of none.

I would need:-religious beliefs (aedra,daedra,etc..)
-Backstory
-Moral
-Origin
-Family

So,if you can,just comment for these races,with all the stuff,based on the information,I provided you,I'd really appriciate the help,or nay other help in general. It just seems,I dont have a brainstorm right now,so any help would be nice.

PS.: Sorry for my English grammar, it is not my native language.

ColleenG · Apr 18, 2014

I never know who my character is going to turn out to be until she starts her Skyrim adventure. They always turn out different.

For example, my current character switched to two-handed after she realized that swords offered little entertainment for her, very early in the game. I never thought any of my characters would ever enjoy two-handed, but here she is, wielding a dragonbone battleaxe! She also is a master alchemist, which has also never happened to any of my characters before. (Word of advice: Don't put the jarrin root in the stew!) Even though she is a Nord, she became quite disenchanted with Ulfric Stormcloak and really wanted to kick his ass, for a variety of reasons. That was very surprising, because she comes from a strong, upper-class Nord family. Apparently she is a little rebellious. She also was a single parent of one until very late in life, although she could have had any man in Skyrim. Just wasn't the marrying kind. Once again, I believe she is rebelling against her traditional Nord upbringing. Oh, and this was entirely a surprise: she doesn't mind getting in trouble with the guards, and has paid very high fines for the pleasure of going to battle with them. She seems to find it amusing to take on every guard in the entire hold. Money means very little to her. Once she got the first couple of hundred grand in her pocket, she no longer took notice of how she got her money or how she spent it, often spending up to $25,000 on training alone!

I never plan any of this. My characters develop as the game progresses. I like it when it's a surprise to see who they turn out to be.

JoeReese · Apr 18, 2014

Estel said:
Hey Everyone!

So,after I've set up everything(40 mods,including immersion mods,armor,and weapon mods,some mild graphical mods aswell) and prepared myself to start a new RP playthrough in skyrim, I'm stuck.

I can't come up with any idea regarding my character.Only thing i have so far is his race: I will choose either a breton,a redguard or a nord.

My problems start here. I don't have the brightest idea about his personality,his past,motivations,story,etc...Yeah sure,I've had some,but I kinda feel,that these are all clichés,like: a redguard,who seeks knowledge,adventure in Skyrim. He was banished from his land (dont know why lol),or his master sent him to experience different things. He aslo hates Imperials.

Or I had an Imperial character,whose family consists of excellent,and renowned solicitors,but he feels,he's got other plans in life,and escapes Cyrodiil, flees to Skyrim for adventures and stuff.he is weak,and fray,but he wants to harden himself,blablabla...

Then I had something with the Breton,who is a bit cocky,and overconfident,and sees the some of the human races as inferior to his race (dont know which ones actuallyXD).

I've got a nord,who was taken as a slave after his village was pillaged (sounds kinda cool,right?) by someone (imperials?mercenaries?thalmor?),and was taken as a slave to Morrowind.Then he was liberated by imperials.Cant think of anything more.

So guys, my only request would be to help,please! I'm thinking so hard to get some ideas,but as you can see,my creativity is a bit lackluster.Or am I just overthinking this,and I wouldn't need a really complex backstory?

Some base things to consider,if you decide to help:-my character is an adventurer/bit of a mercenary,and explorer
-Companions,thieves guild as possible guilds +werewolf power (dont know about the civil war yet)
-His morality is somewhat between good and evil,a bit pulling to good.
-I dont want to do every quest,so it wold depend on my characters personality,past,and moral.
-He hates (and me,personally not fond of) elves,so high elves,and maybe dark elves.

-From skills perspective:sneak,light armor,1 handed sword,speech(for those tight situations),lockpicking,pickpocket,smithing(some excuse to use this skill,lol?),block. Kind of a Jack of all Trades,master of none.

I would need:-religious beliefs (aedra,daedra,etc..)
-Backstory
-Moral
-Origin
-Family

So,if you can,just comment for these races,with all the stuff,based on the information,I provided you,I'd really appriciate the help,or nay other help in general. It just seems,I dont have a brainstorm right now,so any help would be nice.

PS.: Sorry for my English grammar, it is not my native language.

How about he was taken (while his village was being pillaged...lol) by one of the more nefarious houses of Morrowind with strong ties to the Thalmor, with the intent of using him as a slave. Since Nords seem to love Talos, they clearly don't match the elves' intelligence and grasp of aedra and daedra, and so are inferior and only worthy of slave labor. He was taken because the imperial legion, whose duties included protecting his village, was too busy (doing whatever, cowtowing to the White-Gold Concordat, fighting the Stormcloaks, whatever) to properly guard the village, allowing the mercenaries in the employ of said nefarious house to raid with impunity. Hence, he hates elves and isn't impressed at all by Imperials, even more so, now that they wanted to cut his head off.

*edit* As for family and backstory, you could call him a simple farmer or a former adventurer. If you wanted to switch the abduction to 'the legion looked the other way as he's a known Stormcloak sympathizer and good riddance to him," that would fit and would strengthen his dislike of elves and the empire. Family was maybe taken also, to locations unknown, or killed in the village pillage, or just that he went outside to fight, got knocked senseless and woke up a prisoner, and doesn't know what became of them, but has vowed to return to Skyrim and find out.

raido KASAI · Apr 18, 2014

ColleenG said:
I never know who my character is going to turn out to be until she starts her Skyrim adventure. They always turn out different.

For example, my current character switched to two-handed after she realized that swords offered little entertainment for her, very early in the game. I never thought any of my characters would ever enjoy two-handed, but here she is, wielding a dragonbone battleaxe! She also is a master alchemist, which has also never happened to any of my characters before. (Word of advice: Don't put the jarrin root in the stew!) Even though she is a Nord, she became quite disenchanted with Ulfric Stormcloak and really wanted to kick his ass, for a variety of reasons. That was very surprising, because she comes from a strong, upper-class Nord family. Apparently she is a little rebellious. She also was a single parent of one until very late in life, although she could have had any man in Skyrim. Just wasn't the marrying kind. Once again, I believe she is rebelling against her traditional Nord upbringing. Oh, and this was entirely a surprise: she doesn't mind getting in trouble with the guards, and has paid very high fines for the pleasure of going to battle with them. She seems to find it amusing to take on every guard in the entire hold. Money means very little to her. Once she got the first couple of hundred grand in her pocket, she no longer took notice of how she got her money or how she spent it, often spending up to $25,000 on training alone!

I never plan any of this. My characters develop as the game progresses. I like it when it's a surprise to see who they turn out to be.

Mine turn out somewhat the same way. I generally had a very basic outline of the character in mind and then flesh it out as I go along. On subsequent playthroughs I tend to have a little more detailed idea starting out as I've already done a good bit in the game with other characters and have more ideas I'd like to try and run with, but they still evolve both in story and often somewhat in appearance. In many ways life isn't all that static a state of being, my characters reflect that a bit I guess by being somewhat dynamic as well.

To be honest, to me the discovery phase is quite enjoyable actually. One common trait for most of my characters is that they may have different abilities but most are trying to discover just who they are and what their place in the world is. Some are earlier or farther along in that journey, but if they are still figuring it out, it kinda fits that I'm discovering it along with them to a certain extent.

raido KASAI · Apr 18, 2014

Question:

Is this the first character you are doing a playthrough with or have you had one or more you've used already?

On a subsequent playthrough I like trying to go a bit different direction than I have before with an earlier character, though that's certainly not a requirement by any means, and he/she may have some similarities either starting out or in what they evolve into.

Jeremius · Apr 18, 2014

the thing is, we really do not know you. Asking for help is a problem because we might not get it right.

JoeReese · Apr 18, 2014

Jeremius said:
the thing is, we really do not know you. Asking for help is a problem because we might not get it right.

Good point and true, but we can still shoot ideas. Maybe he won't use it, or won't use all of it, but maybe we'll spark something that hasn't crossed his mind.

raido KASAI · Apr 19, 2014

JoeReese said:
Jeremius said:

the thing is, we really do not know you. Asking for help is a problem because we might not get it right.

Click to expand...

Good point and true, but we can still shoot ideas. Maybe he won't use it, or won't use all of it, but maybe we'll spark something that hasn't crossed his mind.

It does make it a bit harder to specifically narrow down a suggestion to a given person's taste when you don't have a concrete understand of his or her taste, but then again you never know when even some completely random idea triggers something larger.

It might give someone else just randomly perusing the topic so ideas for their own RP that they may use later down the road as well.

Estel · Apr 19, 2014

raido KASAI said:
Question:

Is this the first character you are doing a playthrough with or have you had one or more you've used already?

On a subsequent playthrough I like trying to go a bit different direction than I have before with an earlier character, though that's certainly not a requirement by any means, and he/she may have some similarities either starting out or in what they evolve into.

This is not my first character,I've had at least 12 before,only I would not play them through,so they were all kinda unremarkable. My real first rp cahracter,who I enjoyed was Arthur,an Imperial,who had a noble heir,family,whose whole family served in the Imperial Army. He was level 20,when I deleted him,not because of boredom,but because I had to do a clean install for Skyrim,and had to find a good set of mods,and everything cleaned,to start again,and here I am now

Slaterfish · Apr 22, 2014

Estel said:
Hey Everyone!

So,after I've set up everything(40 mods,including immersion mods,armor,and weapon mods,some mild graphical mods aswell) and prepared myself to start a new RP playthrough in skyrim, I'm stuck.

I can't come up with any idea regarding my character.Only thing i have so far is his race: I will choose either a breton,a redguard or a nord.

My problems start here. I don't have the brightest idea about his personality,his past,motivations,story,etc...Yeah sure,I've had some,but I kinda feel,that these are all clichés,like: a redguard,who seeks knowledge,adventure in Skyrim. He was banished from his land (dont know why lol),or his master sent him to experience different things. He aslo hates Imperials.

Or I had an Imperial character,whose family consists of excellent,and renowned solicitors,but he feels,he's got other plans in life,and escapes Cyrodiil, flees to Skyrim for adventures and stuff.he is weak,and fray,but he wants to harden himself,blablabla...

Then I had something with the Breton,who is a bit cocky,and overconfident,and sees the some of the human races as inferior to his race (dont know which ones actuallyXD).

I've got a nord,who was taken as a slave after his village was pillaged (sounds kinda cool,right?) by someone (imperials?mercenaries?thalmor?),and was taken as a slave to Morrowind.Then he was liberated by imperials.Cant think of anything more.

So guys, my only request would be to help,please! I'm thinking so hard to get some ideas,but as you can see,my creativity is a bit lackluster.Or am I just overthinking this,and I wouldn't need a really complex backstory?

Some base things to consider,if you decide to help:-my character is an adventurer/bit of a mercenary,and explorer
-Companions,thieves guild as possible guilds +werewolf power (dont know about the civil war yet)
-His morality is somewhat between good and evil,a bit pulling to good.
-I dont want to do every quest,so it wold depend on my characters personality,past,and moral.
-He hates (and me,personally not fond of) elves,so high elves,and maybe dark elves.

-From skills perspective:sneak,light armor,1 handed sword,speech(for those tight situations),lockpicking,pickpocket,smithing(some excuse to use this skill,lol?),block. Kind of a Jack of all Trades,master of none.

I would need:-religious beliefs (aedra,daedra,etc..)
-Backstory
-Moral
-Origin
-Family

So,if you can,just comment for these races,with all the stuff,based on the information,I provided you,I'd really appriciate the help,or nay other help in general. It just seems,I dont have a brainstorm right now,so any help would be nice.

PS.: Sorry for my English grammar, it is not my native language.

Witth the nord one you could continue saying he grew up on a farm and was constantly harassed by the landlords he he took vengeance in the dead of the night. He stole everything valuable but got caught. He broke out of jail and escaped to cyrodiil. He starting making himself known as a thief or murderer. One night he was led into trap with 20 imperial soldiers waiting for him. He took them all on and fled the last 5.

He decided to head back to skyrim and was praying to the divines that he wasn't going to get caught but failed and was taken to helgen.

This would cover most of these and could go thieves guild or dark brotherhood.

A.K.A the dragon slayer from hell and back that also like shooting guys in the face with his bow of awesomenessery.

LordDavidson25 · Apr 25, 2014

ColleenG said:
I never know who my character is going to turn out to be until she starts her Skyrim adventure. They always turn out different.

I agree with this. I once had a bosmer farmer who came to Skyrim in search for some agriculture techniques to take home to Valenwood. He was in riften and experienced poverty and starvation. Because of this, he started to fall into thieving to survive. Only stealing food. Then he discovered he had a knack for stealing and decided to pursue it. Only later to find out he was strolling through white run and Lucia said "you're a nice man. Can you be my dad?" And she stole my farmer-turned-thief's heart. He adopted her ( I did not see that coming) and he completely gave up stealing to raise his new daughter. Anyways, I always love seeing how my characters evolve.

But yeah, I think making a pretty simple backstory for your character (nord?) would suffice. Just give them their backstory and let them see the world.

Another thing, if you decided to go with a Redguard, he could've been sent to Skyrim from hammerfell to look for weaknesses or even to bring their war to the thalmor and try to stop the thalmor from creating a foot hold. Also a Redguard would have plenty of reason to join the storm cloaks, simply because the empire abandoned his people. Just a few quick ideas you could include, but just think of a backstory, it doesn't have to be complex, and throw your character into the wonderful world of Skyrim!

Pendalyn · Apr 26, 2014

Read the skyrim lore website. Google "tamriel lore" and it will be one of the first few links. Getting an idea of the lore of Tamriel will probably put some interesting back story ideas in your head, and then go from there.

I know you were hoping for more help than that, but creating a uniquely your own back story that you can use as a basis of your RP'ing is really an endeavor of love and research. Good luck!

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